Criminalising Mass is ‘offensive and ill judged’ – bishop
THE BISHOP of Elphin Kevin Doran has described the introduction of legislation which makes it a criminal offence to celebrate Mass publicly as “very offensive” and “ill-judged”. Bishop Doran said: “It’s a strange thing that at this point the government should feel it necessary to do this. I suspect that there are political motives behind it because there is certainly nothing happening on the part of people of faith that would undermine public health and at this late stage, a year after the pandemic began, why they felt the need to do this I don’t know.” The bishop was referring to a statutory instrument signed into law last week by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
Speaking at the end of an online Mass from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Sunday, he said: “Any of you who have been listening to me this morning and who have been deeply disappointed over the last four months not to be able to come to celebrate worship publically will find it, I suppose, very offensive that the state at this point they should see fit to issue legislation which makes it a criminal offence to celebrate Mass publicly.
“We didn’t need to be told what to do – we have been doing it for the last 12 months.”
Bishop Doran also said that not only was the legislation “quite inappropriate” but it was “very badly done because however it was drafted, as the legislation now reads it becomes actually a criminal offence for a priest to celebrate Mass even on his own unless it is broadcast online, which is really ludicrous”.
“It is also pardoxical in that they have taken away our freedom to celebrate marriages but wedding receptions can still go ahead. I don’t know how you can have a wedding reception without a marriage but that’s another story.”
The bishop said that over the last year the Catholic Church, in keeping with other churches and religious groups, had been “enormously commited to and supportive of the public health efforts of the whole of society and we have stood by them” and he said that at many times they were “well ahead of the government in terms of putting in place our safety guidance for when we were reopening back in June”. So he said that that “it came as something of a serious disappointment to find that having begun to talk about reopening for public Mass on May 4, which we still expect to happen, and with the Taoiseach having met with all the church leaders of the different traditions during the week and said how much he understood the desire of people of faith to be able to worship, we now have a piece of legislation that was issued without any kind of real publicity at all on Friday afternoon” which he said “for the first time, officially and formally, criminalises the celebration of public worship”.
Bishop Doran concluded that he supposed that in a “spirit of forgiveness” they had to accept the fact that “the government like everybody else is in a difficult situation and we must give them room to turn but we are asking them to turn and to recognise that this was ill-judged and needs to be withdrawn”.
On Tuesday, after a meeting between Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, Bishop Doran tweeted: “Glad to see that this meeting happened and it seems to have been an open and positive engagement. Roll on May 4.”