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Cardinal Pell welcomes court’s dismissal of abuse conviction
Cardinal George Pell welcomed Australia’s highest court clearing him of child sex crimes Tuesday and said his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy abuse crisis.
Pope Francis’ former finance minister Pell had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and has spent 13 months in high-security prisons before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions.
“I have consistently maintained my innocence while suffering from a serious injustice,” Pell said in his first public statement since he was convicted in December 2018. He released the statement before he was driven from the gates of Barwon Prison and past waiting media two hours after the verdict.
AMID CORONAVIRUS, PANAMA ARCHBISHOP GIVES PALM SUNDAY BLESSING FROM HELICOPTER
Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne, Australia in February. Australia’s highest court on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, has dismissed the convictions of the most senior Catholic found guilty of child sex abuse. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File)
Pell said: “I hold no ill will toward my accuser,” a former choirboy whose testimony was at the core of the 78-year-old cleric’s prosecution.
The High Court found there was reasonable doubt surrounding the testimony of the witness, now the father of a young family aged in his 30s, that Pell had abused him and another 13-year-old choirboy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in the late 1990s.
“My trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how Church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of pedophilia in the Church,” Pell said.
“The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not,” he added.
A judge and lawyers had urged two juries in 2018 to try Pell on the evidence and not on his senior position in the church’s flawed responses to clergy abuse in Australia.
The first Victoria state trial ended in a jury deadlock and the second unanimously convicted him on all charges.
The Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, a clergy victims’ support group, said in a statement they were “dismayed and heartbroken” by the decision.
Pell had been serving a six-year sentence in Barwon Prison outside Melbourne on the convictions of sexually assaulting the two boys in December 1996 while he was archbishop of Australia’s second-largest city.
Pell was also convicted of indecently assaulting one of the boys by painfully squeezing his genitals after a Mass in early 1997.
Pell was regarded as the Vatican’s third-highest ranking official when he voluntarily returned to Melbourne in July 2017 determined to clear his name of dozens of decades-old child abuse allegations.
All the charges were dropped by prosecutors or dismissed by courts in preliminary hearings over the years except the cathedral allegations.
He did not testify at either trial or at the subsequent appeals.
POPE FRANCIS CELEBRATES PALM SUNDAY WITHOUT PUBLIC IN ST. PETER’S
But the juries saw his emphatic denials in a police interview that was video recorded in a Rome airport hotel conference room in October 2016.
The complainant first went to police in 2015 after the second alleged victim died of a heroin overdose at the age of 31. Neither can be identified under state law.
Lawyers for the father of the dead man, who also cannot be identified, said the verdict left him “in utter disbelief.”
Lawyers for the complainant said he was likely to make a statement on Wednesday.
Much of the two-day hearing at the High Court last month had focused on whether the jury should have had a reasonable doubt about Pell’s guilt and whether he could have time to molest the boys in five or six minutes immediately after a Mass.
The Victorian Court of Appeal found in a 2-1 majority in August that Pell had had enough time to abuse the boys and that the unanimous guilty verdicts were sound. But in the decision announced by High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel, the seven judges found that the appeals court was incorrect.
The two appeals court judges who had upheld the convictions had found the former choirboy a “compelling witness,” the High Court said in a statement.
But the two judges “analysis failed to engage with the question of whether there remained a reasonable possibility that the offending had not taken place, such that there ought to have been a reasonable doubt as to the applicant’s guilt,” the statement said.
Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd told the High Court last month that the surviving choirboy’s detailed knowledge of the layout of the priests’ sacristy supported his accusation that the boys were molested there.
RHODE ISLAND’S TOP CATHOLIC NIXES DRIVE-THRU PALM SUNDAY PALM DISTRIBUTION OVER CORONAVIRUS
Pell’s lawyers argued that Pell would have been standing on the cathedral steps chatting with churchgoers after Mass when his crimes were alleged to have occurred, was always with other clerics when dressed in his archbishop’s robes, could not have performed the sexual acts alleged while wearing the cumbersome garments and could not have abused the boys in the busy priests’ sacristy without being detected.
The High Court referred to the “unchallenged evidence” of witnesses in the trial to Pell’s practice of talking to the congregation on the cathedral stairs, church practice that required him to be accompanied in the cathedral while robed and the “continuous traffic in and out of the priests’ sacristy” as causes for reasonable doubt.
