s nci rds Fra wo pe n Po is ow h in

11 MAY 2013 2.90

www.thetablet.co.uk | Est. 1840

TABLET

THE

Alleluia for Gospel

Peter Stanford tunes in to the exuberant music transforming Catholic worship

Dont let spring turn to winter

Cherish the new papal era, says Hans Kng

Right or duty to die?

On the eve of another assisted-dying bill, palliative-care expert Rob George warns of the impact on the vulnerable
PLUS JAMES NAUGHTIE SARA MAITLAND CONOR GEARTY

THE TABLET
T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L CAT H O L I C W E E K LY Founded in 1840

AN UNCONVINCING SHOW OF UNITY

he adjective dysfunctional, which was levelled at the Roman Curia at the time of the election of Pope Francis, does not seem inappropriate to the inner workings of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Cardinal Joo Brz de Aviz, head of the Vatican congregation that deals with religious orders, was reported to have complained to the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General that he was never consulted by the CDF about its investigation into the United States Leadership Conference of Women Religious. This had caused him much pain, he was reported to have said, adding: We have to change this way of doing things. We have to improve these relationships. Yet a statement issued through the Holy Sees press office flatly contradicted him, denied there was any divergence between the two Vatican congregations, and blamed the media, saying: Such an interpretation of the cardinals remarks is not justified. It is not clear what difference greater collaboration between the two departments would have made, though Cardinal Brzs tone suggested there might have been some. This evidence of disarray at the top was becoming characteristic of the Curia under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, which may have been one of the reasons why he felt he was no longer able to carry on. But it does point to a broader issue. The distinguished Australian theologian Fr Gerald OCollins SJ, who has been a close student for many years of the way the CDF operates, is one of those who have repeatedly called for it to be reformed, not least because of the lack of diversity of

theological standpoints among those appointed to the staff of the CDF and the length of time they serve. If they are all of one conservative stamp, which is what he implied, the CDF mindset is not sufficiently open to internal challenge. He has contrasted the quality of the CDFs theological output unfavourably with that of the International Theological Commission and the Pontifical Biblical Commission, both Vatican-based but more diverse in their membership. In an article in The Tablet last year, he went on to criticise the CDF for accepting anonymous denunciation of any priest or bishop known as delations on the grounds of alleged doctrinal unorthodoxy. Such cases should only be investigated by the CDF as a last court of appeal, he said, when they have first been considered by the doctrinal commission of a national bishops conference. The Church needs a certain degree of doctrinal discipline, but if enforced too rigorously it can have a chilling effect. The weaknesses in the way the CDF operates can reinforce each other, as can its secrecy and the persistent refusal to follow the rules of due process when a particular theologian has to defend something he or she has said or written. The key question is just how wide to set the envelope of allowable theological diversity, and where to draw the red lines. That is a matter for the Pope in consultation with the entire college of bishops, not just for the officials of the CDF; and the theological community should itself be allowed to debate where the limits should be set. Fresh theological insights, which the Church needs and which the CDF should therefore encourage, require a climate of freedom, not of fear.

FOR THE EUROPEAN GREATER GOOD

avid Camerons European problem is becoming one of the central issues of British politics. On the one hand, voters do not like political parties that are divided, as the Conservatives appear to be. On the other, public disillusionment with the whole European Union project may offer a harvest of votes to any party that can position itself to reap them. If the Tories can present themselves as sufficiently Eurosceptical and sufficiently united to be convincing, this could be a winning ticket come the next general election. What counts against Mr Cameron is the sheer distrust with which most voters regard most politicians. The former Chancellor and Tory grandee Lord (Nigel) Lawson has made Mr Camerons task more difficult by airing his extreme scepticism about the Prime Ministers current European strategy. The call for a renegotiation of the terms of Britains EU membership followed by a referendum on the outcome was designed to reassure the opponents of Britains continued membership that they would eventually have a chance to express their objections. Yet Mr Camerons own hope was that he could negotiate a package that would ensure Britains continued membership and thus those Tories who supported Britains membership could also back his renegotiation-plus-referendum formula. This may superficially have united the party, but clearly was not sufficient to see off the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) challenge in the recent county council elections. Now Lord Lawson claims the Cameron strategy is not only doomed but, by implication, insincere.
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The argument is exclusively conducted in terms of Britains narrow economic self-interest, and ignores the fact that there is a wider political, moral and historical dimension to Britains engagement with its continental neighbours. That needs to be put in the balance too. Recent events have further complicated the argument. The ordeal by austerity that has afflicted Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere is partly attributed to their membership of the EU. It is hard to hold that up as a shining example of moral triumph, to which Britain should therefore, for moral reasons, remain committed. The long-term hope must be that European prosperity will return, and self-interest and moral conviction would then support the case for Britains continued membership. At present, to much of the population and not just in the UK EU membership seems nothing but a costly burden. The best answer to Lord Lawson and the Tory Eurosceptics, as well as to Ukip and to British public opinion, is to accept that the case for some realignment of forces inside the EU is not unique to Britain, but arises from the changes that the EU needs to make in response to its own crisis. German voters are just as interested in some realignment as British voters. The new shape will take time, and its outline is still unclear. But some further pooling of sovereignty may well be necessary. That is the point at which the British public could legitimately be asked to weigh the pros and cons of continuing to participate, not just out of short-term self-interest but for the greater good of all the peoples of Europe while bearing in mind that it is rarely advisable to turn ones back on ones neighbours.

11 May 2013

CONTENTS
1 1 M AY 2 0 1 3

CO LU M N S
5 CAT H E R I N E P E P I N ST E R
Politicians have constantly to navigate between ideology and pragmatism

F E AT U R E S

1 1 C H R I STO P H E R H OW S E S P R E SS WATC H
Google is on a par with God in terms of public trust, began one newspaper story

A different way to go to God Christopher Lamb

On a visit to London, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran talks to The Tablet about interfaith dialogue and the complexities of belief and religion

1 3 SA R A M A I T L A N D
After renewing an ancient water system, I have developed a real interest in sanitation

Right or duty to die?

Linda Woodhead, Rob George, and Sheila Payne and Claudia Gamondi

16 PUZZLES 1 7 PA R I S H P R AC T I C E 1 8 N OT E B O O K 1 9 L E T T E RS 20 THE LIVING SPIRIT 8

Support for assisted dying is growing, according to a new poll, with Christians among those who believe it should be made legal

Dont let spring turn to winter Hans Kng

The new Popes placing himself in the tradition of his namesake saint is a challenge to the Roman system, says a leading theologian

BOOKS
2 1 JA M E S N AU G H T I E
Margaret Thatcher: the authorized biography. Volume 1: Not for Turning Charles Moore

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Roll up your sleeves Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Abraham Skorka

The first of two extracts from a new book of conversations between Pope Francis and his Argentinian rabbi friend

S I M O N S COT T P LU M M E R
The Memoirs of Jin Luxian. Volume 1: Learning and Relearning, 1916-1982 Trans. William Hanbury-Tenison

K AT H Y WATS O N
Black Narcissus Rumer Godden

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Bullet holes, empty windows and hope Julie Masis

A derelict church is brought back to use as a place of worship in Cambodia, a country that is experiencing a Christian revival

A RT S
2 4 F E AT U R E
Peter Stanford Soul Sanctuary

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Imagining a Catholic future Conor Gearty

A leading human-rights lawyer argues that the election of the new pontiff should mark a re-entrance of the Church into civil society

TELEVISION
John Morrish Vicious

T H E AT R E
Mark Lawson Passion Play

27 THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD Vatican denies Brz-CDF clash 3 0 L E T T E R F RO M RO M E 3 1 N E W S F RO M B R I TA I N A N D I R E L A N D Church criticises Government over immigration policies
COVER ILLUSTRATION: NERUUU

CINEMA
Francine Stock A Hijacking

11 May 2013

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The Tablet Interview

A different way to go to God

Two months ago Cardinal Tauran stepped on to the Vatican balcony to announce Habemus Papam and introduce the world to Pope Francis. Last week, in London for a major seminar on Christian-Muslim relations, he talked to Christopher Lamb about interfaith dialogue and the complexities of belief and religion
verseeing the Churchs relationship with other religions is a sensitive task. It is not surprising therefore that one of the Vaticans most seasoned diplomats, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, was assigned the task in June 2007. And as I said goodbye to the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue he asked me, half jokingly, Dont make me a heretic. The 70-year-old Bordeaux-born cardinal was in London for a meeting on Christian and Muslim relations in Europe organised by the Council of European Bishops Conferences (CCEE). He brings to his current post years of experience: from 1990 to 2003 he was the Holy Sees Secretary for Relation with States: de facto, the Vaticans foreign minister. His seniority also means that he is the Cardinal Protodeacon the longest serving of the cardinal deacons and so has one of the most important tasks following the papal conclave. So it was in March, after white smoke had billowed from the Sistine Chapels chimney, that the eyes of the world were fixed on him as he walked out onto the balcony of St Peters Basilica to announce Habemus Papam and the name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis. He recalled that his primary concern before revealing the news was the response of the crowd.I was preoccupied by the reaction to the surprise. I was thinking, What a surprise for these people! How are they going to react? he said. It was reaction that time the reaction of angered Muslims that first made the Catholic Churchs relationship with Islam such a sensitive topic. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI gave his Regensburg lecture in which, in a reflection on the relationship between faith and reason, he quoted a fourteenth-century Byzantine Emperor who said Islam was closely linked to violence. Although initially not well received 4 | THE TABLET
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by the Muslim world, exactly a year later 138 Muslim scholars issued an invitation to improve dialogue between Islam and Christianity. This in turn led to the Catholic-Muslim Forum, and Cardinal Tauran tells me that the third meeting is in the process of being organised. So what will Pope Francis approach be to relations with Islam? This Pope is a man of dialogue, he said, adding that he has already met the Pope to discuss the matter. Two or three years ago [as Archbishop of Buenos Aires] he sent a priest of Buenos Aires to study Arabic in Cairo in order to have an assistant who is able to dialogue in a proper way. Hes very interested in it. The biggest challenge

While he sees the Church working with Muslims on ethical issues, such as social justice, he is much more cautious on theology
to Christian-Muslim relations, says Cardinal Tauran, is that we are still at the very beginning of our pilgrimage. The weight of the past, he said, and the secularisation of society make things difficult. For the cardinal himself and others of his generation, inter-religious dialogue was of course not part of their pre-Vatican II formation. He studied at the Gregorian University and Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome as well as the Catholic University of Toulouse before entering the Vaticans diplomatic service. Later he became the Vatican archivist before taking on his role at the Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, despite having been diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinsons disease. During the CCEE meeting this week which

took place at the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, a Church of England retreat and conference centre in the East End of London the discussions focused on young Muslims and young Christians and the need for them to understand their own faiths. The cardinals view is that in order to have coherent dialogue each faith needs to better know its own traditions. It is important they both have a clear-cut spiritual identity, a religious identity. If you want to have a fruitful inter-religious dialogue, you cannot build up dialogue on ambiguity. It is important that young people be culturally prepared and religiously prepared, he said. The cardinal explained: Sometimes these young people have no idea of the content of their own faith. Cardinal Tauran who while in London had a second meeting with Baroness (Sayeeda) Warsi, the Minister for Faith and Communities and a Muslim is also clear about the limitations of dialogue with Islam. While he sees the Church working with Muslims on ethical issues, such as defending the family and social justice, he is much more cautious on questions of theology. With Islam there is no theological dialogue, he said. You have to distinguish between faith and beliefs. There is a dialogue with beliefs but not with faith. On beliefs we have a religious approach to problems like the family, social justice. On that level, we have possibilities. There are, however, Catholic scholars who believe that a theological dialogue is possible, albeit difficult. This would not mean an agreement on central tenets of faith but it could lead to a greater understanding of respective positions. Cardinal Taurans distinction on faith and beliefs is found in the controversial document

11 May 2013

Dominus Iesus, published in 2000 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the auspices of its prefect, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. In that document, faith is described as acceptance in grace of revealed truth of the one, triune God while belief, in other religions, is religious experience in search of the absolute truth. Dominus Iesus added that too often faith and belief are conflated and therefore differences between Christianity and the other religions tend to be reduced at times to the point of disappearance. Some, however, see such a distinction as too sharply drawn. The studies on religious pluralism by the late Jesuit Fr Jacques Dupuis whose work some believe Dominus Iesus was implicitly criticising argued that while Christ is the unique saviour of all humanity, divine self-witness is available to all people. Given that God has become man, mans search for God through other religions should not be discounted. I tentatively ask the cardinal if we can say that God has spoken through Islam. No, he replied. What you can say is that God is working through every man, that is true. This is perhaps a fair distinction to make given that the Catholic position that Islam is not a revealed religion. However, he does not say whether Islam has anything positive to say, for example, on the importance of worshipping one God. We all believe in the one God. But we have a different way to go to God, the cardinal said. For Muslims the Quran is exactly what Jesus is for us. We are not the religion of the book. We are the religion of an encounter with a living person. One area that has concerned the Church in its relations with Islam is the lack of religious freedom for Christians in Islamic countries. A mosque can be built in Rome but a church cannot be built in Saudi Arabia. We mustnt give the impression we are selling carpets. One church there, one church in Riyadh, two churches there, Cardinal Tauran explained. [But] we are abiding by principles of international law. Everybody has the right to have a religion or not to have a religion. And a believer always practises his faith with others. There needs to be a place to gather. This is a universal principle.

CATHERINE PEPINSTER

Politicians have constantly to navigate between ideology and pragmatism

They came and went in rural Britain early this year; a rash of colour, mostly purple. You can still see the odd one looking a trifle worn around the edges. No, not a native spring flower, but the sprouting of Ukip election posters this spring. In some counties there was a particular variety: Stop HS2! Vote Ukip!, combining opposition to the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham with support for a party whose hotchpotch of policies includes opposition to the EU, anger about migration, rejection of same-sex marriage and even the restoration of smoking in pubs. It is too easy to mock Ukip voters as Little Englanders. Instead its important to ask why Nigel Farage and Co. have touched a nerve. The number of council seats they won in last weeks local elections shows not only a deep dissatisfaction with the existing political parties but, at a time of financial uncertainty and rapid cultural change, that many voters fear for the future and dont much like the present. They perceive Europe as a dead hand on Britains prosperity and a restriction on their lives, and they believe that migrants are pricing them out of their jobs with their acceptance of low wages, as well as putting pressure on local services and changing their culture. Some of this might well be put down to xenophobia, as with the woman from rural Lincolnshire who was quoted in a Sunday newspaper: Foreigners drinking vodka all day: our grandchildren will be living in cardboard boxes if this carries on. Yet, however much the scapegoating of others makes us uneasy, its surely important for politicians, and indeed the rest of us, to take notice of such angry voters. Theres a feeling abroad that senior politicians are part of a metropolitan elite the posh boys, as MP Nadine Dorries puts it who are remote and unrepresentative of the rest of Britain and dont listen. Well, after the Ukip surge, the politicians say they are listening and there was evidence of catch-up in measures in the Queens Speech to further limit immigration. But theres also a danger for politicians in taking the national mood too seriously and acting too fast. Take, for example, what could happen if politicians are constantly swayed by public opinion on capital punishment. After a gruesome murder of, perhaps, children, or a police officer, the public via tabloid papers, Facebook and Twitter, might well begin clamouring for restoration of the death penalty. A free vote is taken in Parliament, and hanging is restored. A couple of more years pass: another murderer, this time a young woman, is hanged for the poisoning of her husband. An investigation then shows that she was innocent; it was a cuckolded husband who had bumped off his love rival. This time a Twitter storm and Facebook campaign lead to another free vote, and capital punishment is then abandoned. Politicians have constantly to navigate between ideology and pragmatism. But with elections every four or five years, they frequently tend to short-termism rather than the long-term welfare of the nation, and bend in the wind of national mood. Edmund Burke warned of the danger of an electoral representative doing just that, sacrificing his judgement to voters opinions. Yet there are pitfalls too, for the conviction politician. If Mrs Thatcher had listened earlier to public opinion about the poll tax, she might have avoided damaging her standing, not least with her own Government. The poll tax, though, set public against politicians; there werent other people stuck in the middle of the rumpus. Fortunately, Archbishop Vincent Nichols spotted how difficult it must be for migrants who feel they are under attack when he spoke at the migrants Mass. The Catholic Church in England and Wales has a long history of migrants joining it and in the past 10 years it has encouraged special chaplaincies and Masses. The migrants Mass has become something of a tradition at Westminster Cathedral on the first May bank holiday, although this year it was less widely promoted than before. Perhaps the Church was worried about being seen as political, holding the Mass so soon after the Ukip-dominated election results. But there comes a time when it needs to speak out while still being alert to different sensibilities. In other words, it has to combine idealism with reality, to be practical but hold on to its convictions. Theres a lesson there for politicians and, indeed, for the Church itself on all manner of other issues. 11 May 2013
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e also stressed that religious freedom is more than simply the freedom to worship, and a believer should be able to participate in the public dialogue of a country. The principles that should define religious freedom are public order religion should not disrupt the peace and public health an individual should not refuse life-saving medical treatment on grounds of faith. The cardinal is keen to argue that interreligious dialogue should not simply be for the consumption of the communities. Christianity, Islam and Judaism still have an extraordinary power to attract followers, he said, show the wider world the possibility of unity in diversity, and indeed empower that wider world. As he put it: This commonality must be put at the service of society.

Westminster Faith Debates

Right or duty to die?

The former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, will introduce a bill in the House of Lords next week that would legalise assisted dying. Support for the measure is growing, according to a new YouGov poll, with Christians among those who believe it should be available to the terminally ill
MORE THAN three-quarters of the adult population of Great Britain would like to see a change in the law on assisted dying and fifty-six per cent of those who identify as Catholic agree, writes Linda Woodhead. One of the reasons for this shift is that the experience of dying has changed. Over the last 150 years or so, death from infection and infectious diseases has largely been replaced by death due to chronic illnesses and even these are becoming more treatable. People also have much higher expectations of longevity, good health and control of disease. When suffering occurs, perhaps over a protracted period, we are therefore more likely to find it intolerable than did previous generations. There is also a growing conviction that individuals have the right to choose when and how to end their lives. Our survey finds that 82 per cent of those in favour of allowing euthanasia give this as their reason, as do 75 per cent of Catholics who support change. Few now think that suffering is natural, Godgiven or serves a good purpose thus the second most popular reason for allowing euthanasia is that it is preferable to drawnout suffering. But 16 per cent of the population think the law should not be changed and 14 per cent dont know. Among self-identified Catholics the proportion of opponents is 30 per cent and among churchgoing Catholics 42 per cent, with 44 per cent supporting a change. Unlike the issues of sexuality and family, also addressed in the Westminster Faith Debates, our poll finds religion is the only factor that really counts age and gender make no difference. Only Muslims say their belief in the sanctity of human life is key to their opposition to change. For the general population, including Catholics, it is the possibility that vulnerable people could be harmed which counts most. The answer that carries most weight probably with legislators as well is that you cannot build in adequate safeguards. People who support euthanasia say they do so for people with incurable diseases. But the difficulties of defining what constitutes a disease worthy of death are enormous. In practice, as in Switzerland, allowing assisted suicide is likely to mean allowing it for anyone, including those with depression. But vulnerable people may not be in a good state of mind to know whether they really want to die, and this decision is irrevocable. Linda Woodhead is professor of the sociology of religion at Lancaster University. She organised the Westminster Faith Debates with the Rt Hon. Charles Clarke; the debates were funded by Lancaster University, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. The debate on 2 May was the last in the 2013 series. Videos and podcasts can be viewed at www.religionandsociety.org.uk

This debate is not about compassion, autonomy, personal morality or religious conviction, writes Rob George. It is about whether the law should change to protect doctors who supply lethal drugs to terminally ill patients for the purposes of suicide from being convicted. It is not to promote a persons freedom; they are already free to kill themselves. Campaigning organisations tell us that people who are terminally ill are dying anyway and helping them on their way is not assisted suicide but assisted dying. This is disingenuous. The fundamental plank of health care for people who are dying from incurable disease is to care for them while they die. It led to palliative care and the hospice movement and underlies our disturbance at any sign that care of the vulnerable and dying might be wanting. It is a world away from doctors and other clinicians acting in order that they die and being protected by law to take lethal action. Good law-making rests on what

PHOTO: MARTIN SEDDON

An assisted dying law undermines the universal protection of lives

words mean, not what we might like them to mean. If you die by your own hand, that is suicide; and, if a doctor gives you the means to do that, it is physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Furthermore, having agreed that you are better off dead, the doctor has a duty to succeed. Whether that stops with a prescription, administering a liquid or an injection is merely practical and the false distinctions between modes of ending a life collapse. We are led to believe that legalised PAS will be accessed by only a tiny number of people; the experience in Oregon and Holland exposes this as fallacy. We are told not to worry as there will be safeguards to protect the vulnerable; but this assumes a perfect world in which every seriously ill person is clear about whether they want to die or not, in which doctors respect that, in which all families are loving and caring, and in which society is happy to bear the cost of the care during a natural death. The real world just isnt like that. It also assumes that people who seek PAS will beexamined by a reassuringfamily doctor who knowsthem well. Not so. Most doctors are opposed to PAS and will not touch it. In Oregon, patients who want assisted suicideoften end up being assessed by doctors whom they have only just met. The safeguards safeguard nothing other than our sensibilities as they have no defensible foundation once we agree that some people are better off dead. So why is assisted dying being foisted onto a profession that does not want it and considers it both unethical and unsafe? Simple: embedding the practice in health-care bubble-wrap gives an aura of caring compassion, safety and legitimacy. Are there discriminatory risks? The most obvious is that giving terminally ill people the option of PAS may be seen by campaigners as a reasonable entitlement, but theres another perspective. An assisted dying law undermines the universal protection of lives. Assisted dying confers a right to die to some at the expense of a right of protection to many. Take the physician out of assisted suicide and you see it for what it is giving the means to suicide at best, but at worst protection for anyone with darker motives. Would we not do better to learn from those who have discovered how to transcend suffering and find dignity in the worst of circumstances so that we can all learn how to parry the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? What is worse: not to kill someone who wants to die, or to kill someone who may have more and better living to do?

