Mixed feelings about church camera ban

My youngest son will be making his First Holy Communion this weekend and we’re all really looking forward to the day.

Whether you’re a devout catholic or not, the occasions of Communion or Confirmation are important milestones in a child’s journey through life and provide cherished, lasting memories for all the family.

Quite rightly, we will now be prohibited from taking photographs during the ceremony – a sensible rule in itself.

The proliferation of camera phones over the past decade has brought out the amateur photographer in all of us, turning every possible event – from school concerts to sports days – into a paparazzi-like feeding frenzy.

There is nothing more irritating than seeing parents and relatives jostling for position around the altar to get the best vantage point as the priest attempts to carry out the sacrament.

So I was initially delighted to hear that the church has instructed each diocese to draw up guidelines on the use of cameras during religious services. 

However, I was somewhat perplexed to then read reports that part of the reason for the ban relates to the church’s child protection guidelines.

In my view, this is an absolute fallacy and, quite frankly, an insult to parents. A decision to prohibit photography during ceremonies should solely have been made on the basis that it is disrespectful of the occasion and an unwelcome distraction for the children. It should not be rolled out under the guise of a child protection measure.

This is the sort of nonsense that forces right-thinking people to lose all sense of perspective; where every innocent action is viewed with deep suspicion by an increasingly paranoid society.

It is, of course, only right and proper that the church has robust child protection measures in place given the scandalous history of clerical abuse in this country. With good reason, parents today are less trusting of members of the clergy than previous generations were. No longer is a priest considered to be beyond reproach; an untouchable pillar of the community afforded unwavering reverence.

The best protection we can offer our children is our knowledge of what happened in the past. 

It’s a sad reality that many decent, law-abiding priests who abhor the sexual abuse of children have been tarnished by association, through no fault of their own. Moreover, they have been further let down by the often inadequate response of church leaders, both at home and in Rome. But the fact remains that those found to be responsible for abusing children within the Catholic Church were the ones wearing white collars and administering the holy sacraments – not the parents and relatives taking photographs during ceremonies