Right Hon Robert Jenrick, Please open our churches

Letter received from a member of the faithful

Father,

My family has been writing to members of the hierarchy (with whom we have had dealings over the years) to plead with them to ask the Government for Catholic churches to be reopened (with appropriate safeguards) in the initial lifting of the lockdown restrictions.

The best response we have had to date, this morning, has confirmed that talks are underway and that it would be most helpful if Catholics would write to the following address to express the specific importance to Catholics of being able to visit churches to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and the depths of spiritual feeing of the RC community in our need for the spiritual nourishment that comes from receiving Holy Communion and the other sacraments:

The Right Hon Robert Jenrick

Secretary of State for Housing

Communities and Local Government

2 Marsham Street

Westminster

London

SW1P 4DF

I am wondering whether you think this information would be worth circulating to your many contacts?

Yours,

Model letter to the Right Hon. Robert Jenrick from another faithful

Dear Mr Jenrick,

I understand that the Catholic Bishops Conference of England & Wales is currently negotiating with the secretary of state for housing for the re-opening of the churches in England and Wales.  I would like to lend my voice to the call for this to occur.  

There are citizens of England and Wales who observe and practise their belief in Almighty God and who have been impeded in the exercise of religion since the Government announced its 'lock down' last month.

Belief in Almighty God has been a feature of life in Britain for around 2,000 years.  Some of us see it as essential and to observe that practise prevented by HM Government is truly astounding.  

If people may go out to work when they cannot work at home; if people can go into supermarkets and shops to purchase necessities for the body, on what basis can a venerable building which attends to the needs of the soul be prevented from opening?  It is common knowledge that the observation of 2m social distancing at all times in supermarkets does not occur; it is impractical and unenforceable.  

Where necessary, observation of 2m social distancing is something which could be observed very easily in a Catholic Church.

I hope that you can make a swift, positive decision in this area for the good of England and Wales.

I have copied my local MP into the email, to whom I will be writing again in the near future about the situation in our country.

Yours sincerely,