Pell’s lawyer Bret Walker told the High Court that all that the prosecution had to do at his trial and appeals court hearing was to prove that Pell being left alone while robed or not talking with congregants after Mass was “possible” to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
“That … is a grotesque version of the reversal of onus of proof, if all the Crown has to do is to prove the possibility of something,” Walker said.
Judd argued that the charges were proved beyond reasonable doubt.
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The High Court statement said: “The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s (Pell’s) guilt with respect to each of the offenses for which he was convicted.”
Pope Francis celebrates Palm Sunday without public in St. Peter’s
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is celebrating Palm Sunday Mass without the public, since the traditional ceremony in St. Peter’s Square was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Normally, tens of thousands of Romans, tourists and pilgrims, clutching olive tree branches or palm fronds would have flocked to an outdoor Mass led by the pontiff. Instead, Francis was leading the ceremony inside St. Peter’s Basilica, which seemed even more cavernous than usual because it was so empty.
POPE FRANCIS, IN DESOLATE ST. PETER’S SQUARE, PRAYS FOR END TO CORONAVIRUS
A man walks by Bernini’s colonnade in St. Peter’s Square during Pope Francis’ weekly general audience, streamed by the Vatican television due to restrictions to contain the Covid-19 virus, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. (Associated Press)
Besides his aides, a few invited prelates, nuns and laypeople were present, sitting solo in the first pews and staggered meters (yards) apart to reduce the risks of contagion.
Looking pensive, Francis blessed braided palms held by the others, then held one himself.
Palm Sunday solemnly opens Holy Week leading up to Easter, which on this year falls on April 12. The Vatican has announced Francis will preside over all the traditional ceremonies without the public in keeping with lockdown measures in Italy and at the Vatican to contain the spread of COVID-19.
A man stands in front of St. Peter’s Square and Basilica during Pope Francis’ weekly general audience, streamed by the Vatican television due to restrictions to contain the Covid-19 virus, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. (Associated Press)
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Among the usual events is the Good Friday Way of the Cross procession. This year, instead of the customary candlelit procession at Rome’s Colosseum, the Way of the Cross will be presided over by Francis in St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican has said there are seven cases of COVID-19 among the residents or employees of the tiny independent city state.
Rhode Island’s top Catholic nixes drive-thru Palm Sunday palm distribution over coronavirus
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Catholic churches in Rhode Island are canceling plans to offer “drive-thru” pickup of blessed palms for Palm Sunday because of the state’s coronavirus stay-at-home order, according to a report.
The churches came up with the idea after being forced to cancel traditional Palm Sunday, Easter and other Holy Week services due to the virus and the ban on large gatherings.
Historic St. Mary’s Church in Newport said it would be offering palm branches blessed with holy water — a Palm Sunday tradition in the Catholic Church — in the parking lot with minimal contact, the news outlet Patch Cranston reported Saturday.
OKLAHOMA MEGACHURCH HOSTS EPIC DRIVE-IN, GROCERY GIVEAWAY IN RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
(Google Maps)
But Rhode Island’s top Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin told pastors the state health department and Gov. Gina Raimondo had advised against it, according to Patch.
“Governor Raimondo and the Department of Health have directed that palm branches not be made available for individual pick-up at our churches this Sunday. I urge our parishes to comply,” Tobin said in a statement.
TEXAS PRIEST RECOVERS FROM COVID-19, LEADS SERVICE ONLINE
“More sad news. We cannot distribute Palm Branches this year due to the Governor’s stricter STAY-AT-HOME regulations,” the church’s pastor Rev. Kris von Maluski said on Facebook. “God bless, and hang in there!!!”
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“Once the packages of palms are opened they immediately begin to dry out. But there is always a plan B. We’ll make small crosses from the blessed palms and distribute them to households once we are all back to normal.”
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He added, “God bless, and hang in there!!!”
Patrick Novecosky: Pope John Paul II, who died exactly 15 years ago, taught us to have hope in troubled times
Fifteen years ago Thursday, the world bid farewell to a tenacious world leader whose life and words have much to offer us today. Even though Pope Saint John Paul II didn’t live through a global pandemic, he was renowned for his fighting spirit and his ability to find hope in troubled times. He found that hope in the cross of Jesus Christ.
As a young man, he survived the Nazi occupation of his homeland before serving the church in Poland as a priest and bishop during the communist occupation of Eastern Europe — until he eventually helped engineer its downfall.
