As COVID-19 cases have risen in many countries since late September, European government officials have implemented strict measures to prevent the spread.
On Oct. 28, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a four-week national lockdown after 36,437 new cases and 523 coronavirus-related deaths were reported the previous day.
“The virus is circulating in France at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecast didn’t foresee,” Macron said in a national address. “The measures we’ve taken have turned out to be insufficient to counter a wave that’s affecting all [of] Europe.”
This second French lockdown, implemented a couple days after the president’s announcement, only allows civilians to leave their homes to purchase essential goods or services, to go to primary or secondary school, to receive medical care, or to exercise for up to one hour every day.
Communal worship has been banned in France until the end of the lockdown, preventing public Masses from being celebrated. Only six people are allowed to participate in weddings and 30 individuals for funerals. Additionally, people cannot go to places of worship for private prayer if they live more than 1 kilometer, or 0.62 miles, from that location.
The Bishops’ Conference of France issued a statement about the ban on communal worship on Nov. 2, saying it “violates the freedom of worship which is one of the fundamental freedoms in our country.”
“Catholics in France suffer from not being able to come together for this essential moment: the Sunday Mass,” said Bishop Matthieu Rougé of Nanterre, France. “Many do not understand that it is possible to shop in a supermarket filled with buyers and that it is forbidden, at the same time, to meet in our churches in strict compliance with health precaution rules.”
After the Council of State, the highest French administrative court, rejected an appeal by various Catholic groups to have public Masses restored on Saturday, Nov. 14, thousands of Catholics gathered outside churches and in public squares in Nantes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, and Versailles for communal prayer and to show their desire to return to public Masses. In Nantes, more than 300 people prayed and chanted hymns in front of a statute of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“It is very hard for us. It’s like we are being deprived of our food. We need our spiritual food,” said Jerome Duchesne, a Catholic lay person taking part in the prayerful gathering in Nantes. “When we are deprived of our Mass, it is like being deprived of our food.”
After weeks of rising cases, eventually reaching over 20,000 per day, in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Sunday, Nov. 1, that England would go into a month-long lockdown. Since public health is a “devolved” government issue, the other nations in the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, make their own restriction decisions. Northern Ireland and Wales had already started instituting new lockdowns by late October.
The English lockdown allows for people to leave their homes for education, work that cannot be completed from home, medical care, exercise, and purchasing essential items. The new rules only allow Catholic Churches to be open to the public for individual prayer with live-streamed, private Masses replacing in-person, public Masses.
“It is a source of deep anguish now that the government is requiring, once again, the cessation of public communal worship,” the president and vice-president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales wrote following the prime minister’s announcement. “Whilst we understand the many difficult decisions facing the government, we have not yet seen any evidence whatsoever that would make the banning of communal worship, with all its human costs, a productive part of combating the virus. We ask the government to produce this evidence that justifies the cessation of acts of public worship.”
Catholic lay people in England have struggled with the closure of churches for community worship.
“When we have had the opportunity to attend in person it feels surreal as the COVID control measures that are put in place gives the church a whole different feel,” one English Catholic woman and Eucharistic Minister said. “[Now] we are able to watch daily Mass and Sunday Masses via social media, which does help, but this is obviously not the same as attending in person.”
While lockdowns of varying degrees have also been instituted in Germany, Italy, and Poland, new public health rules have not prevented public Masses from being held.
Max Montana is a senior studying philosophy and theology. When not writing for The Torch, he enjoys reading more about the Catholic faith and philosophy, serving the unborn and mothers in need, and hanging out with friends. Max is honored to hail from the state with many gators and the bishop of the moon: Florida.
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