RC priest: Return to old time teachings

A Ro­man Catholic priest yes­ter­day called on mem­bers to re­turn to the old time teach­ings, re­spect and ways of the church.

De­liv­er­ing the homi­ly at the Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al RC Church in San Fer­nan­do pre­ced­ing the an­nu­al Cor­pus Christi pro­ces­sion, Fa­ther God­frey Stoute said: “It is im­por­tant that we re­turn to our orig­i­nal moor­ings. It is im­por­tant that we re­turn to the way it used to be.

“Over the years we have seen a de­cline and no­body is say­ing any­thing be­cause peo­ple, the priest don’t want to of­fend the peo­ple be­cause you want peo­ple to like you so you won’t cor­rect them.

“Be­cause if you cor­rect they go­ing to get vex and they go bad talk you. I have news for all my broth­er priests peo­ple will bad talk you any­way. You say it, you don’t say it, they will bad talk you still so it is bet­ter if they bad talk you for say­ing and do­ing the right thing.”

The im­por­tant thing, he said, is bring­ing back peo­ple back to what is re­quired in church and to re­store the re­spect and the awe they had for Je­sus in the blessed sacra­ment.

He said: “It is im­por­tant that we do what right­eous­ness de­mands of us in Christ.”

Touch­ing on the Venezue­lan mi­grant sit­u­a­tion in T&T, he said: “We have this sit­u­a­tion right now with the mi­grants many of us are tempt­ed to join with the crowd. We must re­mem­ber who we are, we are Chris­t­ian.

“We are mem­bers of the body of Christ and so, there­fore, we must act ap­pro­pri­ate­ly and al­ways care for those in need, we must al­ways reach out to those in need, re­mem­ber what the Bible says: ‘What­so­ev­er you do to the least of my broth­ers that you do un­to me.’”

He al­so lament­ed that few­er peo­ple were at­tend­ing con­fes­sion and com­mu­nion.

“I have been a priest for 29 years now and all my years of be­ing a priest over the years I can tell I have seen a steady de­cline in the num­ber of peo­ple go­ing to com­mu­nion.

“It says one of two things—one, ei­ther that peo­ple are holi­er now or that peo­ple have lost the sense of sin and I think the lat­ter is more true.”

He al­so took is­sue with the way mem­bers at­tire for church. While en­cour­ag­ing them to be suit­ably dressed, he said cer­tain clothes were not prop­er for the church.

“I have a prob­lem with all these plung­ing neck­lines and re­ced­ing hem­lines. When you com­ing to church dress your­self prop­er­ly. God gave you all that body, is yours but cov­er it prop­er­ly.