Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen Catholic Church, at 125 Summit St. in Carroll Gardens, has been blocked by Facebook from livestreaming Masses.
The parish made the announcement on a Facebook post on Saturday, Jan. 23.
“You may have noticed that we haven’t been able to broadcast Mass LIVE the normal way,” the parish stated in a Facebook post. “Well, my account was put in the ‘naughty corner’ called Facebook jail for broadcasting Mass too frequently to our page and group.
“Facebook suspended my ability to use the live video feature. The charge was video spam in violation of community standards. I have appealed their decision,” said the church’s pastor, Msgr. Guy Massie.
The church is where Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce, the late Buddy Scotto and many others have worshiped.
Net.tv, which first reported the story, says the Facebook livestream just disappeared.
“It’s taken away from our parishioners who have found this connection with religion, with God and they’ve already had so much taken away from them in the past year,” José San Juan, a member of the parish, told the outlet.
The decision was upsetting to those that view the masses online.
“This is the wrong thing to do at a time when COVID is still very much going strong,” said one Facebook user. “Not everyone can attend Church at this time. It is comforting when you’re able to see a mass being performed, when you’re able to attend.”
“This is horrible, and yet they permit so many offensive things to be posted,” added another.
All Masses are still being broadcast but through Boxcast, with the church posting the link on its Facebook page, making it a bit more complicated for some to watch the Mass.
According to John Quaglione, deputy press secretary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, Facebook hasn’t responded when asked for a reason why it won’t allow the Mass to be broadcast.