Until he died on April 2, 2005, at age 84, the Polish pope guided the Catholic Church for more than 26 years. His life and his death spoke of his unfading hope in God’s providence and his mercy on all who turn their hearts heavenward.
What would John Paul say to today’s world, filled with so much uncertainty amid this global pandemic? There’s no way to know for sure, but when he spoke to global leaders at the United Nations in 1995, he told them to “be not afraid,” the mantra he repeated often throughout his pontificate.
“We must overcome our fear of the future,” the pope said. “But we will not be able to overcome it completely unless we do so together. The answer to that fear is neither coercion nor repression, nor the imposition of one social model on the entire world. The answer to the fear which darkens human existence at the end of the twentieth century is the common effort to build the civilization of love, founded on the universal values of peace, solidarity, justice, and liberty.”
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If there was ever a man who had a right to embrace pessimism, it was Karol Wojtyla. Born in Wadowice, Poland, in 1920, the man who would go on to become John Paul II lived a life of suffering.
Young Karol was almost 9 when his mother Emilia died. Three years later, his brother Edmund, a doctor, contracted scarlet fever during an outbreak and died at the age of 26. Before the future pope had turned 21, his father died, leaving him an orphan.
The pope’s suffering was deepened in 1981 when an assassin shot him in St. Peter’s Square. Although his mental acuity never waned, his physical health began to decline with each successive year after breaking his leg in 1994.
Instead of turning inward as a pessimist and allowing his circumstances dictate his response, John Paul turned to God in prayer. This was, in a sense, the nuclear reactor that powered his entire life and all that he accomplished as a priest, bishop, pope, philosopher, theologian, poet, and diplomat.
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“Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young,” he said at the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto. “Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”
As I document in my new book, John Paul saw his role as more than just the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. He firmly believed that God had positioned him to be pastor to the world. All told, the Polish pontiff made 104 foreign trips, touching down in 129 countries. He logged more than 775,000 miles — the equivalent of circling the globe more than 30 times.
John Paul II reached out to men and women of all faiths — and those without religious conviction. He called the new atheism “the spiritual tragedy of our times,” and he entered into serious dialogue with all Christians — from evangelicals to traditional Protestants, from Orthodox churches to fallen-away Catholics.
In fact, shortly before his election as pope, Cardinal Wojtyla gave permission for Billy Graham to preach at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Krakow. A few years later, during Billy Graham’s first meeting with John Paul II in 1981, the pope held the American evangelist’s hand and said: “We are brothers.” For the Holy Father, that was one of many victories in his efforts to bring Christians together.
As the world watched John Paul’s rapidly declining health during the early months of 2005, the pope’s suffering was on full display. When he appeared at the window of the papal apartments on Easter Sunday, he was barely able to speak above a whisper. We watched and our hearts were moved. Despite the Easter jubilation, the pope was still walking “the way of the cross.”
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When he died on April 2 — the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday — tributes poured in from around the globe. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said: “John Paul II was one of the greatest men of the last century. Perhaps the greatest.”
Billy Graham told talk show host Larry King that the pope dying was like losing a member of his own family.
“He believed in the cross,” Graham said. “That was his focus throughout his ministry, the cross, no matter if you were talking to him from a personal issue or an ethical problem, he felt that there was the answer to all of our problems, the cross and the resurrection.”
NYC pastor dies from coronavirus, becoming first US Catholic priest to succumb to diseases
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The beloved pastor of a New York City church has become the first Catholic priest in the United States to die from the coronavirus.
The Rev. Jorge Ortiz-Garay, 49, served as a pastor of St. Brigid’s Church in Brooklyn. He died Friday at a hospital, the diocese said.
BROOKLYN PRINCIPAL, 36, DIES OF CORONAVIRUS COMPLICATIONS, OFFICIALS SAY
Rev. Jorge Ortiz-Garay
(Diocese of Brooklyn)
The coronavirus has killed nearly 1,000 people in New York State, which has become the U.S. epicenter of the disease with a growing surge of cases.
“This is a sad day and a tremendous loss for the Diocese of Brooklyn,” said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the head of the diocese.
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St. Brigid Church in Brooklyn, NYC.
(Google Maps)
“Father Jorge was a great priest, beloved by the Mexican people and a tireless worker for all of the faithful in Brooklyn and Queens,” DiMarzio said. “It is unfortunate that he was overcome by the coronavirus because of underlying health issues.”
