You can have an abortion but you can't go to church

Published in today's National Post

Re: Houses of worship have a role to play in fighting COVID, Jamil Jivani, Dec. 22

Jamil Jivani says “If governments want to better engage front-line workers and families, they ought to partner with churches to help with communications and messaging concerning the pandemic, as well as the planning and execution of a vaccination strategy.”

I can’t imagine anything worse than my church becoming a mouthpiece for government policy on anything, and especially not on COVID. I can just imagine the government trying to convince our pastors to convince parishioners that they really do need to close the churches (wink wink). Last time our churches obediently acquiesced to the government and closed down. Now for the second time (in Ottawa) where COVID numbers are very low, we are shut down again. And just like before, we can still bump into people at Walmart and Costco, [and have an abortion -- notice that this clause was omitted from the NP publication of my letter] but not go to church. Safety protocols in churches are far more stringent than these stores. So why can’t we go to Mass?

Churches are essential for people of faith. Worship of God and receiving the Sacraments is as important to us as food is for the body.

Patricia Maloney, Ottawa