Render unto covid what is covid's, and render unto... ?

A collection of excerpts of experiences and reflections regarding the response to the covid19 pandemic. Click on the links to read the full articles.

Carl E. Olson observed (30MAY2020):

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/05/30/riots-technocrats-and-normality/

The inanity and insanity of what has been transpiring was summed up well by Michael McHaney, a judge on the Illinois Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, in a May 23rd ruling on a lawsuit brought by a Clay County small business owner against Governor J.B. Pritzker, contesting Pritzker’s shutdown order:

Since the inception of this insanity, the following regulations, rules or consequences have occurred: I won’t get COVID if I get an abortion, but I will get COVID if I get a colonoscopy. Selling pot is essential, but selling goods and services at a family owned business is not. Pot wasn’t even legal and pot dispensaries didn’t even exist in this state until five months ago and, in that five months, they have become essential, but a family-owned business in existence for five generations is not.

A family of six can pile in their car and drive to Carlyle Lake without contracting COVID but, if they all get in the same boat, they will. We are told that kids rarely contract the virus and sunlight kills it, but summer youth programs, sports programs are cancelled. Four people can drive to the golf course and not get COVID but, if they play in a foursome, they will. If I go to Walmart, I won’t get COVID but, if I go to church, I will. Murderers are released from custody while small business owners are threatened with arrest if they have the audacity to attempt to feed their families.

These are just a few of examples of rules, regulations and consequences that are arbitrary, capricious, and completely devoid of anything even remotely approaching common sense.

R.R. Reno, Editor at First Things (27APRIL2020):

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/04/coronavirus-reality-check

[...] We have every reason to take prudent measures to protect vulnerable people from the disease, but we cannot reasonably expect to contain the coronavirus. The high proportion of asymptomatic carriers defeats strategies of testing and tracing contacts. In all likelihood, it also defeats such radical measures as lockdowns, as the example of Sweden seems to suggest.

These truths point toward clear and urgent action. We need to allocate resources for protecting vulnerable populations. We need rigorous testing of nursing home workers (a five-country study in Europe reported that 50 percent of coronavirus fatalities occurred in elder-care facilities) and others who care for vulnerable populations. We need to allocate funding for at-risk poor people to move to hotels or other places where they can self-isolate.

We can do this without closing every restaurant and bar. We can do this without locking churches, without requiring everybody to stay at home, without throwing tens of millions of Americans out of work. The lockdowns can and must end.

But I doubt that truth will guide decision-making. There is too much fear. Fear of the virus is compounded by the (reasonable) fear of experts, policy-makers, and politicians that if they change course they will be exposed as poorly informed, reckless, and cowardly. Our entire ruling class, which united behind catastrophism and the untested methods of mass shutdown, is implicated in the unfolding fiasco.

[...]

We’ve been stampeded into a regime of social control that is unprecedented in our history. Our economy has been shattered. Ordinary people have been terrorized by death-infused propaganda designed to motivate obedience to the limits on free movement. [...]

The experts, professionals, bureaucrats, and public officials who did this to us have tremendous incentives to close ranks and say, “It is not wise to tell people that the danger was never grave and now has passed.” Sustaining the coronavirus narrative will require many lies. It will be up to us to insist on the truth.

Robert Bridge wrote (21APR2020):

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/486360-us-closed-churches-coronavirus/

America is beginning to resemble, if not an outright police state, then certainly a snitch state - particularly for those citizens who want to practice their faith during this time of crisis. In all but a handful of US states, worshipers are forced to ‘attend’ religious services online, or perhaps from the comfort of their automobiles in the church parking lot. Planning a wedding? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised delaying nuptials at least until mid-May. How about a funeral? Even the crucial act of bidding farewell to the dearly departed has practically become an act of civil disobedience. Earlier this month, 15 members of a New Jersey synagogue were charged with violating the state’s ban on large gatherings during a funeral service.

This crackdown on religious assembly is all the more difficult to fathom when one remembers that freedom of religion is inscribed in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, where it unambiguously states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Incredibly, even when it came to the question of gun shops, the government was quick to intervene on behalf of the Second Amendment (not to mention the powerful gun lobbies), declaring that such businesses were “essential” and should be allowed to remain open during the pandemic. The same thing applies to liquor stores, although a person would be hard-pressed to find any mention of those establishments in the US Constitution.

Again, R.R. Reno (13MAY2020):

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/05/coronavirus-diary-new-york-may-12

A friend writes to ask what I think of the “Appeal” signed by a number of cardinals and other ecclesiastical eminences. It condemns the disproportionate severity of the lockdowns. One section was of particular interest to my friend: “There are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements.”

