Just how dangerous is a Catholic church? – to our merely mortal health, obviously. If we go into a church and sit at the back, it’s a fair bet that there’ll be perhaps three people in the entire place, even on a Sunday. Certainly that was the case in my own parish church, which has a congregation of eleven hundred on a normal week. The Government’s decree that churches should no longer offer Mass or public services at a stroke saw off collective gatherings. (Anti) social distancing is simply not a problem, unless people actually go and talk to each other close up, which just isn’t happening.
Ah, but what about opening doors and lighting candles and stuff? Right, the virus can stay on hard surfaces for some time. But if we use gloves for opening doors – or if tissues are provided for that purpose – and we are advised through big, unmissable notices to follow this rule and not to touch statues, well, Catholics for better and worse are generally obedient to authority.
But I haven’t factored in the gravitational pull, have I? At a time when the nation is meant to be in lockdown, what awful consequences might ensue from people venturing out of their homes to their local church to sit there and pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament by themselves?
25 March 2020, The Tablet
Catholics, taking all necessary precautions, should be allowed to sit in a church and pray
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