Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick has criticised Christians who claim that God is punishing the world with the Covid-19 virus, suggesting they are guilty of “blasphemy”.
Bishop Leahy said this kind of theology develops when people who think the world is a bad state “project their way of thinking about things onto God”.
At the beginning of April, DUP councillor John Carson of Ballymena, referring to the pandemic, claimed Northern Ireland was “now reaping the judgement of God” for the legalisation of abortion and same-sex marriage.
Speaking to The Tablet, Bishop Leahy said that Pope Francis, and Jesus’ own teachings in the Gospel, make it clear that God did not use suffering to judge humanity.
“I am saying this is not God punishing us,” Bishop Leahy said, adding, “to say that God is punishing us through the virus is a form of blasphemy”.
He said that this does not mean “we can’t learn something from the crisis. God is all the time at work. God can draw good out of everything – even out of evil, and so maybe we can learn lessons at this time.”
He said people had said that the lockdown had given them more time to think and reflect and more time with their families. “There is something happening in people’s lives and I would say that is a sign to us that God is not missing in this experience.”
Last week, the Bishop of Limerick appealed to the faithful to accept Pope Francis’ invitation to rediscover the Rosary in May. “I want to invite everyone, either as a family or individually, to take up the Rosary and to give it a go,” he said.
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