The Coronavirus, the Church and Dystopias Come True

Frightening! May God have mercy on His Church and His people! Kyrie eleison!

From Altare Dei

By Aldo Maria Valli

Saint Peter’s Square is empty for the weekly papal audience; Masses are being celebrated without the faithful and transmitted on television instead; bishops bless men of science but are careful not to implore the help of Almighty God; a Catholic theologian has said that Lent is not a time of mortification and penance.

Until recently we would have said that such a scene was dystopian, something out of a fictional novel imagining a world in which the Church exists only as a façade but is internally dead, while her own leaders have adopted the language and logic of the world.

But today we see that this is simply the present reality. The coronavirus affair, which has developed simultaneously with the beginning of Lent, has served to bring it all to our attention in an even more evident way.

“Sacrifices and penances serve to center man on himself, on his own spiritual perfection, and nothing could be more dangerous and lethal than this deceptive attitude, which give the person the illusion of drawing closer to God when actually they only serve to distance him from his fellow men.” So writes the theologian, who says that Lent is not a time of penance. The only evil is to distance oneself from other people. How strange then that the first thing this humanitarian Neo-Church does in the face of a spreading virus is tell all the people to leave.

In various cities of Northern Italy during these days those faithful and priests who do not wish to accept the official ban on public Masses are meeting for clandestine Masses, and they are quite well attended. This too is a situation that until recently we would have defined as dystopian: but here it is happening right in front of our eyes. Whoever wants to remain Catholic and continue to receive the Eucharist must do it secretly.

A reader who went to one of these Masses told me that he was not allowed to report what church it was at. “You know,” he said, “the pastor could undergo retribution if I told you.” Do you understand what this means? A man of God could suffer retaliation from the authority of the Church for having done his duty, for having responded to the call of the Lord rather than the Prefect’s order.

In Milan the Archbishop’s Holy Mass for the beginning of Ambrosian Lent was transmitted by Direct-TV, without any of the faithful present, and everyone is congratulating him for making a “great decision.” Milan, the city of Saint Charles Borromeo, the indomitable pastor who fought against the plague without fear, placing himself completely in the hands of God as he brought the sacraments to his people. And now we have virtual Mass. The next step will be to replace the celebrant with a hologram.

In The Screwtape Letters the expert devil says: “It’s funny how mortals always represent us as beings who put this or that idea in their head: actually our best work consists in keeping things out of their heads.” In these days marked by the coronavirus affair, pastors, with rare exceptions, seem to be competing to keep the idea out of our heads that God can heal and save us. Rather, they tell us the most important thing is to rigorously apply the directions of the prefecture. The “Church that goes out” has shut the faithful out. The “Church as field hospital” has now, at just the right time, chosen sanitation rather than sanctification. Amen.​

Translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino @pellegrino2020