Rob George is professor of

palliative care at Kings College London and a consultant physician in palliative care to the communities around Guys and St Thomas Hospitals.

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11 May 2013

If you wish to research assisted suicide, asking participants about their experience is not an option, write Sheila Payne (left) and Claudia Gamondi. In a new research study in Switzerland, we therefore approached family members of those involved; eleven agreed to talk to us. Assisted suicide is not legalised in Switzerland, but it is tolerated if certain conditions are met. One is that the act must be unselfish no third party must gain. The police are notified of all deaths and appear to carry out a light touch investigation. Research suggests that there are approximately 400 deaths by assisted suicide in Switzerland per year, though actual numbers may be higher. Physicians are not present at the death and their role is limited to prescribing drugs and issuing death certificates. Four main organisations provide assistance in the different cantons. Of these, the only one that provides help to non-Swiss residents is Dignitas. These right-to-die associations have thousands of members, they undertake political lobbying and disseminate information, and they advise people. Assisted suicide consists in the voluntary ingestion of a lethal dose of a drug, taken with the intention to die. The act must be pursued by the person who wishes to die. Not all assisted suicides are of people with terminal illnesses, though most cases involve people with cancer or progressive neurological diseases. A small

Relatives we interviewed said that those who sought death did so on the basis of long-standing personal beliefs
proportion suffer from depression. Family members may be involved in decision-making, helping during the ingestion of the drug, and dealing with the aftermath. There are thought to be about 1,200 such family members per year in Switzerland. Those we interviewed said that those who sought death did so on the basis of long-standing personal beliefs. As one put it: He had always said, since I was a child, that if he fell ill from a serious illness, he would kill himself. Some reported that, long before diagnosis, the person had told them that they were contemplating suicide in the case of a serious illness. Many relatives had moral concerns and questioned both whether assisted suicide was right in general, and whether it was right for the person in question. They also debated whether or not to be involved. Some described feelings of social isolation during the decision-making phase and the later bereavement. But in general our small study suggests that the relatives tended to share the deceased persons values. As one told us: It is a bad thing,

but I thought: it is better like this it is a painless thing, safe, without the worst consequences. Another said: Im absolutely happy with what I have done, but at the beginning you have plenty of doubts. In the night, you ask yourself: Did I do right? Should I have gone and asked someones advice? I should have waited a little more Contemporary debates around assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK tend to emphasise the lack of adequate pain management or referral to palliative care as precipitators for hastening the end of life. We found no evidence of this. All the patients in our study were enrolled in a palliative care service andchose assisted suicide despite having access to good symptom control and psychosocial support. This is similar to research data from the US state of Oregon, which found that 78 per cent of patients who died with assisted suicide were enrolled in a hospice programme. Rather, our study found that those who chose assisted suicide did so not as a result of a lack of alternatives, but from a long-standing commitment to the cause of assisted suicide, and out of a fear of dependency and loss of control.

Professor Sheila Payne is director of the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University and Dr Claudia Gamondi is consultant in palliative medicine, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ticino.

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Power and poverty

HANS KNG

Dont let spring turn to winter

When Jorge Bergoglio took the name Francis as Pope, he did something no pontiff has done before: placed himself in the tradition of the Poverello. It is, says this leading theologian, a challenge to the Roman system, in terms of both spiritual and institutional reform
ho could have imagined what has happened in the last weeks? When I decided, some months ago, to resign all of my official duties on the occasion of my eighty-fifth birthday, I assumed that in my lifetime I would never see fulfilled my decades-long dream that after all the setbacks following the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church would once again experience the kind of rejuvenation that it did under Pope John XXIII. And now my theological companion of many decades, Joseph Ratzinger both of us are now 85 suddenly announced his resignation of his papal office effective from the end of February. And, on 19 March (his name day and my birthday), a new Pope with the surprising and programmatic name Francis assumed this office. Has Jorge Mario Bergoglio considered why no Pope has dared to choose the name of Francis until now? At any rate, the Argentinian was aware that with the name Francis he was connecting himself with Francis of Assisi the thirteenth-century downshifter who had been the fun-loving, worldly son of a rich textile merchant in Assisi until the age of 24, when he gave up his family, wealth and career, even giving his splendid clothes back to his father. It is astonishing how, from the first minute of his inauguration, Pope Francis chose a new style: unlike his predecessor, he wears no mitre with gold and jewels, no erminetrimmed cape, no made-to-measure red shoes or headgear, uses no magnificent throne. It is astonishing, too, that the new Pope deliberately abstains from solemn gestures and high-flown rhetoric and speaks in the language of the people, as lay preachers can. And it is astonishing how the new Pope emphasises his humanity: he asked for the prayers of the people before he gave them his blessing; he settled his own hotel bill like anybody else; showed his friendliness to the cardinals in the coach travelling to their shared residence and at the official goodbye; and on Maundy Thursday washed the feet of young prisoners, including those of a young Muslim girl. This is a Pope who demonstrates 8
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that he is a man with his feet on the ground. All this would have pleased Francis of Assisi and is the opposite of what Pope Innocent III (11981216) represented in his time. In 1209, Francis and 11 friars minor travelled to Rome in order to lay before Pope Innocent their short Rule consisting entirely of quotations from the Bible, and to ask for papal approval for their way of life, preaching as lay preachers according to the form of the Holy Gospel and living in poverty. Innocent III, the Duke of Segni, who was only 37 when he was elected pope, was a born ruler he was a theologian educated in Paris, a shrewd lawyer, a clever speaker, a capable administrator and a sophisticated diplomat. No pope before him or since had as much power. The revolution from the top initiated by Gregory VII in the eleventh century, known as the Gregorian Reform, was completed by Innocent. Instead of the title of Successor of St Peter he preferred the title of Vicar of Christ, as used by every bishop or priest until the twelfth century. The pope, unlike in the first millennium and never acknowledged in the apostolic Churches of the East, has since then acted as the absolute ruler, law-giver and judge of Christianity until today. But the triumphal pontificate of Innocent III proved itself to be not only the high point of the papacy but also the turning point. Already in his time, there were signs of decay which, in part up until in our own time, have remained features of the Roman Curia system: nepotism and favouritism granted to relatives, acquisitiveness, corruption and dubious financial dealings. By the end of the twelfth century, however, powerful non-conformist penitent and mendicant movements, such as the Cathars and Waldensians, were emerging. But popes and bishops acted against these dangerous currents by banning lay preaching, condemning heretics by the Inquisition and even by the Albigensian Crusades. Yet it was Innocent III himself who tried to integrate into the Church evangelical, apostolic mendicant orders during all the eradication campaigns against obstinate heretics such as the Cathars. Even Innocent knew that an urgent reform of the Church

was needed, and it was for this reform that he called the Fourth Lateran Council. So after a long admonition, he gave Francis of Assisi permission to preach. As for the ideal of absolute poverty as required by the Rule, the pope first sought to know the will of God in prayer. On the basis of a dream in which a small, insignificant member of an order saved the papal Lateran Basilica from collapsing so it was told the pope finally allowed the Rule of Francis of Assisi. He let this be known in the consistory of cardinals but never had it committed to paper. In fact, Francis of Assisi represented the alternative to the Roman system. What would have happened if Innocent and his ilk had once again taken the Gospel seriously? Even if they had understood it spiritually rather than literally, Francis evangelical demands meant and still mean an immense challenge to the centralised, legalised, politicised and clericalised system of power which took over the cause of Christ in Rome since the eleventh century. Innocent III was probably the only pope who, because of his unusual characteristics, could have directed the Church along a completely different path, and this would have saved the papacies of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries schism and exile, and the Church in the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation. Obviously, this would have meant a paradigm shift for the Catholic Church in the thirteenth century, a shift which instead of splitting the Church would have renewed it, and at the same time reconciled the Churches of East and West. Thus, the early Christian basic concerns of Francis of Assisi remain even today questions for the Catholic Church and now for a Pope who, indicating his intentions, has called himself Francis. It is above all about the three basic concerns of the Franciscan ideal which have to be taken seriously today: it is about paupertas or poverty, about umilitas or humility, and about simplicitas, or simplicity. This probably explains why no previous Pope has dared to take the name of Francis: the expectations seem to be too high.

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That raises a second question: What does it mean for a Pope today if he bravely takes the name of Francis? Of course the character of Francis of Assisi must not be idealised he could be single-minded and eccentric, and he had his weaknesses, too. He is not the absolute standard. But his early Christian concerns must be taken seriously even if they need not be literally implemented but rather translated into modern times by Pope and Church. Paupertas, or poverty: The Church in the spirit of Innocent III meant a Church of wealth, pomp and circumstance, acquisitiveness and financial scandal. In contrast, a Church in the spirit of Francis means a Church of transparent financial policies and modest frugality. A Church which concerns itself above all with the poor, the weak, the marginalised. A Church which does not pile up wealth and capital but instead actively fights poverty and which offers its staff exemplary conditions of employment. Humilitas, or humility: The Church in the spirit of Pope Innocent means a Church of power and domination, bureaucracy and discrimination, repression and Inquisition. In contrast, a Church in the spirit of Francis means a Church of humanity, dialogue, brother and sisterhood, and hospitality for non-conformists too; it means the unpretentious service of its leaders and social solidarity, a community which does not exclude new religious forces and ideas from the Church but rather allows them to flourish. Simplicitas, or simplicity: The Church in the spirit of Pope Innocent means a Church of dogmatic immovability, moralistic censure and legal hedging, a Church of canon law regulating everything, a Church of all-knowing scholastic and of fear. In contrast, a Church in the spirit of Francis of Assisi means a Church of Good News and of joy, a theology based purely on the Gospel, a Church that listens to people instead of indoctrinating from on high, a Church that does not only teach but constantly learns anew. In the light of the concerns and approaches of Francis of Assisi, basic options and policies can be formulated today for a Catholic Church whose faade still glitters at great Roman occasions but whose inner structure proves itself to be rotten and fragile in the daily life of parishes in many lands, which is why many people have left it, in spirit and often also in fact. While no reasonable person will expect that all reforms can be effected by one man overnight, a shift would be possible in five years: this was shown by the Lorraine Pope Leo IX (104954) who prepared Gregory VIIs reforms, and in the twentieth century by the Italian John XXIII (195863) who called the Second Vatican Council. But today the direction should be made clear again: not a restoration to pre-council times as there was under Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but instead considered, planned and well-communicated steps to reform along the

lines of the Second Vatican Council. But wont reform of the Church meet with serious opposition? Doubtless, Pope Francis will awaken powerful hostility, above all in the powerhouse of the Roman Curia, opposition which is difficult to withstand. Those in power in the Vatican are not likely to abandon the power that has been accumulated since the Middle Ages. Francis of Assisi also experienced the force of such curial pressures. He, who wanted to free himself of everything by living in poverty, clung more and more closely to Holy Mother Church. Rather than be in confrontation with the hierarchy, he wanted to be obedient to Pope and Curia, living in imitation of Jesus: in a life of poverty, in lay preaching. He and his followers even had themselves tonsured in order to enter the clerical state. In fact, this

Giottos fresco of The Dream of Innocent III (1297-99), in the Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi. In Innocents dream, the Lateran Church was about to collapse, but was held up by St Francis. Photo: Bridgeman made preaching easier but on the other it encouraged the clericalisation of the young community which included more and more priests. So it is not surprising that the Franciscan community became increasingly integrated into the Roman system. Francis last years were overshadowed by the tensions between the original ideals of Jesus followers and the adaptation of his community to the existing type of monastic life. On 3 October 1226, aged only 44, Francis died as poor as he had lived. Just 10 years previously, Pope Innocent III died completely unexpectedly at the age of 56, one year after the Fourth Lateran Council. On 16 June 1216, Innocents body was found in the Cathedral of Perugia: this pope who had known how to increase the power, property and wealth of the Holy See like no other before him was found deserted by all, completely naked, robbed by his own servants. It was like trumpet call signalling the transition from papal

world domination to papal powerlessness: at the beginning of the thirteenth century there was Innocent III reigning in glory; at the end of the century, there was the megalomaniac Boniface VIII (12941303) arrested by the French; and then the 70-year-long exile in Avignon and the western Schism with two and finally three popes. Barely two decades after Francis death, the rapidly spreading Franciscan movement in Italy seemed to be almost completely domesticated by the Roman Church so that it quickly became a normal order at the service of papal politics, and even became a tool of the Inquisition. If, then, it was possible that Francis of Assisi and his followers were finally domesticated by the Roman system, then obviously it cannot be excluded, that a Pope Francis could also be trapped in the Roman system which he is supposed to be reforming. Pope Francis: a paradox? Is it possible that a Pope and a Francis, obviously opposites, can ever be reconciled? Only by an evangelically minded reforming Pope. To conclude, I have a final question: what is to be done if our expectations of reform are dashed? The time is past when Pope and bishops could rely on the obedience of the faithful. A certain mysticism of obedience was also introduced by the eleventh-century Gregorian Reform: obeying God means obeying the Church and that means obeying the Pope and vice versa. Since that time, it has been drummed into Catholics that the obedience of all Christians to the Pope is a cardinal virtue; commanding and enforcing obedience by whatever means has become the Roman style. But the medieval equation of obedience to God = to the Church = to the Pope patently contradicts the word of Peter and the other apostles before the High Council in Jerusalem: man must obey God rather than any human authority. We should then in no way fall into resigned acceptance. Instead, faced with a lack of impulse towards reform from the hierarchy, we must take the offensive, pressing for reform from the bottom up. If Pope Francis tackles reforms, he will find he has the wide approval of people far beyond the Catholic Church. However, if he allows things to continue as they are, without clearing the log-jam of reforms now in progress, such as that of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, then the call of Time for outrage! Indignezvous! will ring out more and more in the Catholic Church, provoking reforms from the bottom up. These would be implemented without the approval of the hierarchy and frequently even in spite of the hierarchys attempts at circumvention. In the worst case as I wrote before the recent papal election the Catholic Church will experience a new Ice Age instead of a spring and will run the risk of dwindling into a barely relevant large sect. Dr Hans Kng is honorary president of the Global Ethic Foundation. His most recent book, We Can save the Catholic Church! Can we save the Catholic Church?, is published by Collins. 11 May 2013
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Book extract: On Heaven and Earth

JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO AND ABRAHAM SKORKA

Roll up your sleeves

For those wishing to understand the thinking of Pope Francis, his conversations with his Argentinian rabbi friend are vital. In the first of two extracts from the new English edition of their dialogue, the pair discuss justice, enduring tradition and the possibility of change
Rabbi Abraham Skorka: The Bible teaches us the idea that we are all descendants of the first man. In other words, we are all linked to each other in brotherhood. One should never be indifferent to another human being. The whole Bible perhaps is simply a demand do not be indifferent to spirituality, to G-d or to your neighbour. What then is the social function of religion?
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio: Let us go back to the first two commandments: the first is you shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul; the second one is you shall love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus says

that in these two commandments the entire law is contained. Hence, the liberal conception of religion being allowed only in places of worship, and the elimination of religion outside of it, is not convincing. There are actions that are consistently done in places of worship, like the adoration, praise and worship of God. But there are others that are done outside, like the entire social dimension of religion. It starts in a community encounter with God, who is near and walks with his people, and is developed over the course of ones life with ethical, religious and fraternal guidelines, among others. There is something that regulates the conduct of others: justice. I

Catholic Schools
Identity and Mission
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believe that the one who worships God has, through that experience, a mandate of j u s t i c e towards his brothers. It is an extremely creative justice because it invents things: education, social progress, care and attention, relief, etc. Therefore, the integral religious man is called to be a just man, to bring justice to others. In this aspect, the justice of religion, or religious justice, creates culture. The culture made by a woman or a man that worships the living God is not the same culture made by the idolater. John Paul II had a very bold phrase: a faith that does not produce culture is not a true faith. He emphasised this: creating culture. Today, for example, we have idolatrous cultures in our society: consumerism, relativism and hedonism are examples of this. Skorka: Worship only makes sense when it is practised with others; if not, it is not worship. What and whom exactly are we worshipping? This is an essential question. That is why I always say that priests and rabbis have to get their hands dirty. Religious services are only part of what makes up a religion. A sanctuary that is not filled with life and does not help people to sustain their lives is a part of the pagan culture.
Bergoglio: I do not have any doubt that we must get our hands dirty. Today, priests no longer wear their cassocks. But a recently ordained priest used to do it and some other priests criticised him. So he asked a wise priest: Is it wrong that I wear my cassock? The wise priest answered him: The problem is not if you wear a cassock or not, but rather if you roll up its sleeves when you have to work for the good of others.

What is distinctive about Catholic schools? How have they adapted to the contemporary educational and political terrain? What is their mission? Do they have a future?
A conference for Catholic school leaders, governors and policy makers, jointly organised by Worth School and the Jesuit Institute. Mr Gino Carminati, Worth School Professor Gerald Grace KHS, Institute of Education, London Fr Christopher Jamison OSB, National Office for Vocation Rev Gordon Parry, Bloxham Project Fr Adrian Porter SJ, Jesuit Institute Information at jesuitinstitute.org

Skorka: Religions are dynamic and in order not to become outdated they must be in permanent contact with the outside world. What does not change about a religion is its set of values In Judaism, there is always a constant evolution and rethinking of ideas. Now I want to stress that what cannot be 10
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changed are the handful of principles that represent its values. Someone who only cares that a religious service consists of certain words or that a ceremony is performed in a certain manner has maintained a very important tradition, but it is just a faade if it is not accompanied by a life of justice, honesty and love. That person is just opting for the wrapping a beautiful package that contains nothing of substance. A Hasidic rabbi used to say: I do exactly what my father did and I essentially have the same values. But my father was my father, and I am me. His life experiences are useful to me in part, but only in part.
Bergoglio: I agree that what is essential is

CHRISTOPHER HOWSES PRESSWATCH

Google is on a par with God in terms of public trust, began one newspaper story
I am worried about getting boxed up as the Archbishop of Canterburys Depressed Daughter, Katharine Welby told Cole Moreton in a long and moving interview in The Sunday Telegraph. It was moving partly because Miss Welby is humorous and unsentimental about depression, from which she has suffered much. She was lucky to have Cole Moreton as an interviewer. I dread to think of the distorted picture that a selective journalist from a middle-market paper might have put together. Yet the result for The Sunday Telegraph was more deeply interesting than a My hell as Archbishops daughter version would have been. The reason she gave an interview is that she had been met by a storm of curiosity after writing about depression in a blog. Of course the interest was largely because her father has recently become Archbishop of Canterbury, and some of the things she wrote might have been thought critical of the Church. The Church is the place where hope can be found, but this is only possible if the Church is willing to accept that life is not always rosy, she had written in the blog. I dont want to be told that I have not a correct faith or do not understand Gods love for me one more time. In her interview, Miss Welby had an answer for people with such a lack of understanding: I experienced the love of God more during my darkest period than at any other point in my life. This is extremely interesting, for it surmounts the facile supposition that faith is a sort of panacea for ills of the psyche. Miss Welby undoubtedly went through a serious spell of depression and realises that it may return. Hopefully, one day I will be able to live free of it, and happily so. Maybe I wont. Like many such people, she had attempted to hide it, but some things cannot be hidden. My weight had dropped drastically. I

conserved through the witness and testimony of the fathers; in our case, through the Apostles. In the third and fourth centuries the revealed truths of faith were theologically formulated and transmitted as our nonnegotiable inheritance. That does not mean that throughout history, through study and investigation, other insights were not discovered about these truths: such as what Christ is like, or how to configure the Church, or how and what should be true Christian conduct, or what are the commandments. All of these are enriched by these new explanations. There are things that are debatable, but I repeat this inheritance is not negotiable. The content of a religious faith is capable of being deepened through human thought, but when that deepening is at odds with the inheritance, it is a heresy. At any rate, religions refine certain expressions with time, even though it is a slow process because of the sacred bond that we have with the received inheritance. This respect is such that we must be very careful not to mess it up by going too quickly. One medieval theologian expressed in this way the progress and comprehension of inheritance, the received revelation: The legitimate rule of all progress and the correct standard of all development consist in the inheritance being consolidated through the ages, developed with passing of the years and expanded with the passage of time. To respond with the received inheritance to the new issues of today takes time and even more when issues of conscience are concerned. When I was a boy, a divorcee could not enter your home, and even less so if they were remarried. Today, the Pope himself summons those that are in a new union to live in the Church. He asks them to pray, to work in the parish communities, and to participate in works of charity. Just because they are on the margin of the commandment does not erase their baptism. I admit that the tempo cannot keep up with the speed of social change, but holy leaders, those that seek the voice of God, have to take the necessary time to find the answers. Nevertheless, there is the risk of confusing other economic, cultural and geopolitical interests. It is important to know how to distinguish. Text 2013 Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Abraham Skorka. Extracts are taken from On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family and the Church in the 21st Century, published by Bloomsbury at 14.99.

