Days after Minnesota’s Catholic and Lutheran churches publicly declared they would defy Gov. Tim Walz’s order restricting in-person services to not more than 10 people, the state has announced it’s lifting that limitation to let larger groups gather for worship beginning Wednesday.
At a press briefing Saturday, Gov. Walz announced that churches will be able to hold services starting Wednesday if they follow social distancing guidelines and limit the gatherings to not more than 25% of a building’s capacity, MinnPost reported.
The governor has recognized that churches can reopen safely and carefully in the same way as malls and other business operations, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which along with Sidley Austin LLP had written to Waltz about his pervious order violating the First Amendment, said in a statement Saturday.