March and April 2013 “Pullout” Volume 45 Number 2 Price £4.50

faithPROMOTING A NEW SYNTHESIS OF FAITH AND REASON

Radiating the Word of Truth Editorial Lumen Gentium and the Place of Mary Fr Ross Campbell Chastity and Same-Sex Attraction James Parker Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice Cormac Burke A Tribute to Fr John Edwards SJ, 1929-2012 Fr William Massie The Pro-life Voice on Campus Alithea Williams

David Mills on the success of the new missal in the US Gregory Farrelly on the rise of “scientism” and the decline of metaphysics William Oddie on the silence of the West in the face of Christian persecution Natalie Finnigan on two helpful catechetical resources; and Eric Hester on a new work on educational philosophy

www.faith.org.uk A special series of pamphlets REASONS FOR BELIEVING Contents from Faith Movement Straightforward, up to date and well argued pamphlets on basic issues of Catholic belief, this new series will build into a single, coherent apologetic vision of the 02 Radiating the Word of Truth Christian Mystery. They bring out the inner coherence Editorial of Christian doctrine and show how God’s revelation makes sense of our own nature and of our world. 05 Lumen Gentium and the Place of Mary Five excellent pamphlets in the series are now in print. Fr Ross Campbell

Can we be sure God exists? 07 Chastity and Same-Sex Attraction What makes Man unique? James Parker The Disaster of Sin 09 Pastoral Recommendations for the Year of Faith Jesus Christ Our Saviour Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Jesus Christ Our Redeemer 10 Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice The Church: Cormac Burke Christ’s Voice to the World 14 A Tribute to Fr John Edwards SJ, 1929-2012 Fr William Massie To order please write to Sr Roseann Reddy, Faith-Keyway Trust Publications Office, 16 The Pro-life Voice on Campus 104 Albert Road, Glasgow G42 8DR or go to www.faith.org.uk Alithea Williams

Regular Columns

18 Notes From Across the Atlantic David Mills notes the success of the new translation of the missal in the US and reflects on developments with the SSPX. Catholicism 21 Cutting Edge faith summer Gregory Farrelly notes an important revision in our account of the evolution of life a New from land to water and laments the rise of “scientism”. conference 22 Comment on the Comments Synthesis William Oddie reflects on the West’s attitude to the persecution of Christians. 24 Letters by Edward Holloway On William Oddie and “gay rights”, Cardinal Pell and Richard Dawkins, evolution and the origins of the human body. Pope John Paul II gave the blueprint for 26 Book Reviews Monday 29th July- catechetical renewal with the Catechism Natalie Finnigan reviews two useful catechetical resources; Eric Hester is impressed by a new work on Friday 2nd August 2013 of the Catholic Church. Catholicism: educational philosophy; and Fr James Tolhurst recommends a compelling account of the Reformation. A New Synthesis seeks to show why A 5 day conference for young Catholics aged 16-35. The format of the five days provides an excellent such teaching makes perfect sense in a balance of social, spiritual and catechetical activities. world which has come of age in scientific Editor Kevin Douglas, St Mary’s and St David’s, 15 Buccleuch Street, Hawick TD9 0HH, [email protected] Venue: Woldingham School, Surrey understanding. It offers a way out of the Editorial Board David Barrett, Stephen Brown, Timothy Finigan, Andrea Fraile, Roger Nesbitt, Christina Read, current intellectual crisis, a way which Dominic Rolls, Luiz Ruscillo. Full cost: £155 Book Reviews Andrew Nash, Faith Book Reviews, PO Box 617, Abingdon, OX14 9HA, [email protected] is both modern and orthodox. Advertising Manager Scott Deeley, c/o Holy Cross, 11 Bangholm Loan, Edinburgh EH5 3AH, Concession cost: £130 [email protected] Subscriptions and Faith-Keyway Trust Publications Office Sr Roseann Reddy, 104 Albert Road, Closing date: Monday 15th July 2013 Glasgow G42 8DR, [email protected] £14.00 503pp UK £25/year, Europe (inc.Eire) £29/E37/year. Contact: Ann McCallion Tel: 0141 945 0393 Surface Mail overseas £28/$56/E36/year. Email: [email protected] Air Mail overseas £33/$66/E42/year. Full details: www.faith.org.uk Sr Roseann Reddy, Faith-Keyway Trust Publications Student rate £17/$34/E22/year. Office, 104 Albert Road, Glasgow G42 8DR Single copies £5 inc. p&p. Bulk orders £3.50 plus p&p. faith Published by the Faith-Keyway Trust, registered charity No. 278314. March and April 2013 Printed by Tudor Printing 01772 633098, ISSN 1356-126X. Volume 45 Number 2 Radiating the Word of Truth “Christians are called to radiate the word Editorial of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us” Benedict XVI

