Has Easter Mass ever been canceled?

[Tis_Bearself]

Perhaps during the allied bombing of Europe in WWII.

I would think this also happened locally during many other wars in Europe as well.

I also think that in many places the faithful were not “dispensed of their obligation” because it was understood by the bishops and priests that the faithful simply couldn’t gather for Mass because there was no priest, or there was a government disruption, so they were not obligated to go if Mass was impossible.

 

[po18guy]

Somewhat off-topic, but not completely: In the 1700s, Christianity was banned in heavily Confucian Korea. Many martyrs were made. Foreign priests were barred from entering Korea. Christianity had been established in the 1500s, but official persecution either drove them away or martyred them.

During the yearly payment of taxes to Beijing in the 1700s, some Jesuit books translated into Korean were smuggled into the nation and a community was born. Yet, there was neither priest nor sacrament.

12 years later, when a Chinese priest sneaked into the country, he found 4,000 Catholics - who had never seen a priest! A few years later, there were 10,000 Catholics. In the 1800s, the first native Korean Priest, Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, and many others, were martyred - the blood of the martyrs being the seed of Christians. The rest, as they say…

We can learn a lot from Korea - both as to perseverance in Christian faith, hope and charity as well as dealing with the virus.

 

[JoyToTheWhirled]

Thanks so much for that talk. Really very encouraging.

 

[commenter]

COVID-19 lockdown not a threat to religious liberty, archbishop says

The long-time point man on religious liberty for the U.S. bishops says closing churches due to COVID-19 is not a violation of religious liberty.

cruxnow.com

Archbishop Lori has been the point man for religious liberty for the Church in the US.
I’ve read articles trashing the bishops for their decision. None were written by people with expertise in epidemiology. Many were from organizations that are skeptical of the bishops on everything, and skeptical of nobody else.

Trashing the bishops is a way of bringing in donations.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The publications criticizing the bishops would find something to criticize regardless of what the bishops did. As you note, it’s a way of continuing to bring in money from all those Catholics who think they know better than the Pope, bishop etc.

As for “closing churches being a violation of religious liberty”, I have yet to see a government order closing churches, or at least closing churches that haven’t created a major public health threat by continuing to publicly host large gatherings. The order for Pennsylvania specifically exempts “religious organizations” and most of our Catholic churches are still open though there’s no public Mass and gatherings are discouraged. The Catholic churches in NYC were closed by the Archdiocese, not the government.

 

[phil19034]

As for “closing churches being a violation of religious liberty”, I have yet to see a government order closing churches, or at least closing churches that haven’t created a major public health threat by continuing to publicly host large gatherings. The order for Pennsylvania specifically exempts “religious organizations” and most of our Catholic churches are still open though there’s no public Mass and gatherings are discouraged. The Catholic churches in NYC were closed by the Archdiocese, not the government.

FYI - I think Virginia’s order (or at least the comments from their govneror) MIGHT be taking things too far.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I don’t know what the governor of Virginia said, but I read EO 53 and EO 55 from Virginia, and while unlike Pennsylvania and Ohio, it doesn’t explicitly provide for religious organizations being exempt ¶ or essential (OH), I didn’t see anything telling churches to close. It did say you can’t have a gathering of more than 10 people. I also looked at the page of the Cathedral in Arlington, VA and it’s open for prayer and still having confessions, with social distancing. Same for the Cathedral in Richmond.

If the Virginia governor said anything, he’s likely targeting those Evangelicals who think that they can gather in large numbers and the Lord will protect them. Virginia has a ton of Evangelicals.

With the open Catholic churches here in PA, I haven’t seen any sorts of gathering issues. The most I’ve seen in a very large church was about a dozen at Adoration. Last night there was Adoration for an hour at the church up the street and I counted how many people were there, it was about 8 people in the Adoration chapel (all spaced at least 6 feet apart) and 2 sisters in the main church (which is large). Not a problem.

 

[commenter]

There have always been incidents of imprudence. But never before has imprudence been enshrined as a virtue.

The Church has always acknowledged there will be extreme circumstances in which I have a duty to (reluctantly) disobey my mother. Or the government authorities.

Would you really admire someone who looks forward to this, as an opportunity? For every real St Thomas More, or real St Catharine of Sienna, there are lots of wannabes out there.