Article A22 · Book 1 · Scrapbook page p.19
AWAY WITH THAT OLD MYSTICISM (Sunday Opinion)
Page 4 EXPRESS Sunday, February 28, 1971
Sunday Opinion
WAS IT desecration or innovation?
For a long time now there have been calls for the church to update itself with more down to earth changes.
Under Archbishop Anthony Pantin there have been significant and revolutionary moves.
None however has been as sensational as the permission given to hold a Carnival Queen contest in the Cedros Roman Catholic Church during the recent Carnival celebrations.
Detractors have called it "degrading", "revolting", "interferring with God's work."
They, of course, fail to see further than the Bible and the old time religion.
They fail to comprehend that Cedros is an area suffering from a severe case of overneglect.
[Piece 2 of 2 — continuation piece]
Frustrated
That people in Cedros are in dire need of being able to identify with society: they are frustrated and fed up of second class treatment.
And that prayer alone will not bring change.
That is why parish priest Father Michael Pascal led residents in a protest "mas" last Carnival in Port-of-Spain.
And that is why he opened the Church doors to the "Queen Show".
As he said: "My residents of the village were in need of a place to hold the Queen Show. I can see nothing wrong in my decision to let them use the Church."
And neither can we.
The Church has always been accused of being oblivious of the real needs of its members.
Outdated
It is now meeting some of these accusations head on — and with sometimes dramatic changes that shock the more orthodox followers.
Fr. Pascal is trying to remove the outdated mysticism of the Church — in the same way changes have been introduced into the Mass to bring back the flock, so too he has to find ways of making a neglected people hold on to their faith in the Church.
He has the courage. So does the Archbishop to approve his actions.
And we salute them and the Church.