Polish Catholic parish in London: Police ‘grossly exceeded powers’ in halting Good Friday service
Police officers interrupted the Good Friday liturgy at Christ the King Church in Balham, south London, on April 2, ordering worshipers to leave or face a fine or possible arrest.
Police halt a Good Friday liturgy at Christ the King Church in Balham, London, England, April 2, 2021. (YouTube screenshot from account of Andrzej Fryzicki)
CNA Staff, Apr 3, 2021 / 07:35 am (CNA).- A Polish Catholic parish in London, England, said Saturday that it believed that police “grossly exceeded their powers” when they halted a Good Friday service and ordered parishioners to go home.
Police officers interrupted the Good Friday liturgy at Christ the King Church in Balham, south London, on April 2, ordering worshipers to leave or face a fine or possible arrest.
A video posted on YouTube showed a police officer addressing the congregation from a pulpit in the sanctuary of the church, informing them that the gathering was “unlawful” under current coronavirus restrictions.
An April 3 statement on the parish’s website said: “On Good Friday, April 2, during the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, at the moment of the Adoration of the Cross, at about 6 p.m., the police came to the door of our church. We were not allowed to finish the celebration.”
“The police officers, stating that our liturgical assembly was unlawful, ordered everyone to leave our church immediately under the threat of a fine for each of the parishioners present of £200 [around $277] or even arrest. The faithful obeyed this order without objection.”
“We believe, however, that the police grossly exceeded their powers by issuing their order without adequate reason, as all government requirements were met.”
A priest at the church told CNA on Saturday that he believed the parish was treated “very unfairly.”
“We believe that we and our faithful were treated very unfairly, even on such an important day for believers,” Fr. Aleksander Dasik said.
In its statement, the parish said: “We believe that borough police officials have been misinformed regarding the current guidelines for places of worship, claiming that the reason for their intervention is the continuing ban on public celebrations in places of worship in London, due to the lockdown introduced from Jan. 4, 2021.”
“We regret that the rights of worshipers have been harmed on such an important day for every believer and that our worship has been profaned.”
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement issued April 3: “At around 1700hrs on Friday, 2 April, officers were called to a report of crowds of people queuing outside a church in Balham High Road.”
“Officers attended and found a large number of people inside the church. Some people were not wearing masks and those present were clearly not socially distanced.”
“We are particularly concerned about the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus as a result of large indoor gatherings at which people are not socially distanced and some are not wearing masks. As such, officers made the decision that it was not safe for that particular service to continue.”
The statement continued: “Understanding the sensitivity of the situation, officers engaged with the priest outside the church and were invited inside to address the congregation. No fixed penalty notices were issued.”
“This was one of a series of numerous events taking place at the church over the Easter period. We are engaging with church authorities today and will continue to do so in the coming days.”
The parish, which belongs to the Polish Catholic Mission in England and Wales, said it had asked the police for an explanation of the incident and encouraged parishioners to consider making a formal complaint.
It pointed out that the latest government guidelines and guidance from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales permit public worship in Holy Week, with congregations observing strict rules to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The parish’s statement concluded: “All scheduled services for the blessing of Easter food, the Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday will take place as indicated.”
“We ask everyone to observe the current sanitation requirements in the church and community spaces and to pray that similar situations will not occur again.”
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Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jul 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The guiding document for the final part of the Synod on Synodality, published Tuesday, focuses on how to implement certain of the synod’s aims, while laying aside some of the more controversial topics from last year’s gathering, like women’s admission to the diaconate.
“Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible,” the Instrumentum Laboris, or “working tool,” says.
The six sections of the roughly 30-page document will be the subject of prayer, conversation, and discernment by participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held throughout the month of October in Rome.
Instead of focusing on questions and “convergences,” as in last year’s Instrumentum Laboris, “it is now necessary that … a consensus can be reached,” said a FAQ page from synod organizers, also released July 9, answering a question about why the structure was different from last year’s Instrumentum Laboris.
The guiding document for the first session of the Synod on Synodality in 2023 covered such hot-button topics as women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.
By contrast, this year’s text mostly avoids these subjects, while offering concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, and more powerful parish councils.
“It is difficult to imagine a more effective way to promote a synodal Church than the participation of all in decision-making and taking processes,” it states.
