Saint Peter and Saint Paul (by Fr John Twist SJ

29 June is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Both were men of great faith and influence, but they had very different understandings of the Messiah to whom they dedicated their lives, as John Twist SJ explains.

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In general, each saint has his or her own feast day: where a whole block of saints share a feast it is usually through having a common fate, such a being martyred as a group. But that Peter and Paul are always tied with one another and have their common feast on 29 June is especially surprising, because it would be difficult to find two more different personalities than those of Peter and Paul. Peter very much belonged to the heartland of the Israelite faith. The twelve tribes had been given a ‘land flowing with milk and honey’ to be their possession. In that land they would be at peace, they would prosper and they would have the privilege of the divine presence dwelling in the Temple in Jerusalem. And if ever there was a land flowing with milk and honey, it was surely Galilee, the area in which Peter lived. Rich, fertile land, an inland sea teeming with fish, idyllic scenery: this was the environment that Peter enjoyed, and in which he had met Jesus, the man who told him, ‘I will make you a fisher of men’. Paul, on the other hand, was part of the Jewish dispersion. Since their exile by the Babylonians, Jewish people had begun to live outside the Promised Land, and as time went on they had positively opted to live in the great cities of the Middle East and Mediterranean. Thus by the time that Jesus lived, vast numbers of Jews resided outside the Holy Land. Paul, therefore, was very familiar with the Greek and Roman cultures that would have seemed strange to Peter the fisherman. The difference in background may well have been one of the factors that led the two great apostles to have sharply different understandings of the Messiah in whom they believed. Whilst Peter did come to realise that the Good News was for all nations, his heart remained in Galilee, and he was more at ease with old ways and traditions with which he was familiar. Paul, however, seized on the radical implications of the gospel as a gift to all peoples, an act of God to break down barriers between nations, cultures, languages and subgroups, and thus bring about one giant human family of which God was the father. This led to a strong clash between the two personalities, but this proved to be constructive and fruitful. It is believed that the two great apostles were both martyred in Rome: Paul executed with a sword as a Roman citizen; Peter crucified upside down in imitation of his friend, Jesus. There can be little doubt that Paul was the more influential figure, with his letters forming a major part of the New Testament; Paul was the great theoretician of Christianity. But it is Peter who is more warmly embraced. Here is a very human figure, with real defects but great generosity; a man all of us can not merely admire, but to a degree can hope to imitate. Paul’s thoughts have left their mark on Christianity, but it is Peter’s personality that has moved Christian hearts. Fr John Twist SJ is Chaplain to Stonyhurst College.

Gospels launched in Romani language

A translation of the Gospels in the Roma language was launched in southern Serbia at the end of May.

The Roma or Romani people – often called 'gypsies' – trace their ancestry back to India and worldwide speak several different forms of the Roma language.

The one spoken in Leskovac where the launch took place is around 800 years old. It's spoken across the former Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria, meaning that these Gospels could ultimately reach some 8.5 million people.

And there's a real need for this, says Pastor Bakic: the Roma church in Leskovac is thriving, and across Serbia, the Roma people are becoming Christians.

In Leskovac some 10,000 Roma have become Christians, since the first person converted from nominal Islam back in 1976. Currently, the Roma in Leskovac read the Bible in Serbian, a language particularly familiar to the children who are educated in it. But, says Vera Mitic, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Serbia, having even part of the Bible in the language you speak at home makes a big difference to how you understand it.

'It's a special feeling to have the Bible in your own language,' she says. 'It's the most important book you can have. It means a lot for the identity of the people.'

Among the congregation is 70-year-old Batijarevic Ferija who's walked 4km to attend the service. It's the first time that she's left her home since suffering a stroke in February.

'This is the most important evening of my life,' she says, clutching her copy of the Gospels. 'We have a saying, this is "balm for my soul".'

The Gospels took four years and £43,000 to translate, produce and distribute. They're being given away for free by the Bible Society of Serbia.

Five Ways to Ruin the Mass (by Jeffrey Tucker)

We are getting ever closer to an improved liturgy in the English-speaking world. The new Missal gives us a more dignified language that more closely reflects the Latin standard. The hippy-dippy rupturism of the past is finally giving way to a more settled and solemn appreciation of the intrinsic majesty of the Roman rite.

