AFTER THIS enhanced community quarantine and the government declares general community quarantine but insists that churches be closed for religious gathering and yet markets, groceries, drugstores, banks will be open – even if lines upon lines of people are allowed to gather – I will declare the St. Michael Parish Church NOT a church anymore but:
1. God’s grocery store where people can get their food for eternal life;
2. Heavenly drugstore: where people can obtain medicine for their troubled hearts and souls;
3. God’s kingdom supranational bank: where people can store up treasures in heaven;
So, the infrastructure that is the church is now a mall with a grocery, a drugstore, and a bank and people can line up wearing mask, observing proper protocols as safe physical distancing and sanitation practices. This mall will be constantly sanitized and disinfected.
If ungodly people consider the practice of faith as non-essential, let them be judged for their unbelief, but their opinion should not curtail the thirst of people to find solace in their faith observances and expressions.
The church is more likely capable of practicing physical distancing than any public market.
So, if it is to be considered a crime to practice one’s faith under GCQ, so be it. But make sure to build prisons where safe physical distancing can be observed. – Rev. Fr. Roland M. Moraleja, St. MichaelParish, Masantol, Pampanga
