REPORT: ONTARIO GOVERNMENT WAS PREPARED TO LIFT CHURCH RESTRICTIONS AS EARLY AS LATE APRIL INTO MAY - WHY DID CARDINAL COLLINS DELAY UNTIL THE MIDDLE OF JUNE?

Confidential sources in Ontario's Progressive-Conservative Government of Douglas Ford have revealed to this writer that following the initial wave of the China Virus in Ontario they were prepared to permit churches to open as early as April 2020. The Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, shuttered all churches and ceased the public celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on March 8 and did not reopen for Sunday worship until June 14, at least six weeks later than it needed to be. 

“We were prepared to see churches open as early as late April or early May,” said our source in an email interview. Cardinal Collins shut down the public celebration of Holy Mass leaving churches only open for "private prayer" two weeks before the Ontario government declared a full emergency and recommended churches be closed on March 16. 

“The Cardinal was among many that relayed to the Ontario government that it was too soon to reopen churches and other places of worship," wrote our source. 

Who were the others with or without the Cardinal present that influenced the provincial government? Were they Anglican "clergy" or "bishops" who, did not open their churches until the first Sunday in September and clearly don't believe the worship is important, even for Anglicans? Was it the “Reverend” Greta Vosper of the United Church of Canada who was tried by that organisation because she is a self-proclaimed atheist? Are these the people with which Cardinal Collins finds common cause and of which this Prince of the Church is just one of many?

According to our source in the Progressive-Conservative government, they "expected church leaders to implement self-developed health and safety protocols" based on convention and cleaning and sanitation routines "adjusted to their own needs." The province had tried to leave much of the safety protocols to the “discretion of each church, as each building is unique and has different challenges.” The government was not interested in micro-managing how a church pastor or group would undertake cleaning. “They (church leaders) wanted the province to come up with the guidance list for all health and safety protocols and cleaning and sanitation routines,” in an apparent attempt to deflect any responsibility or accusations of liability. 

Sing your heart out

In a stunning revelation, we were told that the “Province had permitted singing” and did not attempt to interfere in any way with any liturgical practice or worship, including the distribution method of Holy Communion. However, the source did indicate that “Toronto Public Health prohibited this practice,” without the authority to do so. These unaccountable public health bureaucrats were the ones demanding to the Cardinal and others that there be no singing and demanded an end to Holy Communion completely resulting in the severe modified current method and the complete violation of the rights of the faithful to receive Holy Communion on the tongue rather, it should be dropped in the hand of the person.

I will shut you down

In a November 13, 2020 priest webinar attended by over 800 of which this writer has been
provided with a video copy, Cardinal Collins goes to great lengths to describe nervously how it was very important to public health apparatchiks to know that the Holy Eucharist was only being dropped in one's hands compounding the risk of particle loss and sacrilege and violating the rights of the faithful. The Cardinal repeatedly said to the assembled clergy, "I will shut you down, I will shut you down" recalling a reprimand to one of his priests, lest anyone disobey his orders as "we are hierarchical." 

"I will shut you down, I will shut you down!"

The provincial official could point to no scientific study or indication that singing, particularly whilst wearing a mask or maintaining sufficient distance could cause the spread of any virus. All that they had to go on was a case of multiple infections in one location in the State of Washington in January where a choir director knowingly scheduled a choir practice in close quarters with multiple ill people attending. Scientists now indicate that “viral load” is the greatest factor in catching Sars-Cov-2. The source was emphatic that the Province did not ban singing or Holy Communion.

Shoot me now

Referring to those same public health doctors who have demanded Collins ban singing and put ridiculous demands on the distribution of Holy Communion, in the webinar Cardinal Collins said that our medical officers were "virtuous people." The same people that killed a woman by lethal injection because she could not bear the loneliness of another lockdown or kill babies in the womb or restrict your rights These, in His Eminence's opinion, are "virtuous." It seems we have a different view on true Christian virtue.

For the reopening of churches, delayed by Cardinal Collins, the 30% capacity was considered by the government to be a reasonable approach (this writer three months earlier recommended churches stay open with 40%) as “some churches could only hold 30 persons while others could have a maximum capacity much larger.” 

During various virtual calls with church leaders, the officials we spoke with indicated that “they (church leaders) were reluctant to reopen and that they still harboured some reserved judgements on safety” that extended beyond that of the provincial government of Doug Ford and the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health.    

God bless America

Two days ago, the United States Supreme Court, with the key vote swung by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, overruled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's fascistic restrictions on churches. Oddly, Ontario is in jack-boot lock-step with Cuomo on colour codes and restricting the numbers to ten which the Cardinal reduced to zero. 