was down to seven stone. She was, she thinks, not quite suicidal until her boyfriend broke up with her. She went sick from work. Her recovery coincided with her spending hours every day reading the Bible and praying. I had Post-it notes with encouraging verses written on them and I stuck them all over my room. Everywhere. I got to the point where I was so miserable in myself, but so happy and peaceful with God. This has to be read with care, for she is not saying that there was a privileged spot of sunlight when it came to her dealings with God. Just as someone with a broken arm prays as someone with a broken arm, in pain and distracted, it seems inevitable to me that someone with depression prays as a depressed person. As she pointed out in her blog: Even Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, found life a little too much to bear and pleaded with God. Christians should, she says, offer practical support to those going through a bad time: a text (an electronic one, not an embroidered religious text), or drop in with a stew, so they can eat. Her own experience makes Miss Welby indignant on behalf of other people. God created everyone. We are all designed in his image. Thats true of a person with autism, a person with cerebral palsy, a person in a wheelchair, a man, a woman. Every single person can give a glimpse of God. On a less personal level, two surveys last week furnished absurd stories for the Daily Mail. Google is on a par with God in terms of public trust, one began. When asked to rank organisations they believe have their interests at heart, religious institutions came out on top for a very modest 17 per cent of people exactly the same as the omnipresent internet search engine. The other story had more teeth, literally. The Scottish Government has, according to the Mail, found through a survey that 69 per cent of Catholics have 20 or more natural teeth significantly lower than the national average of 72 per cent. But Christian Scots have been put to shame by Muslims, because 95 per cent of them have 20 or more natural teeth. Next week: hay fever among Hindus and baldness among Buddhists. Christopher Howse is an assistant editor of The Daily Telegraph. 11 May 2013
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Catholicism in Cambodia
JULIE MASIS

Bullet holes, empty windows and hope

One of only three surviving churches in Cambodia was brought back into use during Holy Week for the first time in decades. Pilgrims carried a cross up a mountain to the derelict building in a country that is experiencing a Christian revival

he walls of Cambodias oldest church are covered with graffiti. Those who can read Khmer describe the messages as spiritual. One of them says: You can do anything you want in your life. Another one is patriotic and proclaims, I love the Cambodian nation. Some people imagine that the words were written by Khmer Rouge soldiers but nobody knows for sure. To discourage squatters, a sign outside warns against sleeping in the church. It is here that a group of Catholics gathered at the end of March for the first time since the early 1970s for a Good Friday liturgy. The 70 believers carried a cross to the top of Bokor Mountain in Kampot province, and prayed while sitting on the floor of the almost 90-year-old building because there is no furniture inside. We took advantage of the opportunity to bless the church with some holy water, said Fr Fernando Arango, the local priest who led the service. Everyone mentioned that they could feel that they were walking with Jesus because he died on the cross on the top of a mountain. The church, built by the French 1,000 metres above sea level, is one of only three Christian places of worship that survived the Khmer Rouge period. It was preserved, a local historian says, because of its strategic location. For three months in 1979, the Khmer Rouge barricaded themselves inside the red brick building and shot back at the advancing Vietnamese forces. The church still bears the scars of this battle with bullet holes in its walls and no glass in its windows. For years it had been abandoned to the elements, occasionally captured on film by the tourists who made the 30-kilometre trek to the top of the mountain. But with the growth of Christianity in recent years, and a new multi-million-dollar casino resort that opened on the mountain, religious life is returning. Gerd Beurich, the general manager of the mountain-top Thansur Bokor Highland Resort, would like to renovate the building, organise Mass on Sundays at least twice a month, and promote the church as a picturesque location for weddings. I think the
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history of the old church, together with the location, would make this a very special and unique event, he said. I just look at this building and I think it has some value. It is estimated that there are currently around 300,000 Christians in Cambodia a 60-fold increase from the early 1990s. This increase is taking place not only because of the missionaries, but also because of a conscious effort to create a Cambodian Church as opposed to a European religion that is imposed by foreigners. When I explain the Bible, I always reference it to the Buddha. I say, Jesus did that, and Buddha did the same thing. I say that

A Mass in the oldest church in Cambodia Jesus was enlightened on the day of his baptism, like the Buddha was enlightened after weeks of meditation, explains Fr Franois Ponchaud, a French Catholic priest who has lived in Cambodia for decades. I dont say that Jesus is better or worse, I say that he is different. He found another voice. Inside Cambodian churches which are sometimes decorated with paintings done in the same style as the murals inside Cambodian pagodas the worshippers and the priest often sit in a circle on the floor and greet each other in the local manner by pressing the palms of their hands together. We have to

distinguish between culture and religion, says the Cambodian evangelical Protestant pastor, Arun Sok Nhep, who converted when he was 16 years old. We are not here to uproot Buddhism. We respect Buddhism because its a state religion. We want to believe in Jesus but without creating something against the established religion. Catholicism was first brought to Cambodia by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The country was colonised by the French in the nineteenth century but the religion didnt really take off until the 1850s, when Vietnamese Christians fled to Cambodia from persecution at home, according to Fr Ponchaud, who wrote a book about the history of Christianity in Cambodia. The Protestant religion was introduced in 1923 by an American missionary. By 1970, when Cambodias King Norodom Sihanouk was overthrown by a military coup, there were about 65,000 Christians in the country, the majority of whom were ethnically Vietnamese. Things went downhill from there, when the right-wing Government angered by the Vietnamese Communist incursions into Cambodia slaughtered Vietnamese civilians or expelled them to Vietnam. The situation for Christians worsened further during the rule of the Communist revolutionary Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979, when churches were destroyed as a symbol of colonialism. The destruction included Phnom Penh Cathedral, whose steeple towered above the capital citys tallest pagoda in the early 1970s. Nothing remains today to remind visitors of the cathedrals existence, or of any other Catholic churches that were built when the French ruled Indochina. By 1979, when a Vietnamese invasion put an end to Pol Pots regime, only four of Cambodias 40 pastors were still alive. None of the Catholic priests survived. All of the Churchs land was confiscated by the state and a few of the remaining religious buildings were subdivided with plywood walls and converted into living quarters. At this time the church was almost extinct, according to Sok Nhep. To share his faith with his countrymen, the pastor

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began working with Fr Ponchaud on a new translation of the Bible. The first Cambodian translation, published in the 1950s, was written by non-native speakers and was practically incomprehensible, he says. The project, which was difficult because the Cambodian language does not have future, past or conditional verb tenses, took 12 years, and 200,000 copies were finally printed in 1997. In the new version, scholars replaced unfamiliar concepts with ideas Cambodians could understand. To give one example, Sok Nhep says, where the New Testament describes something that is as white as snow, the Cambodian version says as white as cotton. This spring, the Cambodian Bible became even more accessible, when a free Khmer Bible application for iPhones was launched online and made available on the United Bible Societies website.Young people have been waiting for it for a long time, says Sok Nhep, who accesses his Bible on a tablet computer and searches through it occasionally to find a specific passage. For this generation, everything has to be digital, and its more convenient also. ome say that it is the promise of forgiveness that is attracting residents of this mostly Buddhist nation to Christianity. One of the most famous Cambodian converts is Kang Guek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, the director of the Khmer Rouge prison who is responsible for the deaths of some 15,000 people. He was recently convicted of crimes against humanity by the international tribunal. Luc Mogenet, a French historian who wrote a book about Cambodia, says that Duch may have chosen Christianity because in Buddhism a persons sins cannot be erased. In Buddhism, if you did something bad in life, youll be reborn in a lower state while in Catholicism your sins can be pardoned, Mogenet explains. So even if you were Khmer Rouge, you can still go to paradise. But Sok Nhep disagrees. If Duch became a Christian, the first thing he should have done is confess his wrongdoings, he says but the Khmer Rouge prison chief continued to deny responsibility. Instead, Sok Nhep says many Cambodians are drawn by the Christian idea of giving charity to those who are less fortunate a practice that is not common in Cambodia. While Cambodian villagers donate rice to Buddhist monks on a daily basis, they normally do not give alms to the poor, nor does the Cambodian Government have welfare programs for those who are elderly, ill or unemployed. In Buddhist countries, if someone is born poor, the others will not help them because they think its karma, Sok Nhem says. In the West, Christianity became part of the culture, [and thats why] the Government wants to help the neighbours. If we adopt a Christian world view, I think there will be more compassion, more respect and people will help each other. Julie Masis is a freelance journalist in Cambodia.

SARA MAITLAND

After renewing an ancient water system, I have developed a real interest in sanitation
One of the advantages of building your own house from scratch is that it gives you a strangely intimate knowledge of how things work. I know where my telephone cable runs and precisely where the electricity comes into the building and its routes around the house. And I know a great deal about my water supply. In this valley, we have neither mains water nor mains sewage. This saves me money as, unlike other locally funded facilities, you do not have to pay water rates if you do not use the mains. My supply is unusually simple, indeed primitive. The water is collected from a number of rather shallow springs, gathered into a tank up the hill, and delivered to the house by its own descending tendencies no well, no borehole, no pump and no filters because it is water of exceptional purity. Below the house all the waste runs into a septic tank and the clean overflow out through a soakaway. Sometimes in very cold weather the ground water freezes, but other than that there is nothing to go wrong, and so far it has never run dry. The pressure is a bit lower than ideal, so the bath takes a long time to run, but it is strong enough to work the washing machine. Occasionally, because of the peat, the water takes on a rather beautiful golden tinge, but this is not a sign of contamination. I have an effortless, reliable, free, sufficient supply of clean running water. Because renewing an ancient system, including water sampling and percolation testing, was so fascinating, I have developed a real interest in sanitation. However delightful my system is, and however efficient yours is do you know? the global picture is horrendous. Every minute, three children under the age of five die because they do not have what I have. Two and a half billion people (nearly 40 per cent of the worlds population) do not have access to safe toilets. In Africa, more than half the girls who drop out of education do so because of their

households need for water collection. And the really depressing thing about this is that it is solvable and, relatively, not even terribly expensive. WaterAid is seen as one of the most effective ways of poverty-busting with an approximate return of 8 (in unneeded medical costs, increased productivity and saved time) for every pound spent. Nonetheless, the UN Millennium Development Goals sanitation project, signed in 2000, is already so far off-target that it will not be met until the twenty-third century at the present rate of delivery. So last week I signed my own loo up for a toilet-twinning project. I cannot tell you exactly where my loos twin is located (although I chose Uganda, one of the projects countries, as I have personally experienced the disagreeable absence of facilities there) because its certificate has not arrived yet: when it does, I will have photo of a specific toilet and a grid reference so I can look it up on Google Earth. This will hang beside my loo as a nice little joke and as a way of raising the issue of water aid without pontificating. I increasingly believe that charitable giving should be fun. In some areas of Hindu India there is a tradition that a donor should thank a beggar for providing the opportunity to earn grace, a point worth brooding on. I recognise that in many ways a donation given without ties or the need to print off and post a certificate would do more per penny donated. And I am not entirely persuaded by my own justification that the impact of the certificate will earn a sufficient pay back even though I only entered the scheme because I saw just that in a church toilet in Glasgow and was amused enough to note down the website (www.toilettwinning.org if you want to know) because fewer people enter my bathroom. But the fact is that I had not made such a spontaneous donation in the last months and was provoked to do so by the sly humour of this project. Although this is not a specifically Catholic and evangelical charity, such as Pope Benedict urged upon us, both water and laughter are so central to our faith that I believe the Holy Spirit will be satisfied. Anyway, my loo appears to be delighted by my efforts on its behalf, gurgling happily as it refills after each flush and, while I sleep, no doubt smugly boasting to the bath and basin of its sacrificial charity. 11 May 2013
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Catholicism in the public sphere

CONOR GEARTY

Imagining a Catholic future

The Church has been deeply uncomfortable with society in recent years and has sought to shield itself from it. Here a leading human-rights lawyer argues that the election of Pope Francis should herald a fresh approach
secular politicians greatness lies in his or her ability to spot where history is going and then put him or herself at the head of it, leading followers in a direction that is then seen to work. But how does a faith community cope with change? Surely world history cannot be, as Hegel said, always a court of judgment? Around 140 years ago, Pius IX was making his own pitch to resist the seemingly irresistible, and drew together a range of propositions, or errors, which the Church had had occasion in the past to condemn. Read today some of these still seem to make sense but many are almost quaint. They include the Churchs condemnation of the pests of socialism, biblical societies and something called clerico-liberal societies. The Church has escaped from many of the absolutist positions it then took, albeit a few generations after informed opinion had moved on. But the Churchs views have not so much changed through the operation of a particularly impressive form of ecclesiastical reflection and reason, as been rendered redundant by

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a shift in power away from it and towards secular and national authority. The revolutions of 1848 terrified Pius IX into his reactionary Syllabus of Errors, and the collapse of temporal power brought about by the unity of Italy six years after its promulgation, did more to rebut its underlying force than any amount of thoughtful discussion. Since 1870 the Churchs flock has had to be accepted as living either in a geographic space dominated by another religious perspective such as Iran, Pakistan and India or in a secular culture which is more or less hostile to much of what the Catholic Church now stands for. But what does the Church stand for? Recent years have seen one view in the ascendancy but another, extraordinarily different version of being a Catholic seems to be about to break through. The first of the two approaches began in the latter years of the long rule of Pope John Paul II and was carried on with careful determination by his successor Pope Benedict XVI. Those who find themselves drawn to it can usefully be described as reluctant concessionists. These are Catholics who, though they might not say it, feel in their heart of hearts that it was the Syllabus of Errors that was accurate and civil society that has indeed taken a series of wrong turnings. They celebrate Trent not so much for what it did but the fact that the Roman Curia then made it a centralised, global papacy. They hanker after a world of papal power but failing that, at the very least they want a world of strong papal influence over civil society. In their eyes, it was right and proper that the Archbishop of Dublin should have been a key influence in the drafting of the Irish constitution. Chiles Pinochet may have had his dark side but he had acted decisively against the pest of socialism and did much to secure a respectful position for the Church in the new military state that he went on to entrench. In Spain, Franco was the same. This is a Church of priests, power and clerical authority, deferring to the Pope, demanding of everyone else. Where civil power does not impose the church-favoured solutions it desires, then the Catholic flock

has a duty to help secure these as a matter of obligation, delivering church solutions even where the pest of liberalism insists on leaving the issue to individual conscience. For the reluctant concessionist, it is obvious that all Catholics engaged in public life should act on the basis of their faith, delivered by authority, not reason. Professor Tina Beattie should be denied a platform for her views at a Catholic university, despite being already invited there, because she is a co-signatory to a letter to The Times that is perceived to defy authority on the issue of same-sex marriages. As the then Cardinal Ratzinger, writing with the then Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, put it in 2002: A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political programme or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals. This is not about securing conscience rights for Catholics in civil society: not to have to perform an abortion; not to have to assist in a state-sanctioned death; not to have to marry a gay couple. Rather it is concerned with imposing the Catholic view on all. From a reluctant concessionists perspective, this flows naturally from the view that the Church is a true and perfect society, entirely free, the denial of which is number 19 in Pius Syllabus

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of Errors. Not all Catholics are so willing these days to fall into line with an authority no longer backed by civil or even a credible theological arm. But the reluctant concessionist reasons that if his or her version of what it means to be Catholic leads to a slimmed down Church, fewer believers, more obedience then so be it. For one of the main protagonists of this approach, the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney George Pell, it is the laity who are often the problem. In a speech in Glasgow in December last year, while condemning those who gaze nostalgically at a pre-conciliar golden age, he noted that too often Christ was missing from the centre of Christian formation and instead replaced with alternatives such as global warming; the sustainability of the planet; theorising about social justice. Perhaps this was why most young Catholics [from Australia] talk like relativists, even when their moral views are correct. No longer is there any instinctive acceptance of moral truths, except perhaps in ecology or social justice. This did not lead Cardinal Pell to any thoughtful reflection on whether Catholic teaching might be somehow in need of scrutiny. Instead he argued for a return to traditional teaching on the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, hell, for if the fires of hell are never populated, then our life is likely to lack a sense of urgency. On the platform with Cardinal Pell that day were other speakers who lamented the growth of a secular society driven by individualism, hedonism, materialism and narcissism with a deep hostility to gospel truth (especially moral truth) and a determination to drive Christians who affirm those truths out of the public square and into a privatised existence on the margins. It is this kind of perspective that makes sense of Pope Benedicts otherwise extraordinary remark at Christmas last year that gay marriage was, with abortion and euthanasia, a threat to world peace. And also Cardinal Sen Bradys recent refusal to rule out excommunication for those who legislate to implement Irelands constitutional commitment to balance the life of the unborn child with that of a pregnant woman whose life is threatened by such a pregnancy. But under the new legal frameworks being put in place amid widespread democratic support across both Protestant and traditional Catholic countries, gay marriage will not be compulsory, even for gays just as there is no proposal for compulsory abortion or coerced decisions to end life. These interventions are about turning influence into power, combating the eightieth error in the Syllabus of Errors, namely that the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilisation. The reluctant concessionist has a price to pay in the form of hypocrisy holding that civil partnership is awful until gay marriage is suggested, at which point suddenly the old heresy becomes the rock of common sense. The Church continues to ban contraception where the effect is to undermine the natural law.

Indeed, some forms of contraception seem on the Churchs teaching to kill unborn children because they act to prevent pregnancy after a mans sperm has fertilised a womans egg. What are bishops doing about this in their dioceses? Or Cardinal Brady in relation to the fact that many women among his Irish faithful, North and South, simply go to Britain to have abortions? Instead he seeks to influence legislators not to pass a law that will never be other than theoretical because all of its work will in reality continue to be done by its neighbour, reliably Godless Britain. Why not tackle what he sees as mass killing? The answer of course is that 20 years ago his predecessors and their enthusiastically hard-line laity tried to do exactly that forcing constitutional change to carry the struggle beyond Irelands borders, injuncting students for supplying information about abortion overseas, and eventually obtaining a High Court order prohibiting a young girl, pregnant as a result of a rape, from leaving God-loving Ireland for God-forsaken Britain. Here the Supreme Court came to the rescue with its ruling in what became known as the X case and the girl was allowed to go. Germany has just had its X case moment. Last January, a rape victim was turned away from two Catholic hospitals because the doctors treating her feared they would lose their jobs if they advised her about the morningafter pill. The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal

Joachim Meisner, has apologised and promised that in future at Catholic hospitals non-abortifacients could be offered and advice given as to where a termination could be obtained, the sort of advice that had been banned in Germany by John Paul II since 1999. The dirty, immoral work is done somewhere else so as to preserve the Catholic position from having to live with the consequences of its perfection. But things have become, suddenly, much more interesting. None of us can tell why Pope Benedict so dramatically threw in the towel. Perhaps he felt his evangelisation of Europe had failed. Civil society many Catholics among them heard what he said, and promptly rejected it, not in the grip of some evil torment, but knowingly and in a thoughtful manner, reasoning back to Pope Benedict with a different kind of logic. In response to Cardinal Pell, a letter-writer to The Tablet (22/29 December 2012), Olive Powell expressed the hope that in this Year of Faith, the Pope will proclaim afresh that the true urgency in our lives springs only from love. Now we have a new Pope and exactly this kind of atmosphere. Our understanding of the Second Vatican Council is not only about such scholastic preoccupations as its continuity with the texts of the past, its connection with church teaching and its consistency with the past doctrine on various (Continued on page 16.)

Special atmosphere in every particular. As a newcomer, I felt relaxed from the start.

