340. Catholics in England are Still Penalized
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| Four of the five priests born and bred in this parish |
Last night I went to the celebration of the
10th anniversary of the consecration of our parish church in
Sarmede, St Anthony’s and the bells pealed and rang with joy... A sound I did
not hear from a Catholic church in my upbringing and years as a teacher in
Britain. That was because being a Catholic in Britain meant being a second
class citizen in all effects.
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| Saint Mary the Mount in Walsall. My parish church, no bells, no spire, no crucifix |
I remember our parish priest, of Irish origin,
Canon Joseph Donne, telling me that since they weren’t allowed to put a steeple
with bells and a Cross on top of the church he put a big statue of Our Lady
there instead. The church Saint Mary’s the Mount in Walsall is still there
today, with no bells because they could not ring them anyway if they had them.
Of course we had May processions in honour of Our Lady but it was always an
edgy kind of affair because anyone could come and put the poor priest under
arrest, not only for walking around the vicarage with all his vestments on but
also for organizing an un authorized demonstration!
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| We had May processions- just about. |
Such was the law and it still is, only nowadays
the law turns a blind eye as it did last year on Oct 3 2011 when the Marian
procession took to the streets of Manchester with a statue of Our Lady to boot.
It was however escorted by Catholic “bobbies” who volunteered security for that
occasion, so that would have put off some official or other who wanted to stop
it... just because it was a Catholic procession- had it been any other
procession, you would have had the whole police force turning out officially and
being paid for it.
When I made comments on this and someone
told me that the bells of the Catholic Westminster Cathedral pealed for the
Olympics and the Queen’s Jubilee... Ha, thought I, the authorities have
consented the bells to ring for such events, but not for the birth of Christ,
His death or His resurrection!
Someone else mentioned that Wandsworth
Council has banned bells tolling 3 weeks in a month because of offence to
Muslims- and I suggested the Protestant community should make their voice heard
loud and clear in defence of their rights- but not the Catholics who have no
say in the matter since even on that one
Sunday no Catholic bell is rung!
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| It's still not lawful for Catholics to ring their bell- notice the singular form. |
And from Northern Ireland we have one
claiming Catholic bells ring, priests walk around in their Cassocks,
processions abound... With all that ammunition in stock, I shouldn’t marvel
that no one would try to stop them!!!
However the question is this, Catholics in
Britain should have the right to worship openly and have bells, crosses and
spires on their Churches (the Church in Preston with its magnificent spire and
one bell is the exception to the rule- and that one bell is restricted due to
protected birds nesting in the belfry- you have to admit, there’s no end to the
imagination and skill of the British law makers.) The priests should be able to
walk around in whatever gear they want and induce processions or open worship
freely without having to beg nor having someone breathing down their neck in
doing so, or someone being condescending about it... it is the right of every
citizen to freedom of worship and the expression of it- we are not in China!
As if this is not enough, the next thing we
hear is that Catholic Charities can no longer functions unless they commit the
crime of giving in adoption children to homosexuals because that is discrimination
against this category. Not a word on the rights of the child who by being
burdened with two dads or two mums he will be made “different” from other
children. A law that discriminates
against a defenceless child in favour of consenting adults and does not defend
the birthright of every child to have a real mother and a real father is
morally insane and a blasphemous law.
Then we have the Archbishop of Canterbury
adding insult to injury by presenting himself to the Pope, as a man of
meditation and prayer, promoter of Christian Unity and so forth and so forth
when he doesn’t lift a finger, not even to petition the head of his church, The
Queen, to delete these barbaric, discriminative measures against Catholic
priests, Catholic Churches, schools, charities and people... well there’s only
one word to describe that kind of behaviour and it begins with H...
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