“ Beauty grows in you to the extent that love grows, because charity itself is the soul’s beauty” The Church’s Role tangible moment when those married in the Catholic Church St Augustine (Ninth Homily on the First Epistle of St John) This is the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Through must assent, externally at least, to the ideals of Catholic the inherent goodness that remains in our human nature we marriage. In this perhaps very weak sense there remains Pope Benedict clearly wishes this Year of Faith to be a Outside the Church many of our contemporaries have been recognise and aspire to family life but nonetheless everything something special about the way Catholics “do” marriage graced opportunity for Catholics to grapple with the content scandalised. One might query whether in all cases they have in our culture militates against it. In this context the Church and the family. And many Catholics do take Christ’s self- of their faith. He quotes approvingly his predecessor Paul VI, been justly scandalised or whether this has come about has an important role to play. First of all her teachings sustain sacrificing love as the basis of their family lives. This love of who exhorts us to strive after an “exact knowledge of the through the agency of a deeply hostile media. Nonetheless, the human structure of the family, which even those outside Christ in them is nurtured and sustained by the sacraments. faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and confess in their eyes the priestly and religious life appears incapable the Church grasp as good. There is something special and And this way of living makes these families, for all their it” (Porta Fidei 4). The Holy Father continues: “In order to of radiating anything good. Even among those who have uncompromising about the Catholic vision of the family. The human frailties, shining examples of goodness. arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith, not been entirely scandalised the celibacy, the commitment Church has always maintained that the committed stable all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church a to prayer, the obedience to authority and the lack of status relationship of marriage is the environment God intended Humanae Vitae: “the elephant in the room” precious and indispensable tool” (PF11). The Catholic faith is and financial remuneration stand in stark contrast to for the bringing about of new life. Marriage is the bed- The presence of this goodness within our culture is a sign not amorphous and vacuous. It has a definite content: it has everything they have been taught to value. The priestly or rock of family life. The Church has never and could never of hope. It is in itself salvific. But here we must mention dogmas. These are not simply dry nuggets of information. religious lifestyle is so alien to their lives that it has little or no compromise on the three goods of marriage. Marriage what one bishop in the UK has had the courage to call “the They centre upon and lead us to the living person of Christ, immediate power to sway them. Regrettably, in the present is exclusively faithful. Marriage is an indissoluble lifelong elephant in the room”. If these wonderful families, which are and through Christ to the inner life of God: the Trinity. But, cultural milieu the priestly and religious life is now very commitment. Marriage is at least in principle open to new life. such an inspiration to so many, are to reach their full potential nonetheless, they are dogmas and Pope Benedict wants us limited in its pulling power. However, quite the opposite is The Church is not being judgmental in this. She is supporting and “to radiate the word of truth” that is our Catholic faith to know them. He wants us to apply our minds in this Year of true of family life. marriage, and because she uncompromisingly supports in all its luminosity and beauty, then we as a Church must Faith, so that we might acquire an intellectual apprehension marriage she uncompromisingly supports the family. recover the fullness of our faith’s teaching on sex and loving. of the data of our faith. In our society, even now, there is still a basic consensus that the natural nuclear family is inherently a good thing. Why else However, the Church doesn’t just support the natural human It is not our purpose in these few pages to develop However, the Pope also writes: “Christians are called to are politicians forever posing for photo opportunities with their good of marriage. Through the sacrament of marriage the arguments that have been developed elsewhere and at radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us” families? Why is it that the great and the good have replaced Church raises marriage and family life to an even higher greater depth. We do, however, have to come to a new (PF6). This idea of radiating “the word of truth” is subtle and the images of the Holy Family on their annual Christmas cards nobility and beauty. The point of the three goods of marriage recognition of the wisdom of the Church’s ban on artificial evocative. It suggests that the “word of truth” must also be with pictures not of Father Christmas or robin red-breasts but is that the spouses become living images of Christ’s complete means of contraception. We must recognise that we human communicated in a way that escapes what might be of their own families? Why is it that advertising agencies use self-sacrificing love. The exclusive fidelity is much more than a beings are body and soul and that what we do physically quantified by a teacher’s classroom outcomes and the family to sell anything from holidays to department stores, negative prohibition and its demands go much further than affects us spiritually and emotionally. Barrier methods of objectives. It implies that somehow the beauty of Christ must from cars to brands of gravy? These are all cynical forms of simply the physical intimacy of marriage. When Christ’s side is contraception compromise the deep act of physical union shine forth. Indeed in the next edition of Faith magazine we