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11 May 2013
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(Continued from page 15.) issues. Rather as Olive Powell explains, it is mainly about an atmosphere: one of ebullience, joy, confidence, optimism, above all a new fearlessness. This is a vision of the Church not as a reluctant conceder of civil authority but rather as an enthusiastic engager with exactly that society. In his last interview, the great Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini lamented that the Church is 200 years behind the times Our culture has become old, our churches and our religious houses are big and empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the Church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous. But then he went on to ask, Where are the heroes among us who can inspire us? We have an answer in Pope Francis, who sees himself as Bishop of Rome, who lives simply and asks questions about wealth and power, and who talks in a clear way about faith and love. Cardinal Martinis very last remark was for his interviewer and therefore all of us: What can you do for the Church? This is a hard question for affluent liberal Catholics. We have become used to the luxury of opposition, the alibi for inactivity so usefully provided by the reluctant concessionists who have been in power for so long. Disagreeing with them has taken all our energy, postponing discussion of what being a Catholic really means for us. But now we need to answer Cardinal Martinis question.

PUZZLES
Crossword No. 359 | Alanus
1 1 2 3 4 4 8 8 9 5 6 7

10 12 13 16 19 20 17

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he easy part lies in doing what we can to reach out from civil society to this new enthusiastic vision of what being a Catholic entails. The obvious embrace needs to be with the proponents of human rights, those vast ranks of good people who are often of Catholic background. Human rights embrace not just civil and political rights but economic and social rights as well. The idea eschews capitalist hegemony and fights systemic injustice but without being manoeuvred into Marxism. It is perfect for a Church that wishes to care about the poor in a serious way. Why not convene a large-scale series of meetings across the world which have as their goal the production of two great declarations, a Syllabus of Respectful Disagreement and a Concordat of Shared Goals? The project could include a search for saints on both sides and a celebration of the spiritual energy of activists everywhere. Second, there is the personal problem of inequality, for those of us who are so disproportionately affluent. Pope Francis is shocked by the size of the papal apartments, and chooses instead a modest guest house for his home. How many of us are capable of being shocked by our homes, our diet, by just how rich we are, compared both to the poor here in Britain and much further afield as well? What are we doing about it? Pope Francis challenges us in this way as well. Conor Gearty is professor of human-rights law at the London School of Economics. This article is adapted from the Tyburn Lecture he delivered in London on 9 May.

Across 1 Bishop of a diocese in Eastern Christendom, e.g. the Melkite Catholic Church of Australia (6) 5 Island where Paul left Titus to put matters right as he explains in his Letter (5) 8 St Philip -----, Welsh priest and one of the Forty Martyrs, executed 1679 in Cardiff (5) 9 Lovingly held and rocked an infant Catholic perhaps (7) 10 First biblically recorded victim of fratricide (4) 11 Country whose Cardinal Rodriguez is the coordinator of new advisory council to the Pope on church governance (8) 13 St John -----, priest, one of the Forty Martyrs, executed near Durham in 1594 (5) 14 Form of veneration given to the saints, but beneath that given to Our Lady (5) 19 St Louis-Marie de --------, author of the profound classic True Devotion To Mary much loved by Pope John Paul II (8) 21 ---- soit qui mal y pense, motto of the Order of the Garter (4) 23 Type of artistic drawing in which Leonardo depicts Mary, St Anne, & Infants Jesus and John (7) 24 Town associated with St Teresa, founder of the OCD and favourite of Pope Francis (5) 25 Frank (d. 1981) of ----- & Ward, eminent Catholic publishers for decades (now imprints) (5)

26 Wilderness set shaking by the voice of the Lord in Psalm 29 (6) Down 2 Vespers in Office of the Dead, also a non-curative medicine for psychological relief (7) 3 St ----, first person from the Americas to be canonised (4) 4 Bully who was a hero in the Trojan Wars (6) 5 Roman emperor between the reigns of Caligula and Nero (8) 6 Leonhard ----- (Swiss 1707-83), dropped his theology studies and became a great mathematician (5) 7 Member of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary named after founder (in Caen 1643) (6) 8 Son of Isaac, brother of Jacob (4) 12 1st Viscount --------, William Howard, victim of Titus Oates plot executed 1680 (8) 15 Familiar reference to the keys of a piano (7) 16 Short white shoulder coverings worn beneath chasubles by priests at Mass (6) 17 Csar ------, composer famous for his setting of St Thomas Aquinas Panis Angelicus (6) 18 City with which 3 Down associated and whose shrine is located in the Dominican convent there (4) 20 Ancient Scandinavian language (5) 22 Archbishop of Canterbury during Civil War, executed (1645) for anti-Puritan policies (4)

Please send your answers to: Crossword Competition 11 May, The Tablet, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY. Please include your full name, telephone number and email address, and a mailing address. A copy of the hardback Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus (second edition, RRP 30) will go to the sender of the first correct entry drawn at random on Friday 24 May. The answers to this weeks crossword and the winners name will appear in the 1 June issue.
Solution to the 20 April crossword No. 356: Across: Across: 7 Oberon; 8 Shiraz; 10 Trieste; 11 Psalm; 12 Up In; 13 Alien; 17 Opted; 18 Rude; 22 Moats; 23 Upright; 24 Kodaly; 25 Lentil. Down: 1 Pontius; 2 Sedilia; 3 House; 4 Chapter; 5 Orpah; 6 Azyme; 9 Beelzebub; 14 Apostle; 15 Vulgate; 16 Gentile; 19 Smoke; 20 Lauds; 21 Tried. Winner: Jenny Allen, of Newton Abbot, Devon.

Sudoku | Challenging

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Each 3 x 3 box, each row and each column must contain all the numbers 1 to 9.

PARISH PRACTICE
JOSEPH OHANLON

Give birth to the Church

Waiting in obedience, then baptised in the Holy Spirit, prayerful, fearful people are transformed to proclaim the wonderful works of God at Pentecost. It is an opportunity for noisy, colourful celebration

entecost Day may not be a joy to Jesus whom you crucified (2:36). The all. For many who proclaim the Church has been blown into the world. Word of the Lord in season and There is scarcely a parish in this green out do so with a degree of and pleasant land that is not blessed with trepidation on this blessed day. They must peoples from the four corners of the earth. negotiate with clarity daunting pronunciation Gathered around our altars each Sunday hurdles: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, are peoples who witness that we belong to Mesopotamia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, a community, one, holy, apostolic, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, emphatically catholic. All are baptised with Cyrene, and not forgetting visitors from the same Spirit. All are commissioned to Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Acts of proclaim in the name of Jesus Christ the the Apostles 2:9-11). Not a day for the forgiveness of sins (2:38) in order that the unprepared at the lectern. whole of humanity may receive the gift of Yet it is a truly glorious day. For just as the Holy Spirit (2:38). Lukes first book opens with joyful stories Pentecost Day, the birthday of the Church, surrounding annunciations to Elizabeth is a day to give thanks for the gift of the and Mary and births of John the Baptist Holy Spirit and for our vocation to proclaim and Jesus of Nazareth, so he begins his to all peoples that on earth do dwell that second work with the promise of the Holy Gods love, issuing in mercy and forgiveness, Spirit and the glorious birthing of the assures a world deafened with the noise of Church of God. Gathered together, all con- war, a world of hunger, a world of justice stantly devoting themselves denied, that all are safe in to prayer, were the Apostles, Gods hands. That God so with certain women, includloved the world we know. ing Mary the mother of Jesus, That God so loves the world as well as his brothers is what we are enjoined to (Acts of the Apostles 1:14). shout from the rooftops. Our expectant mothers and When we gather this TO DO fathers in faith wait for the Invite everyone to come in Pentecost Day to be enriched promise of the Father (1:4), by the Apostles teaching, to national costume on wait to be baptised in the experience fellowship in the Pentecost Day Holy Spirit not many days breaking of bread and in the Pray the Lords Prayer in from now (1:5). prayers (2:42), we ought to vernacular languages They wait with one accord proclaim our catholicity. The Hang your many colours in prayer, expecting that which world outside the gates of our outside your church as yet they do not fully underchurches needs to know that stand. At the dawning of the there is a place of God in its day of Pentecost, the one hunmidst to which all peoples dred and twenty persons (not are welcome, all are loved exclusively the [12] Apostles, and cherished, and, above (as the Lectionary erroneously everything else, all are safe. declares), were all filled with the Holy The church is (or is meant to be) the one Spirit (2:4) and the Church was born to holy space where all may enter and find the speak to the world of the wonderful works embrace of Gods love and the sure and of God. The heavenly irruption directs itself certain hope that all will be well, all manner to this little flock and the house is filled of things will be well. with the noise of God, like the rush of a And so, to the celebration of the noisy violent wind (2:2) and all of them were Holy Spirit. We ought to make our way to filled with the Holy Spirit and began to church on this blessed day in national speak in other languages (2:4). costume or bearing some national insignia Thus the little congregation is transformed, or emblem. A blazon of colour should is given a voice and a proclamation: God festoon our churches as proof positive that has made him both Lord and Messiah, this we are a multi-ethnic witness to Gods out-

reach in our world. Such a display of colour is a catechesis that, on the human level, teaches welcome, togetherness, and oneness in the rich disparity of our differences. As a theological lesson, we relive and relearn what the first Christian Pentecost taught so vividly and so noisily: in our differences we are filled with the Holy Spirit to teach all nations. The celebrant should invite the congregation of people from the four corners of the earth to pray together the Lords Prayer each in his own native language. The glorious confusion will witness to the oneness of our catholicity as we tell in our own languages (2:11) the wonderful works of Gods power. Each language group in the parish ought to be encouraged to take to Mass a small national flag (or indeed a large one) and a placard inscribed with a countrys name. As we sing our recessional hymn (All People That on Earth Do Dwell), process outside and plant the flags on the lawn or wherever they may be seen. This is an act of proclamation to all who pass by that the peoples of the earth are welcome in this church, in this gathering of the holy people of God. We celebrate difference because we recognise that every man, woman and child under Heaven is precious in Gods eyes and belongs to one family and is destined to share in Gods glory. There is much talk across the world of the movement of populations. There is tension and fear, anger that jobs will be on the cheap, that scarce resources will be exhausted, and that the hallowed traditions of the homeland will be set at nought. The kind of integration that is part and parcel of Christian witness is a path to peace in our time and in our place. We make room in the inns of our hearts for whoever joins us around our altars. That witness of sharing is a loud proclamation. It shows to a fearful world that we are all Gods people, that our differences are our glories and that our sameness is that which is divine within us. Pentecost is a feast for our times. Joseph OHanlon, a priest of Nottingham Diocese, lectures in biblical studies at Allen Hall Seminary in London. 11 May 2013
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NOTEBOOK
Flexible approach
ITS PRACTITIONERS claim that sitting in the lotus position brings an inner peace. Yet there are those in the Church who believe that yoga with its origins in Eastern religions is a misleading illusion. Nevertheless Ampleforth, the Benedictine community of monks in North Yorkshire, has decided to allow yoga retreats on its premises. The Little Yoga Company will be conducting two yoga retreats in buildings owned by the community. The group teaches yoga in the Kashmiri tradition, and promises to reorchestrate the bodys spiritual energy and open practitioners to deeper levels of awareness. But yoga has not always been welcome in Catholic churches. Last year, a priest in the Diocese of Portsmouth made headlines for banning yoga classes from the parish hall because he thought the practice was incompatible with the Catholic faith; and in 1989 the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote that Eastern methods of meditation such as yoga were incompatible with Christianity. A spokeswoman for Ampleforth told us that it was leasing space to the local company and had nothing to do with organising the classes. for gay marriage. Mr Ivereigh, a Catholic journalist and broadcaster, said: In general elections you vote for the government, in local elections you vote to try to change government policies. But he added: Ukips stance on immigration and Europe is abhorrent to me as a Catholic but its policy on same-sex marriage is exactly right. (See News from Britain and Ireland, page 31.)

Monumental Passion
THEYRE TO be found on racecourses and in the landscaped gardens of the rich and famous, but two recent sculptures by Nic Fiddian-Green have been placed in churches. The Catholic artist is best-known for his monumental bronze horses heads, but for 20 years he has also produced work on the theme of Christs Passion. The biggest of these, a head of Christ bearing the Crown of Thorns, was displayed at Southwarks Anglican Cathedral during Lent. Now the Southwark sculpture, entitled Christ Rests in Peace, is being offered for sale. It is cast in lead, finished in gold leaf and stands eight feet tall with thorns 18 inches long. As yet there is no price tag for the work, though it is expected to cost something in the region of 95,000. It is to be exhibited at the Sladmore Gallery, in Londons Jermyn Street, from 5 June to 26 July. The sculptors wife, Henrietta, is the daughter of Peter and Ann Hutley, the owners of the Wintershall Estate, where the plays of the life of Christ are performed each year. Fiddian-Green oversaw the creation of Stations of the Cross on the estate and sculpted two of the Stations.

New neighbour
ONE OF THE smaller but no doubt keenly felt crosses that the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had to bear when he held the office of the successor of St Peter was that he could no longer look after his beloved cats. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, it was well known that he took in and looked after stray cats in Romes Borgo neighbourhood. Since 2005 he has been without regular feline company, apart, of course, from his brief encounter with the Birmingham Oratorys community cat, Pushkin, whom Benedict met during his 2010 visit to Britain. Now it seems that he could be reunited with his favoured animals. Pictured near to the Pope Emeritus new residence in the Vatican is a black-and-white spotted cat. The cat was photographed by LOsservatore Romano as the creature wandered around the area next to the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, which has been recently converted into Benedicts new home he moved in last Thursday. Veteran Vatican commentator John Thavis says that the Vatican Gardens are believed to have a number of stray cats roaming around them.

Bishop of Rome and his successor both living in the Vatican, as is the case with Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict. An afternoon drama on BBC Radio 4 about two successors of St Peter living in the Vatican was due to be broadcast on Friday. In The Guest of St Peters, written by Irish writer Hugh Costello, a fictional Pope Paul VII (played by Andrew Sachs, bestknown for his portrayal of the waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers) is living in a small monastery in the grounds of the Vatican City, having resigned two years previously citing old age and illness. The new Pope, Leo XIV, has excommunicated a group of liberal American priests for offering contraceptive advice to their parishioners, but the priests have defied him. A Cardinal Sastre, the Vatican Secretary of State, decides to visit the retired Pope in his monastery and ask him to make an intervention. Mr Costello has written a number of afternoon dramas for BBC Radio 4. These include Conclave about the papal election following the death of Pope John Paul I and My Dear Children of the Whole World, on Pope Pius XIIs Christmas address of 1942.

Forms of service
A PROBATION officer, a nurse, a medical social worker. And then, at the age of 65, Dorothy McGregor, who died last Friday, decided to become a consecrated virgin. Known as Sr Dorothy, she lived what is known canonically as a form of eremitic or anchoritic life according to the Rule of St Benedict. At around the same time she made her vows to the bishop in 1998, Sr Dorothy, who died aged 80, decided to set up a poverty charity in Accrington, Lancashire, in the north-west of England. She was a wellknown figure in the town, always wearing a home-designed habit. The charity she founded, Maundy Relief, started by providing food parcels to the homeless and now offers counselling and housing advice. According to Lucy Hardwick, the acting manager of the charity, it has around 100 people through its doors each year. Sr Dorothys funeral will take place on Monday at St Annes Catholic Church, Accrington.

Protest vote
GIVEN THAT all three of the main political parties support same-sex marriage, the local elections presented something of a dilemma for Catholic voters. Some lent their support to the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) which managed to secure 147 councillors and is opposed to gay marriage. But Ukip has been critical of what it calls open door immigration policies, a stance the Church may be more sceptical about. Austen Ivereigh, who as Cardinal Cormac Murphy-OConnors press secretary helped start the annual Mass for migrants in 2006 that takes place in London every May bank holiday, said he had voted for anti-immigration party Ukip in protest at other parties support

Drama of two Popes

AS THE Pope Emeritus settles into his new home, the BBC has seen an opportunity in the unprecedented arrangement of a 18
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LETTERS
Protection of religion
Following your story about the Bishop of Portsmouths letter on the Equality and Human Rights Commissions religion or belief guidance (News from Britain and Ireland, 4 May), I am writing to clarify some of the issues raised. The bishop is, of course, entirely right to hold and express his views but his description of the guidance is based on a misunderstanding about the role of the commission, Parliament and the courts. It is not the commissions role to decide what religions or beliefs should be protected and our guidance does not do that. The law is set by Parliament and interpreted by the courts. In the Equality Act 2010, Parliament set out that religion means any religion or a lack of religion, and belief means any religious or philosophical belief or a lack of belief. The courts have set out that a belief, including a religious belief, needs to have a level of cogency and seriousness and must also be worthy of respect in a democratic society and not incompatible with human dignity. These broad definitions mean that the law protects people equally for different religions or beliefs. The commissions role is to provide expert advice on how to manage issues that arise in the workplace around the protection of religion or belief, help individuals understand their rights and help employers respect these rights. This is what our guidance does. Mark Hammond Chief executive Equality and Human Rights Commission

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Archbishop Oscar Romero: He may not know the motivation of his assassins, but he knew the dangers of his witness. CNS illness. Decent people are suffering from the structural violence through legal mechanisms, or lack of them, against which Oscar Romero preached. (The Revd) Paul Nicolson Taxpayers Against Poverty London N17 When St Thrse replied to Pre Roullands complaint that if a missionary died in the field for reasons other than religion as a result of banditry, for example he would not be a martyr, she gave an answer that seems to apply also to Archbishop Romero. In her letter of 9 May 1897, this Doctor of the Church begins: I do not understand, Brother, how you seem to doubt your immediate entrance into Heaven if the infidels were to take your life. She then affirms her faith not only in the mercy of God but also his justice. For her, infinite justice is not the arbitrary concept which she says many souls are frightened of, but one in which she finds joy and confidence. She asks how would Jesus be outdone in generosity to those who put themselves in the way of danger for him and the Gospel. In the case of Archbishop Romero, we may not know the motivation of his assassins, but he knew the dangers of his witness. Richard Green New Barnet, Hertfordshire

grants to the West a disservice. Mr Nelsons suggestion almost seems to be that they were forced in some way by their circumstances into doing what they did. Many in the West, Muslim and nonMuslim, indigenous and immigrant, struggle to make friends and find work. Very few of them decide in retaliation to bomb and kill indiscriminately. Until the idea is eliminated that those who would do as the Boston bombers did are somehow innocents forced by circumstance into mass murder, we will make no progress in solving this problem. Nor will we solve it by ignoring the Islamist element. The last issue of The Tablet told of the eight-year-old First Communicant killed by the bomb. Perhaps Mr Nelson should reflect on the words of Jesus Christ with regard to those who would harm children. Alexander McKay Edinburgh

Same-sex marriage in France

I refer to the letter from Professor Linda Woodhead (Catholics and same-sex marriage) in your issue of 27 April in which she states that the key finding for her of the YouGov survey was that Catholics were equally divided between those in favour and those who opposed same-sex marriage. However, I find there to be a deafening silence about the most important aspect of the whole same-sex marriage debate, namely the matter of the procreation and raising of children under the new legal arrangements. Adoption of children by same-sex couples already being legal in the UK, those Catholics in favour of same-sex marriage would presumably have had no objection to the notion of children being raised by such couples. The question, however, which now arises following the legal redefinition of marriage is what will be the attitude of society and Catholics in particular to the artificial procreation of children using IVF techniques and donors for lesbian women? And if this is permitted, how long will it be before surrogate mothers are legalised so as to provide homosexual couples with the equal opportunity to have children? The present Socialist Government in France, in preparing the legislation for samesex marriage which authorised the adoption of children by such couples for the first time, had initially intended to legalise at the same time the use of IVF techniques for lesbian couples. In the light of the huge negative reaction in France, this has for the time being been dropped by the Government but the Socialist Party is completely committed to such a policy and it is only a matter of time before it is introduced. So Catholics and society in the UK, France and elsewhere will have to make up their 11 May 2013
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Romeros relevance today

Some of Archbishop Oscar Romeros response to the situation in El Salvador, described by Julian Filochowski (The Church of God, which is the people, will never die, 4 May), rings true in the current circumstances in the UK. In El Salvador, 2 per cent of the population owned 60 per cent of the land, 14 families had overwhelming dominance; in the UK 0.6 per cent of the British people own 69 per cent of the land, they are mostly the same families who owned it in the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, any wealthy speculator in the world can buy land, or long leases on it, in a UK market in very short supply, and leave it empty. Prices and rents rise, so a few become wealthier still, largely due to the abolition of limits on lending, rent controls and the flow of money in and out of the UK in the 1980s. Far from trickle-down, there has been an overflow of wealth into the coffers of the wealthy while the poorest citizens are being forced into debts they cannot pay by caps, cuts and council tax. The consequences are hunger and homelessness, mental and physical

Boston and responsibility

It was with astonishment that I read Roger Nelsons letter (4 May). By taking out of the equation the choice factor in trying to understand the motivation of the Boston bombers, he does the vast majority of Muslim immi-

19

minds on these issues: limit same-sex marriages to the legal recognition of their union or permit such couples to use third parties for the procreation of children of which they will become the legal parents. How far, therefore, does the right for equal treatment extend irrespective of sexual orientation? And if the right for equal treatment is the only criterion to be followed, do children have a right to be born to couples in accordance with the normal biological processes and to be raised by their biological parents? Any debate or attitude survey on same-sex marriage which does not address these issues is missing the essential point. David Quinn Paris, France

