United Kingdom: Wales goes into lockdown, churches closed down. Archbishop Stack (Cardiff), “disappointed, of course”

Wales will go into lockdown from 23rd October to 9th November, and mgr. George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff, says he is “disappointed of course for the measures that once again will see our churches closed down for the public celebrations”. “Since they have been reopened, after the end of the first lockdown, our churches have been safe, protected places as well as spaces of peace and quiet, which are so necessary these days”, the Archbishop writes, as he praises their “exemplary conduct” in abiding by social distancing rules and tracing procedures, and he thanks the “volunteer teams that have made all this possible”. The Archbishop points out that “gathering to celebrate Mass and worship God as a community of faith is at the core of our religious life” and that “the ’Eucharistic famine’ has been painful in many ways, both known and unknown”. Dialogue with the Welsh Government will go on, “in the hope that the churches may stay open for private prayers at specific times, in the next two weeks”. And prayers will be said, so that the measures taken “may achieve the goal of reducing the level and rate of infections caused by the coronavirus pandemic and may restore the country to health”.
Valentina Bombelli