Police at Australian church disrupt service to enforce mask mandates

by Seth Udinski

Seth Udinski, FISM News

 

Last week, a church in Australia became a target for local police who disrupted the church’s service to enforce local mask mandates.

Australia has enacted some of the harshest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine policies in the world, and the events from last week was a further indication of how far the government is willing to go to enforce these mandates.

On Friday, police burst into St. Bernadette’s Catholic Church in Mount Hawthorn during the middle of the church’s Friday mass. Police stopped the service to ensure that everyone in the church was wearing a mask and following COVID-19 lockdown protocols.

One of the attendees said afterward,

It’s just pretty confronting seeing police vests and stuff in church. He didn’t remove his hat, which is pretty disrespectful in that environment. It’s pretty troubling really to see the liturgy that you love being stopped by police. I mean I’ve never seen anything like this and I don’t think many people have, certainly not in this country.

According to sources, police could not find anyone breaking the rules, so they left shortly after and allowed the service to finish. The attendee said, “[They] proceeded to check three or four parishioners’ exemptions and then left.”

The COVID-19 lockdowns have clearly made an impact, with churches meeting in fear and worrying about heavy fines and other punishments if orders are not kept.

The leadership of this particular church released a statement afterward urging parishioners to comply in order to avoid further “complications”:

Heavy fines on the parish priest, our parish and individuals will be incurred if you are caught without wearing your mask. Please co-operate with this request so as to avoid any complications.

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