In an interview this week with David Quinn, Bishop Kevin Doran discussed the current ban on public worship, something that looks set to continue until summer. David put it to Bishop Doran that in other countries, bishops have taken their Governments to court. He asked why a similar tactic has not been tried here. Bishop Doran said that Church leaders in Ireland prefer a more “diplomatic” approach. He says this worked last year, when public worship was allowed to resume after the first lockdown on June 29, rather than on July 20, as originally scheduled.

In respect of the possibility of taking legal action, Bishop Doran said the Church should not simply be equated with the bishops. He added: “I think it is interesting that [businessman] Declan Ganley has that case before the courts [aimed at restarting public worship]. It’s taken an incredibly long time to progress through the courts, given the urgency of the situation. I suppose the bishops have chosen a diplomatic approach rather than a confrontational approach and in fairness, I suppose, I would have to say that in the first wave, when we weren’t scheduled to be back until the end of July, we actually got back at the end of June. In the second wave, when we came to the end of November, even though we weren’t moving into level 2, we did have the facility to reopen and have public worship for the month of December. So, I think that was the result”.

Ireland and Slovenia are currently the only two countries in the EU with a total ban on public worship. (The ban was discussed from the 34 minute point in the interview).

The two men also discussed the life of the Church in lockdown, and moves in the Oireachtas to legalise assisted suicide, in blatant contradiction of the massive, unprecedented attempt to minimise deaths from a natural cause like Covid-19.

You can watch the video by clicking this link.