St Mary’s Church, Chorley

St Mary’s Catholic Church in the centre of Chorley is a high Victorian construction which adds a degree of beauty to the townscape. I could not gain entry, though I understand the insides are impressive. The outside is quite predictable, other than the height of its slender tower complete with small, corner spire. I suspect that it was designed to be as tall, if not taller, than the town’s two Anglican parish churches which reside nearby. Roman Catholics had been oppressed for some centuries after the Reformation, so one can hardly blame them for wishing to again stand tall.

One of the pictures I took, quite accidentally, shows that great tower obscuring the sun. This could have been rectified by shifting my position, but it reminded me of one of Rome’s grievous errors. By exalting the Church to so high a place, by which I mean its organisation or magisterium, rather than individual parishes buildings in medium sized, English towns, it obscures Christ. The head of this leviathan is the papacy, with its power and ostentation. Truly, it blocks out the Son and casts a shadow over the seekers of truth. One day, all buildings, structures and organisations shall fall, and Christ will come again, no longer relegated, demoted and obstructed by manmade religions and towers of Babel.