A new generation of celebrants is moving past the politicized agendas of the past toward embracing the true spirit of the liturgy. Maybe it hasn’t happened in your parish but the trend is clear: better music, better vestments, better postures and rubrics.
And yet, we all know that things are not what they should be. It is an interesting experiment to travel and attend Sunday Mass at a random parish. You might find wonderful things. Or you might find something else entirely. Having experienced many of the latter, and talking with many other people about their experiences, I here list the top five ways in which the presentation of the liturgy can ruin the liturgical experience.
1. Improvisation of the Liturgical Texts
The problem of celebrants who make up their own words on the spot, in hopes of making the liturgy more chatty and familiar, continues to be a serious annoyance. It is obviously illicit to do so. Celebrants are permitted to break to explain parts of the Mass or provide other special instructions. But they are not permitted to replace liturgical texts with something that they dreamed up on the spot.
This abuse is extremely disorienting and draws undue attention to the personality and personal views of the priest rather than to the theology and ritual prescribed by the Church. It is also ridiculously presumptuous for any one person to imagine that he has a better idea than the liturgical text formed from 2,000 years of tradition.
I have my own theory on why it is so common for celebrants to just make things up on the spot. The older Missal translation dating from 1970 and onward was so casual, chatty, and plain that it encouraged the priest to enter into this world of casual communication. The formality just wasn’t there to encourage a more sober, careful, and accurate presentation. Also, many improvisers just had a sense that the text needed fixing of some sort.
This has changed with the new Missal, and this is all to the good. The new translation is very dignified and requires careful focus. But the habit of riffing around on the prayers remains among many priests.
This is truly tragic for everyone sitting in the pews. If the texts can just be ignored, why shouldn’t the faithful themselves feel free to take what they want and otherwise discard core teachings of the faith? This whole practices encourages a general disrespect for the ritual and even the faith itself.
2. Politicized and Newsy Prayer of the Faithful
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says of the prayer of the faithful: “The intentions announced should be sober, be composed with a wise liberty and in few words, and they should be expressive of the prayer of the entire community.”
“Wise liberty” seems to be in short supply however. Sometimes these prayers seem like last month’s newspaper, calling to mind events that left the 48-hour news cycle long ago. Or they can seem subtly manipulative, trying to get us to think and believe things about the controversies of the day that are actually more in dispute than the prayer would indicate. A particular annoyance to me are the prayers that are crafted to straddle some kind of triangulating political position that has nothing to do with the liturgy or doctrine or morals.
Most parishes today use pre-printed prayers from private publishers. Some are better than others. The best ones are brief and stick to the formula: prayers for the Church, for public authorities and the salvation of the whole world, for those burdened, and for the local community. The worst ones lead the whole liturgy astray in very distracting ways.
3. Extended and Chatty Sign of the Peace
The rite of peace has a long tradition in the Roman Rite dating to the earliest centuries. It was mostly restricted to the clergy. There are arguments and disputes about whether extending it to the congregation is a revival of a lost tradition or an innovation. Regardless, this much we do know: it is not supposed to be a micro-social hour that encourages people to mill around as if at a cocktail party.
The Missal plainly says that the extension to the congregation is optional. The requirement of the rite is fulfilled in the sanctuary alone. Therefore, if there is an invitation to have the people offer a sign of peace, it should be short. The General Instruction says: “it is appropriate that each person, in a sober manner, offer the sign of peace only to those who are nearest.”
But even this is vague. What is nearest? What if you are the only person in your section of the pew? Do you walk, wave, or just ignore people? And note that no rubric specifies the handshake as the appropriate gesture. We do that just because this is our cultural custom. But is the handshake really liturgical?
In general, this whole part of the Mass invites confusion and awkwardness, and no matter how much we try to solemnize it, it still has more of the feeling of a civic or social activity than a truly liturgical one. At best it is a distraction. At worst, it can result in hurt feelings and all around confusion.
