Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Easter Sunday encouraged Catholics to listen to the doctors, scientists and “civil officials” during the coronavirus crisis, warning “Don’t tempt the Lord.”
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said the urge may be for people to gather and pray, but they instead should “use your prudence.”
“We have to listen to the physicians, the scientists,” he said. “We have to listen to our civic officials because they're on top of things. And we're people of common sense. God gave us a brain.”
“And that’s what I say to God's people who today … want to get in the car and drive around until they find a church open," he added. "God is telling us use your brain. Use your prudence. Use your common sense. Don't tempt the Lord.”
According to Dolan, worshipers are“plugging in” at Easter and Passover
“Even though we can't sadly get to the synagogue or to our parish churches, we can still be in union with God through prayer, through sincerity, through earnestness, through charity to others,” he said. “And, thanks be to God, so many are using the technological advances that we have, live streaming, radio, TV, you name it. People are plugging in it at overwhelming numbers to be part of a community at Easter and Passover.”
Dolan said the outbreak that has ravaged New York has brought about “a connectiveness” amid the death and disease.
“I'm sensing God's presence and… feeling his consolation,” he said. “That's an integrity when things come together and when that flows out to the way we love and treat other people, as we see so radiantly all over in our health care workers and our first responders and in neighbors who are looking out for one another, shopping, checking on one another. I think we've got an integrity, a connectiveness, a unity of purpose.”
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.