England’s Catholic bishops have told the UK government they “have not yet seen any evidence whatsoever that would make the banning of communal worship” necessary in the battle against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, as England prepares to enter its second coronavirus lockdown on Thursday.

Under the government’s proposals all pubs, restaurants, gyms, non-essential shops and places of worship in England will close, although private prayer in places of worship can continue. However, unlike the previous lockdown in the spring, schools will remain open. The government will also allow funerals to take place.

In a letter signed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool – the president and vice president of the conference – the bishops said the new national lockdown in England will “bring hardship, distress and suffering to many.”

“Our communities have done a great deal to make our churches safe places in which all have been able to gather in supervised and disciplined ways. It is thus a source of deep anguish now that the Government is requiring, once again, the cessation of public communal worship,” the bishops’ letter reads.

Meanwhile, numerous Bishops have asked Catholics to lobby their MPs that public worship be exempted from the planned legislation.