He's Doing a Bang-Up Job Already, So Why Not?

CNA Staff, Mar 30, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday, March 27 threatened to “permanently” shut down houses of worship that continue to hold public services in violation of the city’s ban on gatherings of any size. 

The mayor cited a "small number of religious communities, specific churches and specific synagogues,” that are continuing to hold religious services despite a prohibition on anyone being within six feet of a person they do not live with. The restrictions were made in an attempt to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, which has infected thousands of New Yorkers and has killed over 1,000 people in the state.  

Mayor Warren Wilhelm, Jr, AKA Bill De Blasio

De Blasio warned that if these communities were found to be holding religious services, “our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services.” 

The religious congregations would also be subject to other punishments for continued defiance of the stay-at-home order, de Blasio added. This “additional action” that would be taken includes fines, as well as “potentially closing the building permanently.”

Let's see what the first amendment to the United States Constitution has to say about that....

 
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Pachamama, PLEASE FORGIVE US!

ROME — Pope Francis told a Spanish journalist Sunday that nature never forgives and the coronavirus pandemic is nature’s cry for humans to take better care of creation.

Asked by a Spanish journalist via Skype whether the COVID-19 pandemic is nature’s way of taking “revenge” on humanity, the pontiff suggested that nature is calling for attention.

 “There’s a saying, which you have heard: ‘God always forgives. We sometimes forgive. Nature never forgives,’” the pope said. “Fires, earthquakes … nature is throwing a tantrum so that we will take care of her.”

The Party of Death

Restaurants and bars have closed; major sporting events have been canceled, with parts of the playing season called off.  Small businesses have been locked down, threatening their solvency along with the material support of the families that depend on these businesses.

In this adamant conviction about the saving of human lives, there has not been a flicker of doubt even among the talking heads of the liberal media. They don’t seem to doubt that the overriding purpose is to save lives, of the young and healthy, as well of people who are older and at the edge of their lives.

Danse Macabre by Michael Wolgemut, 1493 [Duchess Anna Amalia Library, Weimar, Germany]

The commentators are apparently willing to save the lives of people they don’t know, and so they cannot know that all of these people are equally deserving of their concern.  The mandate to protect human life is evidently cast over everyone, even people the media find repugnant, and the only rationale can be that these are the lives of human beings. 

By now many of my readers know where this has been heading:  If the overriding commitment is to protect human life, in all conditions and all ages, how could the same liberal commentators show not the least concern for the killing of around 860,000 small, innocent human beings every year in this country in abortions?

There, they stand back not merely with indifference, but with rapturous celebration of the “right” to kill in that way for one’s own self-interest.

That the contradiction has not broken in on them is a reflection of something that has gone deeply dysfunctional in what used to be thought a staple of liberal education: some elementary practice in reasoning about matters of moral consequence in a principled way.

Aristotle well understood that this kind of exercise might have little appeal to people who are more interested in doing rather than knowing. But as he recognized in the Ethics, “the defect is not due to lack of years but to living the kind of life which is a succession of unrelated emotional experiences.”

Our "Catholic" Senator gets a shout-out...

In my last column, I recalled the matter of the Born-Alive Survivors of Abortion Act, making its way finally to the floor of the Senate.  In opposing that bill, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois offered an impassioned concern for the higher rate of “infant mortality” among black newborns.  And yet he surely had to know that in cities like Chicago and New York the abortions of black children have often exceeded the live births.

Durbin reflected the same obtuseness I’ve been noting here for the liberal political class in the crisis over the virus.

Too Bad Cardinal Burke is Not the Pope

“In the past, in fact, governments have understood, above all, the importance of the faith, prayer and worship of the people to overcome a pestilence,” he said, but the advance of secularism meant this understanding no longer exists.

“We cannot simply accept the determinations of secular governments, which would treat the worship of God in the same manner as going to a restaurant or to an athletic conference,” the cardinal added, while underscoring the importance of “those objective encounters with God, who is in our midst to restore health and peace.”  

Burke called upon fellow bishops and priests to explain to secular leaders “the necessity of Catholics to pray and worship in their churches,” as well as to “go in procession through the streets and ways, asking God’s blessing upon His people who suffer so intensely.” 

It is important that civil authorities understand the importance that places of worship have in times of national crisis, the cardinal said. And the cardinal suggested that churches could take similar steps to other essential public institutions which remain open, including grocery stores and hospitals. 

