More than 1,000 people gathered at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco on Sunday, converging from Catholic parishes throughout the city and then marching to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption on Gough Street in a protest that demanded the immediate reopening of indoor services.Catholic authorities have been behind the curve in calling attention to the unequal treatment of churches in the COVID lockdowns, although the Stickman Pennsylvania federal court opinion makes the point that all the distinctions among categories for shutdown or opening are completely arbitrary and inconsistent. Cordileone has been the most vocal Catholic bishop to speak on this issue. He also wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post last week:Places of worship were closed in the city for almost six months after the mid-March shelter-in-place order. Even though the state has said San Francisco can reopen churches at 25% capacity, Mayor London Breed announced last week that one person would be allowed inside churches at a time for prayer.
“Does that make sense to you: one person indoors at a time in a church? ... Is there a rational basis? Nobody has given me a rational basis for that,” said Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore J. Cordileone before leading a Eucharistic procession to City Hall and uphill to the cathedral.
. . . “If we can’t be inside the church, it’s just not the same. There’s no sense of being in a sacred place and sharing a community. The house of worship is irreplaceable,” said Vincent Desbieys, who drove from Santa Clara to join the demonstration and has worshiped in the parking lot of Our Lady of Peace since mid-March. “We’ve been very patient and civilized. But now, it’s time to open.”
Among the group’s gripes is that liquor stores have remained open during the pandemic and retail is now allowed to operate at 50% capacity. Breed is allowing outdoor religious services for 50 people and has said that the city hopes to allow indoor worship services of 25 people by Oct. 1.
Twenty-five people is less than 1% of St. Mary’s capacity, and the assembly there Sunday filled every plaza, veranda and courtyard before stretching across Geary Street.
I never expected that the most basic religious freedom, the right to worship — protected so robustly in our Constitution’s First Amendment — would be unjustly repressed by an American government.Elsewhere, Cordileone has expressed frustraition to the point where he thinks a "throw the bums out" mentality is growing.But that is exactly what is happening in San Francisco. For months now, the city has limited worship services to just 12 people outdoors. Worship inside our own churches is banned. The city recently announced it will now allow 50 for outdoor worship, with a goal of permitting indoor services up to a maximum of 25 people by Oct. 1 — less than 1 percent of the capacity of San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Cathedral.
. . . And it is not just San Francisco. According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, six states with a combined population of 67 million Americans single out religious worship for unfavorable treatment compared to similar secular activities: California, New Jersey, Maine, Virginia, Connecticut and Nevada.
We Catholics are not indifferent to the very real dangers posed by covid-19. This is one of the reasons Catholic churches have developed rigorous protocols to protect public health in our facilities. We submitted our safety plans to the city in May along with other faith communities, and while indoor retailers had their plans approved and went into operation, we are still waiting to hear back.
he government has no authority telling us we can’t worship. They have no authority to tell us whether or not we’re essential. They have no authority to tell us what sorts of worship are essential. They have the authority to tell us what we need to do to keep people safe when they worship. But those restrictions can’t be so severe to effectively ban worship… The right to worship is not given by the First Amendment, it’s protected by the First Amendment… Current San Francisco law allows only one person inside a church at a time to pray… No one has given me the rationale. There is no rationale except discrimination. They’re discriminating against us. This is clearly targeting against us… I sense a sort of … “throw the bums out” sort of mentality.Meanwwhile, Speaker Pelosi first said she'd attended some type of indoor mass in San Francisco, but apparently now mindful of the security cam video of her visit to a hair salon, has changed her story:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office told CNA Friday evening that she “misspoke” when she described “recently” attending Mass in a San Francisco church, despite the city’s months-long ban on indoor Masses.I have the impression that Catholic clergy, from Abp Cordeleone down to our archdiocesan vocation director are anticipating that the most effective path to resolution will be the upcoming election. Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016, and the result in November is likely not to differ.“The Speaker misspoke. She has not been in San Francisco since September 5th due to ongoing talks around COVID relief and appropriations,” spokesman Drew Hammill from the Speaker’s office told CNA in a statement on Friday evening.
“She [Pelosi] has been participating regularly in church services virtually,” Hammill said.
Hammill did not explain what Pelosi referred to when she described Sept. 18 attending what appeared to be an indoor Mass and receiving Communion “recently” at a San Francisco church.
