This, in SW London. A Good Friday service in Polish. The people are threatened with fines and arrest.
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I bet they wouldn’t dare set foot in a mosque for fear of ”offending” them.
For the conversion of the perfidious Metropolitan Police, Oremus.
The mandates of the governing “CovIdiots” must not be defied. You do so at the risk of persecution by secular authorities, unless you are a follower of Mahomet.
It’s happening here in Dallas. The pastor of Holy Trinity called the cops to remove a pregnant lady, her husband, and child for not wearing masks. Our bishop punted.
CNA news story:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/polish-catholic-parish-in-london-we-believe-police-grossly-exceeded-powers-in-halting-good-friday-service
In spite of the parish’s claim that “all government requirements were met”, the video clearly shows that there was not the required social distance between people of different households.
This story has been picked up by the media here in Britain and is being reported with a strong degree of shock at the Police actions. I suspect it will be followed up by a number of politicians who are concerned by the Police appearing to pick on easy targets such as this Church.
That said in UK we are better off than the Republic of Ireland where all Churches remain closed. On St Patrick’s day my (Irish) wife attended Mass in an English Church said by an English Priest. Her relatives in Ireland by contrast were not able to find an open Church
In 1849 as an exile in London Karl Marx spent much of his time in the reading room of the British Museum. There he wrote Das Kapital (see Paul Kengor’s “The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long March of Death, Deception and Infiltration”).
From London during WW II and the Cold War Winston Churchill and his Special Operations Executive, MI-6 (headquartered since 1994 in southwest central London in a building dubbed “the Ziggurat”), and Margaret Thatcher’s government (along with Pope John Paul II and Pres. Ronald Reagan) aided and assisted Polish groups resisting Communism.
In 2021 in southwest London at a Polish church Holy Mass is interrupted by a British government simultaneously fearful of and exploiting for authoritarian purposes the Communist Wuhan Virus.
A sign of the times, true. But tyrannical Leftist, socialist and Communist regimes already have lost the war. Persevere. “Be not afraid”- St. Karol Wojtyla.
England is gone.
It is now aloof on a sea of lunacy.
I just finished serving as deacon to the most beautiful (pre-1955) Easter Vigil of my life, go home, sit down, relax, and open my computer to… this… It’s all I can do not to post five paragraphs in all caps… How dare those cops set foot in the Sanctuary? Is there no-one there man enough to stop them? Why is the clergy complying? Last spring, a few cops tried to do the same in a church in my diocese. The MC, who was himself a cop, blocked their way and told them their intrusion was illegal. They told him they would be “monitoring the situation”, went away, and Holy Mass went on. The priest never missed a beat. The cops never came back.
I hope that I would have stayed!
Incredible.
Horrifying.
God forbid the for they know not what they do.
I cannot agree with the outrage expressed in many of these comments. As an Englishman I write from nearer the scene than those commenting perhaps from afar.
Religious services whether in church synagogue or mosque are allowed subject to certain provisions to mitigate the spread of the virus, one of which is that individuals and/or extended households should be no less than two metres apart. Indeed, the sign pinned to the pulpit clearly indicates the need for such distance. The video shows that people, at least in the front row, not observing that required separation.
Press reports indicate that the police had already spoken to the priest before the service when large numbers of people were gathered outside the church. The police officer addressing the congregation spoke politely and with a hint or two of sympathy, as seen in the video. The sanctions mentioned are applicable to any gathering, in church or not, where rules had been broken and directives ignored. They were announced as information precisely so that there be no need for them to be applied.
@ Gab:
My thoughts exactly! Let’s see them do that in a mosque or a synagogue.
C’mon, this was not a raid!
1. Police were speaking politely and outlining the current Covid restrictions (the unreasonableness of the restrictions is another matter). No armed SWAT teams employing ‘flash bangs’ and other paraphernalia were employed nor were parishioners cuffed and thrown into the back of a ‘Black Maria’. Had they chosen to politely stand firm and ignore the police, the situation might have changed but, unlikely, considering the ‘3 Ring Circus’ recently employed by Met. Police at the Sarah Everard demonstration.
2. Clearly there are “physical distancing” rules for social gatherings in most cities on the planet. Did the parish priest not know this? Was there not some form of on-line registration for available/allowable spaces in the church? Were was the supervision by parish officials outside or inside the church? Doesn’t seem like any to me. Not surprisingly it invited local busybodies to call the authorities…..who upheld the current law.
I don’t disagree that this is a ridiculous state of affairs and I found the police actions singling out a passive, devout group to be petty especially as the Met seems to pick and choose how vigorously it will behave depending on the demonstration but at the end of the day this was no “raid”.
