Going to Mass on a Sunday has become a thoroughly unpleasant experience. The Roman Catholic Church has ‘got it bad’ regarding the Covid-19 regulations. This is despite the fact that there are essentially no Covid-19 regulations as such since our government decided, at least pro tem, that masks, social distancing and one-way systems were no longer required.
But to go to Mass in my local parish church and, having just changed parishes, I am referring to more than one church here, is like stepping back in time. The only place I witness a higher proportion of masked people is in Waitrose. But at least in Waitrose there is barely a vestige of the Covid-19 regulations.
In my church you are stopped at the ‘Entrance only’ door by a masked guide and taken to your seat. Every second row is taped off, much like a police crime scene, and the smell of incense has been replaced by the smell of alcoholic hand gel. When Mass is over you are prevented from leaving until it is your turn to join the single file queue which leaves by the ‘Exit only’ door. Jesus referred to us repeatedly, as an analogy to the care of a shepherd for his flock, as his sheep. But I don’t think he meant this kind of sheep.
Which brings me to our glorious leader Pope Francis the Woke. His credentials as an appeaser of the global elite are manifest. Fine examples are his ‘no jab no job’ threat to Vatican workers and then his insistence that all Vatican visitors must show a vaccine passport to enter the precincts. Spiritual succour, it appears, is only available to the vaccinated. Given how Jesus approached a leper, when they were shunned by society, one wonders if The Pope has ever read The Gospels.
Then there is his obsession with climate change which seems to have infected The Church all the way down to the pews. Our Prayers of the Faithful last Sunday, amidst the usual prayers for peace, the dead and the clergy, urged us to pray that we would do our bit to protect the planet. The parish newsletter, under the auspices of the CAFOD (The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) Climate Crisis Appeal urged us to sign ‘green cards to the Prime Minister’ ahead of the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.
The Voice, our Middlesborogh Diocesan Catholic newspaper was headlined: ‘How can we all help care for our Common Home’. And the contents were replete with a main feature ‘Continued on Page 2’ about how our diocese was the ‘first to commit to disinvestment from fossil fuels’ and plans to put ‘the environment at the heart of all diocesan operations and implement a strategy to decarbonise parish curia building stock.’ I wonder how the Holy Spirit feels about no longer being ‘at the heart of all diocesan operations?’ As far as I am aware, when the bishop comes to our parishes to conduct Confirmations, he still arrives by car.
Of course, there were copious referrals to Pope Francis’ second papal encyclical Laudato si’ (Praise Be to You) which was a thoroughly embarrassing piece of globalist finger wagging about environmental degradation and global warming. Naturally, this endeared El Papa to the chattering classes. A few of us more conservative Catholics had our doubts. This morning he delivered a doom-laden climate change message to the listeners of Radio 4 to coincide with the COP26 fiasco in rat infested Glasgow. who, I am sure, lapped it up. I nearly cut myself shaving.
I am no theologian, but I cannot help wondering what Our Lord would have made of all this. Far be it from me to put words into His mouth but I can almost hear Him say ‘what profiteth a man to save the planet and lose his soul in the process?’ I do not say this from a position of smugness. As a Catholic I believe my soul cannot be saved until I die. I also know that it will not be saved by signing green cards to the Prime Minister and focusing my prayers on the (disputed) state of the planet.
I will do my bit and recycle my beer bottles and cardboard containers, but I will do so in the knowledge instilled by The Catechism, that my primary purpose on Earth is to ‘know God and to love him and serve him in this world and to be with him forever in the next.’ There are no green cards for that.
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