"[I]t will be the responsibility of those who are capable and not prohibited by other circumstances to attend Sunday Mass,” states Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki in a blog post. “Those who deliberately fail to attend Sunday Mass commit a grave sin.”Wisconsin has been in a unique situation since its Republican-dominated supreme court ruled the governor's extension of lockdown orders unconstitutional on May 13. Subsequently., most local jurisdictions determined that they had no authority to enforce health orders independently. And on September 10, the same court ruled that Madison-Dane County could not prevent private schools from holding in-person classes.
Conseqquently, since May of this year, Wisconsin has had no restrictions on in-person mass attendance. That the archdiocese was slow to act, wating four months to lift the dispensation, is a matter to question. On the other hand, Wisconsin is demographically and economically very similar to surrounding states Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois, where lockdowns have continued, but we must assume COVID statistics have not been distinguishable among them.
Eventually, someone is going to have to ask why mass attendance, or indeed attendance at any other religious gathering, has not led to particular COVID outbreaks.
Up to now, I've reported that the Diocese of Sioux Falls, SD lifted the mass dispensation on August 10. However, corporate media reported that this was the "first" in the US to do so -- except I've discovered that the Diocese of Fairbanks, AK lifted the dispensation in July. I'll be grateful if visitors report similar developments, and I'll publish them here.
It's likely that the Archdiocesre of Milwaukee moved in response to a statement from Cardinal Sarah and the Congregation for Divine Worship that it is "necessary and urgent" to return to in-person mass.
Sarah argues that although the Catholic Church should cooperate with civil authorities and adopt protocols to protect the safety of the faithful, “liturgical norms are not matters on which civil authorities can legislate, but only the competent ecclesiastical authorities.”This, of course, is completely consistent with the forceful statements of California Evangelical pastors like John MacArthur, and my impression all along has been that in forbidding singing in chuch or exchanging the Peace, civil authorities are enforcing liturgical norms.
The civic atmosphere is in fact gradually changing. In San Francisco, Speaker Pelosi's well-publicized visit to a hair salon, a type of business which remained closed to the plebs, prompted widespread relaxation of this prohibition throughout the state. At the same time, news that city employees had gyms available to them, when those for the plebs were closed, prompted reopenings of gyms as well.
Restrictions on religious gatherings in San Francisco had been among the most stringent anywhere.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed had announced this week that starting Sept. 14, houses of worship may have 50 people at religious services outdoors. In addition, indoor private prayer is allowed, but only one person at a time is allowed inside.Howevr,Previously, the limit for outdoor services had been 12 people, with all indoor services prohibited.
The Archbishop of San Francisco has called Catholics to participate in Eucharistic processions across the city Sept. 20, which will join together and walk past city hall before public Masses are said outside the city's cathedral - in part to protest the city’s revised limits on public worship.I hope that Catholic authorities will begin more consistent reproaches to civil authorities, citing in particular the wildly divergent regulations among states, counties, and muncipalities, with, after so many months, no demonstrable public health benefit of the stricter vis-a-vis non-existent regulations. But as I've said, this will be a lengthy process, and civil authorities continue to insist that lockdown-related restrictions must continue indefinitely.Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a memo to priests Sept. 13 that separate processions would begin at St. Anthony, St. Patrick, and Star of the Sea parishes, and would converge at United Nations Plaza near San Francisco City Hall.
A glimmer of hope comes in a September 14 federal court ruling:
[Judge] Stickman’s judgment stipulates that “the congregate gathering limits imposed by defendants’ mitigation orders violate the right of assembly enshrined in the First Amendment,” the “stay-at-home and business closure components of defendants’ orders violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” and “the business closure components of Defendants’ orders violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
