If the Sacraments Aren’t Essential, Nothing Is Essential, by John Clark

The faithful need to be reminded, through words and deeds, that there is nothing more essential than the sacraments.

By John Clark, EWTN News, 6/15/20

Last year, I wrote a column arguing that if priests and bishops refuse to stand up for the Sacrament of Matrimony, they will eventually grow reluctant to stand up for the other sacraments as well. I sorely hoped I would be wrong. With some of the clerical responses to COVID-19, however, that’s a prediction that has come true in ways far worse than I could have imagined.

For millions of Catholics — as we all know quite well — neither clerical Baptism nor Communion nor Confession nor Matrimony nor Confirmation nor Holy Orders nor Anointing of the Sick has been available for months.

The end-of-life sacramental issues have been the most newsworthy. In some dioceses in America, dying without the sacraments has become the new normal. Many a Catholic goes to bed at night worried that if he gets sick anytime soon — with any illness — his call to the rectory might go unanswered, and sacramentally unaddressed. …

Read more here:  https://www.ncregister.com/blog/johnclark/if-the-sacraments-arent-essential-nothing-is-essential