Some consternation and surprise is
expressed by both radicals at one end of the spectrum and pietists at the other
in relation to talking in church.
The radical nationalists greet talking in
church with scorn and try to silence those who talk there before beginning to
scandalise priests and the lay community.
In Germany a singer who is joined in a
chorus as accompaniment will exclaim “Es gibt zwei Gitarren” (‘There are two guitars’,
literally or, figuratively, ‘Someone else wishes to join in’.)
In truth, Christians do chatter in Church
because in the church, in times of persecution, there is freedom, something
respected by the Nazis despite their militant atheism and racist barbarism.
People chatter in Church in Ireland, sometimes on the benches, because the faithful are the community and without
the church there can be no community, something the Germans have forgotten and
radical nationalists ignore.
Joseph Paul McCarroll
22.1.14
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