In northern B.C., the worship restrictions are gone, but not the pain and division

After months of frigid outdoor Masses and Communion distribution in church parking lots, Catholics in parts of northern B.C. are finally permitted to attend Mass in a church again.

On Jan. 20, COVID-19 restrictions specific to the north were lifted, ending a mandatory vaccination rule for in-person worship. As with the rest of the province, in-person Mass attendance is now allowed at 50 per cent capacity unless everyone is vaccinated.

Sadly, there may be no quick end to the confusion and division sowed by government restrictions that set parishioner against parishioner, and in some cases against priests and bishops.

Since last fall, Catholics in the Diocese of Prince George and some parts of the Diocese of Kamloops have been under health orders unlike anywhere else in the province. Citing low vaccination and high transmission rates, the Northern Health Authority imposed a complete ban on indoor worship last October.

The order applied not only to the more than 30 churches in the Diocese of Prince George, but also to two Kamloops churches, in Valemount and Quesnel, that are within Northern Health jurisdiction.

Since Nov. 30, churches have been allowed to reopen, but only at 50 per cent capacity and limited to vaccinated individuals.

The Jan. 20 lifting of northern restrictions came as a relief for most Catholics, especially those who had been driving hours out of their way to attend Mass in the Interior Health Region, which includes most of the Diocese of Kamloops. But the harshness of the orders in the Northern Health Region has led to discord and uncertainty among churchgoers whose attitudes range from full support for government vaccine and mask restrictions to absolute defiance, and with everything in between.

The regulations in northern B.C. have forced Kamloops Bishop Joseph Nguyen and Prince George Bishop Stephen Jensen to juggle competing priorities of public health policy, religious liberty, and pastoral judgment.

Bishop Nguyen said he “tried to be very clear from the beginning” that the government’s rules had to be followed. Both he and Bishop Jensen said their goal through the crisis has been to allow people choices such as livestream Mass followed by outdoor Communion. Those options haven’t stopped some parishioners in both dioceses from huddling in the snow in -30 weather outside the churches they’re barred from entering.

“No matter what we did some were going to be upset,” Bishop Nguyen said in an interview.

Indeed, it became a pastoral struggle in the two dioceses trying to manage parishes where parishioners on one side were defying vaccine and mask regulations, while other parishioners were ready to report non-compliant parishes to the authorities. Enforcement of regulations often came down to pastors.

As tensions spread through the Kamloops diocese, Bishop Nguyen said his priority had to be keeping the churches open, knowing the slightest misstep could lead to them being shuttered by the government again. “Somebody will report it and make the Church look bad,” possibly leading to harsher restrictions, he said.

After a particularly hostile clash between masked and unmasked parishioners at St. Joseph’s in Salmon Arm, Bishop Nguyen ordered the church closed to indoor worship. The confrontation had left the pastor so shaken that he stepped down indefinitely due to health concerns. On Christmas Day, parishioners at the church gathered in -20 weather for an outdoor Mass. In an attempt to build bridges, the bishop sent his vicar general to hold a series of meetings with parishioners and hear their concerns.

“If people don’t want to be vaccinated that’s fine,” Bishop Nguyen said. “But we ask them to wear a mask so we can celebrate the holy Eucharist.”

On Jan. 7 he issued a letter stating that masks were mandatory for everyone 5 and up attending inside worship services throughout the diocese. “The safety and well-being of all staff and parishioners are my priority, and therefore it is my responsibility as your Bishop, to follow and comply with the Provincial Health Officers (PHO) order for the duration of the pandemic, or until the PHO lifts this order.”

As for his two parishes in the Northern Health region, he restated the provincial regulations capping attendance at 50 per cent and requiring anyone over 11 to be vaccinated.

Although the letter issued no instructions on enforcing the vaccination rules, he wrote that the provincial health officer “is serious about compliance with its order, and thus we have no choice; in fact, we have chosen to comply with legitimate authority in order to keep our churches open for the Mass. While this is difficult for some, we ask for your compliance with this order, so that our churches remain open.”

The pain has been particularly acute at St. Joseph’s in Salmon Arm, where a large percentage of the family-oriented parish remains unvaccinated.

One St. Joseph’s parishioner said the parish is an example of pastoral involvement where ministries have actually increased during COVID. Most families participate in some form of ministerial work, from outreach to the poor and elderly to adoration and prayer groups, and parishioners have organized more than 70 events and initiatives during the pandemic. “There is a bold faith in Salmon Arm,” he said.

But a tipping point was reached, he said, when public health orders banned the unvaccinated from visiting with friends or family at Christmas, set capacity limits for the unvaccinated, and mandated masks for small children and vaccinations for youth ministry leaders.

Bishop Nguyen acknowledges that some parishioners with strong views encountered parishes that were “not as pastoral as they could have been.” He also knows some of the faithful are disappointed that he hasn’t publicly opposed the government’s regulations, but he said faith leaders throughout the province have taken part in regular conference calls with the government and made their objections known.

Complicating the northern situation even more was that the Northern Health region itself had varying restrictions, depending on the area. Due to their higher levels of immunization, the communities of Kitimat, Terrace, Haida Gwaii, Stikine, Nisg̱a’a, Telegraph, and Prince Rupert were exempted from the strictest vaccination and capacity regulations.

“So, parts of the region were restricted, but Kitimat was not,” said Bishop Jensen. “That was hard for people to hear. People who don’t have the vaccine were feeling like second-class citizens.”

One Prince George man described the situation at his parish as “volatile” with some pastors trying to enforce vaccination requirements and reports that Northern Health was conducting random church inspections after receiving a complaint about an uncompliant parish.

As a whole, the Diocese of Prince George was spared the intense discord seen in some individual parishes, and Bishop Jensen estimates the faithful in his diocese are no more extreme than in the rest of the province. “That’s life as people take positions.”

Looking at the future, Bishop Jensen is uncertain how quickly the divisions that arose under the restrictions will disappear now that the vaccination mandate has been lifted. And since crises seem to succeed each other so quickly, “in six months it may be something else.”

Like Bishop Nguyen, he said he hopes and prays the need for pandemic measures comes to an end soon.

Unfortunately, some Kamloops parishioners appear to be in no mood to forget what happened in in Salmon Arm and Quesnel. Despite the dropping of the most severe northern health restrictions, a protest gathering at Sacred Heart Cathedral is currently scheduled for Feb. 5 in response to the bishop’s letter in which he published the government’s vaccination regulations.