4. Replacing Sung Propers with Something Else
Since the earliest centuries, the liturgy assigned particular scriptural texts to particular liturgical days. This happens at the entrance, the music between readings, the offertory, and the communion. The instructions are very clear: the assigned chant is to be sung. If something else was sung, the words were still said by the priest. And so it was in most countries from the 7th century until quite recently.
Today, the Mass propers are mostly replaced by something else, usually a hymn with words made up by some lyricist. Quite often the results have nothing to do with the liturgy at all. It’s actually remarkable when you think about it. Choirs busy themselves with replacing crucial parts of the liturgy. They just drop them completely. Mostly they do this with no awareness of what they are doing.
How many choirs know that their processional hymn is displacing the assigned entrance? How many know that there is a real antiphon assigned at the offertory and that it is not just a time for the choir to sing its favorite number? How many have read the repeated urgings in the General Instruction to sing the assigned chant or at least use the text in the official choir books rather than just choose a random song loosely based on the theme of the season?
To be sure, this is technically permissible to do, but, truly, this approach “cheats the faithful,” as the Vatican wrote in an instruction in 1969. The propers of the Mass are crucial. They are from scripture. Their Gregorian originals are stunningly evocative of the liturgical spirit and even define it. Even if sung in English or in choral style, the propers are part of the Mass. It should always be seen as regrettable when something else replaces them.
The General Instruction says “Nor is it lawful to replace the readings and Responsorial Psalm, which contain the Word of God, with other, non‐biblical texts.” That’s pretty definitive. But the same rationale should apply to the entrance, offertory, and communion chants as well.
Composed hymns with non-scriptural texts don’t need to be thrown out completely. They can be sung and always will be. But the real liturgical work of the choir is found in the Mass propers. That’s their primary responsibility. There are resources newly available that make it possible for any choir to do the right thing.
5. Percussion
In the first millennium, instruments were not part of the sung Mass, but as time went on, the organ was gradually admitted. By the 17th and 18th centuries, whole orchestras were used in certain locations. Even today you can find places where orchestral Masses are used that include tympani and other percussion instruments.
Most likely, that is not the context in which percussion instruments are used in your parish.
Today we hear conga drums, trap sets, bongos, and other drums played not in the style of Monteverdi processions, or Masses by Haydn or Mozart. Instead we hear them just as we would hear them in a bar or dance hall.
They are used just as they are in the secular world: to keep a beat, to make the music groovy, to inspired us to kind of do a bit of a dance. That’s the association of percussion we have in our culture. It is not a sacred association. The association is entirely profane. There’s a role for that. But Church is not the place and Mass is not the time.
And keep in mind: the piano is a percussion instrument. It has been traditionally banned in Church because it has non-liturgical associations. In today’s anything-goes environment, it is tolerated even by the liturgical regulations. But it is always a regrettable choice. The whole point of liturgical music is to lift our eyes and hearts to heaven, not drag us down to the dance floor.
One final point on this matter: you will notice that many of the songs in the conventional songbooks for Mass today seem to long for a drum-set backup. That’s because their style is borrowed from commercial jingles, TV show theme songs, power ballads from the 1970s, and so on. I don’t entirely blame choirs who choose drums to help out to make this style make more sense. What really needs to change is the whole approach here. Liturgical music has several critical marks: it uses the liturgical text, it grows out of the chant tradition, and sends a cultural signal that this is a sacred action in a sacred place.
Conclusion
A liturgy in which all five errors are committed is going to look and feel very different from one in which all five errors are completely avoided. The former will be random and unhistorical. The latter will be…more like Catholic Mass. It really is up to the pastors, musicians, and leaders in a parish to permit the voice of the liturgy to speak and sing without being impeded by these interventions, which really serve to distract from the beautiful miracle before our eyes.