Isn’t it against the law in England to disrupt religious services? It is in these United States, and the law provides for no exception for when it’s done “politely.”
Chrysologos, mcferran and CanukFrank: Good Friday is a Christian, not a Covidian, Holy Day.
CanukFrank wrote: “C’mon [man!], this was not a raid!”
Fr. Z’s use of the word is correct. A raid does not require a SWAT team or flashbangs.
Fr. Charles A.F.: Interesting.
Gab: Good point. There’s a book on that very topic: “Londonistan.”
Neil Addison: According to ecclesiastical historian Louis Gougaud, Manuscript 1756 in the Vienna Library (Gougaud was writing during the 1920s) provides a list of saints who will be called upon during the last judgement to present the nations they evangelized, such as St. Peter for Judea, St. Andrew for India and St. Patrick for Ireland.
CanukFrank: You might be interested in this, from a few days ago by Canadian Kennedy Hall:
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/true-patriotism-in-a-marxist-wasteland
Instead of the congregation leaving at that point, why couldn’t the assembly reconfigure itself to comply with whatever mandate and continue their Good Friday service? Why did it have to be all or no one?
It’s not at all clear what rules the parish is supposed to have broken. They claim to have observed all necessary regulations, including pre-registration and restricted numbers in the church – and bear in mind that the required distancing is 1m not 2m for those wearing masks, also that some people are legally exempt from mask-wearing, and that households and multi-household “bubbles” may sit together without distancing (consider also that Catholic families can be large, and many people in London, especially in immigrant communities, live in large multi-occupancy households). The police do not seem to have properly investigated any of these aspects before declaring an “unlawful gathering”.
I should have liked the Priest to have sent the people off with a quick dismissal (“Ite, missa est”) and a blessing.
The story is in all the British Newspapers and on the BBC but it is noticeable that it is the only case of Police interrupting a service.
I attended my local Church without any problems but we were all socially distanced ie 2metres away from each other except for family groups. All rather irritating but nothing that prevented the services going ahead.
Looking at the Video of the Polish service it is noticeable that the Choir are sitting next to each other which is a breach of the Covid regulations. I don’t know what the position was with the rest of the congregation but I have a feeling that the Police may (and I do stress ‘may’) have been justified in what they did.
I don’t like saying that and I don’t like what happened but I do feel there are 2 sides to this story
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Roman Authorities Investigating Jesus For Violating Stay-In-Tomb Order
https://babylonbee.com/news/roman-authorities-investigating-jesus-for-violating-stay-in-tomb-order
It’s hard to say which is more depressing, the fact that police anywhere think it is within their rights to disrupt a religious service, or the fact that so many average citizens are in agreement with the ever-increasing police state. And it is a very good question as to how many times police interrupt a Muslim service. Why does one suspect, never or almost never.
If bishops had done their jobs at the beginning of this by telling the state they had no jurisdiction over the church, this would not be happening. Now the hour is late, and liberty will have to come by direct action of the people, as in, massive civil disobedience, with or without their bishops. If people continue to invite tyranny, they’re going to get tyranny. But perhaps there are many who feel right at home with tyranny and can no longer tell the difference between what it’s like to live as a free people or to live as serfs. How quickly freedom has been forgotten, and clearly most people do not realize, at least here in America, that the state has no jurisdiction over the church. Our bishops gave that up.
I think two stout brothers should have explained the situation to the nice policemen.
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And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how a proper Pole gets it done:
https://mobile.twitter.com/Mrtdogg/status/1378443481115459592
(And I say this as an American of Polish descent)
sjoseph,
Thanks so much for sharing that link. He was correct on the video; the hour is late.
My apologies to the English readers, but is there some form of Catholic Stockholm syndrome endemic in a country which has so mistreated Catholics over the centuries?
Our right and duty to worship comes from God alone, and yet people are gladly lapping up the few crumbs their oppressors will allow them to have, and then defending these same oppressors?
sjoseph,
That link is from a Protestant pastor in Alberta, Canada. I think it’s Edmonton, judging by police badge. The State of Public Health Emergency expired, so now authorities require a warrant to enter a church without permission. It’s also against the law here to interrupt a religious service. We should just let people in staggered entry times and then just lock the church doors to
keep the authorities out. I’m so tired of this.
I see that the Archbishop and some reasonably senior Police officers visited the parish today to seek to move forward. No apology as such but clearly an awareness of the degree of concern this caused: https://www.facebook.com/ArchdioceseOfSouthwark/posts/4019363968086933