Why are our Churches still closed?

Roughly two years after Covid first struck —and no one—least of all the bishops—are talking about many of our churches are still closed. Yet it has never been proven that anyone ever came down with Covid at church. In my own life, I will always remember March 17 as the day I got kicked out of my local church. Only the night before, I had called the parish priest on behalf of a friend who wanted to know whether there was a Mass scheduled for Tuesday, and if so, would it be held in the chapel or main church.

Fr. Ronnie told me it would depend on the number of people who would attend. On Tuesday afternoon, I discovered the chapel was ready for Mass. Candles were aflame and the dish of wafers was in place as usual. I was proceeding into the pew where I usually sit with my friend, when a woman asked, “What are you doing here?!” “Attending Mass” was my answer. “There is no Mass here today” was hers. When I told her what Fr. Ronnie had told me the night before, she informed me that only 15 minutes ago the local bishop had sent word that there would be no more weekday Masses at St. Pete’s. “You will have to leave!” My driver and my little dog were about a block away, waiting for me. I wanted to go to pray at a special Immaculate Conception grotto on the grounds of a cemetery of an abandoned church about 15 minute drive away.

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You can imagine my thrill finding that a center piece of dried flowers, I had placed in front of the statue a year before was still here in perfect condition, having survived Canada’s snow and rain. Among the gravestones, some of them dating back to the early 1800s, is a lifesize bronze statue of our Savior on the Crucifix. When I climbed up on the plinth to touch the statue's foot, a feeling of profound peace flooded my heart. I still visit the grotto when I can and mourn that three years later, many of our churches are still closed—mostly because no one’s talking about it. Our churches should be opened again as soon as possible. I don’t feel the same way if did about St. Pete’s and likely never will. It makes me so sad that people everywhere will never hear their Church Bells again, and I see a certain spite in that. Covid didn’t just take and destroy human lives, it killed off and is still killing many human souls. Why is Covid keeping our churches closed two years later? Why is no one talking about it? Call on our authorities to re-open our churches as soon as possible, so that we do not have to go through another Holy Week without them.

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Notre Dame Cathedral burns

The Bells of Banff

"Amazing Grace" performed by Heather Jean Jordan In these difficult times, small acts can make a big difference. Everyday at 1pm Heather Jean Jordan rings the bells of St. George In The Pines as a symbol of hope and community for the town of Banff.