
COVID on the Rise Again: Which States Now Protect Churches From Closure?
Many states have passed explicit protections for houses of worship, ensuring either that they will not be forced to shutter again amid a future health emergency.
Many states have passed explicit protections for houses of worship, ensuring either that they will not be forced to shutter again amid a future health emergency.
More and more, dioceses are closing or consolidating parishes to cope with the twin realities of fewer priests and declining Mass attendance.
The diocese, which serves more than 278,000 Catholics in 23 counties of central Ohio, is experiencing declining church attendance and fewer young priests, as well as population decline and population shifts. Two Catholic schools will also close, though new schools may be built.
COMMENTARY: A project in South Bend, Indiana, illustrates that underused space can be repurposed to assist the Church in its mission today.
Canon Thomas White goes to court to free the Mass.
The decision came in light of recent Supreme Court rulings favorable to churches that have challenged state COVID restrictions that disproportionately limit religious freedom.
On Thursday the Supreme Court accepted the church’s appeal, vacated the Ninth Circuit decision, and sent the case back to the circuit court for consideration in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brooklyn Diocese case.
In October, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order curbing some public gatherings in certain localities, due to the reported rapid spread of the coronavirus in those districts.
Clergy financial problems began soon after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown in March to slow the spread of COVID-19, which has killed 41,552 people in the U.K. as of Aug. 27.
In a July 14 letter to archdiocesan staff, Archbishop Burger described the proposal as an “adequate response to the challenges facing our archdiocese.”
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