MENGHAYATI MISA VIRTUAL: MERAYAKAN HIPERREALITAS RELIGIUS MENJADI GEREJA VIRTUAL DI KATEDRAL JAKARTA

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government issued social distancing rules. As a result, religious life, including the Catholic Church, must adapt to these rules. For this reason, the Jakarta Cathedral Catholic Church is holding the online or live-streaming mass. This mass is experienced as a virtual mass, that is, the people experience a "mass" that is not concrete as if they are experiencing a real mass. This virtual mass experience is an experience of religious hyperreality, i.e. an experience that goes beyond the actual reality. This research uses the religious cultural phenomenology method through observation, interviews, literature study, and internet data browsing. The objects of this research are the virtual mass phenomenon and the experience of the people living in the virtual mass. The research results show that the virtual mass phenomenon is becoming more natural, reasonable, and normal, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. By participating in the virtual Mass, Catholics also become a Virtual Church.