No welcome for the angel

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/treibh/gan-fáilte-don-aingeal-1.2415511
Gan fáilte don aingeal
Nach sinne atá inclúisibh go brách, inclúisibh go deireadh an domhain?
No welcome for the angel
Isn’t it we who are the ever inclusive ones, inclusive to the end of the world?
They’re let off the leash again. They’ve been let out again. Moving through the world in order to condemn freedom. The sensitive liberals who would censor the raindrops. These tough people who are “wounded”, who become arrogant if a syllable is mentioned which is not sweet to their ears.
Certainly not sweet to their ears sweet is the ding-dong of the Angelus which deafens them for a full two minutes a day.
You see them out on the streets when the bell strikes, red darkening in their cheeks, the grinding teeth in the jaw. There is no count of the heart attacks which result from a bit of ringing in the sky, but some sociologist is researching it.
The incessant attack is under way again. Sometimes one at a time, sometimes like mice gnawing at a crust of old bread. They won’t stop or relent until there’s an end to the sound of the bell at noon and before the 6pm evening bad news. That’s always the way. A bone is got and it’s gnawed to the death.
Maybe I’m bewitched, but it’s useless to dilute it. RTÉ is suggesting that people take a “moment of thought” and is inviting everyone to take part.
This is commendable, of course, on the same lines as one presenter used to say, we’ll call him Pat Kenny for argument’s sake, that we stop now “to pause for prayer”.
This will not pull any turnips for us, and even less will it penetrate an impenetrable skull.
The Angelus is a Catholic Prayer, it was begotten in Catholicism, in Catholicism it was born and raised, in Catholicism it lives. Why would anyone try to conceal that?
In this respect the extreme atheists are completely right, and their thin-skinned followers. It’s an entirely Catholic thing from top to bottom through and through. That’s it. So what?
It is said, with groaning, that secular society should be without any connection of the religion of the people with public life.
I must say that I have taken note that it’s a secular society that we have – well up there with other countries, including in Europe.
Let’s talk of the population next door to us, where the person in charge of the Church is in charge of the State as well. Or other modern developed countries we’re fated to go to, where the state collects the money for the churches. Or other countries where the Head of State must be of one particular religion. Or other countries still where Parliament has a hand in governing the established church.
Compared to most of the states of the world we are as secular a state as you would find within the distance of a relatively long plane trip.
But you’d need to be living under a stone, or live only in the world of television, or inside a cave, if you thought that events of cultural life – among which religion is included – would not take their place in the life of that community.
I did much research, and do you know, I found not as much as one example where religious culture did not get to take its place in the surrounding public life?
But look at France, they say!
Oh yes, France. France is the most obvious feminist example in this matter, and this is not the place to list the examples; but it is feminism active against the Muslim community that is to be found, rather than against the Catholic Church as in the past.
There was a time in Ireland, not too long ago, when girls were sent home from school because their skirts were too short; now they are thrown out of schools in France now because they are too long! The long skirt is a sign of Islam!
But this is the way it is. This is it. Leave religion and biased and faulty thinking outside the door, is it not our unmatched boast now that we have the most diverse people, that we are open, considerate, sympathetic, that we want to accept each and every, that we have every kind and type within this broad community, where everyone can live? Are we not ever inclusive, inclusive to the end of the world, to the bounds of creation, to end of the firmament?
Inclusive, except for the Angelus. Inclusive, except for allowing two minutes each day to the people who want it.
Look at the newspaper. See how many TV and radio stations there are. Hundreds. For any one minute of the Angelus, you could have a couple of days broadcasting on other stations.
Tolerance? Co-existence?
Live and let live?