The lock-down, mask-up tyranny continues to be foisted upon Catholics who are trying to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion. Before I continue, let me clarify a point. The tyranny of which I speak is being inflicted by conniving bishops and their crony pastors. Quite a few governmental officials have lifted restrictions on the churches, but they continue to be imposed by these same faithless bishops who are showing themselves to be lackeys of the atheistic new world order.
I wrote last week on this matter, pointing out that in Texas, the restrictions on church attendance and mask-wearing were lifted by Governor Abbott. I also pointed out that the bishops continue the strangulation of Sacramental life, with the happy exception of Bishop Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler. News comes to us now of quite a sinister twist in the Texas bishops' smackdown of faithful Catholic life.
Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas is one parish that retains the draconian restrictions, at the behest of Bishop Edward Burns of the Diocese of Dallas; you can see the mandate right on the home page. A few days ago, Deirdre Hairston, a pregnant woman sitting in the back of the church was arrested by local police. She did not wear a mask; remember, she's pregnant. They were called by the pastor, Father Milton Ryan, and they proceeded to remove her while Mass was still in progress. At least she was able to receive Holy Communion. Taylor Marshall interviewed her, and played the video of the encounter that she was able to obtain.
Before you watch the video, I must point out some errors in what the two of them engaged. They all stem from a regrettable tendency of Catholics to conflate civil law with canon law. At canon law, Father Ryan was completely, 100% wrong in denying Mrs. Hairston the right to attend Mass. Compounding his canonical crime is that he had her forever banned from stepping onto Church property. At canon law he had no right to do that. Unfortunately at civil law, he did. They observed that Bishop Burns is the legal owner of the parish grounds. Marshall and Hairston mentioned that, but then assumed that Burns himself had to request her removal. Not so. Most bishops do delegate that authority and responsibility to the local pastors. Moreover, the police, by virtue of being enforcers of civil law, could not consider canon law; the latter is simply out of their area of competence. I fail to see what good it did to criticize their calling the church a "business". Well, maybe "establishment" might have been better, but they were unable to enforce civil law using the standards of canon law. We Catholics have simply got to stop assuming that our civil servants can take church law into account when enforcing civil law; we accomplish nothing by this sloppy thinking.
I am linking now to the web page of Holy Trinity Church - their "contact us" page, to be precise. Therein you will find phone numbers, email addresses, etc to which I urge every one of us to direct our polite but very firm protests. Those of you in the Dallas area should consider whether or not this diocese is worthy of your financial support; clearly that goes double for parishioners of Holy Trinity. Sometimes money, or lack thereof, is the only language these people understand. Here's the Dallas diocese's contact page.
Another important note - I and many others don't post these things to get hits on our blogs and sites. As we try to assist Holy Mother Church, we seek to: 1) inform you of the perils that really do exist and 2) to motivate and assist you in taking concrete action in setting these matters aright. All of us - including you - are the Church Militant. We have a solemn duty to slough off indifference and take action. Prayer is vital, of course, but by itself is an inadequate response. Ora et labora.
