I completely support Archbishop Miller’s assessment that the government is cherry picking by again penalizing the worship community, which has followed all the protocols.
First we lost Holy week and Easter, then in Advent and Christmas we again were singled out.
In these times of uncertainty and stress we need our houses of worship much more than bars, restaurants, and retail stores. They may rely on income but we rely on our places of worship to feed out souls.
I humbly ask Bonnie Henry to lift this ban on places of worship and allow us to return.
Rita Clarke
Kelowna
I tend to agree with Brett Powell’s Feb. 1 article “COVID is holding up a mirror for the Church and evangelization.”
Among Catholics there are varying degrees of commitment. Some believe that going to “Sunday Service” two or three times a year is sufficient to fulfill the duties of their faith or to have their newborn baptized, as if that is all the child needs for proper and full spiritual development. Try to water your plants a couple of times a year, pay your taxes every five years, or send your children to school for a single year and see what happens.
These days it is popular to disown and expunge God and his laws from our lives. Jesus said, “He who disowns me in front of men, I will disown him in front of the Father.”
If absence is to love what wind is to fire, which enkindles the great and extinguishes the small, it follows that those of us with a strong and unwavering commitment to our faith will return to church and carry on where we left off, while those with little or no faith, like the Prodigal Son, will wander away from their faith into the turbulent waters of modern life, searching for what they rejected in the first place.
In this respect, there might be some drop in church attendance until the time when newly arrived immigrant families make up in numbers for the losses during this pandemic.
John Bueno
North Vancouver
Why does Paul Schratz claim the archbishop is trying to balance “competing issues of religious freedom and public health”? (B.C. Catholic, Jan. 25)
It is dangerous to pitch freedom against public health. Those of us who are moderate and reasonable in our assessments and approach do not see those as competing options. We are looking forward to an approach that is helpful and does not cause divisions.
All we ask for is scientific evidence that despite taking precautions and following guidelines we were endangering our health and those of others by attending Mass. Judging by real-life scenarios like riding in crowded buses, eating in popular restaurants, and jostling with the crowd at some fruit markets, the transmission of the virus in a mostly empty church is extremely unlikely.
I have had numerous dental appointments in recent months and by simply answering a few questions and having my temperature checked I was ready to be treated by the dentist and hygienist.
It seems that they were convinced that I was free of the virus.
Marianne Werner
Vancouver
