A petition has been organized requesting that Ohio Bishops restore Holy Mass and access to the Sacraments. The ministerial priesthood exists to intercede between God and man. When priests can no longer function in that capacity, and they CANNOT reasonably do so at this time, humanity and society suffer.
Please consider signing this petition and passing it on. We are grateful to the ones who organized this.
Your Excellencies:
We hope and pray that this letter finds you well. Happy Easter to you and your loved ones, and to all those under your care.
We understand that you and your Episcopal brethren are weighing the risks to the physical health of your flocks and, on the other hand, their Spiritual health. While we understand the legitimate concerns that the Coronavirus has raised, and the need to make efforts to safeguard the faithful, with all due respect, we believe that more can and must be done to tend to our spiritual needs. It is difficult to overstate the impact that the removal of the Sacraments for these past 6 weeks has had on the members of the Body of Christ. With the prospect of this untenable situation continuing for another month or more, the urgency to address this tremendous Spiritual deficit becomes even greater. We the undersigned would like to ask you as our Spiritual shepherds to seek creative means to restore the Sacraments to the Faithful, while making efforts to cooperate with civil government in mitigating the spread of the virus. We believe that there are many areas of opportunity to explore, some of which we share below:
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Ohio-Bishops-Sacraments
Dear Bishops,
Ask yourselves, “what would St. Peter and St. Paul do if they were in my place? Would they stand by while souls were abandoned?”
I think not.
Stand up for us NOW. Before it’s too late.
With prayers for your souls,
Sharon Morkunas
Today I noted the following announcement from the Bishops of Ohio “that each diocese will determine a soft opening date later in May granting permission for the public celebration of weekday Mass/Liturgy.”
“Soft opening”? I’m not sure what means but my instinct is to cringe.
The Bishops continue that pastors and their pastoral staffs are “to prepare to implement a rigorous effort to fulfill guidelines, which will be forthcoming from each Diocese/Eparchy …”
This sort of vagueness leaves me cautiously unoptimistic about what the reopening of the churches might bring.