Faith and the homeless

Thank you for publishing Carwyn Gravells thoughtful article on the experience of spirituality in the lives of the homeless community (A refuge in faith, 6 April). Mr Gravell recommends that all homeless service providers set up spirituality discussion groups open to all faiths and no faiths to help satisfy many homeless peoples spiritual hunger. As someone who works for a ministry that attempts to offer such spiritual resources to the homeless community here in the US, this was consoling to read. The parallels between our ministry of spiritual companionship (www.ispretreats.org) and Mr Gravells recommendations seemed an inspired confirmation of the importance of this kind of work. We, too, have been touched by the faith and hope of a people who could so understandably despair. Might that more of us, as Mr Gravell hopes, come to experience this profound reality. Jordan Skarr Associate director, Ignatian Spirituality Project, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The living Spirit

Christian belief finds the ground of truth in the silence of Christ, in the story of a man so poor that, at the end of his days, he preaches no word, no idea, but suffers only, takes the world to himself by resisting nothing of it, by exercising none of the self s habitual violence, and whose life is thus transparent without qualification to the shape of reality. A man nobody knows And thus the priest or monk whose calling it is to guide, nurture, and, in some manner, act out this way must see himself Christologically, as [Thomas] Merton so eminently did, writing of the poverty of the priest who vanishes into the Mass. Rowan Williams A Silent Action: engagements with Thomas Merton (SPCK, 2013) Earth is not a spiritual gymnasium in which we exercise ourselves to fit us out for Heaven. The created world has a value in itself and its destiny is linked with our own. As we throw ourselves into this holy endeavour, we shall experience disappointments, humiliations and, often, failure. The shoddiness of our Christian living can press painfully on us and from the depths of our hearts we shall know that we are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:9-10). This fact we must humbly accept and with it the awareness that nothing we do brings God down to us. However, the important thing is that our effort, and, above all, our holy trusting, makes us there for him to come to us. Ruth Burrows OCD Love Unknown (Burns & Oates, 2011) Be imbued with the hope that is so much a part of the mystery of the Ascension of Jesus. Be deeply conscious of Christs victory and triumph over sin and death. Realise that the strength of Christ is greater than our weakness, greater than the weakness of the whole world. Try to understand and share the joy that Mary experienced in knowing that her Son had taken his place with his Father, whom he loved infinitely. And renew your faith today in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Ascension

Guidance, please!
I was surprised to read (News from Britain and Ireland, 4 May) that a recent YouGov survey showed that 44 per cent of actively participating Catholics said that they would support a change in the law to allow close friends and relatives of those suffering from incurable diseases to help them commit suicide. Forty-two per cent opposed it. Although the Church in this country often has plenty to say on gay marriage and sexual ethics, there seems to be little catechesis on end-of-life decisions for the person in the pew. This is despite the excellent work of bodies such as the Linacre Centre. Michael Phelan Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

Liturgy and the Pope

Fr Paul Gunter, in his response on the exclusion of women from the mandatum of Holy Thursday, is correct. But may I gently suggest that both he and the authority to change the contents of the liturgical books in Rome read again the article Road to real virtue by Liam G. Walsh OP in the 27 October 2012 issue of The Tablet, in which Fr Walsh makes the valid distinction between religiosity and sacramentality? In Ghana, where I ministered as a Divine Word Missionary for many years, it is sometimes customary for a man to compliment his wife after a good meal: My wife, I will wash YOUR feet! (It sounds much better in the Akan language.) (Fr) Vince Burke SVD Bordentown, New Jersey, USA

Angry atheists
Clifford Longley asks Why, O Lord, does your existence make atheists so angry? (4 May). I think the answer to his prayer lies in the words at the end of his piece, Otherwise, they fear Fear has been defined as the belief that we cannot create (J.D. Garcia in Creative Transformation). When a reality (scientific or religious) that we have created and cherished is threatened, we become fearful, and fear leads to anger. There is, of course, a solution, but its indeed a conundrum for atheists: perfect love [i.e. God] drives out fear (1 John 4:18). Marcus Robbins Oxford

Sudoku protest
Pope Francis really has made an impact on the English Church The Tablet has stopped publishing the weekly Sudoku puzzle! Really, this is going too far. Indeed, is it because I am pre-Vatican II? I only gave up Sudoku for Lent, not for the remainder of my days. Please bring it back! Jerome Poole Coventry I need Sudoku in between reading all the very interesting articles, letters etc. Where has it gone? Give me back Sudoku! Stevy Reilly Uddingstone, Lanarkshire
The editor, Catherine Pepinster, replies: We have had a large number of letters about the removal of the Sudoku puzzle, which was done due to restrictions of space. But we have listened to readers complaints, and it returns this week, back by public demand. Youll find it on page 16.

Perceptions of the Iraq war

Sir Ivor Roberts (This was no just war, 20 April), with the benefit of hindsight, explains why he was persuaded to support the Iraq war. The Prime Ministers decision was taken because he was convinced, cajoled or flattered. The three options he poses are really two: people can be cajoled by flattery and they can be cajoled by deceit. Tony Blairs honour is intact if the latter is the case. The US military, later government departments and politicians, are credited with being the originators and users of perception management which involves convincing the population of the truthfulness of a very big lie which has been created. Terry Swales Liverpool 20
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11 May 2013

BOOKS
JAMES NAUGHTIE

ALONE AMONG HER KIND

Margaret Thatcher: the authorized biography. Volume 1: Not For Turning
Charles Moore
ALLEN LANE, 896PP, 30 Tablet bookshop price 27 Tel 01420 592974

n the hurly-burly of politics there is plenty of opportunity for loneliness. Charles Moores unfinished portrait of Margaret Thatcher is already a blaze of colour with many streaks of darkness, and he has succeeded in revealing a figure who remains solitary even at moments of triumph, when the world seems at her feet. Her contradictions and complications are explained beautifully, but the complete personality is elusive, as if she is still lost in herself. Moores achievement is to reveal why this is, and to resist the temptation to wrap up the story too neatly. Especially because of his own commitment to the Thatcher cause, that danger hovered over this book from the start. He avoids most of the traps with elegance and elan, leavening his account of her life and career up to the end of the Falklands campaign with insights that are all the more welcome because of the hagiographical outpourings on her death. Anyone looking for the truth about her times will find this a treasure trove. She has so often been presented as either a fearless warrior or a stubborn bully and she played both roles frequently, and with relish that it is refreshing to be reminded of the puzzle: how did such an unlikely leader come to exercise such mesmerising power over her party and her (other) opponents, laying them to waste with equal enjoyment? Moores attempt to unlock the mystery begins with her family. It is the most absorbing account of Alderman Roberts and his two children that we have. Margarets acknowledgement of her distance from her mother, Beatrice (After I was 15, we had nothing more to say to each other ), and her elder sister Muriels awkward relationships with the family, are revealed in letters between the sisters and with their father, whose poignant messages in the years before his death in 1970 reveal his deep hurt at his sense of being almost ignored by his younger daughter, already a rising politician. As an antidote to the more glutinous accounts of the Thatcher childhood in Grantham, this is a riveting start. The house-

Margaret Thatcher (second from right) at her sister Muriels wedding in 1950. Photo: Courtesy Jane Cullen hold was austere, rigid in its Methodist practice in a way that the children came to regret. Despite Margarets lifelong faith, which doesnt seem to have wavered much, she was clearly embarrassed by her fathers fervent suspicion of all things Catholic spiritual totalitarianism which was so profound that even her marriage to Denis in Wesleys Chapel in London was thought dodgy, because it was a place that he considered, bizarrely, already halfway to Rome. And with the arrival of Denis their odd courtship is a splendid vignette the family creaked further apart. As a denizen of half the nineteenth holes in Kent, quite apart from having had a failed wartime marriage, Denis hardly fitted Alfred Roberts picture of a son-in-law. So the girl who had come down from Oxford after four years fundamentally alone Moores phrase drifted further away from a family that over time seemed to wither rather than flower. This is the Thatcher mould, and Moores account of her early political life reveals how self-reliance became the driving force, providing her with copious supplies of energy and determination. It was sufficiently obvious to her colleagues to make her a natural lightning rod for the ministers who despaired of Ted Heath in the floundering last days of his Government in 1974, who turned to her when they realised that Sir Keith Joseph their first choice had a capacity for political wobbling that was even bigger than his brain. Moores account of the Conservative Partys agony at the time and her election as leader, like his treatment of the Falklands crisis, is a classic of its kind. He is meticulous and in effortless command of his many sources, committed to telling the story well and alert to the foibles and absurdities of the characters involved. Reggie Maudling, for example, having wasted the intellect that had once nearly made him leader himself, appears like a wistful old soak in a Somerset Maugham short story. And then there was Ted, the incredible sulk.

Moore makes a convincing case in attributing much of the failure of the anti-Thatcher forces up to and beyond the 1979 election to the behaviour of the old man himself, letting off ill-directed torpedoes that did more damage to his friends than his enemies. Other biographers have been kinder to the wets than Moore he thinks them intellectually and morally flabby but his description of their feckless performance from her assumption of leadership through to the climactic 1981 budget, and their defeat, is fairer than some of them might wish to admit. And the forging of the Iron Lady in the fire of internal criticism, notably from her ideological soulmate Sir John Hoskyns, is remarkable in the telling. There are memorable character portraits. Geoffrey Howes long-windedness and pudgy, soft bespectacled demeanour always irritated her. He was never dashing, and she liked dash, observes Moore. But Howe would be Nemesis in the end, and in the story of her first Cabinet fights, in which she was often isolated, Moore catches the atmosphere of ever-present danger: she was scribbling no, no, no on ministerial papers, shouting at civil servants, digging in. By the time the Falklands invasion came along she had decided that if she didnt do something about it herself, no one else would. In truth, she had always been like that. The no-turning Lady intrigued and alarmed friends and enemies at home and abroad with her vigour (Do I admire her or do I envy her? Franois Mitterrand asked one of his advisers). But she played tactical games, too, while she built an edifice of single-mindedness, conviction and belief (a word that in opposition Ian Gilmour had suggested to her was inappropriate in politics). It is good to be reminded by Moore how much she startled everyone. Maybe they realised how she enjoyed the solitude of power. When Lord Carrington resigned as Foreign Secretary on the weekend after Argentine forces landed on the Falklands, she said, I felt totally bereft, I felt deserted, very lonely. To some degree, she always had. The story will roll forward to the miners strike, the years of Thatcherite dominance and reform, and then the decline and fall, which Nigel Lawson attributes in his memoirs to her recklessness on all fronts. Charles Moores task is going to become more difficult, because at the end of this first volume she is at the zenith: unencumbered, triumphant and free. But he has made a brilliant start. 11 May 2013
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Realism vs idealism
The Memoirs of Jin Luxian, Volume 1: Learning and Relearning, 1916-1982
(trans. William Hanbury-Tenison)
HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS, 296PP, 19.50
Tablet bookshop price 17.50

Jin Luxian: he concluded that the interests of Shanghais Catholics could be best served by cooperating with the Government

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he most controversial figure in the Catholic Church of post-revolutionary China completed his apologia, or at least the first part of it, before his death on 27 April at the age of 96. Jin Luxian had been the government-approved Bishop of Shanghai since 1988 and that brought him into conflict both with Catholics belonging to the underground Church and with his fellow Jesuits, by whom he had been described as a traitor. The position of the Vatican under Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI was more nuanced: the first tacitly approved the presence of papal representatives at Jins consecration as auxiliary bishop in 1985; the second invited him to attend a synod in Rome in 2005, only to have the Government turn the invitation down on his behalf. Vatican acceptance of Jins position had been due to his extraordinary success in reviving the Catholic Church in Shanghai after the ravages of the Cultural Revolution. He reopened more than 100 churches in the city, established the most important seminary in China and created a diocesan publishing house and retreat centre. Already in 2004 it was estimated that 140,000 people in Shanghai were members of the official Church, that is, the one belonging to the government-controlled Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). Under Jin, the city re-emerged as the countrys Catholic powerhouse.

OUR REVIEWERS
James Naughtie was political correspondent of The Scotsman and The Guardian during Margaret Thatchers time as Prime Minister. He has presented Today on BBC Radio 4 since 1994. Simon Scott Plummer is a freelance writer. Alexander Lucie-Smiths latest book is Narrative Theology and Moral Theology. Kathy Watson is the author of The Devil Kissed Her: the story of Mary Lamb.

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Jins life was in fascinating contrast to that of Gong (or Kung) Pinmei, who had been consecrated Bishop of Shanghai, with Vatican approval, in 1950. Both men went on trial as members of a counter-revolutionary clique in 1955. The bishop received a life sentence. Jin, who was then deputy head of the Society of Jesus in China and superior of Shanghais main seminary, got 18 years, with a further nine years of identification as a class enemy. After being freed on parole in 1985, Gong was allowed to leave for the United States to receive medical treatment. He died there in 2000, aged 98, having been secretly created a cardinal by John Paul II in 1979. Jin, concluding that the interests of Shanghais Catholics could best be served by cooperating with the Government, stayed on. The story of the two men epitomises the age-old dichotomy between idealism and realism. In his book on Gongs struggle against the Communist Party, Paul Mariani describes the bishop as a shining light. But on his release he was powerless in his own diocese, which was now controlled by Jin in conjunction with the CCPA. And he has been criticised for never returning, even briefly, to China after 1988. Jins memoirs reveal a strong nationalistic streak, which chafes against the stranglehold over the Catholic Church in China exercised by foreign, particularly French, priests before and immediately after the revolution. He describes Gong as limited in outlook and experience and both professionally and psychologically unprepared to run Chinas most important diocese. Instead, Jin asserts, he was manipulated by the French Jesuit mission superior in Shanghai, Fernand Lacretelle, who would later, under interrogation, write

a devastating indictment of the local Church. Jin accuses Gong of mindlessly executing anti-Communist orders at the instigation of a Vatican which believed that Chiang Kai-shek, backed by the Americans, would soon return to the mainland. Instead of propagating these callous and unfeeling instructions, which could lead Catholics to being expelled from school, dismissed from their jobs or arrested, we ought to have given more thought to the great numbers of the faithful and the common people, allowing them to survive under Communist rule, to study hard and to work alongside the rest of the people. Under Gongs leadership, according to Jin, Catholics prepared themselves for a martyrdom which did not happen, the Communist Party being aware that executing Christians could damage its cause. Dont support Gong too much, Jin recalls saying, even if he does become a cardinal archbishop, for thousands will suffer to make one man famous. These are harsh words for one distinguished prelate to use against another. They reflect the continuing bitterness between the official and underground Churches and their respective backers, the Communist Party and the Vatican. In his open letter to Chinese Catholics in 2007, Benedict XVI tried to bridge that gap. But, despite a rapprochement between the two Churches within China, relations between the Government and the Holy See remain icy, the key sticking point being the latters authority over Chinese bishops. Last July, Ma Daqin, on his consecration as auxiliary bishop in Shanghai, a step approved by Rome, announced that he was leaving the CCPA in order better to devote himself to the pastoral needs of the diocese. The agency and its associated Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church in China promptly withdrew recognition from Ma and he has not been seen in public since. Before his death, Jin had been writing the second volume of his memoirs, covering a period which has seen the explosive growth of both the economy and Christianity in China. Having become a priest in 1945, spent 27 years in detention and then transformed the countrys greatest diocese, Jin was one of modern Chinas great figures. His death leaves divisions between Chinese Catholics unresolved. Simon Scott Plummer

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11 May 2013

Bards Christian fundamentals

Reading Shakespeare
Michael Alexander
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 192PP, 11.99
Tablet bookshop price 10.80

Tel 01420 592974

A History of English Literature, third edition

Michael Alexander
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 464PP, 21.99
Tablet bookshop price 19.80

Christianity. Perhaps this is the new seam to be worked. While what is in the plays should not be confused with Shakespeares own opinions, it is clear to Alexander that the body of work is a Christian one. There is even reference to the work of Clare Asquith, the writer who sees Shakespeares plays as an allegory for the death of Catholic England. Do such approaches work? Alexander seems to be not unopposed to some aspects of them. Maybe we have all gone astray in neglecting Shakespeare as a Christian dramatist. Even those with pagan settings are, it seems,

fundamentally Christian plays in their assumptions, their paganism being superficial. Alexander goes so far as to try and reclaim King Lear from the sort of interpretation, inspired by the theatre of cruelty and the theatre of the absurd, that has governed our perceptions since the 1960s. It is not, he tells us, a post-Christian play set in pre-Christian times but one in which despair is persistently resisted. Is he right? But whichever way, he provokes thought throughout this fascinating little book. Alexander Lucie-Smith

Tel 01420 592974

ichael Alexander is a writer of rare skill: he is learned, as befits a former professor of English literature, and yet he is able to write about reading in a way that is accessible and pleasurable but never lightweight. Above all, he is an astute guide through the classical landscape of English writing; in an age where people read less and less, and little can be assumed, his neat summations of the great works of the past in his History of English Literature are certainly useful. The newly revised edition of the work takes it more or less up to the present: the last author discussed is J.K. Rowling. I have no plans to read her, but it is nice to be able to read Alexander on her, and to find out just where her appeal lies. Does Shakespeare need another short introduction? Reading Shakespeare almost always finds something new to say about this multifaceted genius, and shows that there is room for one more. Alexander does not cover every play, and he rather leaves the histories to one side. This is something of a relief, as I remember, now almost 30 years ago, how as an undergraduate it was the histories that we always were forced to focus on, and in particular the character of Falstaff. His death scene in Henry V was seen as the summation of Shakespeares comic writing and his tragic writing at the same time, the best thing that the Bard has to offer us. I always found Falstaff a bore, but never voiced this heresy. Alexander quotes the favourite scene, but does not make it the key to Shakespeares works. Alexander stresses that his book is about reading Shakespeare, rather than watching Shakespeare on stage; and there is much discussion about the legitimacy of the plays as things to be read rather than watched, as Senecas tragedies were. There is also quite a discussion of the sonnets, which he sees as a unified sequence. Somewhat to my surprise, the professor does not mention the interpretation that was once common it was also applied to The Merchant of Venice namely, that Shakespeare treats of the homosexual condition. Has this fallen from fashion? But how else are we to explain the sadness of Antonio, the eponymous merchant? If he has a favoured key to the plays, Alexander finds it in Shakespeares

BACK IN THE BOOKSHOPS

Dont let go
Black Narcissus
Rumer Godden
VIRAGO MODERN CLASSICS, 272PP, 9.99
Tablet bookshop price 9

Tel 01420 592974

irst of all, you must forget the 1947 Powell and Pressburger film. Set in India but filmed at Pinewood Studios, Deborah Kerr in her stiff white wimple, the huge ringing bell, Jean Simmons with a jewel in her nose, Kathleen Byron in a red dress and even redder lipstick. Rumer Godden called the film phoney. Its not. Its melodramatic and marvellous but not in the least like the subtle, absorbing novel she wrote. Black Narcissus was Rumer Goddens third novel and her first best-seller. It has now been republished alongside two others, Breakfast with the Nikolides and Kingfishers Catch Fire. Godden is undergoing one of those renaissances that sometimes happen to writers. Its well deserved. A writer of more than 60 books for both adults and children, it was with Black Narcissus that Godden established her territory. Beguiling and alien landscapes, cultural misunderstandings, an underlying threat of violence, female jealousy and the tension between men and women this is her

material and very rich stuff it is indeed. Black Narcissus tells the story of a group of idealistic Anglo-Catholic nuns who are sent to start a mission in the Himalayas. Their new convent is a lush former palace where an Indian general had previously kept his women. Among the villagers, it had a reputation as a place of lights music picnic parties shrieking and laughing. A former mission, the Brothers of St Peter, had already tried and failed to start a school here. The omens are not good for Sr Clodagh and her band of sisters and healers. As Mr Dean, the rackety, drunken, gone-to-seed local agent, says, Its an impossible place for a nunnery. Just as Godden herself did, each of the nuns falls in love with India, whether it is the majesty of the mountains, the colours of the flowers, the village children or the disreputable Mr Dean. There is a subplot of a cross-caste love affair between a spoilt princeling and a lower-caste beauty. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong, and Godden shows us how with a precision that is both compassionate and uncompromising. There is always a sense of the inevitable in Goddens novels, but it is part of her skill that the sense of inevitability seems to come from the characters and the place rather than from the authors manipulations. Each of her characters behaves in ways that make no sense and yet are totally comprehensible; their actions are moving and maddening in turns. Mr Dean warns the nuns they should leave immediately because, Its not easy to stop people once they let themselves go. That sums up Goddens characterisation perfectly; she creates her characters and then they seem to go off on their own. Kathy Watson

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11 May 2013

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23

ARTS
PETER STANFORD

TAKING GOSPEL TO THE MASSES

A choir is bringing the exuberant musical style associated with Pentecostal churches into a Catholic setting, and the result is both energising and prayerful
t is Kumbaya as Ive never heard it before: no acoustic guitars, no wholesome foot-tapping of opentoed sandals in the aisles, but performed instead as full-blown gospel music by the Soul Sanctuary choir, complete with bass, keyboards and drums. And to add to the novelty, it is the closing hymn at the 6.15 p.m. Sunday evening Mass at Farm Street, the sumptuous Gothic Revival headquarters of the Jesuits in Londons Mayfair, where the lashings of marble, gilt and stained glass seem better suited to ethereal plainchant or Lead Kindly Light than the choirs exultant refrain of shower down on me. And yet, it not only works, it works triumphantly. Which is, I suppose, the appropriate adverb, since there is something loud and triumphant about a gospel choir. Yet while they are a familiar feature of Pentecostal churches, and arguably the backbone of twentieth-century popular music, especially in the United States, they have traditionally made very little impact on Catholic worship. So it is fitting that the spark of inspiration which led to Soul Sanctuary came, explains founder Miko Giedroyc, when he was asked to fill in on keyboards at a Pentecostal church near to his south London home. Id been a musician since school, says this old Amplefordian, and was keen on jazz. I was also a serious Catholic, but still I knew next to nothing about gospel music. And yet, playing in that Pentecostal church in Tooting, I saw how fantastic it was as part of worship. There was just something about it that got me amidships. Weve got to have a bit of this in the Catholic Church, I told myself. What bit, though, precisely beyond the novelty factor? There is an incredible feeling gospel music can convey of being quite literally spirit-filled, Giedroyc explains as we gather round a table in the Farm Street presbytery with other long-standing members of the choir. If you are going to do gospel well, bring something to Catholic liturgy of which to be proud, you need as much accumulated talent in the key skills of choir direction, instrumental accompaniment, choral singing and soloing as in a choir performing traditional church music. It is a really tough challenge. Around half the members of Soul Sanctuary are Catholics, a quarter come from other reli-

gious traditions, and the rest are seekers. There is an element of reaching out in the whole project. What the 25 current members do have in common, though, is a commitment to music. More than half are involved in music professionally, though Soul Sanctuary itself does not pay its singers for performing in church. And so standards are high, and that matters. Members have included leads from West End musicals, jazz and soul recording artists, and session singers, as well as talented and committed amateurs.

