Promoting A New Synthesis Of Faith And Reason Editorial: Will it work? Devotion to the mind of Christ by Fr Mark Higgins Obituary: Philip Trower Interview: Joanna Bogle talks to poet Richard Ormrod Mysteries of the Rosary: Meditations by John Henry Newman Crossword Holloway on … Sacramentum Mundi – The Evidence for Jesus, Part II Book Reviews: Phil Cunnah on orthodoxy and the early Church Keith Barltrop on how the abuse scandal affects ordinary clergy Ian Vane on the roots of the sexual revolution Sue Butcher on poems for children about saints Issue: Volume 54 Number 3 May and June 2019 Price: £4:50 faith.org.uk Contents 1 EDITORIAL: Schools and the Faith 3 Christmas acrostic A. M. Hill 4 The Cosmic Meaning of the Eucharist Roger Nesbitt 9 The vocation of a Catholic teacher Peter Stravinskas 15 Fr Holloway and Professor Polyani Simon Heans 22 Crossword by Aurora Borealis 23 Interview: Joanna Bogle meets Curtis Martin of FOCUS 25 Holloway on: The Recognition of Jesus 32 Book Reviews The Papacy and the Orthodox. Sources and History of a Debate by A.Edward Siecienski, reviewed by Aidan Nichols Inventing the Universe. Why we can’t stop talking about science, faith and God, by Alister McGrath, reviewed by Fr Hdugh Mackenzie The Wisdom of the Liminal: Evolution and Other Animals in Human Becoming by Celia Deane-Drummond reviewed by Conor McDonough God’s Healing Mercy. Finding Your Path to Forgiveness, Peace and Joy by ContentsContents Editorial 1 Editorial: Will it work? 1 EDITORIAL: Schools and the Faith Will it work? Kathleen Beckman reviewed by Claire Waddelove 6 A mystic from Lancashire and devotion to Divine Wisdom 3 Chrby Fristmas Mark Higginsacrostic ext year, 2020, will see the re-dedication of the faithful people of England and Wales A. M. Hill Nto Mary. 114 The OBITUARY: Cosmic MeaningPhilip Trower of the Eucharist Scotland was thus dedicated in 2017 Roger Nesbitt in a powerful ceremony at the Marian 13 Interview: Richard Ormrod grotto in Carfin. Now it is England’s turn. 9 The vocation of a Catholic teacher This dedication has a notable history. 15 PeterPoem: Stravinskas CRUCIFIXION Back in 1381 in the reign of Richard II, following a time of social unrest, the 15 Fr Holloway and Professor Polyani king presented England to Mary as her 17 SimonRosary Heans Meditations “dowry”. The event was recorded in a by Bl John Henry Newman, compiled by a Sister of St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde finely detailed painting which has become 22 Crossword by Aurora Borealis known as the Wilton Dyptych: it shows 20 Holloway on... the monarch, flanked by St John Baptist, 23 IntSacramentumerview: Joanna Mundi: Bogle The meets Evidence Curtis forMartin Jesus of PartFOCUS II St Edward the Confessor and St Edmund of East Anglia, kneeling before Mary who 25 Holloway on: holds out the Christ-child wrapped in cloth of gold and is surrounded by flower-crowned 27 Crossword by Aurora Borealis The Recognition of Jesus angels with soaring wings pointed Heavenwards. 2832 Book RReviewseviews A special bond The‘What Papacy was from and the Beginning’Orthodox. –Sources the Emergence and History of Orthodoxy of a Debate in byEarly A.EdwardChristianity Siecienski, by Prosper reviewed Grech, reviewed by Aidan byNichols Phil Cunnah But the notion of England as having a special bond with Mary goes back beyond the 14th Inventing the Universe. Why we can’t stop talking about science, faith and God, century to the last years of Saxon rule, another time of uncertainty and turbulence. In The Burden of Betrayal: Non-Offending Priests and the Clergy Child 1061 the Saxon king, Edward the Confessor had no children, and no one was sure who by AlisterSexual McGrath, Abuse reviewedScandals byby BarryFr Hd ughO’Sullivan, Mackenzie reviewed by Keith Barltrop The Wisdom of the Liminal: Evolution and Other Animals in Human would be the next ruler. Pagan Vikings continued to attack Britain’s coasts. The Holy Land, The Global Sexual Revolution by Gabriele Kuby, reviewed by Ian Vane in these years following the first Christian Millennium, was in Moslem hands, something Becoming by Celia Deane-Drummond reviewed by Conor which felt shocking. McDonoughSaintly Rhymes for Modern Times by Meghan Bausch, reviewed by God’sSue Butcher Healing Mercy. Finding Your Path to Forgiveness, Peace and Joy by Kathleen Beckman reviewed by Claire Waddelove Walsingham In the farthest Eastern part of England, some six miles from the sea, the manor was Editor: Joanna Bogle, [email protected] held by the Royal family of Harold, who seemed likely to be chosen as the next king. Editorial Board: Patrick Burke, Hugh MacKenzie, Andrew Nash, The manor’s name, Walsingham, indicated an even older heritage: the prefix “Wals” was Luiz Ruscillo, Andrea Fraile, Tim Finigan, Christina Read the Saxon name for a place of Romano-British people, denoting a group of “Welsh” or Book Reviews Editor: Andrew Nash “strangers” - Christians, with