The Catholic Church said today it would take seriously a Government ministers concern over the threat posed to health by the use of incense.
More than likely some functionary in the Bishops office made a statement and it becomes “The Catholic Church said.”
The health risk was raised by Dr Jim Misdid, Minister of State in the transport department.
He highlighted the threat, particularly to altar boys and girls, in a comment on one of Irelands burning issues of the moment; a Government plan to ban smoking in the workplace from the start of next year.
Dr Misdid, who operated a medical practice before entering politics, and supports the smoking ban, insisted: I am not anti-Church, anti-smoke or indeed against the use of incense.
But there is a serious aspect to this. We all know that carbon is a carcinogenic agent, and wherever you have smoke, you are actually looking at carbon molecules.
“And wherever you have carbon molecules and happen to be inhaling them, then there is that chance that you will be doing damage.
“On a daily basis, we see people that are doing things that are detrimental to their health, and we all know they are doing that.
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If they ban incense wouldn’t that be CENSERship? These nanny state officials would probably have fined the Apostles for the tongues of fire that appeared over their heads. “Hey put that fire out, you are creating an oppressive work environment and besides this upper room isn’t licensed for pyrotechnics.” This would greatly suck if this spread and for insurance purposes they stopped the practice of using incense. Those Catholic Churches that have electric votive candles to reduce insurance costs might come up with even more tacky ideas for an incense substitute. Dry Ice Smoke generators or blessed CO2 extinguisher might be used or more likely liturgical dancers in white gauzy dresses throwing cotton balls about.
6 comments
Make a move to using incense from the Eastern churches. The stuff that passes for incense in Latin-rite parishes I’ve been to is mere smoke by comparison.
Oh, for Pete’s sake! I was an altar boy for six years, and it seems to me that incense isn’t used in the regular liturgy often enough to make THAT much of a health issue to someone who already has healthy lungs. Asthmatics, etc., well that is a different story, and maybe a reminder in the previous weekend’s bulletin that incense will be in use would be appropriate. It just wouldn’t be the Easter Triduum without the smell of incense!
This is all part of the legacy of the Good Friday Accords. When the Irish Consititution was changed so that it is no longer an officially Catholic nation, they they began their fall into Puritanism, secularism, and lunacy. Ireland, having come out of a centuries-old brutal occupation, does not have the strength to resist these various Protestantisms (and I see scientism and secularism as the dirty step-children of Protestantism).
They are banning smoking in pubs, moving ever closer to abortion-based genocide that approaches an Englishman’s dream, attacking the Holy Roman Catholic Church for opposing homosex “marriage”, and now this? Did someone forget to put the wooden stake in Cromwell’s heart when he died?
Wouldn’t you imagine that they would ban big things like buses before they go after lil things like Censers?
God save “The Ol’ Sod”!
Maureen,
No, they ban the little things because that is easier, and tends towards the real goal, which is not health but Puritanism. For instance, there are towns in California that allow the wonderfully civilized practice of sidewalk dining. Of course, the disadvantage is that the sidewalk tends to get a pretty high amount of auto exhaust in an urban area. Now there are urban areas that ban smoking outdoors at tables designated for sidewalk dining. This should tell you how serious they are about health.