Soul Sanctuary in rehearsal Soul Sanctuary started off in September 2005 at St Patricks Church in Soho Square under parish priest Fr Alexander Sherbrookes wing. It performed every Sunday at the evening Mass. There were usually about 10 or 12 of us, sometimes fewer, and it took us a long time to get it right, recalls Giedroyc, elder brother of The Great British Bake Off presenter Mel Giedroyc. At first, gospel singing can feel a bit foreign in a Catholic setting. Fitting it to the Catholic liturgy was quite a challenge. It can be so exuberant that you have to find a way of putting it in a box, otherwise it can just explode and take over. Slowly, though, it has evolved its own distinctive approach and repertoire, from existing gospel classics such as Total Praise, Richard Smallwoods setting of Psalm Three, which could be imported whole into the Catholic setting, through reworkings of well-loved hymns and songs to fit the context (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Soul of My Saviour, Pange Lingua and Christus Vincit), and on

to over 50 new compositions, 10 new psalm tones and five different gospel Mass settings it has devised and refined with composers such as Edwin Fawcett and Dave Okumu. Weve had to work to tame it and develop something appropriate all of our own, says Giedroyc. There are moments, at the offertory or after Communion, for example, when it needs to be more contemplative in style, and that requires thought and adaptation. And of course, the Mass setting takes first priority in Catholic sung liturgy, and making it truly participative within our musical style has been our biggest challenge. Gospel music can be very contemplative, confirms Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, another of the group sitting round the table, and the member of the Farm Street community who works most closely with Soul Sanctuary. It obviously depends on what you like. We have some people who come along to Mass here who really dont like it, but we advertise the monthly Mass very clearly, and we see it as fitting in with an overall mix of styles of worship we offer, from sung Latin to more familiar hymns at the family Mass. All can provide a space for contemplation, all are appropriate for the Catholic Mass. Soul Sanctuarys move to Farm Street came after its Soho base at St Patricks was closed in 2010 for renovations. It also performs oneoffs in other churches, and was part of the papal Mass in Hyde Park in September 2010. On occasion, too, it does what it refers to informally as non-Mass gigs at jazz venues such as the 606 Club in Chelsea, and at festivals. Soul Sanctuary is keen to share the expertise that it has built up over the last eight years with other Catholic parishes either via workshops or by making its repertoire available. Its experience has shown that a gospel choir can bring another dimension to Catholic worship just as it does for Pentecostal Christians. Back in the church, the priest has left the altar and some of the congregation are starting to drift away, but most of us stay rooted to the spot as Soul Sanctuary sways and claps as it spontaneously reprises its Kumbaya in order to send us out into the world in a positive and prayerful state of mind. (www.soulsanctuarygospel.com)

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11 May 2013

Nothing dates fiction more quickly than call boxes or letters, and Passion Play turns on these, PAGE 26

TELEVISION

Panned laughter
Vicious
ITV1

elevision comedy, like most things, has fashions. In recent times we have seen sketch shows come and go, to be replaced by stand-up and panel games. Situation comedy, on the other hand, is always with us, though its popularity ebbs and flows. At the moment there is a flurry of excitement because ITV has returned to the genre after many years, with two new shows running consecutively on Monday nights. One of them is Vicious, which, to widespread amazement, stars two theatrical giants, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. Meanwhile, the BBC has wheeled out one of the old masters of the sitcom game, Ben Elton, to write a new workplace-based show, The Wright Way. What could possibly go wrong? Well, just about everything. These are, in their different ways, dismal viewing, not least because they are so old-fashioned. Vicious originally Vicious Old Queens, until McKellen objected to the old breaks new ground by being about an elderly gay couple. Eltons central character lives with his lesbian daughter and her girlfriend. But in every other respect these are antique productions, and not only because they are recorded in studios in front of braying studio audiences. Eltons comedy workplace, peopled by unlikely stereotypes and eccentrics, would be familiar to lovers of Are You Being Served? or even The Rag Trade. And Vicious looks and sounds like something from the era of Rising Damp with which it shares a co-star, the estimable Frances de la Tour. The set-up is that the gay couple sit on their sofa in the middle of a dark-brown, over-stuffed sitting room and trade insults, rather like George and Mildred, but with added cruelty. Where is that miserable piece of s***? asks Freddie (McKellen) at one point (6 May). Right here, you walking corpse, replies Stuart (Jacobi). It brought the house down. Everything does. The two principals have opted to play their stereotypical roles bitter, sardonic ex-actor and fey, flighty former barman as if they were in panto, not so much delivering their lines as wrapping them up with a ribbon and handing them over on the doorstep. McKellen, constantly tossing his head and preening, seems to be channelling John Hurt as Quentin Crisp. While bracingly heartless about old age and death, the show is nervous about sex: the pair could be flatmates (as Stuarts mother still believes, after 48 years), except for the

Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Frances de la Tour in Vicious embarrassing way they flirt with Ash, a young (straight) neighbour, who, obeying the unaccountable rules of sitcomland, keeps dropping in. Equally cartoonish is the role of Frances de la Tour. She, too, has carnal designs on the young man, which she is not shy of expressing. Im not a lot of work, Ash, she tells him. Do you understand what Im saying? I hope not, he replies. That made me laugh. Not much else did. The show has a set-up/punchline, setup/punchline rhythm that is quite exhausting, possibly because its co-creator is an American, veteran of the wisecracking Will and Grace. It does, though, have the odd observant line. They make me nervous, all these young people, skittering about like mice, desperate to get back to the internet, says Stuart, in a

clothes shop. This is more than can be said for The Wright Way. A blunderbuss satire on the hackneyed topic of health and safety, it features in David Haigs Gerald Wright a central character given to laboured rants about the modern world. This weeks show (7 May) revolved around Wrights reluctance to use the lavatory at work, and featured a lengthy dialogue in which no laughs at all were wrung out of the double-meaning of the word go. Im just waiting for you to go, so I can go, he said. Meanwhile, various flat sitcom caricatures office simpleton, feisty daughter, lubricious older woman came and went. Worst of these was the mayor, who had the most unfunny verbal tic in sitcom history. Morning good, Mr Wright, he said. Well with you, trust I? This rapidly became unbearable. I rather preferred ITVs second Monday night effort, The Job Lot (6 May). Boasting neither huge stars nor a renowned writer, it was shot in realistic style without a laugh track, and displayed a clear debt to The Office. Set in a jobcentre, it had a few funny moments depending on how amusing you find a woman with her hair stuck in a hot-air hand drier and also a touch of genuine pathos. Yes, Ive used a broom before, said one client, 20 years an estate agent, as he spoke on the phone to a prospective employer. Not professionally, no. John Morrish

RADIO

Rhyme and rhythm

Front Row
BBC RADIO 4

iven his lyrical compass the English domestic interiors of Our House that went down such a storm at last years Jubilee celebrations it wasnt in the least surprising to find Graham Suggs McPherson of Madness telling Mark Lawson (of this parish) about his fondness for Sir John Betjeman. Front Rows Cultural Exchange feature allows creative people to share their passion for something that excites them. Suggs (2 May) had chosen On a Portrait of a Deaf Man, Betjemans poem about his dead father, with its bleak and almost Donne-like visions of maggots crawling in the deceased eyes. This was an inspired choice, not only because it allowed Suggs to talk briefly about his own father the subject of his current one-man tour but because it shed light on Betjemans own brief career as a pop star. On a Portrait of a Deaf Man is featured on the album Banana Blush (1974), in which

the then Poet Laureate was persuaded to recite some of his work to music provided by the composer Jim Parker. Betjeman, questioned by the New Musical Express, thought the result a vulgar pop-song record, but Parkers accompaniments sometimes straight forwardly orchestral, at other times straying into what might be called ambient territory rarely fail, notably in the swinging version of A Shropshire Lad, the well-nigh mystical poem about the ghost of channel-swimming Captain Webb (Captain Webb the Dawley man, Captain Webb from Dawley, etc.). Lawson noted the link between Betjemans keenness on rhyme and rhythm which allowed Suggs to ventilate his theory of songwriting, which was that if you could induce something to rhyme while saying what you meant to say, that was as good as it gets. The stanzas about Betjeman senior taking his son out for silent walks in country lanes had a special poignance, as Suggs own father hadnt hung around long enough to grant him this treat. In an ideal world, the interview would have occupied a two-hour slot. As for Suggs, he should immediately be asked to front a series of programmes about the history of British music hall, or his own career as a musician anything at all. D.J. Taylor 11 May 2013
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THEATRE

In two minds
Passion Play
DUKE OF YORKS, LONDON

t is a peculiarity of theatrical history that the three most regularly revived British plays from the last quarter of the twentieth century were written within a period of four years and all have adultery as their subject: Harold Pinters Betrayal (1978), Peter Nichols Passion Play (1981) and Tom Stoppards The Real Thing (1982). And now, solidifying the status of these dramas as an unofficial trilogy, the director David Leveaux, having already staged memorable productions of the Pinter and Stoppard, takes on the Nichols. Apart from their chronological and now directorial connections, this popular infidelity trio is also linked by structural quirkiness. Each of the pieces has a physical gimmick: Betrayal plays its scenes in reverse order, The Real Thing features a series of plays within plays and Passion Play, perhaps most daringly, divides the central characters of the betrayed wife and her adulterous husband between two actors. So, in this new West End version, Owen Teale is James, a picture restorer desperate for excitement outside marriage, while Oliver Cotton is Jim, his inner voice or alter ego. Similarly, Zo Wanamakers Eleanor, a music teacher and amateur choral singer, is shadowed

on stage by Samantha Bonds Nell, who consistently questions Eleanors decision to forgive her husband for his affair with Kate (Annabel Scholey), a young widow half his age. Whereas previous productions have often cast physically dissimilar performers in the split roles, Leveaux visually stresses that they are parts of the same part. Already fairly close in build, the pairings of Wanamaker-Bond and Teale-Cotton are also dressed and coiffed identically. The device is thrilling theatrically there is always a buzz from the uninitiated in the audience when the under-characters walk on and makes hard demands on the cast. The actors playing Eleanor and James must never allow their eyes to acknowledge the presence onstage of Jim and Nell respectively, while the interventions from their other selves mean that the natural rhythm of questionand-answer conversation is often broken. This presentational gimmick, which Leveauxs cast handle with great aplomb, sometimes seems more rigorously thought through than the meaning of the method. In the early stages of the play, Jim and Nell are clearly psychological surrogates. The former coaches James in the lies he will tell his wife about his early assignations with Kate; while, after the affair is revealed, Nell operates as a sort of invisible therapist, debating with Eleanor whether she should stay or go. In the second act, though, Nichols sometimes redeploys Jim and Nell as metaphysical understudies, taking the lead role in scenes that may be imaginary or have occurred in the past, making the doubling more

Pirandellian than Freudian. The viewer also suffers a nagging concern about why the temptress Kate and the other main character, Agnes (Sian Thomas), a friend of the couple who lost her own husband to Kates attentions, are not considered interesting enough to have a shadow-character as well. The result is that Passion Play lacks the formal perfection of The Real Thing and Betrayal, although it compensates with a greater depth of feeling than either of those plays. The revolution in electronic communications means that nothing dates fiction more quickly than call boxes or letters and the plot of Passion Play turns on these, meaning that it now has to be played as a period piece. This, though, proves a small distraction and the clear age of the play now underlines the timelessness of the long human struggle to make love, sex and families work. Wanamaker has an unusually large range for an actress from the domestic sitcom My Family to the tragedies of Euripides and Arthur Miller and so is perfectly suited for a role that touches both ends of that emotional spectrum: her Eleanor displays naked pain and despair without becoming an object of pity. This is a woman with inner strength as well as the inner voice punchily portrayed by Bond. Completing his work on the PinterStoppard-Nichols threesome, Leveaux confirms their centrality to the modern theatre repertoire. It would be fascinating if the next time they become due for revival a theatre had the resources to stage them as a cross-cast season. Mark Lawson

CINEMA

Morally murky waters

A Hijacking
DIRECTOR: TOBIAS LINDHOLM

he idea of pirates in the Indian Ocean has shifted from the exotic illustrated detail of old maps to the footnotes of the foreign pages in Western newspapers. The upheavals of the Somali civil war led to an increase in boarding, raiding and hijacking sorties at first in the Gulf of Aden, then the Arabian Sea and out into the wider oceans. In recent years, merchant ships operating from the coast of Kenya have been targeted. That is the route taken by the vessel in the fictional A Hijacking, written and directed by Tobias Lindholm. A Danish crew just 48 hours from port are waylaid by armed Somali raiders who demand a ransom from the ships Danish management; the film depicts in sweaty detail the plight of the imprisoned crew in contrast to the cool northern offices of the bosses who call in a professional negotiator. Lindholm is one of the writers of the internationally successful television series Borgen and also of last years excellent feature film The Hunt in which a primary school teacher 26
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A gripping account of a clash of the affluent and the dispossessed: A Hijacking is accused of inappropriate behaviour by one of his pupils. Lindholms strengths as a writer (and now also director) lie in the areas of shifting moral certainty and an ability to infuse characters with a sudden subtle humanity that lifts thriller or melodrama into something more challenging and memorable. He has cast two of Borgens lead actors, Pilou Asbaek and Sren Malling, as the main representatives on ship and shore the crews cook (who becomes the spokesman) and the chief executive of the shipping company. The film like the event can take us by surprise. There is no action sequence with

pounding track to spell out the actual hijacking. Down below with the cook, we are simply aware of disturbance and confusion. Accounts of developments emerge piecemeal, as they do to the management team in Denmark. Immediacy is given to the conversations between hijackers and proprietors by the method of filming these telephone negotiations live so the actors out on a ship on the Indian Ocean were speaking in real time to the actors in Denmark; whats more, the negotiator working for the management team was an actual consultant for companies in such a predicament. So A Hijacking is a thriller but, more than that, it is a meditation on values and responsibility. Where does the primary duty of the chief executive lie when deciding if, when or how much to pay? To the individuals, to the families, to the shareholders? What are the considerations of those who take the hostages can two such opposed views of time and money be reconciled? Lindholm has made a detailed and gripping account of a clash of affluent and dispossessed. Francine Stock

11 May 2013

THE CHURCH IN THE

WORLD

Vatican denies Brz-CDF clash

Robert Mickens
In Rome

THE VATICAN has effectively contradicted Cardinal Joo Brz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Religious, after he told a major gathering of female religious superiors that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) never consulted him before its crackdown on the US-based Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The prefects of these two congregations work closely together according to their specific responsibilities and have collaborated throughout the process of the Doctrinal Assessment of the LCWR, said an unsigned communiqu issued on Tuesday by Holy See press office. The statement came less than 48 hours after the Brazilian cardinal told a tri-annual gathering of the International Union of Women Superiors General (UISG) on Sunday that he never learned of the CDFs move against the LCWR until the doctrinal assessment was published in April 2012. But rather than criticise the cardinal-prefect directly, the Vatican communiqu issued only in English blamed the media for twisting his words and suggesting there was a divergence between the two Vatican congregations. Such an interpretation of the cardinals remarks is not justified, the communiqu said. It is believed that the CDF was the author of the unsigned statement. In a much-anticipated encounter that many had hoped would shed further light on the incident, Pope Francis met briefly with participants of the UISG on Wednesday after they had concluded their five-day meeting.

Cardinal Joo Brz de Aviz: his consultation claims were effectively contradicted by a Vatican communiqu. Photo: CNS However, the Vatican appeared to downplay the papal audience with the women superiors by failing to inform the media or preannounce it. In addition, the Pope made no mention of the controversy surrounding Cardinal Brzs remarks or the LCWR affair. He merely reminded the women superiors general, who were from all parts of the world, that they were called to adhere to three things:
Pope Francis will visit a slum, attend the opening of a drug rehabilitation centre and lead young people in the Via Crucis along Rio de Janeiros famous Copacabana beachfront on his week-long visit this summer to Brazil, writes Robert Mickens. The Vatican on Tuesday released the full schedule of the Popes 22-28 July trip, the first of his pontificate and the only one scheduled for 2013.

the centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of love and to feel/think in and with Mother Church. It was the first time a pope had addressed participants of UISG general assembly since the days of Paul VI. Pope Francis praised consecrated religious sisters for being icons of Mary and the Church, but warned them not to undervalue the motherly role they are called to play. The consecrated woman is a mother; she must be a mother and not spinster, the Pope said. Excuse me, but this is the way I talk, he said, provoking laughter and applause. The gathering appeared to at least temporarily bring new hope to the LCWR in its dealings with the Vatican, though Pope Francis has not mentioned the group or its case specifically. The LCWR president, Sr Florence Deacon OSF, attended the UISG meeting and described to participants the misunderstanding that exists between her organisation and the CDF.

His main purpose for going to Rio de Janeiro is to join more than three million youngsters expected for World Youth Day (WYD). But the first major event on the 76-year-old Popes itinerary will be on 24 July (after a full days rest) when he makes a 150-mile helicopter trip to the Marian Shrine of Aparecida. After visiting a slum in the northern section of Rio the

next day, he will join in the ongoing WYD festivities. On Friday 26 July, he will spend the day with young people hearing confessions, meeting with several juvenile delinquents, having lunch with some WYD participants and leading the Via Crucis. He will also lead the customary WYD prayer vigil on Saturday evening and its closing Mass the following morning.

Women reject idea of special diaconate

The Catholic Womens Association in Germany (Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund, KDFB), which has 220,000 members nationwide, has questioned a proposal for a special deacons office for women, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. Last week Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German bishops conference, floated the idea of an office for women that would not require ordination. That is not enough, the KDFB said. The time had come for women to be ordained deacons as they were already voluntarily doing all the crucial work done by deacons in the Church, such as visiting the sick and the poor, KDFB spokeswoman Ute Hcker told Germanys newspaper in English, The Local. Women were not intent on becoming priests, she said. That is not possible from the theological point of view and that is not what we are calling for. Catholic women in Germany want to see deacons who are women. We want the full office and the training that goes with it, she emphasised. Eighty per cent of the active members of the German Church are women. Women can give the Church a future but many women in Germany are turning their backs on the Church because they are not being taken seriously, she said. The fact that the German bishops had emphasised at their spring plenary that they wanted to see more women in church leadership positions had been greatly welcomed by Catholic women, Ms Hcker said.

SWITZERLAND: The Swiss Abbot Martin Werlen of Einsiedeln, whose booklet calling for church reforms caused a stir last November, says the Church is not making sufficient use of social media to proclaim the Gospel message, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. Abbot Werlen is an active tweeter with almost 8,000 followers. He breaks his sermons down to a Twitter format so that they can be reached by those who do not feel at home at church services and has discovered that interest in the Catholic Church is far greater than we often suppose and realise. With regard to social media, it is crucial for the Church first of all to be a listener, he said. We mustnt talk from the top down but first listen to peoples worries and questions.

