One of the most extraordinary aspects of lockdown during Covid was that it entailed the closure of churches. Catholics could not pray in churches even when they were empty because churches were put in the same category as beauty salons, pubs, cinemas and hairdressers as places where social distancing would be difficult. As a result, priests celebrated Mass in churches alone while their congregations, if they could, watched livestreamed Masses at home. Similar restrictions were imposed on Catholics in Ireland, across the US and elsewhere.
The consequences were catastrophic. As we report on the news pages, a survey commissioned by the Catholic Union of 1,000 British Catholics has revealed that people felt anguished at being unable to spend time with the Blessed Sacrament or at Mass. One respondent described being unable to be in church as “one of the most distressing experiences of my life”. More than 60 per cent of respondents reported that being unable to enter a church adversely affected their emotional and physical wellbeing.
As Baroness Hollins, president of the Catholic Union and a former president of the Royal Society of Psychiatrists, said, “The increase in the number of people feeling lonely and depressed as a direct consequence of the closures is particularly shocking.” She rightly says that the Covid inquiry chaired by Lady Hallett into the government’s handling of the pandemic should consider the decision to close the churches in making its recommendations for the handling of future crises.
What the closure of the churches suggested was that the needs of the faithful were of less importance than other things. Rather, churches should have been treated as no less important than food shops – where there was less social distancing than in church – or health centres. What could have been more helpful to a healthcare worker at the frontline of the crisis than to be able to unburden him or herself in prayer in a church? What would have been more consoling to the lonely and isolated than to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament? It was unfortunate, to say the least, that the hierarchy actually encouraged the initial closure of churches.
The sobering truth is that Mass attendance has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels even now in the UK or US – the habit of Mass-going, once lost, cannot easily be recovered, though the most active parishes have made up ground; as Stephen Bullivant has observed in this magazine, the extent of the return to worship depended in large part on the efforts made by parishes to maintain contact with their congregations during lockdown.
The lesson for the future is that governments should not close places of worship. It is not a risk to health in a pandemic – we have seen how social distancing was successfully managed by disciplined parishes – but rather an indispensable aid to mental and spiritual health. Churches are not a health risk. Rather, they can help us through crises like Covid when all else fails us. This must never happen again.
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