Ortiz-Garay was born in Mexico City and became a priest in the U.S. after working as a lawyer.
US Catholic bishops ease Lent obligations on eating meat amid coronavirus
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Some Catholic bishops in the United States are easing the obligations of faithful for the last remaining Fridays during Lent amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
During Lent – a period of about six weeks in which Christians all over the world practice self-denial and sacrifice as they repent their sins and pray in preparation for Easter – refrain from eating meat on Fridays, including on Good Friday.
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 28,000 people worldwide, Catholic bishops, in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Lousiana, and Pittsburgh are relieving their congregations of the obligation of abstaining from meat for the remaining Fridays in Lent – except on Good Friday.
Parishioner Maria Torres, of Des Moines, Iowa, prays the Rosary in an empty St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Friday, March 27, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. Daily masses continue to be available online in response to the new coronavirus outbreak but the church is open daily for private prayers.
(AP)
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They said it’s because the faithful are already deprived of some foods and other pleasures during the coronavirus pandemic. Good Friday is on April 3 and Easter is on Sunday, April 12.
“Given the difficulties of obtaining some types of food and the many other sacrifices which we are suddenly experiencing given the coronavirus, I have granted a dispensation from abstaining from meat on Fridays for rest of Len, except Good Friday, which is universal law,” New Jersey’s the Most Rev. James F. Checchio, Bishop of Metuchen, said on the diocese’s Twitter account Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Most Rev. Peter J. Uglietto in Boston, Mass., issued a similar message on Thursday.
He said in a statement on the archdiocese’s website that Catholics’ plans for Lent have been “greatly impacted” by the coronavirus health crisis and in light of that, Cardinal Sean O’Malley has allowed them to eat meat for the remaining Fridays as well.
“One of the effects of the current events is uncertainty regarding what food products are available on any given day. At this time, we are called to make the best of what we have at hand or is available for purchase,” Uglietto continued. “Many people are using what they have stored in their freezers and on their shelves. Others are depending upon pre-packaged meals or food delivered through support agencies, which are providing an important service for individuals and families in our communities, especially for children and our senior citizens.”
The Rev. César Vega sets up a tablet to livestream Mass to home-bound congregants Friday, March 27, 2020, at Holy Family Catholic Church in Yakima, Wash.
(Amanda Ray/Yakima Herald-Republic via AP)
He added: “The Cardinal encourages those who can partake of this traditional Lenten practice of abstention to do so and to offer it up for those who are suffering in any way from the pandemic we are experiencing.”
CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES CLOSING CHURCHES DUE TO CORONAVIRUS
In Louisiana, the Rev. Shelton J. Fabre of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes said Thursday that parishioners did not have to give up meat on Friday because coronavirus has “obtaining food, including meal alternatives from meat, the rising cost of fish and other forms of seafood, and even the challenge of being able to obtain groceries without endangering their health, make it clearly difficult for them to fulfill this practice.”
Fabre, however, encouraged the faithful to continue to give up meat on Fridays, if they could.
“I am being mindful of this and have our people’s best interest in my heart. Nevertheless, I am also aware that these Fridays of Lent will remain as days of penance and prayer,” he wrote on the diocese’s website. “Therefore, for those who are able to keep this practice, I encourage you to continue fulfilling this obligation for your spiritual benefits and the good of the Church.”
Rev. Micah Muhlen, OFM, prays prior to a modest and shortened service at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Basilica, attended by very few parishioners due to the coronavirus, Sunday, March 22, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The Most Rev. David Zubik, the bishop of Pittsburgh, dispensed from the obligation to abstained from meat on Lenten Fridays this week, saying: “As you are aware, many of the shelves and cases in our supermarkets are sparse if not empty. This is a time when pastoral necessity has informed my decision effective today.”
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More than 600,000 people have been infected with coronavirus worldwide, prompting governments to place about one-third of the world’s population under strict travel restrictions.
In the U.S, more than 104,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 – the highest infection tally in the world. At least 1,709 people have died in the U.S. and nearly 900 have recovered.
Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles closing churches due to coronavirus
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The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Tuesday announced that all churches will be closed to the public until at least April 19 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Our community of faith is fully committed to doing all we can to limit the spread of this global public health threat,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said, according to The Los Angeles Daily News. “We are taking these extraordinary steps to ensure the safety and well-being of the faithful and the public, as well as all who continue to serve in our parishes and ministries.”