11 May 2013

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SOMALIA

International push to end anarchy

Fredrick Nzwili
In Nairobi

AS A CONFERENCE on the future of Somalia

opened this week in London, a Somali Catholic bishop highlighted growing signs of hope in the Horn of Africa country, which has been the subject of a lengthy civil war and frequent famines over the past two decades. Mgr Giorgio Bertin, the apostolic administrator of the capital, Mogadishu, said ordinary people there were uniting to reconstruct the country as the new Government continued to establish control. Its election in 2012 inspired hope for peace, and has since wrestled strategic regions from the Al-Qaedabacked Islamic terrorists Al-Shabaab. There are concrete signs of hope. I went there twice in April and the officials I met were open-minded. I got a feeling the city was no longer divided. People are also rebuilding and reconstructing, said Mgr Bertin, who visited Mogadishu after six years absence.

On Tuesday, the international communitys effort to bring peace to Somalia was demonstrated with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed co-hosting an international conference on the country in London. The conference was seeking to strengthen security, policing and the justice system, as well as bring in financial support. Last month, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague opened a British Embassy in Mogadishu, the first in Somalia in 20 years. In London, Mr Cameron was due to meet Kenyas new President Uhuru Kenyatta to discuss Somalia peace and other issues. Many refugees have fled to Kenya, while the countrys army is engaged in peacekeeping efforts. The Catholic Church hopes to return to the country from where the last missionaries three nuns fled in 1998 fearing kidnap. In
TANZANIA: Two people died last Sunday and more than 50 were injured in a bomb blast at a new church in northern Tanzania, just before its inaugural Mass, writes Ellen Teague. Archbishop Francisco Padilla, the apostolic nuncio to Tanzania, and Archbishop Josaphat Lebulu of Arusha, the

an interview with The Tablet, Mgr Bertin said the new authorities were ready to return the properties and goods of the Church. I met the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defence, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the parliament. They welcomed me, said Mgr Bertin. They, in particular the Minister of Foreign Affairs, were in favour of returning the properties. Meanwhile, the bishop said the officials had told him prudence was still necessary since they were not in full control and were living in protected fortresses. I will not be going back to stay so soon, but I will surely make some more rapid visits before considering having a permanent place of worship, said Mgr Bertin. Asked whether the ruined Mogadishu Catholic cathedral will be restored, Mgr Bertin said there are different options. It is in such a terrible state, he said.
are among those in custody, and Catholics suspect an extremist group is responsible. Sundays attack was the first large-scale attack at a place of worship in the country, although two Christian leaders were killed in Tanzanias semi-autonomous, predominantly Muslim islands of Zanzibar earlier this year.

local bishop, were present at the dedication but were not injured. The bomb was thrown into the compound of St Josephs Catholic Church in Olasti, a suburb of Arusha that is predominantly Christian. President Jakaya Kikwete condemned the attack as an act of terrorism. Four men from Saudi Arabia

AUSTRALIA

Abuse commissioner challenges police testimony to inquiry

PETER OCALLAGHAN QC, the Independent

Commissioner of the Melbourne Response, one of Australias two main pathways for dealing with clerical-abuse allegations, has strongly defended himself against Victoria Police claims about his behaviour and independence in his role overseeing the child abuse protocol, writes Mark Brolly. He said the police submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of abuse by religious and other organisations was in many aspects plainly wrong and seriously misconceived. Mr OCallaghan, who told the inquiry he had received about 330 complaints about child abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and had upheld 304 of them, said

the fact is that Ive facilitated the referral of complaints by speaking to victims, telling them of their right to report their complaint to the police and encouraging them to exercise the right. He said the police submission and the evidence of Deputy Police Commissioner Graham Ashton last October were a travesty but was confident his cooperative relationship with the police would be restored. Questioned by the chairman of the inquiry, Georgie Crozier MP, he admitted that lawyers and officials of the Archdiocese had had input into his submission to the inquiry. But the document is mine, Mr OCallaghan declared, insisting that although he was paid by the Archdiocese, he operated independently. Sr Angela Ryan, for Australias other abuse protocol, Towards Healing, used in all Australian dioceses except Melbourne, told
PUERTO RICO: The US territorys most senior Catholic has said he will not resign, despite his being asked to do so by the Vatican, writes Jon Stibbs. The Archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Gonzlez Nieves, denies accusations that include the cover up of clerical paedophilia. During a meeting

the inquiry: We have nothing to hide and I believe that the review of our files will have demonstrated the integrity of our processes. The Churchs strong preference, she said, is that all allegations of criminal conduct are reported to and investigated by the police. Meanwhile the former Archbishop of Perth, Dr Barry Hickey, told The West Australian newspaper that the greatest threat facing the Church was not the sex scandals of the past but hostility to its position on key social issues such as contraception, homosexuality and gay marriage. Therell always be scandals in the Church, said Archbishop Hickey, who retired last year. Its hurtful to see all the negativity that comes from the sins of church people but the real problem is that what I think of as good news is not always seen or received as good news by society.

JESUIT CHURCH FARM STREET, MAYFAIR

Sunday 12 May 2013
Mass Times: Vigil: Saturday 6pm Sunday: 8am, 9.30am (Family Mass), 11am (sung Latin), Gretchaninoff, Gwinner, Grieg, Messiaen 12.30pm, 4.15pm, 6.15pm

www.farmstreet.org.uk
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with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops at the Vatican in December, Archbishop Gonzlez was asked to leave his post and move elsewhere within the Church. Injustice, persecution, defamation, distortion of the facts and an unfair process cannot be

reasons to resign, he wrote to the cardinal in February. This servant will never give up the seat of the Archdiocese of San Juan while there is no cause. The archbishop is also accused of meddling in politics, and is known for his support for Puerto Ricos full independence from the United States.

11 May 2013

GERMANY

Francis inspires huge Protestant gathering

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
POPE FRANCIS was acclaimed as a beacon

of hope by many prominent religious leaders and politicians at the Protestant Kirchentag in Hamburg this week. The Kirchentag, a biennial congress, is one of the major festivals in Germany. The Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said in her address that one of the first things Pope Francis had done was to ask people to pray for him, and this had impressed her deeply. She confirmed that the Pope had asked her personally to pray for him after his inauguration. I as a Protestant can also pray for the Pope, Mrs Merkel said, adding that prayer meant a great deal to her.

Nikolaus Schneider, the leader of the Protestant Churches in Germany, also pointed to elements of faith shared with Francis. He [the Pope] is a person who thinks very pastorally. That is something we have in common, and he is acquainted with the tradition of the Reformation Churches and the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he said. (The Kirchentag saw the premiere of a new opera entitled The End of the Age of Innocence based on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Protestant theologian who was executed by the Nazis in 1945.) A special workshop entitled The New Pope Francis Inter-religious and Ecumenical Expectations was headed by the president of the German bishops conference,

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, who said it would be a good thing if this year Pope Francis were to invite religious leaders to meet with him at Assisi, as both his predecessors had done before him. The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Olaf Fykse Tveit, said the Popes call to help the poor was an important signal for the whole of humanity, but particularly for Christians. This years Kirchentag held from 1-5 May attracted more than 130,000 to its 2,500 workshops and Bible studies sessions and 350,000 flocked to some of the major vigils. The biennial Protestant Kirchentag alternates with the Catholic Katholikentag. Both have strong ecumenical and inter-religious elements.

SLOVAKIA

Petition to reinstate archbishop removed from post by Rome

SOME 15,000 Slovak Catholics have signed an internet petition backing the former Archbishop of Trnava, Rbert Bezk, who was removed from his post by the Vatican last July, writes Josef Pazderka. They call on the new Pope to review the case. Your Holiness, Francis, we have a suspicion that the Archbishop Rbert Bezk was wrongly accused by the influential people in the Church and later deposed We would like to ask you to meet Archbishop Bezak personally, and then decide on his further involvement in the Catholic Church or on his

rehabilitation, the petition states. This is the first time since Slovakia became independent in 1993 that Catholics have launched a public protest against a Vatican decision. Bezk, a 53-year-old Redemptorist, had served as Archbishop of Trnava since 2009. A popular figure in the predominantly Catholic country, he made organisational changes inthe Trnava Archdiocese andcomplained of difficulties in accounting for missing funds from the period of his predecessor, Archbishop Jn Sokol. Last year Slovakian civil prosecutors

announced they were opening an investigation into alleged irregularities in that era. In a surprise move, however, Pope Benedict XVI removed Archbishop Bezk from the pastoral care of his archdiocese last July. No detailed explanation was given. Facing criticism and public protests, the Vatican later cited mismanagement and a blatant lack of observance of liturgical norms as main reasons for the removal of Bezk from his see. The supporters of Archbishop Bezk believe he was brought down by forces loyal to his conservative predecessor Archbishop Sokol.

ROME

ARGENTINA

Praise for popular devotions

POPE FRANCIS has given strong

encouragement to popular Catholic devotions, such as praying the Rosary and belonging to church sodalities or confraternities. Popular piety is a road which leads to what is essential, if it is lived in the Church in profound communion with your pastors, the Pope told more than 60,000 rain-soaked members of Catholic confraternities that joined him for Mass on Sunday in St Peters Square. It is brave of you to come here in this rain May the Lord bless you abundantly! the Pope told them. He said the Church loved the confraternities, some of which date back hundreds of years and

are usually based on popular devotions to a particular saint. He said such groups should strive to embody three characteristics in order to be authentically Catholic. Evangelical spirit, ecclesial spirit, missionary spirit. Three themes! Do not forget them! Pope Francis said. A day earlier he visited the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore where he sat holding a rosary as local Catholic laypeople led the praying of the five glorious mysteries. Afterwards he told those present that Our Lady was a mamma that safeguards our health and safety. Im thinking, above of all, of three aspects she helps us to grow up, face [the difficulties of] life and to be

free, the Pope said. As Italy marked its National Day of Children Victims of Violence on Sunday, Pope Francis also expressed fresh concern for children who are victims of all types of abuse and called for greater efforts to protect them from harm. This offers me the opportunity to extend my thoughts to those who suffer or have suffered because of abuse, he said. I would like to assure them that they are in my prayers, but I would also like to say firmly that we must all commit ourselves with clarity and courage so that every human person, especially children, who are among those most vulnerable, is protected and safeguarded, he said.

Two-state stamps
THE VATICAN City State and Argentina have issued a joint set of stamps to celebrate the start of the papacy of Pope Francis. A set of the four new items was presented to the Pope at the Vatican Apostolic Palace on 30 April. Each carries a different photographic image of Francis; they have a face value of 0.70 (for mail to Italy), 0.85 (Europe), 2.00 (Africa, Asia, the Americas) and 2.50 (Oceania). The limited-edition set of stamps will include a postcard of the cover of LOsservatore Romano from the day the new pontiff was elected. The same images will be used on Argentine stamps, on sale for 31 pesos for the set.

11 May 2013

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IN BRIEF
Marchers focus on gendercide
After a decade and a half of larger and larger attendances, Canadas Pro-Life movement was hoping this years March for Life would shatter even more records. The sixteenth annual March for Life took place on 9 May in most of the countrys dioceses; the few exceptions have scheduled events later in the month. At both the National March, in Ottawa, through the city to Parliament Hill and in Vancouver, British Columbia, the emphasis was on gendercide or abortions based on the sex of the foetus. British Columbia provincial elections take place on 14 May.

Letter from Rome

hen Pope Francis heads to Brazil in July, one of the South American countrys most prominent native sons Cardinal Joo Brz de Aviz will be on the plane with him, as is Vatican custom. But the question is whether the 66-year-old prefect of the Congregation for Religious will be on a one-way ticket. After the way he was slapped down for revealing that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) left him out of the loop when it launched disciplinary action against the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), who would be surprised if he asked Pope Francis to relieve him of his Vatican post? After all, the man was Archbishop of Brasilia capital of the worlds largest Catholic country before he took the Curia job at the start of 2011. And its not the first time hes been undermined by forces in Rome. When certain Curia conservatives (including those at the CDF) convinced Benedict XVI to send Archbishop Joseph Tobin CSsR, then No. 2 at Religious, to Indianapolis, Cardinal Brz begged the former Pope at least three times not to move him. But to no avail. Its said that after he lost Tobin last October, the cardinal refused to sign any papers from on high in protest. Then at the pre-conclave meetings of cardinals in March he was reportedly one of the most vocal critics of how the Roman Curia operates. But hes not the first Brazilian to be contained. Cardinal Cludio Hummes OFM was forced to retract his comments on the debatable nature of priestly celibacy as soon as he arrived in Rome in December 2006 to serve as prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. He retired before finishing his five-year term and moved back to Brazil.

Convictions after 40 years

Two Chilean naval officers have been sentenced by a Valparaiso court for the disappearance of an Anglo-Chilean priest in the Pinochet era. Michael Woodward, who was born in Chile but grew up in Britain, was inspired by liberation theology. He vanished in 1973, aged 41, while he was working with the poor in Chile and his body was never found. This week Jos Manuel Garcia Yeres and Hector Palomino were each given three-year sentences, to be served under house arrest.

coat of arms? After his election he simply told Vatican officials in charge of such that hed keep the same one he adopted as a cardinal. They made only slight modifications, like attaching the papal insignia. By comparison, Benedict XVI changed his coats of arms substantially. It was ceremoniously unveiled and explained in LOsservatore Romano nine days after his election. Then 10 days later it appeared on the large banner below his study window. In just another two weeks it was emblazoned on the sash of his cassock and began popping up on many other objects, such as his cufflinks. Two months into the pontificate, Pope Francis coat of arms is hardly anywhere to be seen. Its still not on the large banner or his sash. And, dont be surprised, but he doesnt wear cufflinks.

Marriage law rewritten

Rhode Island has become the tenth US state to enact same-sex marriage. The states House of Representatives passed the bill on Thursday last week by a vote of 56-15. Rhode Island has one of the highest percentages of Catholics of any state, with 44 per cent. Delaware passed similar legislation on Tuesday.

Registrars warned
Catholic registrars who legalise civil partnerships will be committing a grave sin, according to the secretary of the Colombian Bishops Conference, Fr Pedro Mercado. Last week the senate voted against gay marriage, but from June couples can legalise their union at a register office.

Threat to missionaries
An Islamist group has told Christian missionaries to leave Indias Kashmir region or suffer the consequences. Anti-Islam activities cannot be tolerated, the United Jihad Council said.

Jesuit replaces Franciscan

Fr Adolfo Nicols, 77, superior general of the Society of Jesus, has taken over as president of the Rome-based Union of Superiors General (USG) after its former head, Archbishop-elect Jos Rodriguez Carballo OFM, was named secretary of the Congregation for Religious. For daily news updates visit www.thetablet.co.uk

his week marks the two-month anniversary of Jorge Mario Bergoglios election as Bishop of Rome. When he appeared on the central loggia of St Peters Basilica on the evening of 13 March, it quickly became clear that Pope Francis would not easily be forced to worship the idol of Vatican protocol especially those customs and procedures that only reinforce the anachronistic model of monarchy as the essential form of the papacy. The new Pope was dressed simply and referred to himself as Bishop of Rome, while bowing his head after asking the people in the square to pray over him. Since then he has continued to show his preference for simplicity in dress, living arrangements and personal encounters. One thing has become clear: Francis does not see himself as a monarch and one might expect that hell continue to dispense with anything that would suggest he is. For example, what has happened to the Popes

iulio Andreotti must have died. That was my gut reaction on Monday after a lunch appointment when I saw a scrum of journalists and cameramen pushed against the door of the building where the seven-times Italian Prime Minister lived. My hunch was right one of Italys most powerful men and a long-time darling of the Vatican had died at the age of 94. Its impossible to understand the history of post-Second World War Italy without looking carefully at the figure of Andreotti. He would emerge as the godfather of the Christian Democrats (DC), the countrys largest political party, and usually held a key post in its many collapsing-thenresurrecting governments from 1948 until the early 1990s. When he was asked to form his last Government in 1991, some of the papers dubbed him Giulio VII. It was one fewer than the number of popes he knew and usually quite well during his lifetime. Andreotti was powerful and controversial. For example, he barely escaped a lengthy court trial on charges of collusion with the Mafia. His church contacts were many and in the highest places, yet not a single cardinal came to his funeral. Theres an anecdote that neatly conveys what a pragmatic politician he was. The headquarters of the Christian Democrats were across the street from the Church of the Ges and some of the party bigwigs would often go to the weekday morning Mass, including the DCs saintly founder, Alcide De Gasperi, and Andreotti, who would sometimes wander into the sacristy. Someone once asked him, Why is it that De Gasperi follows the Mass, but youre in the sacristy? The witty Andreotti, ever the politician, replied: Because the sacristan votes. Robert Mickens

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11 May 2013

FROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND

NEWS

Church criticises Government over immigration policies

PHOTO: MAZUR/CATHOLICCHURCH.ORG.UK

Liz Dodd
THE ARCHBISHOP of Westminster has accused the Government of risking harm to families with its strict immigration rules, during a Mass where others voiced criticism of UK policies on asylum seekers and the deportation of refugees. Archbishop Vincent Nichols comments came during the annual migrants Mass, days after the UK Independence Party (Ukip), which is calling for a freeze on immigration and the suspension of some benefits for migrants, won more than 140 seats in council elections across England. Tension between the Church and the Government was also set to rise after plans were announced in the Queens Speech on Wednesday to charge migrants for some NHS services. In his homily at Westminster Cathedral on Monday, Archbishop Nichols warned that current immigration laws hurt families hoping to be reunited in the United Kingdom. Rules that came into effect last year mean that people must earn 18,600 or more per year to bring a nonEU spouse into the country and

Archbishop Vincent Nichols with Slovakian faithful after the migrants Mass at Westminster Cathedral 22,400 for one child.Economic and time-period thresholds [] are putting great strain on the vital unit of the family and could be seen as actually putting a price tag on the value of family unity, he said. Surely it is for the common good that immigration policies must be more sensitively shaped in such matters. The bidding prayers which, according to sources close to the event, were asked to be toned down because they were deemed too political, prayed for people who do not welcome foreigners. The prayers also asked for policies that do not deny asylum seekers dignity and urged the UK Government to fulfil its obligation under the United Nations

to respond in a humane and compassionate way to refugees. Archbishop Nichols told a congregation that included MPs Jim Dobbin, Sarah Teather and Simon Hughes that politicians should not base their immigration policies on fear. The right policy will always be guided by courage and generosity and not by appealing to fear or pessimism, he said. The archbishop afterwards told The Tablet that politicians should lead the way in encouraging communities to welcome migrants. When you see an event like this then you realise the deep desire and goodwill of so many people who have come to this country, he said. What we should reciprocate with is a similar openness of mind and certainly not appeal to fear. Bishop Patrick Lynch, an auxiliary of Southwark and chairman of the Office for Migration Policy at the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, said that the welcome for migrants he had experienced in London defied the recent surge in voter support for parties like Ukip. (See Catherine Pepinster, page 5. To read the bidding prayers, visit www.thetablet.co.uk/texts)

Prophetic voice strengthened by boost to Romeros cause

THE PROGRESS made on the cause for canonisation of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero emphasises the need for the Church in England and Wales to be a voice for the poor, according to a bishop and a senior MP, write Christopher Lamb and Paul Donovan. Last month the promoter of Romeros cause said that the process to beatify and canonise the murdered Salvadorean bishop, an outspoken defender of the poor, had been unblocked by Pope Francis. Among those supporting the archbishops cause is Jon Cruddas MP, a Catholic, who is overseeing the Labour Party manifesto at the next election. Mr Cruddas said his cause was important because alongside the election of the new Pope it helps return us to fundamental issues of poverty and justice. The Bishop of Hallam, John Rawsthorne, who for a number of years was the chairman of the Churchs aid agency Cafod, said he was on cloud nine after the news about Romeros cause. Bishop Rawsthorne said the Churches in Britain were trying hard to follow the example of Romero in speaking out for the poor, which he added would not make them popular. Julian Filochowski, chairman of the Archbishop Romero Trust, said more needed to be done to follow the lessons of the late Archbishop of San Salvadors life. What he does is reaffirm the forgotten synod of bishops [1971] which said action for justice is in our world a constitutive dimension of preaching and living the Gospel. That is being forgotten, Romero reawakens that, Mr Filochowski, who worked with Romero, said. He is the patron saint-in-waiting of our Justice and Peace movements. 11 May 2013
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Any plans to exile OBrien will be challenged

A LIFELONG friend of Cardinal Keith OBrien says that he will challenge any attempt to force the prelate out of Scotland, writes Brian Morton. Fr John Creanor, parish priest of Our Lady of the Waves, Dunbar, the parish where Cardinal OBrien is currently living, was responding to rumours that the church hierarchy intended to block the cardinals plan to retire to a church-owned house in the East Lothian town. He said: Im prepared, if the rumour is more than just a rumour, to instruct my legal team to challenge the Vatican directly.

