OTTAWA -- Roman Catholic churches across Ottawa will be empty over the Easter weekend due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ontario Government ordered all churches and places of worship to close in a bid to stop the spread of novel coronavirus.
Speaking on CFRA’s “The Bill Carroll Show” on Good Friday, Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast was asked if it’s too much of a sacrifice to tell people not to go to church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
“It’s really the kind of thing that we need to do, to be not only people of faith and hope, but also people of intelligence, of scientific background, of learning.”
Archbishop Prendergast notes churches were closed in Canada and the United States during the Spanish Flu pandemic.
“We need to use our intelligence as well as we live out our faith. They’re not contradictory, they go together.”
Archbishop Prendergast ordered all Catholic churches in Ottawa and Cornwall-Alexandria to cancel masses in March as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“I think the majority of people are onside with what the government and what science is telling us. We need to attend to the natural course of things and to protect ourselves.”
Archbishop Prendergast says he needs to protect the vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic, including staying away from long-term care facilities and hospitals to visit people.
“I need to be intelligent in my carrying out my ministry. I think that’s the greatest law, is to care for people and that’s shown by following these cautions that the public officials are asking us to do.”
Importance of Life
The Archbishop says the COVID-19 pandemic drives home the importance of life, and our family and friends.
In an interview with CTV Morning Live ahead of Easter weekend, Archbishop Prendergast said “our faith and also this situation pushes us back to basic realities, what’s important in our lives.”
“Work is important, and earning a living and making money is important, but in the long run the most important thing is our life and taking charge and looking at what our life is about.”
The Archbishop added “what’s important are family and our friends, even some of those that we can only connect with by Zoom, or Facetime or Skype.”
“The important issues are what’s pushing us, and faith is one of the key ones. I encourage people to meditate, to reflect and to be hopeful.”
The Archdiocese of Ottawa has been posting masses from Notre Dame Basilica online, and other churches across Ottawa and eastern Ontario will be hosting online masses for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Archbishop Prendergast says he’s prepared a sermon for Easter Sunday that will refer to the “situation we are living in and the difficulties we have.”
The Archdiocese of Ottawa has resurrected an ancient tradition in the church called “spiritual communion.” The Archbishop says it is “an expression of a desire in our hearts to receive the Lord, even though we can’t physically do that by receiving Holy Communion.”
“We’re trying to address the issues, we’re trying to say well the cross was a very powerful and difficult experience for our Lord and his followers, but the resurrection gave new life and we’re looking forward to a hopeful restoration of normal life when this is all over,” said Archbishop Prendergast.
“We don’t know when, I say at a time only known to God we will be able to come back. Right now we’re hopeful, we’re praying for new life that is offered in the sign of the resurrection.”