Flooding in Lourdes

Flash flooding caused by heavy rains has forced officials to close the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Authorities evacuated about 200 people, most of them from camping grounds near the shrine, after water levels rose quickly following heavy rain and unseasonal snowfall in the area a day earlier.
The Lourdes grotto, where St Bernadette Soubirous witnessed an apparition of Our Lady in 1858, was under as much as five feet of water, Mathias Terrier, who is in charge of communications at the shrine, told AFP.
The nearby Gave de Pau River was flowing about 11 feet above its normal level, Mr Terrier said.
He said the floods posed a greater threat to the shrine than those of last October that caused damage amounting to more than £1.5m ($1m).
“It’s very serious, the water is still rising. There is nothing we can do. We just have to wait and cross our fingers and hope,” he said.
“We have taken preventative measures to evacuate everyone. At the moment, we are most concerned with trying to rehouse people and once that is done we will look at any damage caused. People are the priority at the moment.”
Shrine officials planned to keep the sanctuary ringing the grotto closed today, but said that Mass would be celebrated at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, which is safely out of reach of the flood waters.

Letter of Pope Francis to David Cameron on eve of the G8 summit

To The Right Honourable David Cameron, MP
Prime Minister
I am pleased to reply to your kind letter of 5 June 2013, with which you were good enough to inform me of your Government’s agenda for the British G8 Presidency during the year 2013 and of the forthcoming Summit, due to take place at Lough Erne on 17 and 18 June 2013, entitled A G8 meeting that goes back to first principles.
If this topic is to attain its broadest and deepest resonance, it is necessary to ensure that all political and economic activity, whether national or international, makes reference to man. Indeed, such activity must, on the one hand, enable the maximum expression of freedom and creativity, both individual and collective, while on the other hand it must promote and guarantee their responsible exercise in solidarity, with particular attention to the poorest.
The priorities that the British Presidency has set out for the Lough Erne Summit are concerned above all with the free international market, taxation, and transparency on the part of governments and economic actors. Yet the fundamental reference to man is by no means lacking, specifically in the proposal for concerted action by the Group to eliminate definitively the scourge of hunger and to ensure food security. Similarly, a further sign of attention to the human person is the inclusion as one of the central themes on the agenda of the protection of women and children from sexual violence in conflict situations, even though it must be remembered that the indispensable context for the development of all the afore-mentioned political actions is that of international peace. Sadly, concern over serious international crises is a recurring theme in the deliberations of the G8, and this year it cannot fail to address the situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria.. In this regard, I earnestly hope that the Summit will help to obtain an immediate and lasting cease-fire and to bring all parties in the conflict to the negotiating table. Peace demands a far-sighted renunciation of certain claims, in order to build together a more equitable and just peace. Moreover, peace is an essential pre-requisite for the protection of women, children and other innocent victims, and for making a start towards conquering hunger, especially among the victims of war.
The actions included on the agenda of the British G8 Presidency, which point towards law as the golden thread of development – as well as the consequent commitments to deal with tax avoidance and to ensure transparency and responsibility on the part of governments – are measures that indicate the deep ethical roots of these problems, since, as my predecessor Benedict XVI made clear, the present global crisis shows that ethics is not something external to the economy, but is an integral and unavoidable element of economic thought and action.
The long-term measures that are designed to ensure an adequate legal framework for all economic actions, as well as the associated urgent measures to resolve the global economic crisis, must be guided by the ethics of truth. This includes, first and foremost, respect for the truth of man, who is not simply an additional economic factor, or a disposable good, but is equipped with a nature and a dignity that cannot be reduced to simple economic calculus. Therefore concern for the fundamental material and spiritual welfare of every human person is the starting-point for every political and economic solution and the ultimate measure of its effectiveness and its ethical validity.
Moreover, the goal of economics and politics is to serve humanity, beginning with the poorest and most vulnerable wherever they may be, even in their mothers’ wombs. Every economic and political theory or action must set about providing each inhabitant of the planet with the minimum wherewithal to live in dignity and freedom, with the possibility of supporting a family, educating children, praising God and developing one’s own human potential. This is the main thing; in the absence of such a vision, all economic activity is meaningless.
In this sense, the various grave economic and political challenges facing today’s world require a courageous change of attitude that will restore to the end (the human person) and to the means (economics and politics) their proper place. Money and other political and economic means must serve, not rule, bearing in mind that, in a seemingly paradoxical way, free and disinterested solidarity is the key to the smooth functioning of the global economy.
I wished to share these thoughts with you, Prime Minister, with a view to highlighting what is implicit in all political choices, but can sometimes be forgotten: the primary importance of putting humanity, every single man and woman, at the centre of all political and economic activity, both nationally and internationally, because man is the truest and deepest resource for politics and economics, as well as their ultimate end.
Dear Prime Minister, trusting that these thoughts have made a helpful spiritual contribution to your deliberations, I express my sincere hope for a fruitful outcome to your work and I invoke abundant blessings upon the Lough Erne Summit and upon all the participants, as well as upon the activities of the British G8 Presidency during the year 2013, and I take this opportunity to reiterate my good wishes and to express my sentiments of esteem.
From the Vatican, 15 June 2013
FRANCISCUS

