Coronavirus: DUP only party to talk to top Catholic cleric about clampdown concerns

Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown was speaking to the News Letter following a phone call from the first minister this week, concerning the ban on the public visiting churches at any time for private prayer.

Mrs Foster has already said this applies primarily to Catholics, but despite initially saying the practice was “still acceptable” it ended up being banned under the Northern Irish regulations which came out last Saturday.

Bishop McKeown told the News Letter while the phone call may not change the policy: “I think she’s aware of where we’re coming from. I fed in my concerns for fragile people.

“The cathedral here in Derry traditionally is almost never empty during the day. Solitary people coming in, for a short prayer, doing the stations of the cross, to light a candle...

“I’d have thought that a church for prayer is no more dangerous a place to go to than an off licence. The cathedral holds 800 people; four people in it at the one time for private praying is not a major concern.”

He went on to say: “No other politicians have been in touch.”

Asked if he thought it unusual that the DUP leader appears to be taking the lead on a matter so close to Catholic hearts, he would not be drawn on it, and said only: “I certainly appreciated the call.”

He said people can take that “whatever way that you want”.

The Executive Office was asked today if it is considering a u-turn on the issue (like it did when it permitted off-licences to remain open), but had not replied at time of writing.

Sinn Fein and the SDLP were also asked their stances on the matter, but opted to say nothing.

Meanwhile Father Michael Canny of Waterside Catholic Church in east Londonderry city said that confessions have likewise been halted.

“Naturally there’s no face-to-face confessions,” saying it would not be practical to do them at two-metre distance.

He went on to add: “At the end of the day we’re in a pandemic and I think that at the end of the day with these things the greater good is more important than the individual. We all have to keep the rules, keep a distance.

“There’s no point in me looking after myself, be it my body or soul, and then having disregard for somebody else’s.

“If this goes on past the end of April I’d say we’re into a whole new scenario that’ll have to be rethought and all that now.

“I personally when the churches were open here in [mid-March] we noticed the number of people coming were very very small.

“And in actual fact I go out every day for a walk and the number of people I meet is so small that I think the churches could be open day and night to be honest with you, and there’d be so few people out and about to come to them that it’s kind of academic.”

He said it is “very unreal” taking funerals where normally there would be hundreds of mourners, but there are only a dozen or fewer.