Archbishop prepared to take religious service ban to B.C. Supreme Court if necessary

This story was updated March 5 to include Archbishop Miller’s petition to the B.C. Supreme Court asking for an exemption from restrictions on religious services.

B.C. health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has turned down Archbishop J. Michael Miller’s request to let churches open to 10 per cent capacity.

In a seven-page document sent to the archbishop Thursday evening, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said “it is not possible to grant your request … right now.”

Henry was responding to a 19-page submission Archbishop Miller sent to B.C. health officials Feb. 19 asking that Catholic churches be permitted to celebrate Mass in-person with COVID-19 safety measures in place and an attendance limit of 10 per cent of capacity. He had asked officials to respond by Feb. 24. 

On Feb. 26, after receiving no response, the archbishop filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court asking for an exemption from the government’s ban on public worship. In an interview with archdiocesan communications director Makani Marquis, Archbishop Miller said a legal petition has been filed, but he’s still hoping to work out a solution outside the courts.

“We chose to work really directly with the public health authorities, with Dr. Henry and Minister Dix. We did file. If it becomes necessary in the future, I sure hope it doesn’t, we might have to use formal legal recourse through the courts, but we are certainly not at that stage at this point.”

See: Government’s ‘deafening silence’ leading archdiocese to court: Catholic lawyer

The archbishop told The B.C. Catholic that although he was disappointed by Henry’s decision, he was “gratified” that she “acknowledged that ‘the Roman Catholic Church was exemplary in supporting their congregations during this critical time, including through Easter of 2020 and indeed since.’”

In his Feb. 19 letter to Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix, he asked for an exemption to a pandemic health order prohibiting in-person religious services that has been in place since Nov. 19.

With Easter, the Church’s most treasured celebration, coming up, he wrote in his submission, it’s important for Catholics to gather and indicated willingness to ensure they do so safely, including by capping participation at 10 per cent of church capacity and frequent sanitization.

In her response, Henry said the request to open churches at 10 per cent would, in some cases, amount to gatherings of 100 people or more who do not usually interact in person, coming together indoors and creating “risky settings.”

She added “clusters” of positive cases “stemming from religious gatherings and religious activities have been noted since the onset of the pandemic globally, nationally, and in British Columbia.”

It’s not laid out in her letter how many COVID-19 cases have been linked to religious gatherings, but elsewhere it has been reported 180 positive cases in B.C. (out of a total of more than 82,400) are linked to religious services. That data does not specify the type of religious service or which health regulations were being followed.

Archbishop Miller has maintained that there have been no known outbreaks in churches in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, but in her letter Henry said for confidentiality reasons there may have been cases linked to churches unknown to church officials.

She added she expects a return to larger gatherings and easing up on restrictions by this summer.

Henry did offer Archbishop Miller a chance to work with Dr. Robert Daum of Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in a “process” to consider how to provide “small, safe indoor services for your parishes for the important Easter services.”

Archbishop Miller said he is looking forward to that consultation.

“Let’s hope that this process will come to a fruitful conclusion in time for the celebration of Easter.”

Under current health orders, churches are allowed to open their doors for weddings, funerals, and private prayer at a maximum of 10 total participants.

The archbishop told Marquis he plans to return to conversations with health authorities with a modified request: for indoor services at 10 per cent of church capacity with a maximum of 50 participants starting on Holy Thursday, April 1.

He said this basically amounts to a return to where churches stood in November, before health orders completely banned indoor religious gatherings.

This story was updated March 5.

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