Three Men Arrested Outside Irish Cathedral While Broadcasting Mass

LifeSite News ^ | 1/14/21 | Michael Haynes

[marshmallow]

Police had spotted a ‘vehicle parked some distance away from the men,’ and thus assumed they had traveled more than the currently permitted 5 km from home.

WATERFORD, Ireland, January 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Three men have been arrested by Irish police in connection to broadcasting Mass on speakers outside a cathedral, and for not giving their names to police.

On Sunday, January 10, four men positioned themselves outside Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cathedral in Waterford, Ireland. They had two amplifiers with them and reports state that the men were “broadcasting Mass on speakers.”

The regular Sunday Mass in the cathedral began at midday, and began to be live-streamed online, half an hour before police appeared.

The police officers arrived on the scene at 12:30 p.m. and questioned the group. Local media reports that the police, or Garda, spotted a “vehicle parked some distance away from the men,” and on that basis made the assumption that the four men had traveled more than the currently permitted 5 km from home, without a “reasonable excuse.”

Under the current national lockdown, travel is limited to certain “essential purposes.” Worship has been banned, but churches and places of worship have been permitted to remain open for private prayer.

Upon approaching the men, Garda officers told them that they were in breach of lockdown restrictions, demanding to know their names and addresses. While one man complied by giving his details, the remaining three did not, and were subsequently arrested.

[Verginius Rufus]

Worse than the Romans. Neither Nero nor Diocletian ever arrested anyone for broadcasting a Mass with speakers.