Archdiocese: no more holy water from spray bottles

You may have seen the video. A local priest blessing All Soul’s Day cemetery goers with holy water - from a spray bottle. The videos went viral - from whatsapp to twitter to Facebook.

Using a spray bottle to douse church goers with holy water had before this been unheard of on Guam. Normally, priests sprinkle parishioners with Holy water from a bottle or use a hand held sprinkler called an aspergillum.
The videos show people dodging the spray of holy water from Father Julius Akinyemi. Some ducked and others expressed surprise at being hit with a torrent of holy water.

Father Julius is the priest for the Catholic Church’s Umatac and Malesso parishes.

KUAM reached out to the Archdiocese for a comment about the videos. Archbishop Michael Byrnes responded with the following statement - “Father Julius and I have discussed the matter. He meant no disrespect and faced a large area to be blessed with holy water. He’ll use the traditional means of sprinkling holy water on future occasions.”