A small church incident
August 8th
A small incident happened to me last Saturday. In the big picture, a very insignificant incident, but very symptomatic for the Catholic Church as an organization and its approach to other people. The list of the sins of the Catholic Church is long and tragic and criminal and disgusting. The last visit of Pope Francis to Canada is a good example of those sins and a start of at least admitting the wrongdoing and sheer terror imposed on native Canadian children by Catholic Church representatives. And it is enough to look just 10–20 years back to see how pedophilia scandals within the church organization were covered and swept under the carpet. My opinion about the Catholic Church is very low, and it seems that the church is still doing everything it can to alienate people and doing a hell of a job at that.
And then also something small like this happens:
In my city there is an old baroque church, it was built in the XVII century, and it is the oldest historical building in the city. It is also semi-permanently closed. There is a new church (actually a basilica) next to the old one and the archdiocese buildings around it. It would make sense to have a historical place like that open for visitors and tourists, but church authorities decided to keep it closed — it opens only several times a year, but just for special church services which are not conducive for secular visiting. But — several days ago it was announced that because there is growing interest to see and explore this church, it will be open for several hours a day until the end of September. The announcement was conveyed by all local news sources and for me, it was all I needed to plan my Saturday around visiting this church.
The church was supposed to be open at 10 am, I arrived at 10.30 and to my surprise, I found the front gate closed. In the announcement, there was information that a bookstore next to the church is also an information point for visiting the church, so I went there to ask what is going on. The lady working there told me that she has no idea why the church wasn’t open, but since in half an hour, there is an organized group scheduled to visit the church, I can just wait and join them because for sure the church will be open for them by then. So I did, but once the group of tourists was already there, the church was still closed. The organizer of the group and the lady from the bookstore were trying to reach anybody from the dioceses to find out when or if the church will be open. After at least 15 minutes, a priest finally answered with an angry response — the old church is closed, and it will be closed today and you can come back some other time. No other explanation or even a fake apology. Just go away, don’t bother me. That well sums up the attitude the Catholic Church has toward the people who actually want to visit one of their churches. No regard for time and plans of others, just arbitrary change without any explanation. The contempt for people and any basic rules of decency that any organization should adhere to — communicate and explain. I will still find a way to visit this church somehow, but my bitter disdain for Catholic Church organization is becoming downright acidic.
