Pastor turns church into a bar to highlight absurd lockdown laws

This may very well sound familiar to South Africans: there’s a man in Argentina who is extremely upset at what he considers to be illogical and ‘uneven’ lockdown restrictions in place in the South American country.

The gentleman in question is the pastor of a large church in the city of San Lorenzo in the province of Santa Fe.

Dismayed at regulations that allow shops, bars and restaurants to be open, but dictate that places of worship must remain closed, Pastor Daniel Cattaneo of the Comunidad Redentor church decided to take matters into his own hands.

The church that became a bar overnight

Determined to find a way to minister to his Christian flock and protest the absurdity of the regulations at the same time, he decided to reopen the church as a bar and restaurant.

Bar tables were placed inside the church and pastors dressed as waiters carried Bibles on their trays in a mock service, the UK-based Guardian newspaper reported.

Pastor leads the prayers at the ‘worship bar’

“We are standing here today dressed like this, carrying a tray, because it seems this is the only way we can serve the word of God,” Pastor Cattaneo, dressed as a waiter, said as he opened the ‘worship bar’ at the church.

“So, apart from the breaded veal headed for table four, here goes the word of God from the house of the Lord to all nations.”

Why are the authorities discriminating against us?

The pastor’s unconventional approach certainly caught the attention of the local media, who turned up to witness the grand opening of the ‘worship bar’.

“We want to exercise our constitutional right to practice our faith,” Cattaneo told the journalists. “Bars can open, shops can open; why are they discriminating against us?”

A record high of 1 391 new cases was recorded in Argentina on Friday, all but 89 of them in the capital city of Buenos Aires. There have been 28 764 cases and 785 deaths in Argentina so far, the Guardian said.