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Public worship should be allowed to resume as soon as Level 5 restrictions are lifted, the Catholic Primate of Ireland, Eamon Martin, has said.
Speaking on Good Friday, Archbishop Martin said church leaders hoped people of faith would have been allowed to gather in small numbers for Holy Week and Easter, as is happening in Northern Ireland.
The Government’s current plan for reopening, which would see in-person worship return when the State reaches Level 2 restrictions, is too restrictive, he said. He called for a “mature and sensible dialogue” between church leaders, the Government, and public health authorities.
He said the Church could understand Level 5 restrictions, which are currently in place.
“As soon as Level 5 is lifted, that very high level of restrictions, the churches should be able to gather safely,” he told RTÉ’s News at One Radio programme.
Masses take place in large, well-ventilated buildings, and parish Covid-19 teams are working to make them as safe as possible, he said.
Funeral attendances, meanwhile, have been given the go-ahead to increase from 10 to 25 mourners from April 26th.
The archbishop said “mature, careful conversations” have been held with the government and public health authorities north of the border, who “recognise that people’s spiritual, mental and emotional health helps them with their physical health”.
The Archbishop acknowledged that there could be a danger if people were to congregate outside churches following sermons but these are instances priests could “hardly be expected to discipline”.
“We have postponed those big celebrations such as First Communion and Confirmation for the time being,” he said, adding that priests have encouraged people to follow guidelines and think of the greater good.
As primate of Ireland his diocese straddles the Border with Northern Ireland, and he said it was “wonderful” to conduct the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday to a “small, socially distanced congregation”.
Still, his homily reached out via the webcam to more vulnerable people and people south of the Border who could not attend, he said.
“We are really hoping for the day when across the whole island people can gather to worship safely,” he said.
Same-sex couples
Asked about the language used in a recent Vatican document banning blessings for same-sex couples, Archbishop Martin said it was answering a “specific question” about protecting and promoting the Church’s teaching.
“I think the Church’s teaching on marriage is very well known and the congregation basically issued the response that, at this time, the Church is not able to bless the same-sex unions,” he said.
Such blessings would “imply they were akin to marriage between a man and a woman, which is open to the transmission of life and the procreation of children. The Church simply cannot bless these two as being the same”, he said, adding heterosexual couples looking to be remarried cannot do so in the Church.
He said priests on the ground need to “do our best to try to include rather than exclude people to let them realise that you are loved; you can be blessed,” he said.
The document, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said it was “not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (ie, outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”