Downside Abbey to open doors on UK's largest monastic library

The Downside Abbey monastic library includes a 14th century Book of Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which dates back to the 14th century.

The doors of the largest monastic library in the UK and the admired but leaking modernist building which holds it will open to the public for the first time after a major grant to Downside Abbey from the Heritage Lottery fund.
The Benedictine monks, who also run Downside school at the abbey near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, founded the monastery after they were expelled from France in the wake of the revolution, but their library - described by the abbot, Dom Aidan Bellenger, as a "secret garden" - was already centuries old and among its 450,000 volumes are many illuminated manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages.
Once conservation work on the building is complete, exhibitions, guided tours and regular public access are planned to the books and archives of the community, founded in Douai in 1606.The order trained generations of priests to work as missionaries in Protestant England – including six who were hung, drawn and quartered as traitors or spies in the early 17th century.
The library's treasures include Cardinal John Henry Newman's personal copy of the Bible, together with some of the earliest Bibles printed in English, a beautifully illustrated 14th-century Book of Hours and other medieval manuscripts, rare theological texts, and unusual donated collections. These include books on sundials, birds, archaeology and local history, along with the archives of the English Benedictine Congregation dating back to the 17th century.
There was no full catalogue of the collection until after 1971, when the books were moved to the new library building from storage in cupboards and attics all over the abbey.
Although most of the abbey's gothic buildings are Victorian, the library was added in a strikingly modern design by Francis Pollen. At six storeys tall with double height windows, it has been described by the architectural historian Alan Powers as "like nuts threaded onto a bolt" and was intended to suggest a beacon when lit from inside at night.
The £856,000 grant means the building will now be restored and the glazing replaced to improve the climate control and protect the collection. Much of it will also be placed online for the first time.
Bellenger said: "The secret garden of this great centre of Christian culture and heritage has at last been opened. Home to a vast range of books, pamphlets, periodicals and papers dating back centuries, the library has palpable potential and Downside are delighted to have its rightful place as a national centre for religious heritage unlocked thanks to the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund."
Old Gregorians, named for the abbey's patron saint Gregory the Great, include the Oscar-nominated playwright Peter Morgan, the author and former Tory MP Rupert Allason, the hotelier Rocco Forte, the television presenter Chris Kelly and the late novelist and Private Eye diarist Auberon Waugh.

Bishop Alan Hopes as new Bishop of East Anglia

The Pope has appointed Bishop Alan Hopes as new Bishop of East Anglia.
The 69-year-old is currently auxilliary Bishop of Westminster. A former Church of England vicar, he converted to Catholicism in 1994 and was appointed vicar-general of Westminster in 2001.
The see has been vacant since July 11, 2011, following the death of Bishop Michael Evans from cancer.
Speaking of the appointment, Bishop Hopes said: “It is with a profound sense of trust in God’s loving care for us, that I will undertake this new ministry as Bishop of East Anglia, entrusted to me by our Holy Father, Pope Francis. In this year of faith, and at the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Francis, it is an immense privilege to be called to follow in the footsteps of the late Bishop Michael Evans in serving and leading God’s holy people in this diocese.”
“I am grateful indeed to Fr David Bagstaff who has been Diocesan Administrator for the past two years and all who have had supported him in this responsibility.”
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, said he was “delighted” by the appointed and said he would like to thank Bishop Hopes for his “considerable service” for Westminster.
East Anglia Diocesan Administrator Fr David Bagstaff welcomed the new bishop, and said: ”I am sure that he will be warmly welcomed in our Diocese, which has worked so hard to continue our mission of proclaiming the Gospel over the two years since Bishop Michael’s death. I am most grateful to the priests and people of the Diocese for their support, and am glad to hand over the responsibility for the Diocese to an experienced and trusted colleague who already has some knowledge of our Diocese and has expressed such joy in his appointment.”

