Pressure mounts on Goverment as Church leaders call for a return to public worship

Church leaders in Sligo and the Bishop of Raphoe have mounted pressure on Government by issuing statements calling for public worship to be reinstated.

Eighteen Christian leaders, including Bishop Kevin Doran, signed a letter issued by their group ‘Sligo Churches Together’ saying they are “disheartened” that at a time when their Christian community “is most in need of God’s grace, love and the comfort of the sacraments our churches are forced to close”.

People do not only have physical needs but also psychological and spiritual ones too, they continued, saying: “So many suffer from depression and anxiety; hopelessness and fear are features of so many lives at this difficult time.

“There is evidence within our community, and we have also seen this as priests and pastors in our churches that there are increased incidents of self-harm, alcohol abuse, physical harm to others in terms of domestic violence. The life-line that the churches offer in their community to support people in these circumstances has been impaired when most needed.”

Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ of Raphoe diocese said he “supports the call to open our churches for the public to be permitted to attend Mass”.

He added that there “appears to be no scientific evidence to support the closure of our Churches as sources of community transmission of Covid-19”.

“I call on our Government and legislators to allow our people to attend church for Mass. Many people are struggling and are finding this a hard and painful lockdown. Our churches and places of worship are an essential support and necessity for our people mentally and spiritually in these difficult times,” he said.

When people are permitted to attend Mass, people who are vulnerable or “feel uneasy” about attending can join and pray online, Bishop McGuckian said.

In the Government’s plan for tackling Covid-19 under level 3 restrictions churches are asked to close for public worship – remaining open only for private prayer – and for services to be moved online.

Last Friday Taoiseach Micheál Martin indicated that public worship could return under “modified” level 3 restrictions in early December.

In an interview on RTÉ News at One he said: “We will make decisions towards the end of the month, I did say that we may look at level 3 as to modifications to level 3 and that could apply to worship as well.”