cashing in on the family, but why is that this reality, the family, pierced on the cross there flows forth blood and water. One between two spouse and, perhaps subtly but nonetheless will have an article by Dr Dudley Plunkett that is a sustained lends itself to such forms of exploitation? The simple answer interpretation of this episode, aside from the eucharistic and inevitably, this will play itself out spiritually and emotionally. reflection on just this theme: beauty as a path to God. But the is that, even though our own families often fail to live up to baptismal symbolism, is that the water flows forth as a sign A medication that manipulates the body into withholding its Pope is here more specifically talking about the witness value these idealised images, we still intuitively grasp the goodness that Christ has given himself entirely for us. He has no blood fertility from this act again undermines the union that is an of our Christian lives. The Catholic faith finds its most and value of the traditional family. In our jaded, consumerist left to shed for us. In the same way the sacrament of marriage integral dimension of the marriage act. How can you accept compelling proclamation in the lives of faithful Catholics, but society we still aspire to family life and desire it for ourselves challenges spouses to give themselves so generously to each someone completely if that acceptance doesn’t embrace also within the prevailing cultural context of the western world we because somewhere deep down we recognise that family life other that their self-gift is complete. their fertility? would suggest there is one reality that most effectively is good, beautiful and true. “radiate[s] the word of truth”: the family. If you give yourself in a married way completely to your By no means are we arguing that a marriage cannot survive Threats to the Family spouse then you cannot simultaneously give yourself in a the use of artificial contraception. There are any number of The Importance of the Family However, this simple human goodness of the family is married way to another. And herein lies the rationale for the marriages, even happy marriages, in which spouses choose The priestly and religious life have been held up as paradigms fragile. Families can be broken. The very notion of the exclusivity of marriage. It is not primarily about temptations to use artificial contraception. But we would ask how much of holiness. And there can be no doubt that, notwithstanding family and the legal framework that supports it is now being outside marriage; rather it is about the degree of self-giving more might these marriages have been and still become? The the scandals of recent years, many priests and religious dismantled by our ruling classes. Politicians are seeking to within marriage. Marriage is for life. Again this is a corollary of use of artificial contraception undermines the physical unity continue to lead lives of heroic virtue. These vocations and redefine marriage, which is at the basis of family life. But they the generosity and completeness of the self-donation that is of a couple and therefore must to some degree compromise the form of life they entail make sense to those who have remain muddle-headed and opaque on quite what their new required of the spouses. When you give yourself completely their spiritual and emotional unity. When lived with full been adequately catechised and whose hearts are in tune definition will be. Then there’s the sustained assault on the that includes your tomorrow as well as your today. Someone generosity this unity touches even the smallest details of a with the mind of the Church. Hence while someone might family from our media. Often this takes the form of debates in who says “I love you just for today” doesn’t really understand married couple’s life together and it gives their marriage a not himself have received a religious vocation, nonetheless which pundits put forth their ideas, but more insidious are the what love is. And finally marriage is open to new life. This lambent beauty that radiates to the utmost “the word of truth on encountering a truly devout nun that person may well be soap operas, dramas (often children’s dramas!) and celebrity again is patterned upon Christ’s love for us. Christ’s love is that the Lord Jesus has left us”. touched by the nun’s fervour and thereby inspired to a deeper magazines which relentlessly bombard us with propaganda always creative and always life-giving in one way or another devotion to Christ. pushing alternative forms of the family. and this is reflected within the spousal love of marriage. The Pastoral Reality Nearly half a century has passed since Paul VI wrote Sadly, even within the Church there are many for whom this All this is taking place within a profoundly hedonistic culture By no means are we contending that Catholics have been Humanae Vitae and things have changed. The teachings of is no longer true. For a variety of reasons, perhaps including that sees value only in short-term gratification and which is untouched by the corrosive atmosphere of our present that encyclical have not been passed on to the lay faithful. At inadequate catechesis, many Catholics are ill-equipped to inimical to and corrosive of any form of commitment. Our culture, but the Church has not stopped teaching the ideal of least two generations of Catholics in our pews on a Sunday make sense of the priestly or religious life and are therefore culture reduces deep, committed, inter-personal love to marriage that is the bedrock of what we find beautiful in have not heard the Church’s teaching on sex and loving. incapable of discerning that the priestly or religious life, nothing more than casual encounters, friends with benefits or family life. Furthermore, the simple fact of having to speak the And among those few who have heard it proclaimed, how in its simple existence, might “radiate the word of truth”. at best serial monogamy. vows in the wedding service means there is one, concrete, many have had it proposed as a realistic possibility for their

