Faith leaders in Ireland are furious upon learning that Health Minister Stephan Donnelly recently signed a regulation banning in-person church worship. Non-compliance to the order would be treated as a criminal offense.
The new regulation states that religious services must be conducted virtually including public mass and other religious activities, reports Premier Christian News.
At least four Catholic archbishops decided to take action against the mandate. Eamon Martin, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of all-Ireland, Dermot Farrell of Dublin, Michael Neary of Tuam and Kieran O'Reilly of Cashel and Emly told The Times that they will take legal action.
"We shall be seeking legal counsel to advise on several questions concerning the extent of the statutory instrument," the archbishops said.
The "draconian rule," according to Archbishop Eamon Martin, is "a potential infringement of religious freedom and constitutional rights." He is aggrieved that the government seems to be negligent of people's mental health and spiritual well-being by preventing them to physically congregate.
"Together with other churches and faith communities, we have been cooperating fully with public health messages for more than a year now," he said. "At the same time, we have consistently impressed on [the] government that people of faith value highly their spiritual well-being and consider the public practice of their faith as essential - something which has not been sufficiently recognized in statute."
The archbishop continued that the "statutory instrument" was highly disappointing because it was introduced without notice or prior consultation with the clergy. He added that two days before the regulation was signed on April 16, the Taoiseach [Irish prime minister] has assured church leaders that he understood the importance of faith and worship to the people of Ireland.
"We consider this to be a breach of trust," said Martin.
In defense of the move, the health minister told RTé Radio 1 that the government was merely concerned with indoor gatherings as they present a high-risk of COVID-19 spread and potential infection. He added that he would be happy to sit down with the archbishops.
Dublin-based pastor of All Nations Church John Ahern told Premier that he will still hold an outdoor service on Sunday. As a pastor, he said that he cannot, in good conscience, continue to bow to the ongoing lockdown seeing the damage it has done on people's lives.
"If gathering to worship is a criminal act, all I can say is, I hope the government have plenty of prison space, because there's going to be a lot of ministers who will be willing to go to prison over this. And we've done everything we can, over this last season to engage respectfully with the Irish government." he said.
Like the Archbishops, Ahern agrees that the recent regulation was a cynical move on the part of the Irish government. Whether the measure was deliberate or not, the Dublin pastor explained that the officials have criminalized Christianity with the ban on organizing religious services in public.
Premier noted that the penalty for breaches of the new law is a fine of undetermined amount or jail time for up to six months.
The Irish government, on the other hand, will convene to review the regulation on May 4.
