Pope urges virus lockdown obedience amid Church-state debate
POPE FRANCIS waded into the Church-state debate about virus-imposed lockdowns of religious services, calling Tuesday for “prudence and obedience” to government protocols to prevent infections from surging again.
Francis’ appeal came just two days after Italian bishops bitterly complained that the Italian government offered no provisions for Masses to resume in its plan to reopen Italian business, social and sporting life starting on May 4.
While it wasn’t clear if Francis intended to send a different message than the bishops, his appeal for obedience and prudence was in line with his previous calls to protect the most vulnerable, and for economic interests to take a back seat to shows of solidarity.
At the same time, Francis has certainly chafed at the lockdown, saying earlier on that he felt like he was in a “cage”, and lamenting more recently that the Church isn’t really “Church” without a community of faithful present and the administration of sacraments.
“As we are beginning to have protocols to get out of quarantine, let us pray that the Lord gives his people, all of us, the grace of prudence and obedience to the protocols so that the pandemic doesn’t return,” Francis said Tuesday.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government announced on Sunday that funerals could resume as of May 4, but there was no information on when the faithful could attend Mass.
In response, the Italian bishops’ conference expressed outrage that its proposals of safety protocols had apparently been ignored.
The bishops said they “cannot accept that freedom of worship is compromised”. They argued that the government should have distinguished between its duty to provide health guidance and the Church’s right to “organise the life of the Christian community, respecting the measures but in full autonomy”.
Conte’s office hastily responded that it was working on protocols to allow the resumption of liturgical services as soon as possible, but “in conditions of maximum security”.
Francis weighed in on the fraught issue at the start of morning Mass, celebrated alone in the chapel of the Vatican hotel where he lives. Francis has been celebrating daily Mass to empty pews in observance of the Vatican’s own lockdown measures, which mirror those of Italy, the epicentre of the European pandemic.
The Vatican has recorded 10 positive cases, the last one confirmed Tuesday in a Holy See official who tested positive but is now asymptomatic. All the official’s colleagues have tested negative, the Vatican said in a statement.