The working tool also refers to the 10 study groups formed late last year to tackle different themes deemed “matters of great relevance” by the Synod’s first session in October 2023. These groups will continue to meet through June 2025 but will provide an update on their progress at the second session in October.
The possibility of the admission of women to the diaconate will not be a topic during the upcoming assembly, the Instrumentum Laboris said.
The new document was presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly: Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battocchio.
“The Synod is already changing our way of being and living the Church regardless of the October assembly,” Hollerich said, pointing to testimonies shared in the most recent reports sent by bishops’ conferences.
The Oct. 2-27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.
Participants in the fall meeting, including Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world, will use the Instrumentum Laboris as a guide for their “conversations in the Spirit,” the method of discussion introduced at the 2023 assembly. They will also prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.
The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.
Prominent topics
The 2024 Instrumentum Laboris also addresses the need for transparency to restore the Church’s credibility in the face of sexual abuse of adults and minors and financial scandals.
“If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming,” the document reads, “then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority.”
It recommends effective lay involvement in pastoral and economic planning, the publication of annual financial statements certified by external auditors, annual summaries of safeguarding initiatives, the promotion of women to positions of authority, and periodic performance evaluations on those exercising a ministry or holding a position in the Church.
“These are points of great importance and urgency for the credibility of the synodal process and its implementation,” the document says.
The greater participation of women in all levels of the Church, a reform of the education of priests, and greater formation for all Catholics are also included in the text.
Bishops’ conferences, it says, noticed an untapped potential for women’s participation in many areas of Church life. “They also call for further exploration of ministerial and pastoral modalities that better express the charisms and gifts the Spirit pours out on women in response to the pastoral needs of our time,” the document states.
Formation in listening is identified as “an essential initial requirement” for Catholics, as well as how to engage in the practice of “conversation in the Spirit,” which was employed in the first session of the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis and delegates at the Synod on Synodality at the conclusion of the assembly on Oct. 28, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
The document says the need for formation has been one of the most universal and strong themes throughout the synodal process. Interreligious dialogue also is identified as an important aspect of the synodal journey.
On the topic of the liturgy, the Instrumentum Laboris says there was “a call for adequately trained lay men and women to contribute to preaching the Word of God, including during the celebration of the Eucharist.”
“It is necessary that the pastoral proposals and liturgical practices preserve and make ever more evident the link between the journey of Christian initiation and the synodal and missionary life of the Church,” the document says. “The appropriate pastoral and liturgical arrangements must be developed in the plurality of situations and cultures in which the local Churches are immersed …”
How it was drafted
Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document released Tuesday has been in preparation since early June when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze around 200 synod reports from bishops’ conferences and religious communities responding to what the Instrumentum Laboris called “the guiding question” of the next stage of the Synod on Synodality: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
After the 10-day gathering, “an initial version” of the text was drafted based on those reports and sent to around 70 people — priests, religious, and laypeople — “from all over the world, of various ecclesial sensitivities and from different theological ‘schools,’” for consultation, according to the synod website.
The XVI Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, together with consultants of the synod secretariat, finalized the document.
According to the working tool, soliciting new reports and feedback after the consultation phase ended is “consistent with the circularity characterizing the whole synodal process.”
“In preparation for the Second Session, and during its work, we continue to address this question: how can the identity of the synodal People of God in mission take concrete form in the relationships, paths and places where the everyday life of the Church takes place?” it says.
The document says “other questions that emerged during the journey are the subject of work that continues in other ways, at the level of the local Churches as well as in the ten Study Groups.”
Expectations for final session
According to the guiding document, the second session of the Synod on Synodality can “expect a further deepening of the shared understanding of synodality, a better focus on the practices of a synodal Church, and the proposal of some changes in canon law (there may be yet more significant and profound developments as the basic proposal is further assimilated and lived.)”
“Nonetheless,” it continues, “we cannot expect the answer to every question. In addition, other proposals will emerge along the way, on the path of conversion and reform that the Second Session will invite the whole Church to undertake.”
The Instrumentum Laboris says, “Synodality is not an end in itself … If the Second Session is to focus on certain aspects of synodal life, it does so with a view to greater effectiveness in mission.”
In its brief conclusion, the text states: “The questions that the Instrumentum Laboris asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service. Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 10, 2022 / 15:41 pm (CNA).