02 Faith I Radiating the Word of Truth Radiating the Word of Truth I Faith 03 Lumen Gentium and the Place of Mary Radiating the Word of Truth By Fr Ross Campbell continued

lives here and now? There is a world of difference between and minds of these often fine and generous couples to the In the first of a two-part article Fr Ross Campbell, assistant priest in Kirkintilloch, analyses seeing this teaching lived out with generosity and grasping fullness of Christ’s message. Nor is it fair just to assume that the background to the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium and its teaching on the role and the difference it makes and, for example, being told by a absolutely everyone is using contraception. Though few in importance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. tired, cynical RE teacher: “Well, no one believes it anyway numbers, there are now families – even in secular Britain – but we have to go through the motions of teaching this.” The who live out the fullness of the Church’s teaching and who truth is that, through no fault of their own, only a tiny minority are compelling witnesses to the beauty of our faith. But we At the dawn of the new millennium, we notice with joy the chapter offers a synthesis of what had gone before, but it of Catholics have received the life-giving message of the must also recognise that we cannot expect our culture to emergence of the “Marian Profile” of the Church that in no way is it meant to have the final say: it offers no real Church’s teaching on sex and love. This means that many of change overnight. It may take generations for the prophetic summarises the deepest contents of conciliar renewal. dogmatic definitions. Thus, the Council Fathers wrote the the Catholics who are only now beginning to learn of it are nature of Paul VI’s encyclical to be fully appreciated. (John Paul II, Wednesday audience, 25 November 1998) document with the intention that it would lead to further already in stable and committed marriages. theological development. Even so, certain pastoral contexts are more clear-cut. In our One of the slow growing fruits that has developed out of the Embracing this teaching may be extremely difficult. It may schools, in university chaplaincies and in our marriage Second Vatican Council is an emerging deeper understanding In fact the discussion on the role of Mary in the economy of mean that they have to overturn a settled pattern of life. And preparation courses, for example, we must be fearless in of the relationship between Mary and the Church. This was salvation was one of the most emotive and debated themes what are they then to make of perhaps the last 20 years proclaiming the Church’s teaching. In these situations we are not always the case and it has been far from a smooth ride. of the Council. Three times the Fathers changed their minds of their married life? Moreover, the repercussions of this usually dealing with people who are not yet in a settled Even today much confusion remains with regard to where we on whether Mary’s role should be treated in a separate teaching touch both the husband and wife. Even if one of pattern of life and who have not made implicit relationship place Mariology within the overall context of theology. document or included within the document on the Church. them becomes convinced of the Church’s teaching, what if commitments to others. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to Anecdotally, during my seminary formation it was evident that When it was final decided to include Mary in Lumen Gentium their spouse isn’t? We must recognise that today this life- give the fullness of the Church’s teaching. the theology faculty was undecided on this matter. Each year it was the closest vote of the entire Council (1,114 in favour, giving message is not being proclaimed in a morally neutral Mariology was taught from a different perspective, using a 1074 against). context. We are confronting an uphill struggle. To do less is at best a gross dereliction of duty and at worst a different methodology: in my first year it was taught as a personal betrayal of Christ. It would be wrong to assume that subject in its own right, the following year it was taught within Vatican II as a Point of Arrival However, some changes at least have been for the good. For people, the young especially, are incapable of generosity or the Christology course and then in my final year it was taught In the years prior to the Council there were two seemingly example, the Billings method of natural family planning was nobility of heart. No one aspires to be mediocre. We all want within the ecclesiology course. opposing tendencies that dominated much of Mariological unheard of half a century ago. And when in 1968 Paul VI to be noble and beautiful and to do extraordinary things with debate. The “Christo-typical” approach tended to consider warned that “a man who grows accustomed to the use of our lives. And what is more noble and more beautiful and The point here is that there still seems to be some confusion Mary in terms of her relationship to Christ. It is from her contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a more extraordinary than the family? regarding where we should locate the study of Mary in relationship with her Son that Mary’s privileges derive. At woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional