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May 5, 2020
Janet E. Smith
I would like to make a correction to your informative article “Shutdown of church services prompts varied responses” (April 23, 2020).
We appreciate the reference to the initiative “We Are an Easter People” which gathered over 27,000 signatures. We would like to point out that while we do request public Masses, the word “possible” in our request that bishops “do everything possible” to make the sacraments available means “within all safety directives.” As we state clearly in the “Message to the Bishop”: “We, the faithful, appeal to our bishops to provide safe access to the anointing of the sick and to some form of public celebration of Mass during this time of strife and pandemic.”
We do not want to put any lives at risk; “parking lot” Masses where no one leaves their cars or receives Communion are completely safe activities. There is no reason they should be prohibited.
The Bill of Rights proclaims that we have the liberty of “free exercise” of religion and we are simply wanting to safely exercise that right.
Janet E. Smith, retired moral theologian, former professor at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Dallas, and Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.
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