“Many of our churches and chapels are very large,” said Burke. “They permit a group of the faithful to gather for prayer and worship without violating the requirements of ‘social distance.’” 

Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex

The Canon Law Made Easy site is asked if  Bishops may cancel Mass. Her response emphasizes the difference between granting dispensation and cancelling Mass.The site does not permit copying and pasting things, so go to it and read the whole thing. It is inspiring.

Here's my take away:

"To be blunt - if our parish clergy aren't at the parish to celebrate Mass, administer the sacraments, and otherwise tend to the spiritual needs of the faithful, then what are they there for?"

And this:


"Make no mistake, obeying an unjust and illegal order is not virtuous."

I guess instead of going to Mass on Sunday, I will stand at the window waiving a peace sign to everyone.

 

Pachamama, Protect Us!

The Diocese of Belleville has suspended all public Masses effective immediately.
The cancellation of those services will remain in effect until further notice, the Rev. Msgr. John T. Myler, spokesman for the diocese, said Tuesday.

The diocese oversees about 70,000 Catholics in the 28 southernmost counties in Illinois, along with 108 parishes and 29 schools.

Myler said a letter from Bishop Edward Braxton will be released Wednesday morning, and that it will provide more details about the closings, as well as information about issues such as weddings, funerals and confessions.

 

Dr. Braxton

 Doctor Braxton said,  "There is nothing more important to the Catholic Church than your physical health. It is way more important than your spiritual health. If there was ever a time for people to go to Church it is not during a crisis of any kind. The fact that only 6 people in the Diocese have contracted the virus and none have died is irrelevant.

I think cancelling all Masses will remind people how unimportant going to Mass on Sunday is, and will help us recruit more priests. May Pachamama watch over us."

You Mean Like We Did During the Swine Flu? Or the Black Plague?

Seattle, Wash., Mar 11, 2020 / 05:45 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Seattle will indefinitely suspend public Masses in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has left at least 31 dead in Washington, along with 375 people in the state who have tested positive for the virus.

“I want to acknowledge the best science that is out there, that basically says despite our best efforts, this epidemic is going to continue to spread, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be doing everything we possibly can to restrict the spread of this virus and of this epidemic,” Archbishop Paul Etienne said in a video released Wednesday afternoon.

“So I am going to ask that all of our parishes in western Washington, in the Archdiocese of Seattle, effective today, suspend the celebration publicly of the Eucharist.”

Good on ya, Bishop Kurtz!


Louisville, Ky., Mar 11, 2020 / 04:32 pm (CNA).- Kentucky’s Governor Andy Beshear on Wednesday encouraged churches to cancel their services in fear of the spreading coronavirus. The Catholic archdiocese in the state does not plan to cancel Masses this Sunday.

On March 11, the governor announced that the eight patients with COVID-19 in the state were "stable and doing well” but stressed that the number of infected will likely increase.
"That number is expected to grow," Beshear said, WDRB reported. "We expect to see more cases. We are prepared to see more cases." 

According to the Archdiocese of Louisville, the state’s bishops have been in contact with the Department of Health and Wellness and discussed prevention methods with each other and local pastors. However, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said he will not cancel Masses.


“With the information I have now, I will not be calling for a diocesan-wide cancellation of daily or weekend Masses,” said Kurtz, in a letter to parish priests.

“We will ask pastors to encourage those who are ill or have symptoms to stay home as an act of Christian charity for their fellow parishioners. … Pastors will be asked to publicize times for Mass of the Air, which is available through a variety of platforms around the Archdiocese,” said an archdiocesan statement.

The statement emphasized the importance of the Eucharist to parishioners and the Church, especially during times of difficulty. It said, though, parishioners who feel vulnerable and afraid may exercise individual discretion.

"Can We be Required to Receive Communion in the Hand, Becauase of the Virus?"

 From Canon Law Made Easy comes the answer:

"Absolutely not:".

[92.] Although each of the faithful always has the right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, at his choice,[178] if any communicant should wish to receive the Sacrament in the hand, in areas where the Bishops’ Conference with the recognitio of the Apostolic See has given permission, the sacred host is to be administered to him or her. However, special care should be taken to ensure that the host is consumed by the communicant in the presence of the minister, so that no one goes away carrying the Eucharistic species in his hand. If there is a risk of profanation, then Holy Communion should not be given in the hand to the faithful.[179]

https://canonlawmadeeasy.com/2020/03/12/communion-in-the-hand-virus/