Catholic schools across much of the Archdiocese of Chicago can now make masks optional, according to an abrupt shift in the archdiocese’s COVID-19 policy.Citing a “drama… […]
Rome Newsroom, Feb 15, 2021 / 08:30 am (CNA).- The president of the national bishops’ conference has welcomed Italy’s new government with a message to Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who was sworn in Saturday.
At some point, Catholics (and their priests and bishops), need to do more than impotently ask police to take the microphone and ask their congregations to leave.
This was a Good Friday celebration in progress. In most jurisdictions, it is a criminal offence to interrupt a worship service in progress, and police ought to have been firmly reminded of that fact. At a minimum, it would have bought the congregation time until the service ended.
At that point, the police could ticket whomever they wished, and the entire community ought to have been rallied to support the ensuing legal challenges and/or pay any resulting fines.
The utter fecklessness, underlined by the spectacle of police officers being allowed to wander about the Sanctuary as if it were a kitchen in a domestic abuse call, was appalling.
Friends in London and Dublin have told me of packed services at various Mosques, so it seems unfair this should happen at Christ the King Church in Balham. Today in London thousands marched for some cause (no idea what). Pray for the misguided.
As an American of English descent, and a life-long Anglophile, it has been my sad observation that the Brits went over the the dark side in attacking civil rights some time ago. The heinous lock downs and extreme over-sensitivity of any criticism of Muslim residents for example, even when violence and other actions would make such comment warranted, could result in your arrest and imprisonment.Now they are shutting church services. The long lauded “rights of Englishmen” have collapsed and been eradicated in favor of political correctness. We cannot feel superior here however as the same virus has now infected us. This has been seen in the loss of constitutional rights, courts making decisions which abrogate clearly written law, and targeting the church and anyone who professes Christian moral positions with as much oppression as possible. Even a simple baker is not immune to MULTIPLE prosecutions for the same “offense”.An opposite political opinion is not allowed. If the Emperor is not wearing any clothing, better for your own survival not to say so. There ARE no unaccompanied minors at the border, so dont film them; Biden is NOT in dementia although he cant complete sentences and walk up stairs; and if church services ARE constitutionally protected, we will pretend not to know, so keep those church doors SHUT. The Brit’s cousins the Australians conducted aligned anti Catholic activities when they jailed Cardinal Pell for a year, all the while ignoring clear evidence of his innocence of sex abuse charges. People of good will and moral compass need to push back at “woke” culture and leftist over-reach wherever it is found, before it is too late. Write a letter or email and take to task corporate heads like those at Coke, Hallmark, Delta, Chase Bank, and others who are supporting leftist suppression. Let them know you oppose the slippery slope we are now witnessing, and will boycott their products. A company may chose not to support a certain candidate. But inevitably, they will then PREVENT that candidate from speaking to YOU, or speaking out on what HAD been “public platforms”. It is stunning that the former president of the US has been stripped of public communication simply because the left doesnt approve of him. That is NOT freedom of speech. My advice —speak up NOW while you still can.This action in London is the exact opposite of freedom of religion. We have our own battles to fight here.
It’s going to take nothing short of a worldwide counter-revolution to fix this– and those currently calling the shots are doing their best to provoke one.
I read about this incident just prior to attending Easter Vigil Mass this evening. As we sang I expected the police to charge in. Our wonderful Priest suggested an Encore. Stand firm in faith.
As the Editor of Crisis Magazine, Eric Sammons, noted, the lockdowns will not end until we actively defy and ignore them. There are not enough police and prison cells to enforce laws rejected by everyone. At this point in time Lockdown regulations demand from us the same level of obedience as Jim Crow and the race laws of the Apartheid regime-that is to say, none at all.
What the people at that parish should have said was “So we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
One body in the whole church doesn’t exceed the legal limits.
And if the government insists that a woman can become a man just because she says so, and vice versa, then who are they do tell us that we are not one body? Unlike the people who think they can change their sexes, this has the virtue of being true.
The Great Reset steadily makes its new order way towards fascism. The so called science presented as definitive by lockdowners is anything but. We live in a time of neo Gnosticism, there is only one way and the self proclaimed practitioners, which includes those making fortunes from the new order, parade their fraudulent wisdom.
Unfortunately, too many in the leadership of Church are willing to cooperate with the fraud. The «law» is truly become a fear driven ass.
