What needs to be said by me depends on what needs to be heard by you. The trouble is there are many of you. Last Sunday there were quite a lot of people at Mass at Bishop Thornton, very few at Pateley Bridge. I`ve no idea why this was the case, except there are many different attitudes towards Covid among people. On Tuesday I went to a Deanery Meeting (meeting of priests in the Harrogate deanery), one priest said things were back to normal in his parish, other priests said half their parishioners were back to Mass, other priests said less than half.
The trouble with the present situation is, that you can`t establish a “we” there are lots of “I”s. Are some people thinking it`s back to normal now, are others if they go to church this winter there`s a good chance they`ll catch flu never mind covid.. I think in the end people must do what they think is best, even if they are just being careful because there is no way of knowing what is best. What needs to be said by me and heard by you may become clearer with the passing of time. Meanwhile, we`ll have to learn patience.