Hundreds of people gather to welcome missionaries returning home from the Philippines at the Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 22, 2020 | Photo by Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via the Associated Press, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney and Utah state leaders criticized a weekend gathering of hundreds of people at a Salt Lake City airport parking garage to welcome home 900 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries returning from the Philippines.

The people who showed up Sunday evening, some hugging arriving loved ones, should have heeded warnings to keep their distance to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Romney said.

Airport officials had asked for only one or two family members of each returning missionary to come and to stay in their cars — guidance that wasn’t followed by many people, airport spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said.

Video and photos of the event showed many people inside the parking garage standing shoulder to shoulder instead of the recommended “social distancing” measure of 6 feet apart. The faith had told its members that only parents of the mostly young adult missionaries should show up at the airport.

“This is irresponsible,” Romney wrote on Facebook. “Parents, please pick up your missionary from the airport alone and help them strictly follow self-quarantine procedures for their first 14 days at home. We need to work together to keep our communities safe.”

Romney has put himself in quarantine because he sat next to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who tested positive for COVID-19.

For most people, coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover.

The missionaries who arrived at the airport were returning early on chartered flights from missions that last up to two years. Thousands more missionaries are expected to return from abroad in the coming days and weeks after the Utah-based faith said Friday it was bringing home an unspecified but “substantial” number of missionaries.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert called the airport event “dangerous” in a tweet and Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said he was “really disappointed in the behavior we saw from missionary families at the SLC airport tonight.”

“I get it, I’ve been there (and still have a child serving), but this is unacceptable. In a time of shared sacrifice, we must do better to save lives,” said Cox, a member of the faith, as are Romney and Herbert.

Rep. John Curtis tweeted a video of the gathering with the caption: “Watch the below video for what NOT to do.”

The church posted a statement online Sunday night urging parents to go alone to pick up their family members and to maintain recommended distance apart from them and for the missionaries to go into 14 days of self isolation.

Regional church leaders had been told on Saturday to tell parents to take only one vehicle to the airport and stay in their cars, church spokesman Daniel Woodruff said. Woodruff added there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus among the missionaries who were serving, declining to comment on the criticism from Romney and the other political leaders.

It is tradition in Utah for large groups of family and friends to squeeze into the arrivals greeting area at Salt Lake City airport’s to welcome home missionaries with signs, screams and balloons. The event Sunday illustrated how religions are being forced to alter customs amid the spread of the coronavirus.

The proselytizing missions are an integral part of the religion and considered rites of passages for young members of the faith. Men serve two years while women serve 18 months. There were about 65,000 people serving missions before the coronavirus pandemic started.

The church has said it does not plan to suspend its missionary program. The faith is sending home many missionaries serving or preparing to serve in foreign countries so they can self-isolate for 14 days and be reassigned to continue on missions in their home countries.

Written by BRADY McCOMBS, Associated Press.

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