Catholic priests who arrested mothers without masks are tyrants

Despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbot’s repeal of the state’s mask mandate, a pregnant Catholic mother was kicked out of mass in the Diocese of Dallas for not wearing a mask.

Father Milton Ryan, pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Parish, reportedly called the police during the service and threatened the young mother with being arrested for trespassing. Deidre Hairston returned to her bench after communing with her one-year-old baby in her arms to find three police officers waiting for her.

An officer threatened to handcuff her if she did not comply with their request to leave the premises, repeatedly insisting that the church was a “business” and that the pastor had the right to deny her permission. ‘Entrance. In response to the incident, the Diocese of Dallas issued a declaration, clarifying that although the bishop did not mandate the masks, individual parishes are allowed to establish their own rules.

It is indeed a disturbing development when Catholic churches now impose stricter restrictions on Americans’ God-given and constitutionally-given right to worship than the government. How did the Church of Christ, whose long list of holy martyrs boasts in its ranks such illustrious names as Peter, Paul, Thomas Becket and Maximilian Kolbe, produced the unofficial tyrants who are now charged with grazing the flock of Our Lord?

Catholic priests during WWII literally died on altars defending innocent civilians against fascist tyranny. Today pastors who intimidate parishioners with masks seem to have forgotten the mission of saving souls in the church and are tyrannizing themselves.

This recent scandal is not the first time that a Catholic priest has sentenced a mother to law enforcement for not wearing a mask. In Kansas City, Missouri, last fall, the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church called police Jane Bernadel, a home-schooled mother of 11, for failing to wear a mask when she prayed with his family at church.

Although apparently not wearing a mask himself, Reverend Gary Ziuraitis handcuffed Bernadel and arrested her for trespassing while attending a Halloween prayer service on All Saints’ Eve. Bernadel brought the matter to the attention of Bishop James Johnston of the Kansas City Diocese and was effectively thrown under the bus.

She was formally charged after refusing a plea bargain, the terms of which included a guilty plea, a $ 300 fine, and enrollment in “diversion” and anger management courses designed to rehabilitate offenders and help them manage the behaviors that led to their arrest.

Also last fall, Fr. Christopher Gustafson of St. Norbert Parish in Northbrook, Illinois wrote a letter to Collete O’Regan, mother of seven and 21-year-old parishioner of the church, berating her for not to have worn a mask during mass. Masks are not required in Cook County, where the parish is located, but are required by the Archdiocese of Chicago. The priest then threatened to call the police on O’Regan and have her arrested or summoned for trespassing on private property if she showed up at church again without wearing a mask.

All of these women are daughters of the Catholic Church, not recalcitrant culprits, and any priest or bishop who tolerates such appalling treatment of them must engage in deep and prayerful reflection on their priorities. How did we get here? After a century of perhaps the worst Christian persecutions in Church history, how do we find ourselves in a situation where Catholic priests now willfully persecute the faithful?

The horror stories of WWII are interspersed with tales of unfathomable bravery, often by Catholic priests. One of the most famous cases is that of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest interned at Auschwitz who volunteered to replace another prisoner, a Polish father who had been randomly chosen to die in the horrible “bunker”. famine ”.

The prisoners sent to this virtual tomb were deprived of light, food and water; their only contact with the outside world was when the guards came once a day to remove the corpses. In the bunker, Kolbe strived for those who perished with him to die with dignity. They prayed and sang hymns together and recited the Rosary.

A less familiar story concerns five Catholic priests who were massacred in 1944 along with more than 700 civilians, mostly women and children, by Nazi and Italian fascist troops in the mountainous territory around the small village of Marzabotto, just to the south. from Bologna, Italy. The atrocity occurred during an operation to defeat the Partisans, who had retreated into the hills and woods to escape arrest, and to punish the locals for aiding them.

One of these priests, the young Don Giovanni Fornasini, is known as “the angel of Marzabotto” for his role in protecting civilians and defying the Nazis by burying the bodies of those massacred during the reprisals. For this, he was shot by an SS officer.

Another priest, Don Ubaldo Marchioni, also targeted for helping partisans, found a group of terrified parishioners, mostly women and children, seeking refuge from the Germans in the small church of Casiglia di Caprara. He celebrated Mass with them, then began to recite the Rosary, kneeling on the steps of the altar.

Their prayer was interrupted by the arrival of German soldiers, who shot dead a disabled woman on the spot and led the rest of the civilians out of the church. They were massacred in the nearby cemetery. Don Ubaldo was executed on the altar of his church, which a few minutes later was set on fire and destroyed.

This is the heroic legacy of Catholic martyr priests in the face of political persecution. Today, priests like the pastor of Dallas and their respective bishops are not only woefully below this impressive standard, but they are also actively facilitating political harassment and intimidation within the church itself.

None of this is about health or “saving lives”. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control found that mask warrants were associated with at best negligible reductions in death rates and case growth. Likewise, a large randomized controlled trial in Denmark last year found that there was no statistical difference in infection rates between wearers of masks and non-wearers of masks to protect against the disease. infection with COVID-19. Instead, we are seeing a toxic combination of hysteria, signaling political virtue, and control.

I recently wrote that without legislative action to curb mask madness, small dictatorships would arise at the county and municipal level, even in states where covid restrictions are removed. For example, the cities of Tuscon and Flagstaff are thumbing their noses at Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s latest order preventing local courts from issuing new mask warrants.

Across the country, companies are already communicating their intention to continue with their own silly mask rules. Obviously, individual pastors and churches will also signal their political allegiance and intimidate their followers into following the party line.

Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, responded to Abbott’s removal from COVID restrictions by announcing that masks would continue to be required in diocesan churches and that services would continue to operate at 25% of their capacity. In Wisconsin, the Diocese of Green Bay wasted no time in issuing its own mask warrant within hours of the Supreme Court ruling that Governor Tony Evers overstepped his authority on the show. public health emergencies, including the requirement to cover the face.

A church is not a “business”. It is a house of prayer, a distinction that Our Lord made clear when he furiously drove priests and blasphemous individuals from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, using a whip made of ropes, because they have dared to transform the House of God into a market place. Catholic priests who tyrannize parishioners over masks and social distancing do not sell merchandise but sell hysteria, political slogans and propaganda. Further, those who treat their churches like “businesses” would do well to recognize that in an “industry” that bleeds out “customers”, threatening and denying loyal customers might not be the best business model.

Either way, safeguarding public health and safety has never been the “business” of the church; nor harass faithful Christian mothers who face the scientifically unsupported political crusade of their pastor.

Jesus’ farewell message to his disciples before ascending to heaven was to preach the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ who suffered, died, and rose again on the third day. The myriads of Catholic priests who have been brutalized for their faith have paid the ultimate price for spreading the gospel and resisting tyranny and persecution. The church needs more courageous and loving heroes like this, and fewer rogue “public health” activists.