Im 72 years old. I have nothing to lose. But I do not accept that the Vatican has the power to exile a retired priest, effectively banish him from the country, or deny him access to a house of which I am the landowner. Cardinal OBrien, 75, and Fr Creanor were ordained together and have been friends ever since. He said a petition in the parish had been started urging the cardinal to stay. The cardinals resignation as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh was accepted in February following allegations of sexual impropriety.

Cardinal OBrien then left the country for a time but it is understood that church leaders in Scotland were not informed when he returned to Dunbar. However, Bishop Stephen Robson of St Andrews and Edinburgh dismissed rumours that the Vatican wished to exile Cardinal OBrien. The Church has a duty of care for all its retired clergy. The cardinal will be treated the same as all other retired priests, which is only just, he said and would be done according to canon law. This states that provision should be made for clergy who are ill or who have reached old age.

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IN BRIEF
Hospital chaplaincy cuts warning
Hospital chaplaincy services are not a luxury to be discarded when budgets are tight, the Archbishop of Westminster has warned. In his address at the annual View Day service at St Bartholomews Hospital in London on Wednesday, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said the sick need places to pray to receive the consoling touch of the divine as, he said, do medical staff. Archbishop Nichols said Pope Francis has spoken of the need to protect the sick. (To read the the archbishops address, visit www.thetablet.co.uk/texts)

Attendance figures hearten Church

More than two and a half million people attended a Church of England service during Christmas 2011 a rise of 14.5 per cent on 2010 halting a decades-long trend of decline. New figures have revealed that although weekly church attendance fell by 0.3 per cent to just over one million overall, rises were recorded in nearly half of the Church of Englands 44 dioceses with a 1.2 per cent increase in attendance by children and young people. The Church of England described the figures as heartening.

by Catholic schools, which provide education for 30,000 pupils in Wales many of them non-Catholics. [These pupils] enjoy the Catholic ethos and excellent educational opportunities we provide in partnership with our local authorities, he said and added: Catholic schools are amongst the most socially diverse in the country. Sam Adams The services provided by Catholic agencies, said Archbishop Stack, showed how priests THE ARCHBISHOP of Cardiff has highlighted and people work together for the common the positive contribution made by the Catholic good of society at large not just the Catholic Church in Wales during a meeting with Welsh Church. politicians. He said these bodies provide support for In his address at a reception at families and children in need, the the Welsh Assembly, the Senedd, elderly, the homeless, refugees, in Cardiff on Tuesday, Archbishop people with disabilities and prisoners. George Stack said the 30,000 He described their work as based Catholics who attend church on the Churchs threefold cornerregularly in Wales were an stones of dignity, solidarity and enormous resource of care and subsidiarity. An example of this compassion to their communities contribution, said Archbishop and that Catholic charities worked Stack, is a donation of 20,000 on behalf of many of the most made by members of the Church Archbishop vulnerable people in society. in Wales to the foundation of Cardiff Everywhere you go in the prin- George Stack Citizens a network of local comcipality you will find Catholic munity organisations involved in dioceses and parishes reaching out into to the social action. wider community in partnership with statuHe said the meeting with Welsh Assembly tory and voluntary organisations, said the members was a celebration of the partnership archbishop. and goodwill which already exists between He also highlighted the contribution made the Catholic Church and the Welsh Assembly.
RECRUITMENT
PHOTO: MAZUR/CATHOLICCHURCH.ORG.UK

Stack praises charity role to Senedd

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11 May 2013

Brady leads opposition to abortion law

Sarah Mac Donald
In Dublin

THE PRIMATE of All Ireland has said he

wants to win over hearts and minds before threatening to withdraw Communion from politicians who vote in favour of changes to the countrys abortion laws. The Irish Government reached agreement last week on its proposed Protection of Life in Pregnancy Bill, which for the first time includes the credible threat of suicide as grounds for a legal termination. Medical staff in Ireland currently cannot abort a pregnancy unless there is a threat to the life of a pregnant woman.

The Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sen Brady, has not ruled out bringing the Churchs strongest penalties to bear on those who support the morally unacceptable draft legislation. Speaking in Knock at a special pro-life vigil, the cardinal said he was aware of the Churchs teaching on refusing Communion to politicians who support abortion but added: That is down the line at the moment as far as we are concerned. He said the Churchs strategy was about winning the hearts and minds of the people of Ireland and convincing the electorate and the legislators not to introduce a law that would allow for any attempt to deliberately destroy human life.

Flanked by three of the 10 bishops who attended the Knock vigil, the cardinal indicated that the Church intends to organise a number of other events at regional and local level aimed at mobilising opposition to the planned legislation. More than 5,000 pilgrims from across the country gathered at the National Shrine in Knock for Saturdays vigil, which was themed Choose Life: We Cherish Them Both, a reference to mother and unborn child. It coincided with the annual pilgrimage of the Irish Guild of Catholic Nurses, whose members have signalled that they will opt out of any deliberate killing of unborn babies. Former Taoiseach John Bruton attended the Mass.

Two new bishops appointed to Irish dioceses

TWO NEW bishops have been appointed to Irish dioceses in the space of a few days, writes Sarah Mac Donald. News of the appointments of Fr Raymond Browne from the Diocese of Elphin as Bishop of Kerry and Fr Denis Nulty from the Diocese of Meath as Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin came within a week of each other. There have been five episcopal appointments in the Irish Church in the last six months. The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin has been waiting for three years for a replacement for Bishop Jim Moriarty. Bishop Moriarty stepped down in April 2010 following the publication of the Murphy report, as he felt he had failed to challenge the prevailing culture of cover-up when he served as an auxiliary in Dublin. Fr Nulty, 49, has been serving as a parish priest in Drogheda for over 10 years and will become the youngest bishop in the Catholic Church in Ireland when he is consecrated. Fr Browne, 56, has served as a parish priest in Kilgefin in County Roscommon and with the marriage tribunal inGalway. Bishops in two other dioceses, Elphin and Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, have also passed the age of retirement and are awaiting replacements.

Reform group calls for an end to fear in the Church

FEAR WITHIN the Church is inhibiting

Annual Novena in honour of St. Rita of Cascia

bishops, priests and laity from advocating ecclesial reforms, the first national meeting of a new church group heard this week. Chris Larkman, an organiser of A Call to Action (Acta), said those at the meeting wanted to replace a culture of fear with one of dialogue in which any topic can be discussed. There was a strong sense that this fear is not of Christ, not of the Christian Church, he said. Bishops who are frightened of Rome, laity fearful of priests, priests fearful of bishops. It is not creative and there seems to be a lot of it in the Church. Acta is calling for better dialogue between bishops, priests and laity on issues such as ordaining married men, the role of the Roman Curia and a theology of sexuality more closely rooted in the experiences of the laity. Mgr Marcus Stock, the general secretary of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, attended the gathering at Hinsley Hall, Leeds, on Monday and Tuesday which included 65 representatives from dioceses. The groups leaders are hoping to meet with the bishops of England and Wales in the coming months. The group grew from a letter to The Tablet last June signed by seven priests.

Patron of the Helpless

Starting on 14 May and nishing with Mass at 12 noon on her feast day 22 May.
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11 May 2013

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Ordinariate admits its first married seminarian

Sam Adams THE FIRST seminarian to study for the priesthood in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a married layman, it has been revealed. Andrew Harding was bestowed with the ministry of lector and acolyte on 25 April by the ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, at St Johns Seminary, Wonersh in Surrey where he is coming to the end of his training. If his candidature is accepted by Pope Francis, he will become the first married layman to become a priest in the ordinariate who had not previously been ordained a Church of England priest or deacon. The ordinariate was created by Pope Benedict XVI to allow disaffected Anglicans to enter into communion with the Catholic Church while retaining some of their own traditions. It includes 81 clergy, all of whom were ordained in the Church of England. Before joining the ordinariate in 2011, Mr Harding had completed extensive training as a theological student in the Church of England at the College of the Resurrection at Mirfield in West Yorkshire. His candidature to become a priest in the ordinariate raises again the debate over whether married men in general should be permitted to enter the Catholic priesthood. The Bishop of Nottingham, Malcolm McMahon, told a meeting with those interested in joining the ordinariate in 2010 that married laymen could not offer themselves for ordination but that it was possible that married men already in formation could be accepted as priests on a case-by-case basis. At the time he said it specifically says in the apostolic constitution or the norms, that those who offer themselves for priesthood, to train for priesthood in the ordinariate, must be single. But this was challenged at the time by Mgr Newton then an Anglican bishop. Fr James Bradley, communications officer for the ordinariate, said that although every case is considered individually, it is not expected that another married layman will be permitted to become a seminarian. Each time a married man is presented for ordination, this is considered on a case-bycase basis, he said. A dispensation may only be given by the Holy Father himself. Andrew Hardings situation is very particular and only really came about because the establishment of the ordinariate occurred whilst he was still in Anglican formation.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

50 YEARS AGO Under the heading Papal Policy and Mass Murder The Sunday Times printed an article full of grave charges against the late Pope Pius XII. The author, Mr George Steiner, described as one of the most abject episodes of the last war the failure of the Pope to intervene on behalf of the Jews who were the victims of Hitlers extermination policy. What he means by the failure to intervene is, in fact, something quite different: the failure to make a sufficiently trenchant and forceful public denunciation, instead of relying upon insistent and continuous private representations. That the private representations were not able to achieve their object, or to secure more than occasional and small mitigations, does not mean that there was any other and better policy open to Pius XII which he failed to take. But Mr Steiner is echoing the young German playwright Herr Hochhuth, whose play about Pius XII has been running in Berlin and is to be produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London this autumn. It is a play singularly offensive to and painful for Catholics, who greatly revere the memory of Pius XII our predecessor, as Pope John says, of blessed memory. The Tablet, 11 May 1963 100 YEARS AGO In the Lower House, Mr Dickinson brought up for second reading his bill, which proposes to extend the parliamentary franchise to women who are householders and over 25 years of age, and to the wives of male householders. He urged that it was better to enfranchise a large number at once than to leave open sources of future agitation and trouble. He granted that the movement in this direction had been impeded by militancy, which he deeply deplored. His seconder was Lord H. Cavendish-Bentinck. The industrial development of this country had transformed the whole status of women, and it was really idle to talk now of the sacredness of the home when mills and factories, workshops, offices and warehouses were every year claiming thousands and thousands of young women. Mr A. Ward moved the rejection of the bill, such a measure being, he contended, a part of the duty of the Government The resumed debate on Tuesday was opened by Sir J. Compton-Rickett, who contended that if the vote were given to women it would be impossible to keep them out of Parliament, for which they were unfitted. Mr Snowden, in supporting the bill, insisted that talk about the inferiority of women was merely the outcome of masculine conceit. He argued the question on the principle of justice. The Tablet, 10 May 1913

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Abbot to retire after three years

THE ABBOT ofWorth is to retire at the beginning of next month, writes Christopher Lamb. Abbot Kevin Taggart, who leads the Benedictine community of monks in West Sussex, was elected in June 2010 and turned 80 the following year. When I was elected abbot in 2010, I realised that, because of my age, it was improbable that I would complete the eight-year office, the abbot said in a general communication. He explained that following discussions with the abbot president of the English Benedictine Congregation (EBC), Richard Yeo, he has decided to step down on 2 June, exactly three years after his election. Both he and I are of the opinion that now would be an appropriate time for me to step down, and allow the community to consider a younger person for the role of abbot, he added. Abbots in EBC communities are elected for eight-year renewable terms. The election of a new abbot will take place in early August and from 2 June Fr Luke Jolly, the prior, will act as superior of the abbey. The community has 25 monks and runs a school, parish and retreat house. In 2005 it featured in a BBC Two series The Monastery.

An opportunity to consider the relationship between women and the figure of the Virgin Mary in both Islam and Christianity Speakers include: Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour (The Islamic College for Advanced Studies, London) Tina Beattie (University of Roehampton) Basma Elshayyal (Islamia Girls High School, London) Tim Winter (University of Cambridge) Fee: 25. Free to members of the University of Roehampton. (Please enquire about a reduced fee in case of need.) Further details from Dr. Sarah Jane Boss, Dept. of Humanities, University of Roehampton, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PU. E-mail: sarah.boss@roehampton.ac.uk

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11 May 2013

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NJC POINT 42 to 46 - 35,430 to 38,961 We seek a person of vision to work with the Council and lead the staff team in promoting the interpretation of the gospel for the city of Leeds. As the Director you will be responsible for: Managing the Institute including a small staff team and a multi-purpose building Developing the work with churches and other faith communities through educating, training, resourcing and representing Organising and promoting a programme of educational activities Working in partnership with others, you will be committed to church engagement in society, have management and training experience, have knowledge of recent developments in relation to faith communities and social inclusion, have some theological training, be a member of a Christian church and be committed to working ecumenically and with other faiths. The Church Institute is a leading Christian foundation in Leeds. It houses a library, conference/training facility and a range of other organisations in its newly-refurbished city centre building.

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My client is The Catholic Truth Society (CTS), a well established and successful publisher operating in a competitive market-place. The CTS is a Charity. As part of an on-going development programme they are now looking for an experienced leader for the Marketing and Customer Services functions. This important and exciting role has been created to support the CTS to further develop its approach to sales and marketing with a specic focus on delivering excellent customer services. Reporting directly to the General Secretary (CEO) and based in Vauxhall London, you will have full responsibility for Sales (telephone, online and retail), Marketing, Customer Services and a line responsibility for Fund-raising. Your key focus will be: Developing and implementing sales and marketing strategy and accompanying budgets Executing annual sales, marketing and customer service plans, to achieve revenue targets Setting and managing sales and fundraising targets for each sales and marketing channel Providing input into the product development cycle and monitoring customer and supporter satisfaction Developing suitable promotional literature, communicating through traditional and digital media Performance management of staff & motivating sales, marketing & customer service teams Acting as a CTS ambassador maximising networking opportunities The ideal candidate will be an experienced professional, ideally in the publishing or related eld. It is essential that candidates have an in-depth working knowledge and understanding of the online sales market place and the challenges that can bring in terms of linking in with a retail shop and with Finance and IT colleagues. The successful candidate will possess excellent leadership skills and have the interpersonal skills required to facilitate good relations with internal and external colleagues and partners. It would be a distinct advantage to have a good and sympathetic knowledge of the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom, but this is not essential. You are encouraged to nd more information about the Catholic Truth Society on-line at the new website www.ctsbooks.org which is currently under development. Interested candidates should email their CV together with a covering letter to Bill Brewer of Pathnder HR. Email address: bill@pathnderhr.co.uk You may telephone for an informal conversation on 07834 895 123 or to request an information pack.

11 May 2013

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www.thetablet.co.uk 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY Tel: +44 (0)20 8748 8484 Fax: +44 (0)20 8748 1550 EDITORIAL Email: thetablet@thetablet.co.uk Editor: Catherine Pepinster Editorial Consultant: Clifford Longley Deputy Editor: Elena Curti Assistant Editor (Foreign News): James Roberts Production Editor: David Harding Chief Sub-editor: Polly Chiapetta Assistant Editor (Home News): Christopher Lamb News Reporters: Sam Adams, Liz Dodd Rome Correspondent: Robert Mickens Arts Editor: Brendan McCarthy Literary Editor: Brendan Walsh Religious Books Editor: Alban McCoy Parish Practice: Diana Klein Online Editor: Abigail Frymann COMMERCIAL, MARKETING & ADVERTISING Publisher: Ignatius Kusiak Marketing Manager: Ian Farrar Email: ifarrar@thetablet.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)20 8222 7358 Display advertising, classified and inserts Marcela Ahmeti Email: marcela@redactive.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)20 7880 6207 SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel: +44 (0)1795 414855 Fax: +44 (0)1795 414555 Email: thetablet@servicehelpline.co.uk DIRECTORS John Adshead CBE, KSG, Chairman; Robin Baird-Smith, Tina Beattie, Mike Craven, Julian Filochowski CMG, OBE, Cathy Galvin, Ignatius Kusiak, Keith Leslie, Dermot McCarthy, Susan Penswick, Catherine Pepinster, Paul Vallely CMG. CALENDAR Sunday 12 May: The Ascension of the Lord Monday 13 May: Easter feria or Our Lady of Fatima Tuesday 14 May: St Matthias, Apostle Wednesday 15 May: Easter feria Thursday 16 May: Easter feria Friday 17 May: Easter feria Saturday 18 May: Easter feria or St John I, Pope and Martyr Sunday 19 May: Pentecost Sunday
For the Extraordinary Form calendar go to www.lms.org.uk and look under Find a Mass

THE

FROM THE VINEYARD

Getting fruity
N. OPHILE
I PROMISED last month that I would return to the wine dealers Majestic, which has some very attractive whites that seem all the more attractive while the sun is shining. Disregarding my prejudices against pinot grigio, I chose two examples, one from Italy and the other from Argentina. The reason for the Italian choice was the label Breganze. This is actually an area just north of Vicenza (between Padua and Verona). Its best-known producer is a family called Maculan, whose white wines are widely available in Italy but far less so here if you see any, buy it. But this pinot grigio was from a different producer, Beato Bartolomeo, and is very respectable. It had much more fresh acidity than many flat and dull pinots, and the acid bite was well balanced with plenty of fruit. The other, Finca Alcayata from the Mendoza Valley in Argentina, was a bit of a gamble, but one based on the assumption that pinot grigio often does better abroad than in Italy. And indeed this wine does. Perhaps even more fresh and lively than the former, this is described by Majestic as youthful and ripe with grapefruit and other fruits. They are both well worth looking at if you want a new and different white, and reasonably priced (after discount) at just under 6 and just over 7, respectively. Staying with Majestic and different white wines, one of the most interesting is the Hungarian tokaji calling itself after its grape, furmint. Apparently the name of the grape comes from the Latin frumentum because of the wheaten colour of the wine. Tokay, as it is sometimes known, is usually made into the much more famous and indeed exotic dessert wine, but this is a very dry example with a complex taste. It is also quite aromatic and solid, reminding me most of a fino sherry, but on the lighter side. It will not be to everyones taste,

but neither is fino sherry. It is priced at just under 10, so you would need to be confident or adventurous. And finally from Majestic and its whites, I thought that Asdas albario (looked at a few months ago) was better value than Majestic. Both are fresh, fruity and very pleasant, but Asda is still selling it at just over 5, while this is nearer 10. Still with whites, there are three others that I think deserve mention. One is a surprising delight from Sainsburys, usually so uninteresting. This is a modest, unpretentious Sicilian white, on its own label, selling at less than 4. Normally I would expect wine like this not to give away much on the label, but this says that it is made from a blend of two local grapes, grillo and catarratto. Both have great potential and are often made into wines by themselves (Waitrose sometimes sells a grillo) and here they make a good combination and such excellent value. Tescos white Costires de Nmes is a lush and fruity white from the Languedoc, with nice acidity and a good price. And in Tesco, too, you might find McWilliams verdelho, a grape native to Spain but doing very well in Australia; good value at just over 5. Prices vary, of course, from week to week. And a few reds: from Majestic you can try the Portuguese Ramos, made from two native grapes, blended with syrah to produce an earthy and fruity wine, full of spice and pepper. Much smoother and more elegant is the Spanish valdepeas on the Finca Los Altos label, and then another Portuguese from the Douro on the Tuella label, a solid, smooth and nicely dry wine. All are around the 8 mark and all are too good for burnt sausages in the garden. N. OPhile is The Tablets wine writer. He is also a senior Catholic priest.

Glimpses of Eden
IT WAS THE eels that

Published weekly except Christmas. Periodicals Postage Paid at Rahway, NJ, and at additional mailing offices. U.S. Postmaster: Send airspeed address corrections to The Tablet, c/o Air Business Limited, 4 The Merlin Centre, Acrewood Way, St Albans, Herts AL4 0JY, UK. Annual subscription rate US$193. The Tablet Publishing Company Limited 2012 The Tablet is printed by Headley Brothers Ltd, The Invicta Press, Lower Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH, for the proprietors The Tablet Publishing Company Limited, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY 11 May 2013
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Volume 267 No. 8997 ISSN: 0039 8837

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made me late for the election count. Going into town to catch the bus, I stopped for a moment on the old Blakey bridge to peer down. The water, clear as the spring air, was inked with dark shapes: silhouetted crotchets and quavers hanging over the stave of the shallow stone bed. Its been a long time since I last saw an eel, and never like this, a score, two score of them idling on the flow. Still shrouded in mystery, our knowledge about eels is as faint as the moonless nights on which they begin their long migration, which takes them from places like our little beck, bound for the warm Sargasso Sea.

Shadowy opposites of the celebrated salmon, the unsung eel lives a life in reverse to this other great fish traveller. When a tiny elver, see-through and utterly vulnerable, it travels from the Caribbean via the ocean currents back to Europe where it heads inland up streams and even crosses fields, to find the perfect pool in which to grow to a slow maturity. After taking 15 years or so to grow to the typical metre, the eel will then swim back to its ancestral birth sea on the secret currentroads of the Atlantic Ocean. Only after 4,000 miles will they breed. Now, wasnt contemplating that journey worth missing a bus for? Jonathan Tulloch

11 May 2013