No other establishment, aside from perhaps schools and hospitals, expressed as much compliance towards Covid restrictions as Catholic churches did during the severest parts of lockdown. Thanks to these efforts, zero outbreaks of Covid were linked to churches, a remarkable feat considering the fact that the demographics most likely to be affected by the virus were attending Masses in large numbers.
In the past few weeks, the media have gaslighted people on this issue. Thousands of GAA players and backroom staff took part in games last weekend, hundreds of people are allowed to take part in unessential journeys such as travelling to RTE studios each day and most ludicrous of all, RTE broadcast an alcohol fuelled maskless non socially distance celebration of the media’s declaration of Joe Biden’s election in Ballina, a whole 5,235 km from Washington DC.
Only a person who has learned to trust the authority of others over their own perceptions of reality could adopt this as being a reasonable position.
Churches in Ireland are often built to accommodate hundreds and in some cases, thousands of people. The comments from a Trinity College Professor yesterday that suggested moving Christmas from December to January should ring alarm bells for everyone, that is not a statement made by authorities who understand the importance of religious worship.
With that in mind, a number of young Catholics in Ireland have put together a video expressing their please for Mass to be restored. If we don’t keep asking, the answer will remain as ‘no’.