“A dismissive one-liner is not enough”.
So says the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, who has taken aim at the government over the decision not to allow masses to be held in-person.
Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan has issued a statement expressing huge frustration with the restrictions being imposed on religious services.
In it, he says he believes that they in the Church “have taken these restrictions far too easily” and that they “haven’t paid sufficient attention to the huge cost of these… for ordinary people”.
The government’s regulations for levels 3 to 5 simply state that services will be held online – a sentence that Bishop Cullinan says dismisses “the real need that thousands of faithful around the country have for the Eucharist.”
He says there has been no reasoning given for this and that a “dismissive one-liner is not enough” as Ireland is now the only country in Europe where people can’t attend Mass.
The bishop goes on to state that the government, while it has a difficult job to do, must hear the message loud and clear, that “lockdown is crushing many people, including people of faith.”
