OTTAWA—Faith communities in Canada are being asked to make sacrifices in practising their faith in the national battle to control the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and for the most part they are willingly making the necessary adjustments such as cancelling large Masses and closing mosques to help in the national effort.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops last week issued a statement calling on Catholics to “heed” public health directives when it comes to stopping the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Catholic and other faith communities in the country have been making adjustments to how they worship in light of restrictions on large public gatherings.

Provincial limits on maximum crowd sizes have seen many faith communities curtail activities within churches, mosques, and other religious spaces.

In Ontario, where the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been recorded, public Masses in Toronto and Ottawa, the two largest dioceses in the province, were cancelled after the provincial health officer limited gatherings to 250 people.

Philip Horgan, an Ontario-based lawyer and president of the Catholic Civil Rights League, said these are unprecedented times as countries try to stop the spread of COVID-19 and that it is only natural for faith communities to play their part.

Horgan said concerns about restrictions on religious freedom in this case aren’t warranted. “In the current environment, all of the intentions of the limits on large gatherings (are) to decrease the increasing onslaught of disease,” he said.

The restrictions “are not some effort on the part of government to deny people their right to worship,” he said, but akin to municipal fire regulations that restrict the number of people in a building, “and churches of course follow those regulations.”

There are other ways people can practise their faith and “churches will have to adjust as this situation goes on,” he said.

Horgan is hopeful that calling on Canadians to practise “social distancing” and limit their numbers will be a short-lived inconvenience for Catholics and other Canadian faith communities, but suggests it may be the new normal in the daily lives of Canadians for months to come.

“I have a suspicion that we are going to be facing this issue for six to 12 months. This is not something that you do for a couple of weeks and then the virus goes away,” he said.

Although governments at the federal and provincial levels have not instituted punitive measures to ensure Canadians do not gather in public as some European countries have, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday called on Canadians to work together and make sacrifices for the common good.

Speaking at a press conference in front of his home where he has been in isolation ever since his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau was tested and found to have COVID-19, he said, “All Canadians, as much as possible, should stay at home.”

Trudeau announced further measures by the federal government to combat the spread of COVID-19, including a ban on all non-Canadians, except Americans, from entering Canada at this time. He did not rule out Americans being banned from entering the country in the future if the spread of COVID-19 in Canada continues at a rapid pace.

Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said during a press conference March 15 that all Canadians must make changes to how they behave and interact in public if the country is going to suppress the spread of COVID-19, which has killed thousands around the globe and is especially dangerous to the health of the elderly and people with ongoing existing health issues.

While the number of cases confirmed in Canada is relatively low compared to many countries in Europe, China, and Iran, the areas of the world hardest hit by COVID-19 so far, Dr. Tam said the number of cases in Canada is “rapidly increasing” and “our window to flatten the curve of the epidemic is narrow.”

COVID-19 “is a serious public health threat,” she said.

Canadian Catholic News