In an interview on Fox News this morning, Father Gerald K. Murray of the Archdiocese of New York, known for his work with Raymond Arroyo of EWTN's The World Over said, 

"People have the right in this country to worship God and not be restricted by arbitrary limitations. Those restrictions in the Red Zone include ten people in St. Patrick's Cathedral. That's an absurdity. If you can go to Home Depot or the liquor store, which the Governor is allowing, why can't you go worship God."

The comparisons between New York State and Ontario and New York City and Toronto are chilling. Doug Ford has morphed into a kindler gentler version of Andrew Cuomo. Toronto Mayor John Tory is only one bulb brighter on the Seasonal Tree than New York Mayor Warren Wilhlem, Jr. who identifies as Bill de Blasio, but that is where the comparisons stop. The difference is, in the Archdiocese of New York, they have Timothy Cardinal Dolan and he not only defends his churches but he allows priests of the caliber of Gerald K. Murray to speak out and defend the faith on national television without threating to "shut you down." Timothy Dolan has not joined the politburo of New York. What does this say about Thomas Collins who has gone beyond Ford and the medical "expert" diktat of ten by ceasing Mass altogether on the cusp of Advent?

It's just not worth it

More than one confidential clerical source has told this writer that Toronto episcopal and diocesan lay leaders indicate that having Mass for ten is "just not worth it." Churches in Toronto can open to a maximum for ten people as per Ford. This is to be at the "pastor's discretion" for private prayer and cannot include the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the orders of Collins. It simply makes no sense.

I'm shocked, shocked ...

It is not difficult to see why Premier Douglas Ford had no problem accepting the most recent recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer to reduce church capacity to ten as of last Monday, November 22. He knew the Cardinal would not fight back and would accept it at ten or whatever else he might decree. The source indicated that all were “shocked to discover” that Cardinal Collins’ response was to eliminate public worship completely. 

It is difficult to determine why the Cardinal after having suspended the public celebration of the liturgy before government mandate in March would be so eager to do it again now. One can only speculate - intellectually it is not possible to logically conclude the reasons why he would do this. 

Could it be that he is trying to curry favour with Pope Francis to influence who his successor will be in January 2022? Is he being dangled like a puppet by corporate lawyers? Is he being blackmailed? Are there a significant number of priests who have demanded this out of some irrational fear for their apparent personally compromised immune systems? Have public health minions threatened to charge or arrest? Certainly, his demeanor in the November 13 video is revealing - he is as far from St. John Fisher as you can be, he is a weak man filled with fear and a deer caught in the headlights.

My friends, as Dougie Ford is wont to say, this is not easy for this writer. I had great respect for Cardinal Collins. I know so much that I wish I did not know about stuff here in Toronto, I cannot unlearn it. I have, with intention, for a decade avoided much on this blog about what goes on in this Archdiocese and much of its sordid past. I take no joy in this public challenge to him and I don't wish any ill upon Thomas Collins. The facts are, these people do not respond to private emails or phone calls and they do not bend. They do not care about what you think. They have turned the Holy Church of Christ in Toronto into a "hierarchical" corporation and money machine and they have refused you the Sacraments and the opportunity to give God his due, your public worship. If they ran out of money, they would "vacuum it up from the parishes" as he has been known to say, echoing the late disgraced Cardinal Spellman. The people who have taken your money have built houses for bishops when big rectories such as St. Cecelia are empty and allowed hundreds of thousands to be spent on designer kitchens at Holy Rosary in Toronto and St. Mary Immaculate in Richmond Hill and build retirement estates for episcopal leaders in their favourite Ontario town. Your money which you cannot even give to the building fund free of the cathedraticum - and this is what they give you in Lent, Holy Week, the Triduum, Eastertide, Pentecost, Corpus Christi and now Advent and Christmas - stones when you beg for bread.

Cardinal Thomas Collins has a duty and here is what he must do and do it now and you have a part to play.

-Immediately announce that Public Mass will resume on the First Sunday of Advent as normal with the protocols in place at the Premier's insistence of ten (It is worth it, Eminence, it is worth the effort to find ten).

-If the distribution of Holy Communion is a problem, suspend all public Holy Communion at Mass and order that priests must accommodate all privately for the sacrament during the week using the ritual of Holy Communion outside of Mass and it can it be on the tongue privately, by appointment taking sanitary requirements into account.

-Immediately advise the Premier that effective on Sunday, December 6, Catholic churches will be open to 30% and all previous protocols will apply and that the Premier has until this time to amend his order. 

-Make public the threat that any interference by government or public health officials would result in immediate court challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

-Advise the Premier and Toronto Public Health that he is prepared to be subject to arrest and imprisonment for defying the politburo diktats and orders his priests to follow his example. Bullies back down in a fight, especially when as with Ford, they are ignoramus'

You as a Catholic will defend the Cardinal and his priests and stand in the way of any jackboot who threatens your church and you will ensure it. "My friends," will you do that?

Cardinal Collins, do your duty to God and man.