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San Francisco archbishop: SCOTUS call to reopen indoor worship 'very encouraging'

2021-02-07 | 🔗
Salvatore Joseph Cordileone comments on the Supreme Court ruling California cannot ban indoor worship during pandemic.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Remind me of a ring pop, you guys remember: the ring pops will theyre still here, Jedediah in a big win for religious liberty, a Supreme Court ruling yesterday that California cannot completely ban indoor worship amid Covid 19, but it can cap indoor services at twenty five percent. Will here to react is the archbishop of San Francisco good morning, archbishop thanks for being with us. First, your reaction. You can have services up to twenty five percent. Thanks to the Supreme Court of the United States, your reaction naturally im very pleased and encouraged by this decision of the Supreme Court. I said from the very beginning of these lockdowns. We accept the authority of the government to tell us what we have to do to keep our people safe when we worship, but the government has no authority to tell the church it cannot worship or issue restrictions so severe to practically ban public worship. We voluntarily suspended worship services early on in the lockdown to cooperate with government officials. When things were opening up
restaurants, opening indoor retail stores, we were banned from worship, we began trying to dialogue and talk to work with government officials, but we werent get anything where t was very frustrating and very worrisome, because the government has no authority over the church. In this regard, the decision of the Supreme Court then is very encouraging and reassuring to us. Will part of that decision. Mr Archbishop, here is a quote from justice. John Roberts says the states present determination. Maximum number of adherents worship in the most calf news cathedrals is zero, reflects not expertise or discretion, but not interests. At stake sounds like smart talk from common sense. Empty cathedrals could allow for proper social distancing. You still cant sing. Am I right, Mr Archbishop? No congregational singing a Cantor can, for example, singing in a separate sercs,
so that is still a problem. That is is still a concern for us. I think there are ways we can sing safely, but that will see what the court decides. The case is still pending the case. Jedediah Archbishop, when you think of Aftra, is diddal service. You think of some singing. Some interaction: how do you manage that in terms of transforming the service, and how do you also manage that cap at twenty five percent? Do people sign up for services ahead of time? You know, I think the church would probably not want to have to turn people away. How does that all work, some parishes to have people sign up online? Our churches have pews roped off to people stay six feet apart around places marked on the pews, then we have ushers who welcome people and seat them, so we do have ways of monitoring it. As I said, many parishes do have a reservation system to make sure nobody has to be turned away.
Will a bishop congratulations getting twenty five percent of your congregation back into worship? We wish you luck on the ability to sing and chant and get back.
Transcript generated on 2021-03-09.