June 21 was supposed to be England’s “Freedom Day.”
Back in February, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a weary populace that, all being well, the country could look forward to the end of a nationwide lockdown on June 21.
But all wasn’t well. With the third wave of COVID-19 spreading across the country, Johnson announced that the easing of restrictions in England would be delayed to July 19.
But with “Freedom Day” tantalizingly in sight, CNA spoke with pastors across England about the pandemic’s long-term impact on their parishes.
The conversations revealed that the coronavirus had not only hit parishes hard but also exacted a deep toll on priests.
Parishioners lost
All of the pastors acknowledged that a significant number of parishioners had vanished during the crisis — and were unlikely to return.
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, pastor of St. Peter’s, Hove, a seaside town in East Sussex, said that numbers were now about 60% of what they were before the pandemic, though giving was at around 70%.
He said: “The money situation is not as catastrophic as we thought it was because the people who disappeared tend to be those who were least committed and giving least money. They also tend to be the young.”
He explained that some young families were wary of bringing their boisterous children to Mass at a time of tight sanitary regulations.
“It’s not just in this parish, but in many parishes, this is the case,” he said. “This is going to have a knock-on effect also on the Catholic schools. Many of the Catholic schools are Catholic in name only. They’ve got declining numbers of Catholics in them. And I think that will carry on.”
“What’s going to happen in five, 10, 20 years’ time is that a lot of churches are going to close, simply because the money is not there to maintain these very expensive buildings.”
Conscious of the need to reconnect with parishioners, Lucie-Smith has visited local Catholic schools every week to talk to students and parents. His parish is also hosting a number of social events over the summer, including concerts and an initiative modelled on the Courtyard of the Gentiles.
Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, pastor of St. Patrick’s, Soho, said the pandemic’s impact was so profound that it was possible to speak of “a pre-COVID and a post-COVID Church.”
Throughout the crisis, his parish in London’s West End has engaged in a remarkable outreach to the local homeless population, offering not only food, but also adoration, access to sacraments, and the rosary.
“The pandemic has obviously been a time of purification,” he said. “Certain people have fallen by the wayside. Others have remained faithful. But those who have remained faithful have really drilled down in their faith in certain key areas.”
“First of all, our volunteers — there are a good 150 of them — have developed a deep personal relationship with the poor. And so there’s a real sense of community, of mutual belonging.”
Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, pastor of St. Patrick’s, Soho, said the pandemic’s impact was so profound that it was possible to speak of “a pre-COVID and a post-COVID Church.”
Throughout the crisis, his parish in London’s West End has engaged in a remarkable outreach to the local homeless population, offering not only food, but also adoration, access to sacraments, and the rosary.
“The pandemic has obviously been a time of purification,” he said. “Certain people have fallen by the wayside. Others have remained faithful. But those who have remained faithful have really drilled down in their faith in certain key areas.”
“First of all, our volunteers — there are a good 150 of them — have developed a deep personal relationship with the poor. And so there’s a real sense of community, of mutual belonging.”
In Fr Stephen Pritchard’s parish, Our Lady of the Assumption, Gateacre, a suburb of Liverpool, a team has made hundreds of phone calls to parishioners throughout the pandemic. Despite these efforts to reach out, the parish has lost about 25% of Mass-goers.
“We’re trying to connect with a group of 100 people to see what situation they’re in, individually,” he said.
“They’ve all got different scenarios in their lives. So we have a group of people working on that now, ringing all those people up.”
“I think that for some Catholics this is the exit moment and they will have disaffiliated,” he said, stressing that it is vital for the Church to “know who people are” and not “break the thread with people.” Continue reading