photos of "socially distant" baptism go viral: Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, people are coming up with new ways to do things while maintaining social distancing.

Social distancing is the new normal. We've seen people graduating via Zoom, couples getting married online, and even burials attended online.

 

But certain ceremonies such as the Catholic baptism cannot be done online and parents have shared photos of the new procedure involved in baptizing children.

A photo of a priest using a water gun has gone viral on Twitter. The photo snapped at a church shows the mother holding up her child while the priest, who was standing some feet away, used the water gun to squirt holy water on the child.

Prior to that, a couple, Mary and Kyle Nielsen, took to Twitter to share a photo of a priest using a water gun to shoot holy water on their child.

The couple had reportedly scheduled a baptism for their two-month-old son Wesley James before the outbreak of the pandemic. But seeing the surge in cases and churches being closed, the family shelved the ceremony.

However, the family then decided to baptise the baby at home only. It was Mary Nielsen's brother who came up with the idea of squirt gun.

"When baptism day came, we did the real thing first of course, and then afterwards we made sure to do the picture of the pastor holding a water gun and my husband just held Wesley out there and made sure we got a good photo op of that," Mary was quoted as saying.

Twitter users were amused by the "social distancing" baptism and they made memes out of it. However, some were not impressed.

In a similar incident, a Catholic priest in the Detroit area took aim at his parishioners in a bid to maintain social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Photos posted on social media by the St. Ambrose Church show Rev. Tim Pelc using a squirt gun to shoot holy water into a car window as it stopped by the steps of the church on Easter. He wore a mask, face shield and rubber gloves as further precautions against spreading the coronavirus.