The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a blow to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s pandemic-related ban on indoor religious services, siding with a church that defied the policy and challenged it as unconstitutional religious discrimination.
The decision followed a similar action by the justices on Nov. 25 that backed Christian and Jewish houses of worship that challenged New York state restrictions in coronavirus hot spots.
The justices, with no noted dissents, set aside a lower court ruling that rejected a challenge to Newsom’s policy by Harvest Rock Church Inc, which has several campuses in the state, and Harvest International Ministries Inc, an association of churches. Both are based in Pasadena, a city in Los Angeles County.
The justices directed the lower court to reconsider the case in light of their ruling in the New York case.
Archbishop Cordileone’s response Thursday afternoon, Dec. 3:
Today in Harvest Rock Church, et al. v Newsom, the Supreme Court remanded a California District Court ruling that had permitted California’s restrictions on worship to continue in order for the court to reconsider its decision in light of the SCOTUS ruling on November 25 in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo. In that decision, the Supreme Court clearly ruled governments may not favor secular indoor activities, such as indoor retail, over worship. The same restrictions must, at a minimum, be applied to both.
Catholics and other responsible faith communities should not be lumped in with a few irresponsible bad actors. This is not done with anyone else, and it should not be done with people of faith. And the timing now is critical, lest Christians be deprived of celebrating the Christmas holy days in their churches, even if with limited numbers and other reasonable safety precautions. The time is overdue for our civil officials to work with us and other churches on worshiping safely. Catholics need the Body and Blood of Christ this Christmas, in California as everywhere else. And they have every right to access it.
Experience shows that when responsible actors are irresponsibly discriminated against, people tend to congregate in less regulated settings, such as private homes.
Worship is not less important than shopping for shoes; it is certainly more important to people’s spiritual and psychological health; it is a natural and Constitutional right, and we Catholics have shown for months that we can worship safely–with masks, social distancing, ventilation, and sanitation.
We prefer not to go to court to win this fight. We prefer, and have been working hard for a long time to achieve, resolving this impasse with mutual understanding and respect. That would save a lot of valuable time and resources. It would also help to build up goodwill.
Let my people worship.”
Full story at U.S. News and World Report.
Valuable time and resources? Faithful Catholic attorneys are itching to go after Gruesome Newsom. Take it to court, alongside our Protestant brothers and sisters.
Newsom has destroyed his own credibility, he does not appear to be guided by faith though he claims to be a Catholic , we deserve so much better then this.
What?: Is he calling “secular indoor activities, such as indoor retail” “irresponsible bad actors.”
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“In that decision, the Supreme Court clearly ruled governments may not favor secular indoor activities, such as indoor retail, over worship. The same restrictions must, at a minimum, be applied to both.
Catholics and other responsible faith communities should not be lumped in with a few irresponsible bad actors.”
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What a disappointing statement from a bishop from whom I have expected so much more as, perhaps, “ALL Masses in the archdiocese resume indoors on the Third Sunday of Advent. Our people know how to handle indoor safety protocols.”
But instead “The time is overdue for our civil officials to work with us and other churches on worshiping safely. Catholics need the Body and Blood of Christ this Christmas,”
Perhaps it would be appropriate to send our Sunday collection offerings, until Masses resume indoors, to the church in Pasadena that took the case to the Court.
Gov. Grusome needs to be recalled. He is ruining our right to worship as well as ruining our beautiful state.
Your rights to worship are tempered by the right of people to live. Worship outside, and we can quickly put this nonsense behind us.
Quickly? We are in month 9 or 10 of blind compliance.
Sorry, we can’t have Mass outside at our Church, narrow spaces, very cold and windy.
Also, another “expert” showing his masterful expertise by controlling Catholics.
It’s time to end this pushy “I’m your boss, do as I say” . No, you aren’t.
These orders are being shouted by people who have a very limited understanding of covid,
or Public Health. It’s clear you aren’t trained or an expert in this area, so please stop.
We do not need your orders, just so you can puff up your chest and act the expert.
NO, you aren’t –
This masking problem has reached the brainwashed stage, and it’s time to end this problem.
Please stop with your orders.
Seriously, you call saving lives with simple solutions like masking and distancing and living a full liturgical life outside brainwashing?
Now that is pretty funny. Mass out doors in the winter? Sure and more people will get sick and die from regular flu.
Are you people for real? The chapel I attend is near the top of the santa cruz mountains.
Remember the “we have to lock down for 2 weeks” 240 days ago.
You don’t get the flu from being outside. You get it from a virus that a person near you spreads via aerosols.
Add Cordelione to the list of gutless wonders of Catholic Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals. Does not one Bishop or Archbishop in California have the backbone to stand up to Newsom? In the meantime, they still have their hands out begging us Catholics for money because we are not being allowed to step inside our parish churches to deposit our hard-earned money into their collection baskets.
