Atheist Ireland Forum

I don't have RTE so never see the 12-bells at six. I was in a friend’s house yesterday and the Angelus came on, while the bells are ringing there are background noises such as a car passing, or people talking. Also the tone of the bells seems to change, rather than that constant mono-tone, it's almost musical.

Has it changed ???

Mick Nugent was on a show with the head of religious programming a while back who seemed to want to remove as much of the catholicism from the angelus as he could, to make it a moment of reflection for all. Maybe this is his way of taking the churchy feel out of it. As Mick pointed out, it's a bit off to ask all faiths and the non-religious to 'reflect' during a catholic call for prayer.