REACTION IN MINNESOTA
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It can be no coincidence that in the one
State of the
USA—Minnesota—where Catholic bishops have demonstrated
leadership proper to their
episcopal office (advising the State Governor that they would
reopen Catholic
Churches for public Masses in contravention of his order) civil
chaos erupted
from another cause just five days later.
The devil is not amused when bishops
depart from the
spirit that has rendered the vast majority of them effete and
submissive to his
suggestions for more than forty years.
It is a little matter for him to move a police officer to
engage in the
behaviour that led to the death of a black man in the course of
arrest and
precipitated the events that have followed.
The pandemonium we are witnessing reflects the status quo
in Hell where
he reigns.
The bishops of Minnesota took their action
reasonably
and responsibly as one may gather from reading their open letter
(May 20th)
published on The Remnant
website and
reproduced for the sake of convenience below.
Their action begs an answer to the question: When are we going to see our own bishops putting their necks on the line
and exercising their God-given authority not just for the
Catholic faithful but
for the welfare all the people in their dioceses?
If the peace of Christ, which they are
ordained and consecrated to administer, ruled in men’s hearts
the devil would
be deprived of the means of precipitating the social chaos we
are witnessing.
Michael Baker
June 5th 2020—St Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
______________________________
APPENDIX
May 20, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Catholic Bishops of Minnesota,
along with many people of faith, were disappointed in Governor
Walz’s May 13
announcement that he would end the Stay-at-Home order to allow
more commerce
but prohibit religious gatherings of more than ten people. We have attempted to work
collaboratively
with the Walz Administration up to this time, seeking the
guidance of the
Department of Public Safety and the Department of Public Health
to help us
strengthen our specific safety protocols based on the statewide
plan. Along with some
Lutheran colleagues, we
submitted a plan to the Governor on May 8 that detailed the
sanitation measures
we would take and proposed a cap on occupancy limited to 33
percent of building
capacity. Our proposed
protocols are
based on the work undertaken by a group of national medical
experts and
theologians, the Thomistic Institute, and they are consistent
with the
practices that have already been put in place in many dioceses
throughout the
United States. We
continue our
willingness to make any necessary adjustments to our safety
protocols upon
review.
The
Life of Faith is
Essential
Given our willingness to coordinate
with the Governor, we are especially disappointed that his most
recent order
(20-56) does not address both the vital importance that faith
plays in the
lives of Americans, especially in this time of pandemic, and the
fundamental religious
freedom possessed by houses of worship that allows our country
to thrive. The
Governor’s remarks today further
underscored a failure to appreciate the role of our Church and
other faith
groups in serving the community.
The
human cost to this pandemic has been extraordinary, not just in
terms of lives
lost to the virus but the rapidly growing problems of job loss,
depression,
crime and violence, and substance abuse.
As Pope Francis has said, the church must be a field
hospital,
ministering to all, but especially the poor and vulnerable. He has cautioned that
overly drastic measures
that limit church life will have a disproportionate impact on
“the little ones”
and those who have no one to rely on.
The bishops of Minnesota are united
in our conviction that we can safely resume public Masses in
accordance with
both our religious duties and with accepted public health and
safety
standards. We can
worship in a way that
reflects both the love of God and the love of our neighbors (cf.
Mark
12:30-31). Therefore, we
are giving our
parishes permission for the resumption of the public celebration
of Mass on
Tuesday, May 26, which will give us time to be ready for the
celebration of
Pentecost on May 31. Parishes
will be
required to follow the strict protocols we have published for
sanitation and
social distancing and will have to limit attendance to one-third
of the seating
capacity of the church. No
one will be
obliged to attend, as the bishops of Minnesota will continue to
dispense from
the obligation to attend Sunday Mass.
Responsible
Worship in
Service of the Common Good
We share the Governor’s concern about
the importance of taking all reasonable precautions to prevent
the spread of
COVID-19. We have
charged our parishes
with the task of preparing for a limited return to public Mass,
but we are not
requiring them to begin public Mass on May 26. Each
parish community needs to be comfortable
that it can meet the standards set forth in extensive and
stringent diocesan
protocols. We already
know that many
will be unable to do that immediately because of the
configuration of their
churches or because of a shortage of staff or supplies.
They need a plan for how they would limit
admittance to one third of the seating capacity of their church,
and how they
will seat those who arrive. We
also
recognize that some parishes may choose, for now, to adhere to
the existing
ten-person limit. We
trust local
leadership will determine when they are able to follow all the
directives and
open, and we stand ready to assist them when necessary.
We also know that parishes may have
to adjust to changing circumstances, recognizing that we do not
know how the
pandemic will affect us in the weeks and months ahead. A
parish that begins public Mass on Pentecost,
for example, may have to impose further restrictions later in
the year, in the
event of an outbreak in the local community.
