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OTTAWA, Ontario, June 11, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic group opposed to ongoing lockdowns in Canada will hold a Rosary Rally on Parliament Hill this Saturday, June 12, to protest and pray for the right to worship in churches.

Catholics will gather on Parliament Hill to pray the rosary and implore the Blessed Virgin Mary for aid. Canadians will sing the national anthem before reciting the rosary. The program for the event provides all the hymns and prayers.

The event is organized by Catholic Uprising, a group of Catholics dedicated to teaching Canadians “about the current COVID-19 crisis and the real and present threat to our freedoms because of imprudent and harmful actions of Canadian politicians.”

“The Parliament Rosary Rally is an event to encourage Catholics to gather and pray for the freedom to worship in our Churches and to pray for the freedoms of all Canadians,” the website reads.

This event will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon. After the Rosary Rally, the Ottawa Gatineau Freedom Club will be hosting a freedom rally, which takes place every Saturday from 12 noon to 2 p.m. This is a rally open to all Canadians aimed at reopening Canada and regaining lost rights and freedoms.

This is the second rosary rally to be held, the first having occurred on May 29. “There will likely be more because I don’t believe the lockdowns are going to end any time soon,” John Pacheco, the founder of Catholic Uprising, told LifeSiteNews. “Or if they do for the churches, we will have to comply on discrimination against people who abstain from the vaccine.”

In Ontario, the current lockdown limits churches to 15% capacity, while some retail stores can welcome people up to 25% capacity. Restaurants and bars are permitted as many people as they can fit while still maintaining social distancing rules.

Pacheco told LifeSiteNews, “Once the Church’s freedoms are restricted, it does not take long for the rest of the civil liberties of all Canadians to be attacked.”

“We cannot be lulled into a sense of security, thinking that the government has the best interests of the faithful at heart,” he continued. “They don’t understand us, and they see us as a potential threat to the health narrative that brooks no dissent or criticism.” 

He explained that Canadians have moved past what Pope St. John Paul II called “a veiled totalitarianism,” and into an unveiled one. “When the State loses all sense of balance or proportion, the only institution that can rise up to challenge it is the Church, if and when necessary,” Pacheco said.  

“That’s why we have to pray for our country, the Church, and our spiritual leaders that God will give them the courage and prudence to understand what we are truly facing,” he said. “COVID will come and go, but I’m not at all convinced that our freedoms will be fully restored.”