(ETH) – Faith leaders are furious following the outlawing of public Mass and other religious services in Ireland. The report indicated that Health Minister Stephan Donnelly recently signed a regulation last week making in-person services temporarily a criminal offense and will mandate religious services to virtual services only.
At least four Catholic archbishops are not taking the new mandate sitting down. Catholic archbishops, Eamon Martin, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland, Dermot Farrell of Dublin, Michael Neary of Tuam and Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel and Emly reportedly told The Times that they would be taking legal advice following the recent move which they have all described as “a breach of trust” and “a potential infringement of religious freedom and constitutional rights.”
They have also pointed out that this ban on services with congregations, other than funerals and weddings, was never mentioned during a meeting last Thursday between the taoiseach and bishops, including Martin. John Ahern, who is an All Nations Church pastor, based in Dublin told Premier that he would be going ahead and holding an outdoor service this Sunday. “This ongoing lockdown is indefensible.
The government passed a law that criminalizes religious gatherings so to either organize or to attend a religious service has now become a criminal offense in the Republic of Ireland, and for myself, as a pastor, the situation’s become untenable. I cannot in good conscience continue in this situation, knowing and seeing the damage that’s been done in people’s lives.
I’ve made a decision that I’m going back to pastoring my people and so this Sunday, I’ve decided I’m going to meet in Phoenix Park, there’s a beautiful 50-foot cross there and I suppose we’ll see what happens. “If gathering to worship is a criminal act all I can say is, I hope the government has plenty of prison space because there’s going to be a lot of ministers who will be willing to go to prison over this.
And we’ve done everything we can, over this last season to engage respectfully with the Irish government.” “I think it was a very cynical move by the government after a year. We have done everything over this last year to ensure we have complied and to engage respectfully and responsibly with the government over this season.
However, to me, it was a very cynical move, and one that, you know, betrays a great hostility towards Christianity because whether or not they have realized that they have criminalized Christianity, and it may be inadvertently, it may not be deliberately, I’m not trying to infer any malicious motive.
But as a pastor, you know, they have criminalized the organizing and attending of a religious service. And ultimately that is my calling as a pastor, my calling is to organize religious services, so that I may preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so that I may see people come to Christ and minister to them.”