Chapels, centers, missions and church offices will also be closed to the public and pastors will only be allowed a limited number of staff members to continue their work at the office.
Maryland priest opens drive-thru confessional during coronavirus outbreak
St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles will be closed until at least April 19 along with every other church in the diocese amid the coronavirus outbreak.
(Google Maps)
The archdiocese earlier this month lifted parishioners’ obligation to attend Sunday mass through the end of March and encouraged those who couldn’t attend “to stay home and read the gospels, pray with your families and to join yourself to the sacrifice of the Mass by making an act of spiritual communion.”
Thousands attended virtual masses last Sunday via TV broadcasts and internet livestreams, the Daily News reported.
Many churches in the area either livecast mass or post it on their website or social media.
Priests may use a cotton swab or other instrument instead of their hand to anoint the sick and must cancel all Lenten penance services and regularly scheduled confession times.
Parishes are also encouraged to ring the bells at noon and 6 p.m. “as a sign of solidarity and hope.”
“The current public health pandemic continues to bring about fears and anxiety in the hearts and minds of many people. However, it has also unified us as a people seeking the good for the other,” the archdiocese said.
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“Now more than ever, we must continue to anchor our hearts and minds in the abiding truth of God’s love for us, His sons and daughters. We remain strong in faith knowing that God will be with us always and to ensure the people of God that we, as a Church, still are very much present, even if we have adapted the way our parishes operate in these times.”
Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles closing churches due to coronavirus
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The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Tuesday announced that all churches will be closed to the public until at least April 19 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Our community of faith is fully committed to doing all we can to limit the spread of this global public health threat,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said, according to The Los Angeles Daily News. “We are taking these extraordinary steps to ensure the safety and well-being of the faithful and the public, as well as all who continue to serve in our parishes and ministries.”
Chapels, centers, missions and church offices will also be closed to the public and pastors will only be allowed a limited number of staff members to continue their work at the office.
Maryland priest opens drive-thru confessional during coronavirus outbreak
St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles will be closed until at least April 19 along with every other church in the diocese amid the coronavirus outbreak.
(Google Maps)
The archdiocese earlier this month lifted parishioners’ obligation to attend Sunday mass through the end of March and encouraged those who couldn’t attend “to stay home and read the gospels, pray with your families and to join yourself to the sacrifice of the Mass by making an act of spiritual communion.”
Thousands attended virtual masses last Sunday via TV broadcasts and internet livestreams, the Daily News reported.
Many churches in the area either livecast mass or post it on their website or social media.
Priests may use a cotton swab or other instrument instead of their hand to anoint the sick and must cancel all Lenten penance services and regularly scheduled confession times.
Parishes are also encouraged to ring the bells at noon and 6 p.m. “as a sign of solidarity and hope.”
“The current public health pandemic continues to bring about fears and anxiety in the hearts and minds of many people. However, it has also unified us as a people seeking the good for the other,” the archdiocese said.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
“Now more than ever, we must continue to anchor our hearts and minds in the abiding truth of God’s love for us, His sons and daughters. We remain strong in faith knowing that God will be with us always and to ensure the people of God that we, as a Church, still are very much present, even if we have adapted the way our parishes operate in these times.”
Across faiths, religious rules bent as virus alters worship
NEW YORK — Across the United States, religious leaders are taking unprecedented steps to shield their congregations from the coronavirus – canceling services, banning large funerals and weddings, and waiving age-old requirements of their faiths.
For Roman Catholics, attendance at Mass is considered a sacred obligation. But bishops in numerous dioceses announced that they are canceling all public worship services for at least two weeks, in some cases indefinitely. Many other bishops – including all those in Pennsylvania and Ohio — said they were temporarily dispensing with the requirement that parishioners attend Mass.
Comparably strong measures were taken by leaders of many other faiths, ranging from Orthodox Jewish rabbis in New Jersey to Episcopal and United Methodist bishops in North Carolina. From its headquarters in Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it is halting all worship services and church activities for its 16 million members worldwide.
Conference goers listen during The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ twice-annual church conference in Salt Lake City, Oct. 5, 2019. (Associated Press)
POPE URGES PRIESTS TO VISIT THOSE SUFFERING FROM CORONAVIRUS
Among the Catholic leaders issuing waivers on Mass attendance were Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, who also asked for changes in the locally popular tradition of parish fish fries during Lent. Zubik urged parishes to offer the fish only on a take-out basis, with no eat-in option.
