Sunday, April 26, 2020 –
Your Excellency,
Peace be to you, dear Bishop, and may I humbly extend warm and prayerful greetings. These are trying times. I cannot imagine the stress and woe you and our devoted priests are under. Please know our family’s daily prayers are with you.
I write to you on this Good Shepherd Sunday out of earnest and zealous devotion to our Lord. With nearly a half-million registered parishioners in the Arlington Diocese1, you have large flock to tend. I do not covet your burden in leading us.
During this pandemic, you have graciously allowed our Churches to remain open for private devotion. We are still able to receive most Sacraments, albeit in limited capacity and with social distancing. As for my family, we greatly appreciate all of this, especially the ability to receive the Sacrament of Penance.
However, I plead with you to open our Masses.
I do not wish to approach you, a true and holy successor of the Apostles, as a petulant child whining and demanding the Most Blessed Sacrament as if it were a prize won at a carnival. That does a great injustice to the sacred nature of Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity! Our Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the altar is not a mere prize, but a glorious gift.
It pains your flock to be apart from our Good Shepherd. We long to draw close to Him—Christ, our Lord and our God!—in the most devout prayer of our faith, the Mass. While I fully admit and appreciate our Churches have remained open for private adoration, it is the Mass we are missing. It is this highest and most-holy prayer we seek.
My family is grateful for the modern marvel of technology, which has allowed us to view the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in our home. Unfortunately, “TV Mass” is a far cry from being wholly and prayerfully present at the foot of the Cross.
To be quite frank, there is a sense among the laity of a great divide: those of us who are supposed to remain locked away from our Sacraments, particularly the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, without complaint vs. those elite few, hand-picked to serve at the foot of the altar and allowed to receive the Most Blessed Sacrament. In fact, those of us who are not of “the elect” are routinely admonished if we dare speak up.
Well, your Excellency, I dare! With Saint Martha and Saint Catherine of Siena as my patrons, I have some very willful women at my side.
Please do not give into the force of the state. Our governor, and likewise our state government, has proven to be no friend to the Catholic Church. Governor Northam has shown by his lack of respect for human life and irreverent signing of anti-life, anti-Catholic bills on Good Friday2 that he does not care for your flock. I beseech you to not be beholden to civil authorities.
Prudence is laudable when faced with the unknown. However, we now have much more data at our disposal; data that shows we should no longer fear an unseen pathogen. Some extreme measures might have been necessary at the outset. Yet, there has been a subtle, but important shift in our government from “necessary protection for the public good,” to “avoiding any and all spread until a [supposed] cure is found.” Moving the goalpost is an unfortunate consequence of us giving up our personal rights.
Likewise, that same argument, “for the protection and health of the state,” was also used in Buck v. Bell, “The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes…Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” 3 I urge you to faithfully and ferociously fight for your sheep in regaining our religious liberties. We need you, dear Bishop, now more than ever!
I humbly ask that you and your team of advisors find a way for the faithful to return to Mass. I fully understand that we may still be a way off from receiving the Eucharist, or perhaps we may need social distancing and increased cleaning protocols within our Churches. Please know that all this is doable. The faithful in your diocese are willing and able to step up and volunteer our time to ensure everyone’s safety.
Allow me to end with the prayer of Saints Peter and John after their release: “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto Thy servants, that with all confidence they may speak Thy Word.”4
Be bold, your Excellency! Please defend your flock with all zealousness and faith. We desperately need our shepherd to bring us lost sheep back home.
Yours in Christ,
Nicole Flusche
The Good Shepherd, who was willing to die for His sheep, hear our prayer!
Endnotes:
- 2019 Year in Review, Parish Life, page 3 from the Catholic Diocese of Arlington: 453,577 registered parishioners
- Governor Northam Signs Abortion Expansion Legislation and Bills That Fail to Protect Religious Liberty, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Press Release from April 16, 2020. https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/press-releases/2020/governor-northam-signs-abortion-expansion-legislation-and-bills-that-fail-to-protect-religious-liberty/
- Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927)
- Acts 4: 29; Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