The Commies wouldn’t dare do that in Poland during thei dictatorship; it might start a local uprising.
When I visited Poland in 1979 shortly after St. John Paul II’s first visit, there were still road-side yellow and white bunting along the roads that he travelled as well as the cross erected in Warsaw’s Victory Park where he offered Mass.
What surprised me were the road-side shrines erected between the two World Wars when Poland was a free country still untouched after almost 35 years of Communist dictatorship.
You could tell a Party building by the small red sign next to the main door. One small building which appeared to have been built before World War II had the obligatory red sign and on the side of the building a life-size crucifix!
Never been to that side of the pond but have always found it puzzling, here, how the law ignores certain blatant lawlessness in front of their faces, yet picks on those easy targets in society.
Before God, these Police Officers committed a grave Sacrilige for which they will answer to God when they are judged by the severe Justice of the Omnipotent. The Iscariot who reported the Good Friday services, is in a serious sinful condition before God, as the Police interrupted the service right at the veneration of the Cross of our salvation.
Unfortunately the vast majority of the world’s bishops and priests have created the conditions where the police thought they could get away with this fascist behaviour, by meekly accepting without demur the civil authorities’ wrongful assertion of the right to dictate how, and even whether, religious rituals can be conducted inside a place of worship. Or even declare which religious rituals are essential and which are not! 12 months ago the pope and bishops should have loudly declared NO! The State can, at the very most, suggest to religious leaders any restrictions that the religious leaders might choose to impose on their own rites for the sake of public health.
And the compliant reaction of the priest and congregation was very disappointing. They should have told the police, “you’re not coming in here unless it’s to join in the act of worship. If the state health department has any concerns about public health relating to this religious activity, then health officials (not armed police!) can make an appointment to discuss them with the priest at some other time when he’s not conducting a religious service.”
Notable that the police not only singled out Catholics for this brutal and bigoted treatment, but also racism in singling out a small migrant community.
Children at the service were terrified. But I wonder if the reason some congregants didn’t react was that they thought it was some modernist reinterpretation of a Passion Play with armed police taking the role of the pagan Roman soldiers.
At some point, Catholics (and their priests and bishops), need to do more than impotently ask police to take the microphone and ask their congregations to leave.
This was a Good Friday celebration in progress. In most jurisdictions, it is a criminal offence to interrupt a worship service in progress, and police ought to have been firmly reminded of that fact. At a minimum, it would have bought the congregation time until the service ended.
At that point, the police could ticket whomever they wished, and the entire community ought to have been rallied to support the ensuing legal challenges and/or pay any resulting fines.
The utter fecklessness, underlined by the spectacle of police officers being allowed to wander about the Sanctuary as if it were a kitchen in a domestic abuse call, was appalling.
Enough is enough.
England has always had issues with Catholics…
Well since 1534 anyway.
Friends in London and Dublin have told me of packed services at various Mosques, so it seems unfair this should happen at Christ the King Church in Balham. Today in London thousands marched for some cause (no idea what). Pray for the misguided.
As an American of English descent, and a life-long Anglophile, it has been my sad observation that the Brits went over the the dark side in attacking civil rights some time ago. The heinous lock downs and extreme over-sensitivity of any criticism of Muslim residents for example, even when violence and other actions would make such comment warranted, could result in your arrest and imprisonment.Now they are shutting church services. The long lauded “rights of Englishmen” have collapsed and been eradicated in favor of political correctness. We cannot feel superior here however as the same virus has now infected us. This has been seen in the loss of constitutional rights, courts making decisions which abrogate clearly written law, and targeting the church and anyone who professes Christian moral positions with as much oppression as possible. Even a simple baker is not immune to MULTIPLE prosecutions for the same “offense”.An opposite political opinion is not allowed. If the Emperor is not wearing any clothing, better for your own survival not to say so. There ARE no unaccompanied minors at the border, so dont film them; Biden is NOT in dementia although he cant complete sentences and walk up stairs; and if church services ARE constitutionally protected, we will pretend not to know, so keep those church doors SHUT. The Brit’s cousins the Australians conducted aligned anti Catholic activities when they jailed Cardinal Pell for a year, all the while ignoring clear evidence of his innocence of sex abuse charges. People of good will and moral compass need to push back at “woke” culture and leftist over-reach wherever it is found, before it is too late. Write a letter or email and take to task corporate heads like those at Coke, Hallmark, Delta, Chase Bank, and others who are supporting leftist suppression. Let them know you oppose the slippery slope we are now witnessing, and will boycott their products. A company may chose not to support a certain candidate. But inevitably, they will then PREVENT that candidate from speaking to YOU, or speaking out on what HAD been “public platforms”. It is stunning that the former president of the US has been stripped of public communication simply because the left doesnt approve of him. That is NOT freedom of speech. My advice —speak up NOW while you still can.This action in London is the exact opposite of freedom of religion. We have our own battles to fight here.
