Memories Of The Catholic Church

Here is a video from Germany. Germany, being a kafir country, did not stop Muslims from attending the Friday prayers - subject to the Corona Virus' social distancing rules of course. The social distancing rules meant that the number of Muslims attending Friday prayers at mosques in Germany was severely reduced. The mosques could only take in 1/5 or 1/6 the normal number of people.

This is where the Catholic Churches have stepped in. Since their churches are not utilised at lunch time on Fridays some of them have opened their doors for Muslims to conduct Friday prayers inside the churches. So more Muslims could still attend their Friday prayers but in the church. 

Here is a short video about this act of kindness: 

I have personal experience of the kindness of the modern Catholic Church. In the early 80s I lived and studied in a small town called West Lafayette in Indiana in the US. I attended the Purdue University located in West Lafayette. It was basically a university town.

Right along West Main Street there was (still is) a Catholic Church called the Saint Thomas Aquinas Center.   Thomas Aquinas being the famous Catholic saint.  Here are some shots of the St Thomas Aquinas Center. 

Above : Thomas Aquinas Center on West Main Street, West Lafayette

Below : The main prayer hall for Sunday Mass

Before the Saudis gave money to build a small Salafi mosque in West Lafayette the St Thomas Aquinas center allowed the Muslim students at Purdue to conduct Friday prayers at the basement of the large church building. The basement was also pretty spacious. However by the time I arrived in West Lafayette the mosque was already functioning so I never prayed at the Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. 

N'theless the Center's large basement was open and accessible 24 hours every day. I used to go to the basement at night - sometimes with friends - to study.  They had chairs and tables, a pool table, heating in winter, air conditioning in summer and they also had  a large refrigerator. The refrigerator always had two items in sufficient quantity - Coke and huge bricks of cheese. 

There was a small tin where you dropped a quarter (25 cents) for a can of Coke - which everyone did. But the cheese was free.  You could take home a whole brick of cheese and you did not have to pay anything. The cheese tasted quite ok. Only once - when I was too poor and was short of food - I did take a brick of that Thomas Aquinas cheese home. 

While Googling the Thomas Aquinas Center for this posting I found this picture below here of Catholic students today preparing church meals in the same basement. And lo and behold that is exactly the same huge brick of cheese (circled in white) that these boys are slicing up to make sandwiches. It is more than a foot long.

Another thing that I recall was a huge supersized portrait of Mother Theresa that hung on the wall overlooking the study area in that basement. Every time I sat and studied in that basement there would be Mother Theresa staring down at me.  

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the Catholic Church in this modern day which is reaching out  in plain humanity and kindness towards our fellow human beings.  I hope others will follow this kindness.