“I know worship is as essential as food and water for most of us," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday, “and it’s my priority to provide guidance to ensure that it may proceed safely.”
religion
New statewide totals: 105,444 cases, 4,715 deaths
President Donald Trump said Friday that he has deemed churches and other houses of worship “essential” and called on governors across the country to allow them to reopen this weekend despite the threat of spreading the coronavirus.
While Chicago is in phase two of its plan to reopen, churches are allowed to have 10 or fewer people inside the building during services. But some churches are defying that rule, and want to reopen immediately.
Skokie, just 15 miles northwest of Chicago’s Loop, is home to the Illinois Holocaust Museum, the state’s only synagogue for the deaf and Old Orchard Mall — each of which have had to close during the pandemic.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged Chicago religious leaders on Friday not to hold in-person worship services this weekend, warning those who fail to follow the governor’s stay-at-home order are “playing with a fully loaded and cocked gun.”
In a 12-page ruling, the judge said the Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park and Logos Baptist Ministries in Niles “provided no evidence” that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order targeted religion.
The ruling came hours after the pastor behind a lawsuit targeting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive order led dozens of worshipers through a Sunday morning service at The Beloved Church in Lena.
The monthlong celebration of Ramadan begins this week. What’s supposed to be a month of fasting and reflection while surrounded by family is instead marked by social distancing. How one local mosque is celebrating.
The city had declared 2020 as Chicago’s “year of music.” Now with live music all but shut down, we’ve been talking with artists who were set to share their sounds before the coronavirus outbreak – including Donald Lawrence and the Tri-City Singers.
Dealing with loved ones dying in normal times can be difficult enough. But during this global health crisis, a host of new challenges arise as physical distancing forces families apart during final bedside moments.
Will the holidays be vastly different during the stay-at-home order? A local rabbi and pastor talk about how they are ministering during this strange time.
Mass at all Archdiocese of Chicago churches will be suspended starting Saturday until further notice in an effort to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. “This is not a decision I made lightly,” Archbishop Blase Cupich said in a statement.
Concerns about the coronavirus have caused many people to change their plans – even to cancel vacations. This includes some local Muslims, who were supposed to go to Saudi Arabia over spring break.
Chicago made national news this week when an archdiocesan official suggested plant-based “meats” are a cheat during Lent’s meatless Fridays.
The lawsuit charges that the late Rev. Donald McGuire, a globe-trotting Jesuit with ties to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, abused Robert J. Goldberg “more than 1,000 times, in multiple states and countries,” during sojourns to spiritual retreats throughout the United States and Europe.
Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of the influential evangelical Christian publication Christianity Today, joins us to discuss his recent editorial that fired up the president.
