H/T to AC for the cartoon above. In fact the situation is worse than that depicted above; since (I understand) the Mass has never been officially suspended ever before in the c2000 year history of the Catholic Church. When you consider what the church went-through in that span of time, the current situation is both astonishing and appalling.
The rapidity and eagerness (and virtue signalling) with which leaders of Western churches have responded to the birdemic by ceasing masses, closing churches - by, pretty-much, essentially suspending church - strikes me as (esepcially in the case of the Roman Catholic Church) - shocking; but on further reflection, pretty conclusive evidence confirming what I already believed: that serious Christians are on their own now.
Whatever church members may want or feel - this has been a unilateral abandonment of whatever remained of the traditional, church-led form of Christianity.
The era in which 'being a good Christian' could be equated, or even approximated, by a life of obedience to church authorities and the practice of church rituals, has passed.
Church leaders have advertised their primarily secular perspective, have advertised that they see themselves as a part of the Establishment with its mainstream materialist priorities - rather than living and giving an example as primarily spiritual people.
In the past, no doubt, the spiritual protestations of church leaders was often hypocritical; but now they see no need even to be hypocritical!
So extreme and ingrained is their Establishment-materialist perspective, that they seem not to have noticed that they have - in effect - declared themselves obsolete, irrelevant along with their institutions.
Anyway - as I said, this is merely confirmation of the reality that modern Christians have a different consciousness than Christians of the past; part of which is that we each know we each have primary responsibility for our Christian life.
Churches - and their leaders - may help or may hinder us; and that is for each one of us to decide.
Christians may choose to affiliate with a church or denomination, or may live more or less outside the avialable churches and denominations; but the individual agency of serious Christians now amounts to a spiritual fact.