Now statewide lockdown orders are imminent. Bay Area beginning a month-long lockdown on Monday. Will Cordileone defy the order. He just “boldly” stated that worship is a natural and Constitutional right. We’ll see now whether he believes his own words or not. Church looking completely impotent. Bishops looking feckless. Maybe Gomez will have a virtual reconsecration of the state. You gotta wonder where is God? So many people are suffering. God isn’t helping at all. More rosaries? What then? Just wait it out for a natural solution? Then what are people praying for? Where is the reality of the supernatural in all this?
If you have stayed home, gone out only for necessities or work, worn a mask and socially distanced when you went out and washed your hands a lot, you have saved lives (even if you did it grumbling).
Skepticism about the disease has increased the amount of people ill or dead,
God has worked many miracles. We see in Covid what we see in life. Some He heals, some He calls home. Some suffer little, some suffer much. Those who put themselves in harm’s way to help others, sometimes end up harmed. They are martyrs of charity.
God is almighty. God makes decisions on the best thing to do for His children and he is never wrong. If God wasn’t helping, you wouldn’t be here and neither would I.
Yes, pray more rosaries. Fervently. Stop pooping all over God. He does not deserve your abuse. He is tolerating it for some reason only He knows.
“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father most Holy, through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Your Word through whom You made all things, whom You sent as our Savior and Redeemer, incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin.”
On CDC’s own website, there is a table which shows US “Total Deaths from all Causes”. This table must include all deaths from covid, and also any associated deaths due to covid. Before the start of this pandemic, the weekly death total was at a baseline level of 58,000 deaths a week, through February. This is a baseline death rate for the 330 million people populating the US. That is, there was before the Pandemic, a normal US death rate of around 58,000 weekly.
Then the Pandemic started. Deaths rose to a peak in April, then there was another lower peak in July. Since then, the death rate has declined to baseline again, around 58,000 or less.
For close to two months now, the death rate has been at the usual normal baseline levels.
So, any CDC or health statistician out there, how do you explain this? And why are we having these continued shutdowns? Why is there a need for these very damaging and stringent business closures? Please explain. And our Political leaders show that they don’t believe that there is much danger also – they keep going to parties unmasked. And why is the Media continuing these screaming headlines, and promoting the shutdowns?
(The SF Chronicle has continuing hysterical headlines about covid for a week now)
Conclusion: Some Public Health and responsible Medical experts had best start speaking about this.
Explanations are needed.
Wrong. COVID deaths are escalating. Another made up cdc claim by somebody who can’t provide a quote or a link
On the CDC website, it says there have been 229,000 – 299,000 excess deaths this year (up til October) 2/3rd of which are attributed to Covid-19.
Anon there is literally no CDC table that says what you say. If there were, you would show it to us. It doesn’t exist. You just make it up.
My apologies to the 3:11 anon poster. I wasn’t referring to you but to the other anon who keeps downplaying COVID deaths. Cross-posting is a problem and again my apologies.
It is not a table, it is a written piece. This is one of them; there are others.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm?s_cid=mm6942e2_w
The crux of the argument should be based on the actual, measured infection fatality rate of Covid19, which is no different than a bad flu.
The fact is, we’re not tripping over corpses to get into Costco … nor are bodies stacked outside of graveyards, hospitals, morgues or funeral parlors.
There is no public health emergency.
NONE of this kubuki is justified.
Protect the elderly and those most vulnerable … and let the rest of us live our lives.
If you think carefully about this, there can only be one explanation of this (now) baseline death rate: A person is dying of cancer, and gets covid, and dies. The MD lists cause of death on the death certificate, as covid. A person is dying of heart disease, gets covid, and dies. The MD lists the cause of death on the death certificate, as covid. That means deaths normally recorded as cancer or heart disease, are now being recorded as covid.
That is why the only realistic data about this pandemic, is “Total deaths from all Causes”. Why? Because there is a one to one relationship. Only one death per death certificate. There can be no rationalizing, or subtle changes, or fudging, whatever you call it. One Death means One Data point, and only one. So, a serious rise in covid deaths, should show as a rise in Total Deaths. But the data are not there. The data shows “Total deaths from all causes” to be at a normal level for weeks now.
It is very difficult to think about these statistics, and most of us, including MDs, have trouble doing that. It is painful, it reminds us of our own upcoming death, or perhaps that of a family member.
We have to do it. We cannot keep on damaging young people by shutdowns and lack of education and employment.
Wrong again anon. Please stop making things up. People who die of cancer die of cancer. People who die of COVID die of COVID. We are now in excess of two thousand COVID deaths in the US every day. Why lie about such a tragedy?
Not making this data up. It is real and factual. I’m waiting for yfc and others to do
some work, get on the CDC website, and find that table.