In the nation’s capital, Archbishop of Washington Wilton Gregory issuing a sweeping order indefinitely canceling public Masses and closing Catholic schools through March 27. He said weddings and funerals may proceed, but should be limited to immediate family.
Like many bishops, he invited parishioners to join in Masses and prayers that will be livestreamed on social media.
The bishop of Salt Lake City, Oscar Solis, issued a similar broad order.
“A general dispensation is given from the Sunday and Holy Day obligation,” he announced. ”Catholics are asked to pray at home, with the rosary, biblical prayer, personal devotions and/or to devoutly watch televised Masses.”
”Catholics are asked to pray at home, with the rosary, biblical prayer, personal devotions and/or to devoutly watch televised Masses.”
— Bishop Oscar Solis, Salt Lake City
The Archdiocese of San Antonio announced numerous cancellations and postponements, including the annual Catholic Night at the Spurs, now that the city’s lone major league sports team has been sidelined by the suspension of the NBA season.
In northern New Jersey, the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, which represents more than two dozen Orthodox synagogues, ordered an indefinite shutdown of virtually every religious activity. It said rabbis and congregation members should worship separately, in their own homes, and organize no community gatherings of any sort. The council advised adults to work from home, and said they should not let their children engage in play dates. Attendance at funerals should be restricted to close family members, the council said, and kosher restaurants under its control should engage only in take-out or delivery service, rather than allowing on-premises dining.
“It is with a very heavy heart that we are suspending so many of the most crucial routines of our daily lives and life cycle moments,” the council said.
Chabad.org launched a service for people mourning loved ones who are now unable to recite the mourner’s prayer known as “Kaddish” communally.
The virus also was affecting worship at mosques in New York City’s borough of the Bronx.
Alhaji Cheikh Tejan Ndao, the officiating imam of Darou Salam Islamic Community, said the mosque was now being thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before and after prayer services. He added that a cleaning service that comes regularly has increased its visits. Other mosques have altered their practices as well, including canceling meals prepared by members
In North Carolina, bishops of the United Methodist Church and Episcopal Church asked their affiliated churches to cancel public worship services and other gatherings for the next two weeks.
The senior pastor at the nation’s largest United Methodist Church, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, said worship services would be offered only online this weekend, with no in-person access. His 22,000-member Church of the Resurrection has five locations in the Kansas City area.
The coronavirus outbreak will also impact a long-running ideological confrontation within the UMC over the issues of same-sex marriage and ordination of openly gay and lesbian clergy. On Friday, leaders of the UMC’s Council of Bishops asked for the indefinite postponement of the denomination’s general conference scheduled for May 5-15 in Minneapolis at which conservative delegates planned to propose breaking away from the UMC to form a new denomination that would continue to disapprove of the LGBT-inclusive policies.
Many of the delegates to the general conference are based overseas, and the UMC bishops expressed concern that some might not be able to travel to Minneapolis.
A senior leader of another major Protestant denomination, New York-based Bishop Paul Egensteiner of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, asked all congregations in his metropolitan New York region to postpone or cancel in-person services through March 31. He said the regional office would close, and all staffers would work remotely.
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, grants extensive autonomy to its affiliated churches, leaving decisions on canceling public services up to local pastors.
However, LifeWay Christian Resources, the SBC’s publishing arm, is offering parents a digital “LifeWay Kids At Home” curriculum to fill a void if children were missing out on Sunday School.
One prominent Baptist pastor, Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas, has been vocal in declaring that public services will continue at his megachurch, even if the congregation needs to be divided to comply with a local ban on gatherings of more than 500 people.
Jeffress noted in an interview with KDFW-TV that the NBA was canceling games.
”What we do is more important that what the NBA is doing. That is entertainment. That’s optional,” Jeffress said. “Worship is essential.”
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in addition to halting worship services, plans to hold its twice-yearly conference in April without attendees and only broadcast speeches on TV and the internet. It is the first time in more than 60 years they’ve taken the unusual step of barring the public from the signature conference, where leaders provide spiritual guidance and sometimes announce new programs.
Many members of the religion, widely known as the Mormon church, are expected to spend the time they would normally be at church on Sunday doing home worship using an online curriculum rolled out less than two years ago by church President Russell M. Nelson as part of a push to emphasize more home-based worship.
AP Religion Editor Gary Fields, and AP reporters Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City, Aroun R. Deen in New York and Travis Loller in Nashville contributed. Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
