Contagious Faith in a Church That Saves, by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, April 27, 2021

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

Deeply committed Catholics have been very concerned about the Church’s response to Covid. Most of us have at least a vague suspicion that something is very wrong when the Church shuts down her sacramental ministry for any reason, especially if she seems to be simply following secular political directives—as if that agenda is not very different from her own. At first this was uncharted territory, so perhaps the initial reaction was confusion. But it was uncharted because the Church as a whole has never in her 2,000 year history restricted her mission so much or so quickly as she did in the year of Our Lord 2020.

I don’t mean that the sacraments have never been restricted. This has happened briefly and on a relatively small scale, for example, during periods of Bubonic plague.  …