A Change in Covid Personnel is Needed.

 I posted the last blog as an example of how heavy handed many priests can be, and perhaps how the 'thirst for power' can affect even the laity.   What did Jesus say "Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven".   Humility and 'truth of self' is at the very heart of the teaching of Christ.   No one in the Church should seek to be a leader or catechist, or even a priest, if this willingness to hear and discuss is not a part of their lives.   This is especially true of people who do not go to Confession, who do not kneel and adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, despise what they call 'childish devotions' such as the Rosary, and show by their speech that they have utter contempt for the Mother of God.   How easily they fell for the Post-Vatican II dishonesty which falsely claimed that these were actually part of Vatican II.    I have written about these things in previous blogs and how they were all part of the Early Church but their hearts were cold and they preferred the model which emptied the Church to that which survived for two thousand years.   To lying and losing the young rather than teaching them the beauty behind the teaching of the Catholic Church.   That control of self is the Christian thing rather than an acceptance of 'God made me this way'.

Yet spurred on by false teachers they do not gracefully leave the Church, but are quite determined to rule the Church and oppose any attempts to bring back the Catholic Faith.   I try not to judge them but find it impossible at times.    When I speak out I get a famous sneer.   Yet the sneer only tells me that if they are having trouble with the Catholic Faith then they are having a great deal more difficulty with basic Christianity.   But these are reactions of mine that cause their behaviour, but I cannot promise to do better and  I pray for them every time I attend Mass.

I was distressed last September when after the relaxation of Covid rules the parish was misled by the usual non-elected Committee into following a dangerous path, completely ignoring what the bishop recommended on the advice I was told of 'other priests'.   The point was that the vaccine was successful and the bishop was welcoming everyone back to Church who had been vaccinated , but apparently the non-elected committee overruled the parish priest and imposed their notions of fighting Covid, which was about opening all the windows and doors so that the temperatures reached a point where it was just as cold inside the Church as outside.   There was even an explanation given that this whole scheme was there to protect the 'old and vulnerable' which was, if it had not been for the seriousness of the situation, laughable.   Nevertheless, they pressed on, and claimed that this was a parish decision, when the majority in the parish had not been consultee, and were simply told what the committee had decided.    That the heat in the Church was being taken out by the 14 upper windows was ignored.  I went one Sunday to Church to find coffee was on sale and the 14 windows were closed.     But the next Sunday they wee open again and there was no coffee on sale, so obviously the committee had bullied itself into power again.

Believe it or not, I do not enjoy standing up to bullies, but having looked for a solution I found, what I should have found two years previously, that there are Health and Safety Regulations for Buildings used by the Public.    This states that inside these buildings the temperature should not be allowed to fall below 67 degrees.   Now caught up in the Covid Crisis my mind was not working, so the cold in my head I caught two years ago which now affects my eyes and ears, I cannot blame the Committee for.  So fair is fair.   However people who take on a responsibility for the safety of others, should ask questions about safety in what they are proposing.

But the urge to open doors and windows continues unabated.   I have been talking about the law in my previous blogs but of course there is a great silence.    If next winter there is an attempt to keep the present practices in place then a simple phone call to Environmental Health at Basingstoke Council will be the answer.   They have the responsibility to enforce this 67 degrees legislation on shops, restaurants, theatres, and yes, Churches.   Now who will have the humility, who will have the honesty of a child to make that call?    But  there is the rule of common sense.   If someone is sick in bed and you turn off the heating then open all the windows in the middle of winter, is this a wise thing to do?    And telling people to wear warm clothes to Church when they still have to breathe cold air, sometimes damp air in the middle of winter, is that a wise thing to do?   I am afraid we need a total change in the personnel running the parish.      

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