The cat and the pigeons

This phase of deconfinement, if all goes well, will last until the 2nd of June. On 25 May the Prime Minister should outline the details of the next phase, what further freedoms will be permitted, what risks seem reasonable, what activities can be resumed and under what conditions.

It is in this speech of 25 May that we expect cafés to be allowed to reopen, along with places of worship, under guidelines to be published to be adopted from 2nd June.

However, Pentecost falls on 31st May, and the Roman Catholic Church would dearly love to open for worship for Pentecost.

This is the background to a decision by the Conseil d'Etat published yesterday that the measures forbidding public worship are to restrictive and that guidelines should be issued so that churches can resume public worship from 25th May, a whole week earlier, which would allow mass at Pentecost.

Many catholic churches are very large and would permit people to be spread out widely. This is not always the case with the protestant churches. We await guidelines to see whether we can safely meet.

Meanwhile I had better book an appointment with my doctor before the 25 May so I can know whether I can be allowed to mix or not.




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