April 12, 2021
Despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbot’s repeal of the state mask mandate, a pregnant Catholic mother was kicked out of Mass in the Diocese of Dallas for failing to wear a mask.
Father Milton Ryan, pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Parish, is alleged to have called the police while the service was underway and have the young mother threatened with arrest for trespass. Deidre Hairston returned to her pew after receiving communion, with her one-year-old baby in her arms, to find three police officers waiting for her.
One officer threatened to put her in handcuffs if she did not comply with their request to leave the premises, repeatedly insisting that the church was a “business” and that the pastor had a right to refuse her entry. In response to the incident, the Diocese of Dallas issued a lame statement, clarifying that while the bishop has not mandated masks, individual parishes are permitted to make their own rules.
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Deirdre Hairston speaks to Catholic author and podcaster Taylor Marshall on March 27, 2021. | YouTube/Taylor Marshall
A Catholic mother in Texas is speaking out after being threatened with arrest for not wearing a mask during mass.
Deirdre Hairston, who recorded a video of the incident on her phone, told Catholic author and podcaster Taylor Marshall in an interview that she had just taken communion at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Dallas and was kneeling down with her 1-year-old child when a police officer approached her and told her that the church didn t want her there and she was trespassing.
Hairston, who s also pregnant, said parish priest, Father Milton Ryan, contacted police to report that she wasn t wearing a mask, according to CBS DFW affiliate.
“We definitely found it to be doable in our case, given our circumstances,” said Miriam Leon Buono, Oakcrest School associate head of school for operations. “I would not presume to tell others, but I do know that in-person learning has been a great gift to our children, and the faculty has been heroic. We’ve been very successful.”
With the end of the 2020-21 school year in sight, she said, “we’re big advocates for in-person learning, no doubt about it.”
With its 23-acre campus in Vienna, Virginia, Oakcrest has a unique advantage in terms of space, and yet its refusal to shut down for the pandemic was typical of U.S. Catholic schools.