Springfield/Greene County, MO Stay At Home Extended, St George Group Affected

My regular correspondent sent me this screen shot of a May 6 Facebook post by Fr Seraiah of the St George, Republic, MO ordinariate group regarding an extension of the Greene County stay-at-home order (click on the image for a larger copy):

In it, he says the mayor of Springfield wanted to extend the stay-at-home order in the area for "a few more weeks", although the statewide stay-at-home order expired on May 4. Although I've found references to Greene County extending an order to May 3 on the web, I haven't seen references to an extension beyond that, which however according to the Facebook post has taken place. I don't know, as a result, what the mayor means by "a few more weeks".

On one hand, Fr Seraiah is providing what is effectively the only possible pastoral response, to urge an attitude of prayerful waiting on the part of his parishioners at a difficult time. It's not that different from what our own diocesan clergy are telling us, and in Los Angeles, it will likely be further months before we can celebrate public mass. Abp Gómez has offered the view that this provides Catholics with an opportunity to understand the experience of Catholics elsewhere in the world who are prohibited from receiving the sacraments by their governments, which is perhaps an insight into his own views on the lockdown.

The pattern of COVID cases and deaths in the US continues to be concentrations in urban areas, and these primarily in New York and New Jersey, with other states, especially in rural areas, minimally affected. Missouri as we see by the expiration of the statewide order on Monday, is among those states opening earlier. Greene County, which contains Springfield and part of Republic, had a 2019 population of 293,086 as of today has 99 total COVID cases, 14 active cases, and 8 deaths. It is located in the primarily rural Ozarks.

I think this case illustrates the current COVID dilemma. Fr Seraiah, whom I would place among the non-"Episcopalian" ordinariate priests with "prey instinct", appears to understand the wish of his group, ordinary members of the non-elite public, to reopen and get on with life, while the local elites appear to have an agenda centered on maintaining a lockdown as long as possible, notwithstanding reopening would be the appropriate policy for their state and indeed their rural area.

This essay outlines the dilemma with some clarity.

Everywhere in the world, all at once, strong lockdown polices began, and containment became the official goal. But elites did not insist on any particular standard containment policy. . . . [E]lites seemed satisfied to let the politicians and experts in each jurisdiction craft their own policy packages, as long as they seemed “strong”, involving much public sacrifice. And they allowed official public messages suggesting that relatively short durations would be sufficient.

A few months later, those duration periods are expiring. And in the different jurisdictions, the diverse policies now sit next to quite diverse outcomes. In some places, infections are low or declining, while in others they are flat or increasing. The public is feeling the accumulated pain, and itching to break out.

. . . Elites are now loudly and consistently saying that this is not time to open; we must stay closed and try harder to contain.

This issue, as I've been saying for a while, won't be consistently resolved via the courts. It will likely need a long-term effort via the political process. However, the free exercise of religion will be a major issue in the effort. Fr Seraiah is providing the only possible effective leadership in the situation. I continue to wish Bp Lopes a recovery from his indisposition.