A Catholic religious order has decided to bar busloads of Canadian pilgrims from attending a large celebration in the Berkshires this weekend because of concern about the possible spread of SARS, the flulike disease spreading in Hong Kong, other parts of China, and in Toronto.
The Marians of the Immaculate Conception are expecting 20,000 worshipers to travel to Stockbridge to pray together at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, and they had been expecting 11 busloads, carrying 450 people, to come from the Toronto area.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which is supporting the shrine's decision to instruct Canadian bus groups not to come, planned to send epidemiologists to the event to screen travelers with Ontario license plates.
''We are not suggesting Toronto residents stay out of Massachusetts, but this was an enormously large group of people from a region designated by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control as an area that people need to take special precautions in,'' said Roseanne Pawelec, a Public Health Department spokeswoman. ''This is just prudent policy.''
Severe acute respiratory syndrome has killed 16 people and possibly infected hundreds more in Toronto, including several members of another religious group who were exposed at a prayer meeting. On Wednesday, the WHO advised against unnecessary travel to Toronto, although a top US disease official said yesterday that travelers only need to take ''common-sense precautions.''
Massachusetts has seen only a handful of suspected SARS cases, chiefly from recent travelers to Asia. One day-care center in Burlington closed temporarily when a 3-year-old child returned from Asia with flulike symptoms.
The tour bus ban is an isolated situation, Pawelec said. '' The sheer size of this group has prompted the discussion,'' she said. ''We were talking 450 people from the Toronto area, a massive number of people, introduced into a large-scale event.''
Divine Mercy Sunday is an annual event on Eden Hill in Stockbridge. Worshipers go to confession, attend Mass, recite the rosary, and pray before a relic of Saint Faustina Kowalska, a 20th-century Polish mystic. The day is celebrated around the world, but the Stockbridge event is the largest in North America.
''We're trying to make the best decision in a very difficult situation in which we can't make everybody happy,'' said Kathleen Ervin, a spokeswoman for the Marians, who have about two dozen priests and brothers in Stockbridge. ''We dislike turning anyone away, but we're trying to do what we think is the safest thing for the people of Toronto and of the US.''
The Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto has also had to limit some religious practices in an effort to slow the spread of SARS. Last week, during Holy Week, Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic suspended Communion from the cup for worshipers; instructed priests to place the eucharistic wafer in worshipers' hands, not in their mouths; replaced the traditional handshake of peace with a bow; urged worshipers to bow toward, but not kiss, a crucifix on Good Friday; and directed priests to hear confessions outside confessionals.
Suzanne Scorsone, a spokeswoman for the Toronto Archdiocese, said she was not familiar with the Marians' action and could not comment.
Pawelec said the Department of Public Health was particularly concerned about this weekend's event because federal officials are not yet prepared to screen travelers at the US-Canada border.
The Department of Public Health took similar action in the late 1980s, when during a measles outbreak it dispatched epidemiologists to college sports arenas and asked fans to show their vaccination records.