9. Please, good bishops, fight for us! The sacraments are too important to simply cancel their availability.
Sadly, with the way we handled the first shutdown, many people got the message, “Your physical health is more important than your spiritual health.” Meanwhile they were permitted to go to more “essential” places like supermarkets, liquor stores, bike repair shops and the like. Many also took part in large protests and other sorts of gatherings.
Yes, people got the message that the Church, the sacraments and the Sacred Liturgy just aren’t all that critical. We had few if any answers for them and referred them to the folks in the white lab coats while waiting for government officials to tell us when, with what numbers and even how we could say Mass and distribute Holy Communion. We largely feared to teach on the meaning of suffering and death which the Scriptures so powerfully set forth, or to summon our faithful to eschew excessive fear.