beliefs strange to the first Saxon barbarian invaders who had Subscriptions & Enquiries: Sister Andrea Fraile, 104 Albert Road, Glasgow G42 8DR or arrived as the Roman Empire crumbled in the 5th century. subscribe on-line at www.faith.org.uk, [email protected] 2 1 So when, in 1061, the (now Christian Saxon) Royal lady of Walsingham – to whom A re-dedication history has given the name Richeldis – announced that she had received a vision from And so to the re-dedication of 2020 an initiative of the Bishops of England and Wales, the Holy Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, people listened. This was not something to be carried out by the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham on the Feast of the random. This was something deeply rooted in the land’s distant and living past – a past Annunciation . A prayer-centred action, beginning with a Dowry Tour of the image of that went back to the first arrival of the Faith long centuries before, travelling the roads Our Lady, taken to every Catholic Cathedral in England. At each England... a special and seaways of the Roman Empire and coming to Brittannia at an unknown but certainly one, a Triduum of prayer, Masses, and devotions. The message bond with Mary very early date. Following the collapse of the Empire the Faith had been taught anew with one of renewal, missionary zeal, and a commitment to the the arrival of Augustine and a team of missionaries from Rome, sent to evangelise the new evangelisation. These events and their associated literature and displays have drawn together various threads: from a 15th century document in which an Archbishop Saxons – and Walsingham bound together these two strands. of Canterbury called for renewed Marian fervour, via the words of Leo XIII in the 1890s The message is one The command from Mary, as announced to Richeldis in 1061, emphasising the importance of Walsingham, to Pope St John Paul’s visit in 1982 when of renewal was to construct a new Nazareth on English soil. Nazareth the Walsingham statue was carried to a massive gathering in London (at Wembley) and itself could not be reached – it was in Moslem hands and effectively banned to Christian placed on the altar. pilgrims. Walsingham must be a substitute: a place of prayer, of holiness, of petition, of consolation. Involved Thus the shrine was established, five years before the Norman Conquest which Groups involved in the re-dedication include Youth 2000, EWTN the Catholic television produced immediate and massive changes in the nation’s life: we number our kings from network, and New Dawn the charismatic gathering. At one time, these were all new William I, and date our national sense of ourselves with reference to 1066. and somewhat marginal groupings within the Church – not so now, as each has grown and flourished somewhat against the odds along with a revival of Eucharistic adoration and fresh enthusiasm for the Rosary. They join older groups including the Knights of St Marian devotion Columba and the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, and newer ones including Shalom TV and Animate youth ministries. Devotion to Mary was central to life in Medieval England: Walsingham was a shrine of international importance and thousands flocked there annually from across For everyone Europe. And it was just one of many shrines across the This dedication is for everyone. The faithful Christians of modern Britain include many country, some of them of greater antiquity. Flower- whose ancestors came only fairly recently to these shores. The biggest annual pilgrimages names, place-names, pub-signs, songs and rhymes all to Walsingham are those of the groups from the Indian sub- This dedication is echoed devotion to Mary in popular culture. continent and from the Caribbean. The most thriving parishes for everyone In more recent times - 19th and 20th centuries - a are those with many Catholics from Kerala, Sri Lanka, Nigeria or the West Indies. “England” is a geographical expression, but not a racially homogenous sense of Catholic identity in England focused on the one. We are a great mixture – and if the attendance at the various cathedrals so far, is story of the destruction of the shrines and abbeys in the anything to go by, the actual English among the Catholic faithful getting involved in this 16th century, and the recusant years that followed. But in this 21st century something re-dedication are a minority. new began to emerge: with no Empire, and with the disappearance of the sense of a “protestant identity”, England’s longer history slipped back into focus and with it a sense of the presence of Catholicism. Two world wars, massive A prayer-centred How things stand immigration, and all sorts of events that would at one time action Will it work? Asking people to dedicate themselves to Mary seems out of keeping with have seemed impossible – including two Papal visits – shifted modern secular Britain.