Speaking to Newstalk’s Hard Shoulder today, Archbishop Dermot Farrell described the current funeral restrictions as “very cruel and very sad”. With churches reopening for public worship in Northern Ireland on Friday March 26, he said there should be an all-Ireland approach to worship and that churches south of the border should be operating in line with churches in Northern Ireland. The Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland voluntarily took the decision to close church doors to public worship at the height of the third wave of the virus after Christmas. In his message for St Patrick’s Day, he also referred to the right to public worship which is protected by Article 44 of the Constitution. He said the number who are allowed to worship cannot be “randomly determined as if were some mathematical formula.

Source: Irish Independent March 17, 2021 18:00 UTC