It’s going to take nothing short of a worldwide counter-revolution to fix this– and those currently calling the shots are doing their best to provoke one.
I read about this incident just prior to attending Easter Vigil Mass this evening. As we sang I expected the police to charge in. Our wonderful Priest suggested an Encore. Stand firm in faith.
As the Editor of Crisis Magazine, Eric Sammons, noted, the lockdowns will not end until we actively defy and ignore them. There are not enough police and prison cells to enforce laws rejected by everyone. At this point in time Lockdown regulations demand from us the same level of obedience as Jim Crow and the race laws of the Apartheid regime-that is to say, none at all.
The “laws” are unjust. Don’t call something that which it is not. A law is – by nature – just. An unjust law is not a law, but is a perversion of law.
What angered me is how the police so rudely entered and then hovered the sanctuary. No respect at all. Very unprofessional.
What the people at that parish should have said was “So we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
One body in the whole church doesn’t exceed the legal limits.
And if the government insists that a woman can become a man just because she says so, and vice versa, then who are they do tell us that we are not one body? Unlike the people who think they can change their sexes, this has the virtue of being true.
The Great Reset steadily makes its new order way towards fascism. The so called science presented as definitive by lockdowners is anything but. We live in a time of neo Gnosticism, there is only one way and the self proclaimed practitioners, which includes those making fortunes from the new order, parade their fraudulent wisdom.
Unfortunately, too many in the leadership of Church are willing to cooperate with the fraud. The «law» is truly become a fear driven ass.
The Commies wouldn’t dare do that in Poland during thei dictatorship; it might start a local uprising.
When I visited Poland in 1979 shortly after St. John Paul II’s first visit, there were still road-side yellow and white bunting along the roads that he travelled as well as the cross erected in Warsaw’s Victory Park where he offered Mass.
What surprised me were the road-side shrines erected between the two World Wars when Poland was a free country still untouched after almost 35 years of Communist dictatorship.
You could tell a Party building by the small red sign next to the main door. One small building which appeared to have been built before World War II had the obligatory red sign and on the side of the building a life-size crucifix!
Big Caeser with his fines!
Never been to that side of the pond but have always found it puzzling, here, how the law ignores certain blatant lawlessness in front of their faces, yet picks on those easy targets in society.
Before God, these Police Officers committed a grave Sacrilige for which they will answer to God when they are judged by the severe Justice of the Omnipotent. The Iscariot who reported the Good Friday services, is in a serious sinful condition before God, as the Police interrupted the service right at the veneration of the Cross of our salvation.
Unfortunately the vast majority of the world’s bishops and priests have created the conditions where the police thought they could get away with this fascist behaviour, by meekly accepting without demur the civil authorities’ wrongful assertion of the right to dictate how, and even whether, religious rituals can be conducted inside a place of worship. Or even declare which religious rituals are essential and which are not! 12 months ago the pope and bishops should have loudly declared NO! The State can, at the very most, suggest to religious leaders any restrictions that the religious leaders might choose to impose on their own rites for the sake of public health.
And the compliant reaction of the priest and congregation was very disappointing. They should have told the police, “you’re not coming in here unless it’s to join in the act of worship. If the state health department has any concerns about public health relating to this religious activity, then health officials (not armed police!) can make an appointment to discuss them with the priest at some other time when he’s not conducting a religious service.”
Notable that the police not only singled out Catholics for this brutal and bigoted treatment, but also racism in singling out a small migrant community.
Children at the service were terrified. But I wonder if the reason some congregants didn’t react was that they thought it was some modernist reinterpretation of a Passion Play with armed police taking the role of the pagan Roman soldiers.