Just giving you the URL will not be of value. You have to do some work,
and then you might actually see the true data and understand.
Total Deaths from all Causes is at the usual normal value of 58000 weekly.
I’m very sorry you do not have the skill or the expertise to find the table,
and to understand the data logically.
That just proves something – Would you please stop playing the expert?
If you can’t find that table, it shows you are just parroting the Media.
And others also, who aren’t really looking at the data.
Let’s get back to normal please, and will the “experts” please desist?
anon is absolutley right. people are dying of covid who were already knocking on death’s door and would have died anyway. covid is not killing otherwise healthy people. it’s a flu virus. all this is over a flu virus. we didn’t lock down over any flu before. why now? because the left wants to gain totalitarian power. the brainwashing has been tremendous.
Apparently this is from a viral facebook post. It is false.
An underlying condition is high blood pressure. Or diabetes. The people with underlying conditions died from Covid, not diabetes or high blood pressure. They were not knocking on death’s door at all.
Healthy people die from Covid. Healthy children die from Covid. Not at the same rate as the elderly or those with obesity.
Everyone in my family who caught it recovered. Praise Jesus.
Please pray for an end to the pandemic, relief for those afflicted and the eternal salvation of those whom the Lord has called to himself.
Jesus, heal the sick and heal our hearts. Grant eternal rest to all those who have died.
I have been on the cdc website and your table doesn’t exist. If it did exist you would have posted it.
We are now exceeding two thousand COVID deaths every day. Not two thousand flu deaths not two thousand bacterial pneumonia deaths. Two thousand COVID deaths. Every day.
Deaths were up by 20% from March- August 2020. 67% of these were from Covid. 1,336,561 actual deaths (60,753 per week) versus 1,111,031 (50,501 per week) expected deaths
Mr bill. No different than a bad flu. Is that how you talk about more than a quarter million dead? Oh it’s not that bad.
They would have died this year anyway, even if there hadn’t been a novel coronavirus
Died anyway. Is that how we treat each other?
Treating each other has nothing to do with it. They would have died anyway, Covid or not. What does treating each other have to do with anything in the face of such facts?
If you want to talk about treating each other? How about treating students and workers well by letting them return to school and their jobs? No, the left shuts things down so people lose income and can’t learn well and don’t get socialization opportunites. Is that how we treat each other Mr. anonymous leftist? By making people poor and mentally unstable? Is that how we treat each other?
So many of the commentators here have no real knowledge of public health, or covid data, or statistics.
The average death rate for the US is now 58000 weekly. That means, without including pandemic deaths, without exaggeration,
that the normal average death rate through November, is around 2,700,000. That is the normal death rate so far this year,
without including covid. That is, close to 3 million will die this year, using the normal average death rate (not including covid).
So, your “quarter million deaths” sounds impressive, but, it’s just part of the average death rate.
Sorry to provide you with these depressing statistics, but that is what we are facing as human beings, as Americans.
There is no use screaming about the “Huge Death Rate !” Or, acting as if it is extraordinary. NO it isn’t.
And the data shows covid deaths have decreased to baseline starting in September, and the US has returned to the
average death rate of around 58,000 a week. It’s time to stop this out of control hysteria, and return to work and school.
We have to face death every day, and there is no use losing control of yourself. Go to Mass, say the Rosary, ask for courage,
and also some knowledge and prudent behavior.
Anonb you keep forgetting that the quarter million dead is not a static number. Death rates are increasing at an alarming rate and had we not taken precautions like masking distancing and staying outdoors the number of dead would have been several multiples higher. You also casually dismiss those who survive but have a very rough time of it along the way, some of whom may suffer months or a lifetime of complications. Tonight a hundred thousand people will have a fitful night in hospital beds. We can alleviate their suffering but not if we pretend it’s not a problem.
So if your point is that we shouldn’t care about people who die because many people die every day, why did we care about 9-11? We should just allow people to walk into planes with guns and explosives because, ya know what, millions die every year. Is that your point?
If Islamic terrorist attacks resulted in 99% survival of healthy people under age 60 and the people who mostly died were over age 70 or had comorbidities, then you might have a point. But Islamic terrorist attacks don’t have the same fatality statistics that the coronavirus does. Since your example isn’t relevant to the actual facts of who is dying from the coronavirus, it’s a non sequitur and a false analogy.
My point, to say it again, is that almost everyone who has died of covid was very likely to die this year anyway: the elderly, those with terminal conditions or comorbidities. Total deaths in the U.S. for 2020 are on pace with total deaths in 2019 and past years as well. it’s fake news that covid is causing excess deaths or that it is a threat to young and healthy people.
So, anonymous, if all the people who die of Covid were “gonna die this year anyway”, why don’t we save them the agony of a ventilator and the expense of a month in the icu, and just euthanize them already?
1.5 million people worldwide have died from Covid 19.
Sad. True.