An historic Mass was celebrated at Shrewsbury Abbey to mark the Year of Faith.

It was only the second time since the Reformation of the 16th century that a Mass has been celebrated at the abbey, formerly a Benedictine foundation dating back almost a thousand years.
The Mass was arranged by the Shrewsbury deanery with the permission of the Church of England and was celebrated by the Rt Rev. Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury.
The abbey was full to capacity as hundreds of local Catholics and about a dozen priests turned out for the event on a blazing Saturday afternoon.
The Mass began with the singing of the Te Deum, in which the congregation asked for the intercession of such saints as St Winefride, whose tomb used to lie in the abbey, and such local martyrs as the Elizabethans Blessed Robert Johnson and Blessed Richard Martin.
In his homily, Bishop Davies recalled the example and inspiration of the saints.
Bishop Davies said: “We have come together as part of this year-long celebration to the historic Abbey Church of Shrewsbury where we are reminded of the many, what the Book of the Apocalypse calls ‘a huge number impossible to count’ who have walked this path of faith before us.
“The Letter to the Hebrews describes them as ‘a great cloud of witnesses’ encouraging us on every side.
“At a moment when we hear voices say Christianity stands on the wrong side of history the eloquent silence of these stones, which have witnessed here so many crises and calamities in England’s history, remind us of the side of history on which we wish to forever stand.
“As we declare at the end of this Mass: with all the saints! The great saints of our history and those men and women of whom nothing is remembered except the witness of their faith which they left as an inheritance for us.”
Bishop Davies also spoke of the present situation of Church and noted the rapid pace of secularisation which may leave Christians in a minority by the end of the decade.
He said this represented “one of the most momentous changes in our history since the missionaries sent by Pope Gregory arrived on the coast of Kent in the Spring of 597 AD”.
“However, I wish to suggest today in this Abbey Church so bound-up with our long Christian story this may not be an entirely negative development,” the Bishop continued.
“It may serve to dispel ambiguities and will surely require of Christians a greater clarity in both our teaching and our witness.
“As Catholics we speak of this situation as demanding nothing less than a ‘new evangelisation’, a new proclamation of the Gospel in our time. It is ‘new’ because we face a new and changed situation.
“It was surely with this in mind that our Emeritus Pope Benedict called for the Year of Faith we are now celebrating.”
He added: “This Year is to be an invitation, in Pope Benedict’s own words, to ‘rediscover the joy of believing and enthusiasm in communicating the faith’ and ‘to profess the faith in fullness and with a renewed conviction’.
“This is surely what is needed as we stand at a crossroads, a true crisis in our history.”
The congregation was first welcomed into the abbey by the Rev. Paul Firmin, the vicar of Shrewsbury Abbey and St Peter’s, who described them as “my brothers and sisters in Christ”.
“I am absolutely delighted to welcome you here today,” he said. “I understand that this may be the second Roman Catholic Mass since the Reformation.
“That makes it about one every 200 years,” he joked. “I hope it won’t be 200 years to the next one – I sure we can arrange that.”
Shrewsbury Abbey was founded in 1083 and by the early 16th century was one of the most wealthy and important of more than 600 monasteries throughout the country, and was ruled by a “mitred abbot” who also sat Parliament.
It was dissolved in 1540 by King Henry VIII and the shrine of St Winefride, today a patron of the Diocese of Shrewsbury, was desecrated.
Following improvements in ecumenical relations since the Second Vatican Council, Benedictine monks were about a decade ago permitted to celebrate Mass at the abbey for the first time since its dissolution.

