The doors were locked.
Rows of pews were taped off.
The guests were arriving, as instructed, from an underground parking garage through a back door that led to the church interior.
Then a city official crashed the wedding, which took place in early July in SS Peter and Paul’s Church, with its picturesque edifice overlooking Washington Square Park in North Beach.
The pastor did not seem surprised by the official’s order to stop the proceedings, according to a city report, and the wedding party moved outdoors to a basketball court where the ceremony — minus the nearly 100 guests who had assembled — continued on Zoom.
San Francisco’s city attorney had warned Catholic leaders to stop holding illegal indoor events only days earlier. Yet the leadership of SS Peter and Paul’s helped organize the wedding ceremony, the city said. The celebration included a rehearsal dinner and reception with invitations extended to large groups from multiple households, at a time when such gatherings remain heavily restricted in much of the Bay Area.
In the days following, the newlywed couple and at least eight attendees tested positive for the coronavirus, two guests told The Chronicle.
The potentially exposed guests flew back to Nashville, Arizona and San Diego, hot spots of the pandemic, potentially spreading the virus and providing a textbook example of health officials’ biggest fears about such large gatherings. The event showed the challenges authorities face in enforcing health orders.
SS Peter and Paul’s Pastor Gael Sullivan said the city’s stop order came so close to the wedding that he tried to work with the couple and their families to provide them “a service of some kind.”
“I had said to them they had to comply with the minimum number for the service and when they showed up with more people, they agreed with sending them away,” Sullivan said….
The above comes from a July 26 story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
No wonder a city official was there.
Just what the Church needs. Another scandal.
This diocese was so wreckless in ignoring the warnings about inside gatherings that the city attorney had to send the Archbishop a Cease and Desist letter, as we’ve already documented here on CCD.
This incident happened days after that. When the city got word of the wedding, they sent a warning email to the Church. The couple and the parish went ahead with their rehearsal dinner, the illegal indoor wedding, and a wedding reception.THey took steps to hide the incident from observers, what in law is known as consciosness of guilt.
It took a city officer to crash the wedding and order them to comply with both the law, and the agreement that the Archbishop made with the city. It is shameful that the Archbishop violated his own agreement by allowing this wedding to proceed. Now the couple, the brides parents, and at least 10 gests contracted the virus at one time or another during the festivities. Many guests went back to their hometowns all over the country, probably infecting other passengers and flight crew, not to mention people back home.
The Pastor and the Archbishop should resign in disgrace.
Spare me the drama, please. Who’s to say the COVID infections weren’t acquired elsewhere. This logical fallacy has a name: post hoc ergo propter hoc.
This pandemic is bringing out the totalitarian in every Democrat. Can you follow this illogical reasoning? Gay sex isn’t wrong or harmful and the church should approve of it. Getting married is harmful, and the church and government shouldn’t allow it. The gays want to control everything about you. They hate normalcy. They hate real, normal marriage.
I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked that some government flunky would close down a religious rite. A wedding yet, with people from around the country. Maybe there was a reason, but hard to phantom. I’m sure that the folks from out of state sheltered in place for at least two weeks before coming out into the California air. I’m sure the folks from down south sheltered for two weeks in San Francisco before the big day. So no problem. I’m sure the Father of the Bride invited no more that six people; oh no, the article says there were more than that. What could go wrong? At what point does ignorance overtake stupidity?
The expression is “hard to fathom.” Could be autocorrect.
This is from the City Attorney who has repeatedly demonstrated his animosity toward the Catholic Church. And, who did nothing when large protests (without masks or social distancing) gathered in SF. And, the city had their police department stand by and watch as statues of Saint Junipero and others were torn down in Golden Gate Park. No concern about the destruction of public property there.
The archbishop does not micromanage 99 parishes. And, do you really think (as an anonymous email claims) that the newlyweds, instead of going on their honeymoon, immediately went and got tested for COVID-19? That’s what newlyweds usually post on their social media?
The audacity of Christians to think they could have a sacramental wedding without Dennis Herrera’s permission! He was a leading proponent of so-called “same-sex marriage,” but I guess no longer supports any kind of marriage. After all, he went to a “Catholic” university, so he must know more about sacraments than the archbishop (who, BTW, happened to be a leading opponent of “gay marriage”) and pastor. Like Jesus and the Apostles, should they wait to get Caesar’s approval?
This is entirely about public health?!
I have questions: How many people that showed up at this wedding were actually invited, and how many deliberately crashed the party uninvited? Were a hundred people actually invited?
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