I've had a couple of conversations about this post on X with two friends of mine who are Catholics living in Chiswick, one a regular member of the congregation at Our Lady's, one feeling guilty about not going as often as she should. Both said more or less the same thing about the 'Never trust a Catholic' comment - that it was an importation of the sectarian language used in the north of Ireland and that it didn't particularly bother them as they had grown up with it.What did unsettle them was the way in which some prominent voices within the Chiswick community had reacted to this issue when it first arose and now that it has been re-emerged. A seam of anti-Catholicism which has always existed in England, and let's face it, is enshrined in our constitution, was exposed and came as a shock to people who hadn't encountered it before.One tell that was mentioned was the reaction people had to Father Michael Dunne's comments made some years ago about the Luftwaffe. He made the perfectly reasonable point that the bombing of the church didn't stop weddings and funerals using the pavement area at the front but the Cycleway 9 would have. Some ridiculously managed to claim this meant he was saying that cyclists are worse than Nazis, an obviously false distortion which it is hard to see being motivated by anything other than bigotry.When the idea was originally being discussed on this forum, I recall obviously ill-informed suggestions about how weddings and funerals could emerge from the side callously indifferent to the indignity for the deceased of their coffin being clumsily guided through the a narrow entrance.At the time it was suggested that the original design would have been perfectly acceptable to all parties if the church was given the ability to close the cycleway when there was a risk to people attending events or on Sunday mornings when the usage of the cycleway is pretty minimal anyway. It was never fully explained why this was unworkable.Most of us on this forum are not Catholics but there is a principle here that effects us all. Some have said that the Church has no right to take over a public space. I'm not sure of the law here but there have certainly been other cases where long-established use (in this case for well over a century) incurs rights. If you were to ignore this, it could potentially undermine a wider range of community activities. Hypothetically, let's say it was decided to make the path across Acton Green formally a cycleway and that therefore Green Days, the circus and other fairs could no longer take place. I suspect many cheerleaders for ignoring the point of view of the Catholic Church would be shrill voices in favour of established use.My own view remains that it is important these changes are made and the proposed route of the cycleway is a reasonable compromise. However, the stated position of the parish priest, that a proper consultation should be held, is far from outrageous and suggesting it is betrays prejudices which have little to do with transport policy. My concern would be is that TfL has chosen to proceed in this way because the situation on the High Road has deteriorated to the extent that urgent action is needed to improved traffic flow. Ignore the transparent nonsense about this being about safety.
Francis Rowe ● 23h