A parishioner in Australia captured the moment when police interrupted Mass to demand that five people who were not wearing face masks comply with the law.

Government mandates that interfere with, or eliminate the ability of, the faithful to gather for Holy Mass are certainly not new. But has it ever been required to provide proof of a medical treatment to enter a church?

Premier François Legault vowed in advance of a truckers’ convoy arriving in Quebec City there would be zero tolerance for antics that interfered with residents enjoying “normal” life.

Perhaps the oldest strategy of war is: “Divide and conquer”— which can take many forms. Physically divide a land mass into north and south. Encourage a portion of a country to secede. Partition. Physical divisions create smaller spaces and populations to overtake, can leave families separated and citizens stranded. But the most insidious division is spiritual, psychological, social. If planned from without and then wormed into a once-harmonious (even if not homogenous) group, division can be made to feel organic and even righteous through… you guessed it: fear-mongering.

The Freedom Convoy ensnarling the nations’s capital has led to the cancellation of Masses in churches near downtown Ottawa.

While the Freedom Convoy 2022 demonstration in the nation’s capital, led by thousands of Canadian truckers, dominated headlines by its sheer size, a Catholic dimension has emerged in ongoing protests against COVID-19 restrictions.

A true mob is terrible to witness, much less get stuck in. Something happens when humans are pressed together in fear and anger: a feral scent is emitted, an emboldening and anxious spirit. Once unleashed, it crashes over and draws down all in its wake.

The people who work in Catholic schools don’t think there ought to be any uncertainty over whether or not the kids in classrooms are vaccinated.

We are living in a time of deep mistrust. It’s not the first time in history that has happened but it’s happening now, so we must deal with it or at least try to understand it. It is especially rampant under the cloud of COVID and the issues surrounding the vaccine.

Today, I phoned to book a haircut only to find that Pat, my stylist of the past two years, had died of the delta variant of COVID. When I last saw him in late August, he looked fit and healthy as ever. I phoned back a month later to set my next haircut appointment but was told Pat was off work because he was having back problems. He died shortly after that call.

Over 19 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, all 225 parishes of the Archdiocese of Toronto have deftly avoided being an outbreak zone for the virus.

While the vast majority of the public has been compliant with safety measures in dealing with the pandemic, resistance to vaccination mandates, mask rules and other requirements has been high among ultra-conservative Catholic and evangelical groups.

The union representing Ontario’s Catholic teachers is endorsing calls to authorize COVID vaccinations for kids between five and 11, a move that seems to have the support of the majority of Canadians as well.

The message across the country for parishioners, volunteers and staff at Catholic churches is clear: please get vaccinated.

VATICAN CITY -- Three members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard have hung up their halberds rather than be vaccinated against COVID-19, and three others were temporarily suspended in early October as they were completing the vaccination cycle, the spokesman for the guards told a Swiss newspaper.