Former Judge: Religion is Essential

“It is none of the state’s business to decide that religious worship is not important,” McConnell said to an online gathering May 13. “It is the state’s business to decide whether particular forms that religious worship might take may be dangerous to public health.”

“It’s the government’s business to decide what is healthy. It is the church’s business to decide what is important,” he said in summary.

McConnell, a former federal judge on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, joined Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco as the main speakers for a briefing titled “The Church, the State and the Pandemic.” The event was moderated by Maggie Gallagher, executive director of the San Francisco-based Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship.

The former judge said state and local governments have significant authority to limit religious gatherings in an epidemic, but they must limit religious activities no more strictly than comparable activities.