6 Apr 2021
British Catholic commentator Caroline Farrow has condemned London police for twice raiding a Polish church over Easter as a “chilling attack on freedom of religion”.
In video that went viral on social media over the weekend, footage from inside the Christ the King Polish Roman Catholic Church showed Metropolitan Police Service officers shutting down a Good Friday service, threatening congregants with £200 fines if they did not leave.
The church maintained that it was following government coronavirus guidance, but police turned up at the Balham, London, church again on Easter Sunday, only this time to leave without issuing fines or dispersal orders.
4 Apr 2021
Parishioners have accused London police of trying to find lockdown rule-breaking during an Easter Sunday service to justify having shut down a Good Friday mass at a Polish church.
The Christ the King Polish Roman Catholic Church in Balham, Wandsworth, south London, came to prominence over the weekend after several police officers raided the place of worship on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, alleging that the gathering was “unlawful”, threatening the faithful with £200 fines if they did not leave.
The church has demanded an apology from London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and maintains that churchgoers had kept proper social distancing and hygiene procedures in accordance with government rules regarding the reopening of places of worship.