Saint Peter and Paul Church in the North Beach neighbourhood of San Francisco, California, USAPhoto: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
According to this report, a Catholic priest from a church in the North Beach neighbourhood of San Francisco has died of Covid-19 after his church was forced to close temporarily after at least three of its five priests tested positive for the virus.
And it's not as though they didn't understand the risks; they just chose to ignore them.
The church has repeatedly ignored the city health ordinances, prompting the city to issue a cease and desist order on the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. According to this report in the San Francisco Chronicle:
The church drew attention in July after it held a clandestine wedding, in which guests were secreted inside through an underground parking garage. The wedding violated health orders prohibiting large indoor religious services and came just days after the city ordered the church to stop holding such events. At least 10 people, including the newlywed couple, ended up testing positive for the coronavirus. San Francisco officials decided not to cite the church.California officials struggling to contain the pandemic, have been repeatedly obstructed by churches in the state, resulting in the SCOTUS ruling. It's interesting that SCOTUS compared churches to retail stores and other businesses! I wonder which other Californian stores and businesses host large gatherings of people who sing and chant in close proximity to one another.
The archdiocese has sparred frequently with San Francisco officials over restrictions on indoor services. Health experts have warned that the duration of time people can spend inside churches for ordinary worship services, in addition to the singing and chanting that accompany many of those services, pose a unique health risk.
[...]
Late Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ban on indoor worship services in most of California, saying the state was discriminating against religion by applying stricter standards to places of worship than to retail stores and other businesses during the pandemic.
Most California counties quickly revised their health orders to permit indoor worship services at up to 25% of capacity, but Santa Clara County continued to allow only outdoor religious services, saying its ban applied to all large indoor gatherings — not just religious services.
But the prohibition ended late Monday night after a U.S. district court judge issued an injunction temporarily preventing the county from banning indoor worship. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by San Jose’s Gateway City Church.
Santa Clara County has been a prominent battleground in the dispute between churches that consider gathering for worship a constitutionally protected right and public health officials who want to prevent large gatherings from spreading the coronavirus.Jan Potts, a spokeswoman with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said:
Calvary Chapel of San Jose has been found in contempt of court for ignoring county health orders and faces roughly $2 million in fines.
While prohibitions on indoor services were lifted in most California counties after the Supreme Court ruling, San Francisco’s acting public health officer, Dr. Susan Philip, advised seniors and those who live with seniors to avoid indoor worship.
We were very sad to learn of the death of one of the Salesian priests at Saints Peter and Paul church. We have been praying for him and his fellow priests and religious brother in the parish, and now pray for the eternal repose of his soul.The pity is that the Archdiocese didn't do something more practical than casting magic spells, such as complying with the science-based measures the State was trying to implement in order to reduce the number of deaths and serious illnesses from the virus, instead of seeing them as an attack on their personal liberty to place their own self-interests above those of the community.
No doubt 'persecuted' Christians will be thrilled to have a real martyr to their cause.
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