New Jersey priest says his congregation has DOUBLED since he sued Governor Phil Murphy over COVID restrictions and Supreme Court sided with the place of worship
The Reverend Father Kevin Robinson of St. Anthony of Padua said that the size of his North Caldwell, New Jersey, congregation has doubled in size since May
A northern New Jersey priest who sued Governor Phil Murphy after he was threatened with arrest if he held Mass said that the size of his congregation doubled after he went public with his campaign.
The Reverend Father Kevin Robinson of St. Anthony of Padua filed suit against the Democratic governor in May after the stay-at-home orders issued because of the COVID-19 outbreak placed restrictions on religious services.
Robinson appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News on Thursday and said that the size of his congregation doubled since he first appeared on the program in May to discuss the lawsuit.
Within a week of that show, President Trump called for COVID-19 restrictions on church gatherings to be lifted.
‘People are looking for the truth, holiness, and some courage conviction,’ Robinson said when asked why the size of his congregation has doubled.
‘Other churches are closed and people coming to us are very grateful.’
Robinson said that he has managed to keep indoor services socially distanced while providing hand sanitizer and other hygienic equipment aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
He sued Murphy after the governor limited capacity in churches to just 25 per cent while allowing some secular businesses and schools the right to gather at even greater capacity.
Robinson sued New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy after he imposed restrictions on religious gatherings after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The above image shows St. Anthony of Padua Church in North Caldwell, New Jersey
‘Order 107 articulates no rationale whatsoever for treating religious gatherings as a greater threat to public health and safety than commercial gatherings that involve manifestly far greater risk of viral transmission among millions of potential customers or in the enclosed premises of the offices maintained by ‘essential’ businesses and the media,’ the complaint reads.
Last week, the Supreme Court ordered lower federal courts in Colorado and New Jersey to reexamine state restrictions on indoor religious services to combat the coronavirus in light of the justices’ recent ruling in favor of churches and synagogues in New York.
The high court’s unsigned decisions did not rule that limits imposed by Colorado Governor Jared Polis and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy were improper.
But they did throw out federal district court rulings that rejected challenges to the limits.
The High Plains Harvest Church in the rural town of Ault in northern Colorado sued Polis, while Robinson and a rabbi challenged the restrictions in New Jersey.
Last month, the Supreme Court split 5-4 in holding that New York could not enforce certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues.
Robinson sued Murphy (seen above on December 15 in Newark, New Jersey) claiming that his restrictions on church services were unconstitutional
The high court subsequently ordered a new look at California worship service restrictions that had been challenged.
Colorado told the justices last week that it had amended a public health order ‘to remove capacity limits from all houses of worship at all times in response to this Court’s recent decisions.’
That should have settled the matter because ‘there is no reason to think Colorado will reverse course - and so no reason to think Harvest Church will again face capacity limits,’ Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a brief dissent that was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.
No justice noted a dissent from the New Jersey decision.