The demands for reopening of churches for public worship are all the more important because the Covid19 pandemic crisis will continue well into the coming year”, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.

Recalling a recent online meeting between the Taoiseach and representatives of various religions, he said there was “unanimous agreement on the part of all the faith representatives that if there is a return to Level 3 at the beginning of December, then there should be a rethink on the place of public worship in Level 3 provisions”. Ireland was the only country in Europe to stop public worship under mid-level restrictions.

The Taoiseach had “stressed the enormous effort made by churches to ensure that church buildings were safe places for worship during the pandemic” and had shown an openness to “a re-examination of the place of public worship at Level 3,” recalled the archbishop.

Mr Martin had also noted “that the public health authorities continually express their anxiety about large gatherings, but that they distinguish between controlled gatherings and spontaneous uncontrolled gatherings”.