My response: It’s much worse than a conspiracy; it’s a consensus. We live in a technocratic social order. Its “sole aim” is not to control people. That’s a mistaken view. But it is a regime in which material goods are supreme. The present public health challenges reinforce this technocratic social order, and for the expert class it makes complete sense to impose draconian measures of restriction and control in order to protect a material good such as physical health. In truth, most of New York welcomes these restrictions, even demands them. The technocrats do not “impose.” The “experts” minister to our fears and promise to deliver us. That’s why it’s a consensus, not a conspiracy.

I am cared for by an underground church. It has allowed me to attend Mass every Sunday since the lockdown began. One priest has let it be known that he does not lock the door of his church when he celebrates the Mass at the appointed times on Sunday. Another discreetly gathers small groups to celebrate the Mass, keeping within the strict letter of lockdown decrees (no groups larger than 10). I must give no further details. Ecclesiastical authorities might take punitive measures. They, too, are part of the consensus.

I email a friend in Brooklyn, asking if he knows of a speakeasy where we can get a beer this evening and sit down with people who dissent from the consensus. It would be pleasant to enjoy the company of those who are not afraid.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker (27MAY2020):

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/on-covid-and-the-grimpen

In the swamp of pandemic uncertainty, one must strive to focus on facts, eschew fear, and trust in common sense. The same antidote applies to the shifting sands of relativism. Facts, human reason, common sense and confidence in the face of fear provide a way forward. Added to these human virtues is the indispensable gift of faith. “God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) The person of faith is not swept about by every wind of doctrine, but is gifted with a clear vision, a will empowered by grace, compassion driven by charity and a “sound mind”—one established in reason and common sense.

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky (18MAY2020):

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/dangers-proliferating-communion-services/

The cancellation of the public celebration of the Mass in dioceses across the US and the world—beginning in Rome—has established dangerous precedents. In addition to the breathtaking surrender to secular authorities with no public pushback on the part of Catholic bishops, chanceries have introduced the innovation of abbreviated Communion services (with ten or fewer people). The early response by parishioners has been favorable, and in some instances, exuberant. But without vigilance, could the practice become a Trojan horse of confusion and even schism?

[...]

The response by many bishops to encourage brief Communion services instead of Masses in response to the Covid-19 pandemic may accelerate liturgical practices that have long-term deleterious doctrinal implications on the nature of the priesthood and the Mass.


It is becoming increasingly clear that the hierarchy’s quick surrender to secular authorities and the cancellation of public Masses could have devastating unintended consequences. The bishops must jump-start the public celebration of Masses (using sensible precautionary methods) even at the risk of offending immoral (and quite possibly illegal) government interference in the practice of religion.

Ed Mechmann (4JUNE2020):

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/06/04/nyc-mayor-de-blasio-protests-essential-but-not-religion/

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 4, 2020 / 03:32 pm (CNA).- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that ongoing protests in the city merit exceptions to coronavirus regulations, while religious services do not. The mayor’s remarks have drawn criticism from New York’s archdiocese.

“When you see a nation, an entire nation simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism, I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services,” de Blasio said at a June 2 press conference, while defending his policy of allowing mass protests while continuing to restrict religious gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, Ed Mechmann, director of public policy for the Archdiocese of New York, said the mayor’s policy shows that religious liberty is now considered a low priority in the city.


“It is clear that in the eyes of our government officials, the politically preferred viewpoint of anti-racism is favored and allowed, while the unpopular one of religious worship is belittled and denigrated,” Mechmann wrote on the archdiocesan website June 3.

UPDATE: Fr. John Hunwicke (9JUNE2020).

http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2020/06/johnson-get-your-knee-off-our-necks.html

[...]

While great unhindered crowds of the Wokefascisti run riot, seven people worshipping together can be arrested.

The elite do their traditional on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand act, but they are very happy to have the churches locked.

[...]

... I think it is possible that we may be moving into a new situation, the thematic structure of which will be the vivid contrast between demonstrating and destroying mobs, and the ban on the public offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

I would like to imagine a situation in which the hierarchy told the government exactly when and how they are going to reinstate public worship, beginning in their own cathedrals, and said: "If that is against your laws, you know where you can find us to arrest us.

"We already have our own ancestral memories of being banned from worshipping by your predecessors; of being arrested; and even of worse. 

"Non possumus sine Dominico."