(Photos by Simon Caldwell)

Homily at the Northern Catholic Conference Liverpool Hope University, 9th June

The recent analysis of the 2011 Census results appears to indicate that before the end of this decade Christianity – once the faith of the great majority of British people – will become the faith of a significant minority. If most English people no longer identify themselves as Christians it will surely be one of the most momentous changes in our history since missionaries sent by Pope Gregory arrived on the coast of Kent in the year 597 AD. However, I want to suggest today that this may not be an entirely negative development as it dispels any ambiguity and requires of Christians a greater clarity in both teaching and witness. As Catholics we speak of this as nothing less than a “new evangelisation”, a new proclamation of the Gospel in our time. It is “new” not because there is a new faith or a new Gospel but because we face a new and changed situation. It was surely with this in mind that Pope Benedict called for the “Year of Faith” as an invitation in Pope Emeritus’s words to “rediscover the joy of believing and enthusiasm in communicating the faith” (PF n.7) and “to profess the faith in fullness and with a renewed conviction” (PF n.9). This is surely what is now needed and it is what this Northern Catholic Conference sets out to address.
In the first of the Scripture readings the prophet Elijah is confronted amid drought and famine with the death of a widow’s son and prays: “Lord, my God may the soul … I beg you, come into him again” (I Kings 17: 21). The Church comes not to bring condemnation, as the widow at Zarepath feared, but to offer this same word of life to a post-Christian Britain wherever there is “no breath of life” left in us. “Now I know … the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth itself” said the woman (I Kings17: 24). I suspect most people in our country have never consciously rejected Christianity but have somehow lost the Christian memory to the extent we might speak of a “national amnesia”, a forgetfulness of our past and our identity. The great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter may remain our national holidays but the saving truths they proclaim are often dimly if at all perceived. I think of a group of youngsters on a street corner who asked me, “Are you a vicar?” and they volunteered the information that not one of them had ever been inside a church in their lives. I was not met with any hostility but rather with incomprehension. I suspect this may represent a wider situation in our society.
In the most recent debates in Parliament on the identity of marriage you may have been struck by a similar, sometimes breath-taking ignorance of the Christian foundations of our society. After fourteen centuries of Christian England it is a sad situation but one which also offers the opportunity to rediscover, in Pope Benedict’s words, the joy of believing the fullness of the faith. The faith which is not a human ideology, as St. Paul told the Galatians (Gal. 1: 11) but a Divine call. It is the encounter with Jesus Christ which offers not only to the young man being carried out to his burial but to every person, to a once Christian people the invitation: “I tell you arise” (Luke 7: 11-17).
I know many voices may urge us to leave well alone, not to disturb what appears dead in our society. Should we not be realistic and concede that the defence of human life, the identity of marriage and the integrity of the family is all but lost? Should we best remain silent so as not to weaken the Church’s increasingly, precarious standing in society? We might, indeed, be tempted to speak only of those concerns which accord with the social consensus around us. Pope Francis, however, shows us a different approach by his startlingly, direct way of speaking and the clear witness of his actions. In the North of England we certainly understand plain speaking! The contemporary world, Pope Francis has shown us, is often more ready to listen and take notice than we as Christians are ready to speak or give witness. Amid the twilight of a Christian England this witness will shine out more clearly.
In the witness this moment in history demands of us we should not expect to find safety in numbers. Catholics in this country have known quite a lot about being a minority. The lack of social supports can serve to bring us back anew to the true source of our life. Generations before us never doubted by what the Church’s mission lives or dies: “It is the Mass,” they said “which matters!” This conference comes to its conclusion where our life and mission begins anew every week at Mass, in the Eucharist. Pope Benedict observed that every great reform, every renewal of the Church’s life and mission is “in some way been linked to the rediscovery of belief in the Lord’s Eucharistic presence amongst his people” (SC n.6). It is Christ Himself, truly present in the Eucharist, who calls us amid all that is dying, like that young man at Nain, to rise and walk again. St Ignatius of Antioch said at the dawn of 2nd Christian Century what applies equally to 21st Century Britain: in the Eucharist, he declared, we have “the medicine, the antidote for death and the food that makes us live forever in Jesus Christ” (cf. p.97 “Compendium of the Catechism). May we come to recognise this more clearly. Amen.