The Churches have got only so much moral capital; squandering it is a waste

22 April 2021, The Tablet

Query: Has anyone actually suggested that ministers of religion including Catholic priests should deny access to their churches to the unvaccinated?

Query: Has anyone actually suggested that ministers of religion including Catholic priests should deny access to their churches to the unvaccinated? Not so far as I know. But then the precautions taken in church to make them safe during the pandemic are sufficiently rigorous to reassure us anyway. So why was it that 1,300 clergy signed an open letter to the Government to complain about the potential introduction of vaccine passports – digital proof that the holder has had two vaccinations? The issue is vexatious to libertarians who dislike the notion that governments have more information about us than is strictly necessary, but I can’t quite see the religious aspect of the thing.

Yet the clergy who have signed the letter passionately declare that, “for the Church of Jesus Christ to shut out those deemed by the state to be social undesirables would be anathema to us and a denial of the truth of the Gospel”. Yes indeed. But no one has actually suggested anything of the kind.

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