My old church sent me a long, groveling letter complaining about money and people not attending after they shut it down for covid and then forced vaccinated and masked attendance after “opening up.”
Boo hoo. I cry for thee Argentina. I am going to send a nice typed response letter to Pastor Ryan explaining why I will never darken his Church’s doors again and why they can kiss my financial support goodbye. I thought I would highlight the insanity of the letter and why I left that Novus Ordo Church and now attend a Traditional Latin Mass Parish of the Society of Saint Pius X (my highlights are in yellow)
First, I am not your friend, and you are not mine. Friends don't abandon each other in hard times. You shut the Church when it was needed to stay open. Jesus did not run away from his apostles and the people when times were tough. You, Pastor Ryan and your Church did.
Next, if you believe that the vaccines are safe because "public health officials" told you so, then you are too uninformed to live. You also have NO common sense if you believe masks work against respiratory viruses. You are simply spouting humanistic talking points because you believe NOTHING.
Finally, understandably SOME people, especially me, are not hesitant to attend Mass in your Church because of Omicron, we REFUSE to attend Mass in your Church because of your knee-jerk, scared, anti-Christian, anti-science, demonic, reaction to a coronovirus with a 99.8% survival rate.
What has been more extraordinary than the pandemic? Just about anything. The pandemic was nothing. The "me-too freakout" reaction was everything. Quit blaming a respiratory virus that humans have lived with for eternity for your ridiculous reactions. Pastor Ryan, you and your Priests may have felt like you wanted to keep the Church open, but I doubt it. You willingly walked lock-step with the Bishop to close down. While other Priests defied the higher-ups to stay open, you shuttered the place as soon as possible. You also took this opportunity to ban communion on the tongue, which you and your Priests always hated anyways. Feelings do not equate to actions and your actions showed your willingness to abandon your flock at the first opportunity for a non-pandemic to a coronovirus with a 99.8% survival rate.
If you believe social distancing is a safe route to end the "pandemic" why did you abandon it? Yet more nonsensical edicts from "public health officials" and the Bishop, that you followed lock-step without a thought. I would never, EVER register to attend the Holy Mass. Jesus did not require the people to register before preaching to them. He welcomed all, even going so far as to feed the multitudes who listened to Him for days. Should Jesus have said to his apostles, "Make sure I don't have more than ten people here at a time. Make them register and show their credentials, for safety." According to you Pastor Ryan, yes Jesus should have done just that, because it is necessary for safety (actually Rome [public health officials] and the Jewish leaders [bishop] would have preferred that Jesus did do that).
As to your worries about financial support of the Parish, I will NEVER financially support your Parish again and this is my official withdrawal from your Church. Please remove my name from the Parish rolls and cease sending me any more updates or contribution envelopes. If you continue to send me such envelopes I will use them for my financial support of my new Parish - BLESSED VIRGIN MARY CHURCH.
Finally, the wearing of the mask at Mass is not only ridiculous, anti-science, and anti-God, it is bordering on satanic. Black masses mask up participants. It's good to know you follow the same ritual. It's good to know you think stopping singing will stop the transmission of viruses. Where do you get such ridiculous notions? The only way to stop respiratory viruses is to stop breathing or wear a full hazmat suit with a separate oxygen supply. I just can't bear to hear anymore moronic anti-science and anti-God excuses from you Pastor Ryan. You should know better, but apparently you don't.
Here on page two is the meat of your insanity, of which I will not participate. You, Pastor Ryan, are not sure what normal is anymore! I would recommend you look to the Bible and the Gospel. That is normal and the Truth. Normal is breathing oxygen and dispelling carbon dioxide through your unimpeded nose and mouth as God intended. Normal is living with a cold/flu/virus with a 99.8% survival rate without being scared of dying by relying on your God-given immune system. Normal is not injecting yourself with man-made poisons, with no safety data, no concern for how it interacts with other medications or conditions, and then finding out it does absolutely NOTHING, and yet still require parishioners "to carry papers" to worship Jesus.
If you are implying in your bolded paragraph, and I am sure you are, that unvaccinated parishioners (for whatever reason) are not welcome back in person without a useless paper card, then YOU are not normal. You, Pastor Ryan, need to do some soul searching as you have abandoned your sheep, which is what Jesus warned as one of the greatest sins against God.
As I can see, you eagerly welcome the vaccinated and boosted who enjoy good health with open arms back into your Church. What about those of us unvaccinated and unboosted who enjoy good health? We are NOT WELCOME as we are not privileged to do so from your letter. In your mind and in your actions, you have segregated your congregation into the clean and unclean. Jesus never shied away from the lepers, yet you run as far away as you can. In fact, from the science, it is CONFIRMED that the vaccinated and unvaccinated are in exactly the same situation in regards to covid. Anyone in good health should be welcomed, and anyone who is sick should stay home. That is how it has always been, nothing has changed. Jesus did not ask a leper to present his vaccination card before he would cure him, did he? Yet the unvaccinated in good health don't even have a disease and you shut your Church doors to them.
Shameful, unbelievably shameful. God sees.
As to needing the unvaccinated, no you don't as you have already stated. What you do need is their money and would be glad to keep the unclean physically away from your church as long as their direct deposit contributions continued. You are losing parishioners and you don't even know why. You are ignorant, living in a bubble of media-worship, and have no empathy for anyone who does not follow the "narrative." So no, I will NOT REJOIN THE COMMUNITY IN PERSON (nor could I since I am a leper). Your community, Pastor Ryan, is too humanistic for me. You have lost sight of what the Mass is and the real presence of Jesus Christ. You have protestantized and laicized the Worship, and your over-the-top coronovirus actions to this day have solidified my view that your Parish is not the place for me.
I do agree with one thing in your final paragraph - I cannot and should not ever attend another Mass at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Fayetteville, NY. Thankfully, God has led me to where I need to be. The Traditional Latin Mass in the Society of Saint Pius X. I have never felt such beauty and peace as when I first attended the mass at the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Warners, NY.
My new parish did not go crazy with the coronovirus madness, and Pastor Boyle even apologized saying the measures he implemented were too strict. Even in 2021, no masks were required at Mass. No social distancing, no registration. As for the Mass, it is the true Catholic Mass celebrated for centuries. It does not depend on the whim of the priest celebrating it, it is the same and eternal celebration of Jesus' sacrifice, as it should be. In addition the consecrated hosts are ONLY handled by the priests and deacons, with communion ONLY presented on the tongue. This is the true respect worthy of Jesus.
God is showing the Catholic Church its faults. The Novus Ordo parishes are dying, the TLM parishes are flourishing. Your Parish, Pastor Ryan is aging out of existence. Unlike my new Parish, your priests are aged, the parishioners even more so. Few young families, few people wanting to become Priests or Nuns. It is very sad to watch. You have abandoned the one true faith for humanistic concerns and wonder why parishioners do not want to return. This situation started long before coronovirus reared its head. May you someday search your soul and correct your path as a Pastor.
In the meantime, thank you, Pastor Ryan, for showing me where to go.
I went away, now you go away.
My ex-church just sent me a check for $25 of which they stole from me. Sweet! I'm going to cash it and donate it to my new church. I'm glad God made that ex-pastor read my letter.
Now tell me how your really feel. LOL!