We have made it clear that the
obligation of a Catholic to attend Sunday Mass remains suspended
and we have
uniformly encouraged those most at risk to stay home. Not
surprisingly, dioceses in other states
that have already reopened their churches for public Masses
report that the
number of those attending is significantly reduced. We
ask our parishes to continue to provide
ministry by live streaming even when public Masses resume. We find it reasonable,
moreover, that parishes
would continue to look for opportunities for outdoor
celebrations.
Rights
and
Responsibilities
In moving forward with public worship
in this limited manner, we wish to provide more explanation for
our decision.
First, the six dioceses of Minnesota voluntarily suspended
parish activities,
Catholic schools, and the public celebration of Mass, and did so
before any
executive orders were put in place. We
have
followed public health guidance and Governor Walz’s leadership
so that we,
as a state, could 1) flatten the curve, 2) allow time for the
necessary health
care infrastructure to be created to handle a surge of patients
and avoid
unnecessary deaths, and 3) allow a testing regime to be put in
place to limit
spread of COVID-19. We
have done so
because we care for our neighbors and it is important for us to
be in
solidarity with our vulnerable sisters and brothers. We
have also done so out of respect for
rightful authority—another biblical principle (cf. Romans 13).
Second, we have attempted to engage in
dialogue with
the Administration. We
have twice sent
the Governor letters asking for a dialogue, most recently last
Saturday. Though public
health and public safety
officials have listened to our concerns and have created
opportunities for
input and conversation, we have not received a concrete timeline
and roadmap
for resuming public worship that includes reasonable guidance on
congregational
size.
Third, we believe we have been
leading by example. Our
people and
institutions have enthusiastically cooperated with the public
health guidance
and have been part of the solution at every turn: providing
relief to
struggling families, finding creative ways to minister to a
suffering people,
serving on the front lines of the health care crisis, and
leaping forward in
technology to meet the demand for spiritual comfort created by
this pandemic.
Our decision to suspend the public
celebration of Mass was painful. We
made
that decision not because we were compelled to do so, but
because we judged
that the circumstances required it. We
believe
that those circumstances have changed, as confirmed by the
Governor’s
decision to end the Stay-at-Home order and allow more commerce.
It is now permissible for
an unspecified
number of people to go to shopping malls and enter stores, so
long as no more
than 50 percent of the occupancy capacity is reached. Big-box
stores have hundreds of people inside
at any one time, and the number of goods that are being handled
and distributed
in one store by many people—stock staff, customers, cashiers—is
astounding. Workers are
present for many hours per day,
often in close proximity. There
is no
state mandate that customers wear masks in those malls or
stores, wash their
hands consistently, or follow any specific cleaning protocol. In these circumstances, and
given the
well-researched protocols that we have proposed (and that are
being followed
successfully elsewhere in our nation) how can reason require us
any longer to
keep our faithful from the Eucharist?
We are blessed to live in a nation
that guarantees the free exercise of religion. This
right can only be abridged for a compelling
governmental interest, and only in a way that is narrowly
tailored to be the
least restrictive means of achieving the desired end. That is
why a large
majority of states now allow in-person religious services,
including many
states that had previously suspended in-person religious
services. We think
that the executive order issued last Wednesday fails this test.
An order that
sweeps so broadly that it prohibits, for example, a gathering of
11 people in a
Cathedral with a seating capacity of several thousand defies
reason. Therefore,
we have chosen to move forward in the absence of any specific
timeline laid out
by Governor Walz and his Administration. We
cannot allow an indefinite suspension of
the public celebration of the Mass.
In conclusion, as local leadership
makes these important decisions about when to safely re-open, we
ask them to be
in communication with diocesan leadership about their plans. The bishops of Minnesota are
grateful that we
have such excellent leadership in our parishes and we know that
as we work
together, we can provide for the essential sacramental life of
our faithful,
fulfill our duty to worship God, and do so in a way that also
protects the
common good of our state (cf. Matthew 6:25-34).
We remain yours in Christ Jesus the
Lord,
Most Rev. Bernard A. Hebda Archbishop
of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Most Rev. Michael J. Hoeppner Bishop
of the Diocese of Crookston
Most Rev. Donald J. Kettler Bishop of
the Diocese of St. Cloud
Most Rev. John M. LeVoir Bishop of
the Diocese of New Ulm
Most Rev. John M. Quinn Bishop of the
Diocese of Winona-Rochester
Most Rev. Andrew H. Cozzens Auxiliary
Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Very Rev. James Bissonette Diocesan
Administrator of the Diocese of Duluth
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