The Government has relegated Mass to a recreational activity

While fighting Covid-19 might save lives, it can also cost lives, livelihoods and future prospects, writes David Quinn

At the time of writing, Dublin appears to be the only place in the whole of Europe that does not permit public worship, including public Masses. Places with much higher infection rates than Dublin are permitting public worship, including the likes of Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Those cities are permitting public worship not because they are careless about lives, but because they want their response to Covid-19 to be proportionate.

‘Proportionate’ is a word that hasn’t been used enough in the debate about the virus. Anything we do to fight the infection has to take other goods in society into account.

What we have seen since the arrival of the virus in Ireland is missed cancer treatments, heart surgeries, a rise in domestic violence and probably soon we will see a rise in depressive illness, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide. That is in addition to the huge numbers of people seeing their economic prospects smashed and the children who have suffered big educational setbacks.

In other words, while fighting the virus might save lives, it can also cost lives, livelihoods and future prospects. This is why the response to it has to be balanced and proportionate.

Crucially, getting the balance right is not a scientific or medical decision. It is a political, communal and moral one which every one of us has the right to influence.

Capacity

Science can tell us about the disease, and about how to fight it, but it has no capacity whatsoever to tell us how much moral weight should be attached to fighting the virus and how much moral weight should be attached to all the other things I have just listed like missed cancer treatments and lost jobs.

Weight must even be attached to whether we are still allowed go to the hairdresser or barber or a restaurant, a pub, a coffee shop, to buy clothes and, of course, to attend Mass.

The only contribution a scientist can make to this discussion is to inform us roughly how much risk each of these things involves.

In its new ‘living with Covid’ plan, the Government has outlined five levels of restrictions from few at level one to an almost complete lockdown again at level five.

Most of the country is currently at level two, but Dublin is currently at level three and a half.

Under level two you can still go to Mass, but under level three you cannot. However, at level three you can go to a restaurant, get your hair done, go to a pub that serves food and go shopping.

The experts advising the Government have obviously decided that going to your hairdresser is worth the risk at level three, but going to Mass is not. Is this justified? It is not.

To justify it, the Government and NPHET (currently led by Dr Ronan Glynn), would have to show that since we could return to Mass at the end of June, Mass attendance has been shown to be a risky activity. In fact, since that time only one outbreak has occurred in any place of worship in the entire country (see page 3).

Why is that? It’s because priests and laypeople alike have been doing a fantastic job keeping them safe.

An army of volunteers is keeping churches clean, ensuring everyone is wearing facemasks, that numbers attending are at the allowed limit and that people are maintaining a proper distance from each other.

This only shows the low priority the Government attaches to public worship. It simply does not regard it as 
very important”

All this effort has borne fruit, so why stop public worship but allow recreational activities like going out to eat to continue?

In the US, an estimated one million public Masses have taken place nationwide since bans on public worship ended in almost all states and cities, and no outbreaks have occurred in any church that has been following the safety guidelines.  This is according to the ‘Thomistic Institute Working Group on Infectious Disease Protocols for Sacraments & Pastoral Care’.

Admittedly, Dublin is now somewhere between levels three and four in its restrictions and therefore indoor dining has stopped again, but the fact remains that going to a restaurant is clearly a higher priority for the Government than going to Mass because the former is allowed under level 3 and the latter is not.

The Government would probably not want to admit this, but it is probably motivated by the fact that keeping restaurants open saves jobs while permitting public worship does not.

However, once again this only shows the low priority the Government attaches to public worship. It simply does not regard it as very important even though every other part of Europe, including far more secular countries than Ireland, clearly respect the rights of worshippers more than we do.

In a recent document from the Vatican called ‘Let us Return to the Eucharist with Joy!’, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Liturgy and Sacraments, addresses restrictions on public worship. He says that the Church should cooperate with the civil authorities for the sake of public health.

But he adds: “It is up to the prudent but firm action of the Bishops to ensure that the participation of the faithful in the celebration of the Eucharist is not reduced by public authorities to a ‘gathering’, and is not considered comparable or even subordinate to forms of recreational activities.”

The level three restrictions show that this is exactly what the Government and NPHET have done. A recreational activity like dining out is permitted, but attending Mass is not.

The bishops must raise their voices. They should coordinate with other denominations and other faiths and insist that at a minimum the Government should move the ban on public worship into level four, not level three, and insist on hard evidence backing up such a ban, not hypothetical scenarios.

Anything else lets down the Faithful and relegates public worship to less than a recreational activity like going to a restaurant.