Tomorrow, 19 July, sees the official end to the latest series of laws and regulations that have governed our lives since March 2020.
However, although popularly nicknamed “Freedom Day”, it seems rather to be the start of a period of further uncertainty about how to cope with Covid’s refusal to be beaten since now we are only advised, not required to wear masks in shops and social distance.
The role of the Catholic Church as an institution is to lead by example and in this crisis, Pope Francis has consistently sought to do exactly that. A year ago, Pope Francis was already saying that we should not be hoping to return back to the normal we were used to, but rather looking to build a better future. He established the COVID 19 Commission to start preparing to build that future.
A member of that Commission said “In his two encyclicals Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si the Pope has laid out not just nice ideas about a better future but has given us the tools to deconstruct the current model that has brought us to this crisis in order to build anew. Others are asking how to get going again. He is saying getting going again is to go backwards. His message is to challenge, change and create anew.”
(Martin Palmer, CEO FaithInvest, UK – September 2020)
Perhaps we as a Cornish community could do far worse than to adopt this same attitude…
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