All persons entering Canada, unless exempted – no matter their country of origin or mode of entry – must isolate themselves for 14 days if they have symptoms of or confirmed COVID-19 or quarantine themselves for 14 days if they do not have symptoms of COVID-19.My correspondent says,
Bp Lopes's visit had been publicised since at least early July, despite the ongoing closure of the Canada/US border to non-Canadian citizens, with a few specific exceptions for family members and health care workers, and the quarantine requirement.Just as of this past Sunday, however, the St Thomas More mass schedule was revised to read, in part;Houston conceded a month ago that no Canadian clergy would be attending next month’s ordinariate Clergy Conference there, because of the necessity of fourteen days’ quarantine upon their return.
As my regular correspondent puts it, "Hope the ticket was refundable". Well, as far as I can see, bishops travel full-fare, first class. No standby for Bp Lopes!
- Our next Choral Mass will be on October 18th. Bishop Lopes was scheduled to offer Holy Mass for us on this day, however border and quarantine restrictions have forced the cancellation of his parish visitation.
- Those scheduled to be received and confirmed by Bishop Lopes will instead be received and confirmed by Fr. Hodgins on All Saints Day, November 1.
What makes this oversight relatively less remarkable is the tiny size and general unimportance of the North American ordinariate. As I understand this, the bishop's secretary handles his schedule and at least orders up his travel. For an issue like this to go unnoticed for at least two months, with some people in Houston fully aware of Canadian travel restrictions due to the clergy conference, is still significant in itself and a reflection on the competence of personnel in the chancery.
The picture that's beginning to form in my mind is that the bishop's secretary, J Henry, has, as we've already seen, announced that he's running the show. But from what we've begun to see, he does things like lift the dispensation for mass attendance without recognizing that in many areas, Catholics still have civil obstacles to attending mass. And now we also see that, nominally in charge of the bishop's schedule, he's been forced to revise it because he was unaware of basic COVID restrictions.
Apparently the bishop continues to be indisposed, and he's left key functions of his office in J Henry's not-so-capable hands.
As a regular viewer of the late lamented Live PD, I can only think that if Bp Lopes were operating a motor vehicle, he'd be swerving outside his lane, running stop signs, and otherwise driving erratically. A police officer would have no chokce but to pull him over and give him a sobriety check for his own protection and that of the public.
UPDATE: My regular correspondent asks how Bp Lopes's lifting of the dispensaion applies to the ordinariate groups who have ordinariate priests, like Fr Vidal, Fr Wills, or Fr Lewis, who have both diocesan and ordinariate groups in the same building, or in fact who attend at the same mass times.