Catholic theology. This article focuses on the relationship the Council, proponents of this school sought to defend the equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the When we compromise or fudge the Church’s teaching on this between Mary and the Church; however, this is not meant to traditional Marian dogmas and were even in favour of a fifth satisfaction of his own desires” (HV17) many would have matter we betray our own Catholic faithful, which is terrible – be exclusive. There is a danger that in subsuming Mariology definition: Mary as Co-redemptrix or mediatrix. They would dismissed this as scare-mongering. Today, with the but we also let down wider society. Our society needs into ecclesiology we could neglect to study the role of Mary assert that Mary is mother of the Church in the sense that breakdown of marriage, the explosion of pornography and families simply to survive and it needs the example of good in relation to Christ. Likewise, if Mariology is taught solely in she is above the Church. Naturally they favoured a separate the reduction of women to sex objects, who can deny the families in order to flourish. Only the fullness of the Church’s Christology we could easily forget the Marian dimension of document on the Mary. force of Paul VI’s words? teaching can provide a credible alternative to the nihilistic the Church, and her relationship to each believer. hedonism of our culture. The compelling witness of Catholic The second Mariological approach may be called “ecclesio- Above all, in this new context we must trust in God. Through families and the manifest beauty and nobility of married life In the hope of elucidating some of these issues this article typical”. This approach emphasised Mary as a figure or type his grace, conversion is possible even in the most difficult of will be the most effective counter-arguments to those forces offers a thumbnail sketch of the history of Mariological of the Church, which implies that her privileges must be circumstances. Pastorally this means we have to trust more that now menace the family. And in our society, and for our development during the second half of the 20th century. For understood in light of the Church of which she is the first and in God than in our own ingenuity or eloquence. It means more contemporaries, Catholic marriage and family life lived in its the sake of clarity this can be broken into three periods: the pre-eminent member. prayer and less activism. We have to trust that in God’s fullness is the most eloquent proclamation of “the word of situation prior to the Second Vatican Council and the providence a moment will come when we can win the hearts truth that the Lord Jesus has left us”. teaching of chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium; the Interestingly, Pope Benedict, writing then as Cardinal ecclesiological developments immediately following the Ratzinger, suggests that these two approaches were in fact Vatican II; and finally the rediscovery of the Marian profile of linked to two broader spiritual movements that existed before the Church, in particular as expressed in the ecclesiology of the Council. The Marian movement (for the Christo-typical) Paul VI, Wednesday Audience, Christians, and gives us a role as believers surrounded by the great Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. was a charismatic movement emphasising the privileges of 21st June 1967 our brothers and sisters who long to know God and to know Mary. It gave prominence to Mary’s closeness to Christ and what it is to be authentically human. Faith is our strength and This third period is the focus for the second half of this was based on a subjective and personal piety. The second our comfort, helping us to resolve the fundamental problems article, to be publish in the next edition of Faith magazine. was the liturgical movement (from which the ecclesio-typical During the last Year of Faith Pope Paul VI dedicated a of existence. It is our certainty and our consolation. This article will focus on the first two periods. school emerged), which sought a renewal of the Church from number of audiences to the theme of Faith. We publish the Scriptures and the Fathers. This movement was below an extract from one of those audiences. But faith is also our first duty before God, who speaks to us The Second Vatican Council characterised by an objective and sacramental piety.1 and wishes us to believe Him. Faith is our duty before our Chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium is the final chapter of the Today it is important for everyone to speak about faith. Faith mother and teacher, the Church, who hands on to us the Council’s document on the Church. It is titled The Blessed Anyhow, this issue split the Council Fathers. Cardinal Ruffini, is the beginning of an authentic relationship with God; it is doctrines of our faith and helps her children to know and in Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the arguing that Mariology also had close links with Christology our criterion of judgement and the spiritual energy that gives turn to hand on the faith in prayer and in works. It is also our Church. This chapter was intended to mark both a point and soteriology, was the main proponent of having a separate form to our spiritual trajectory and orders our actions. (The duty before the world which at every step asks us: what do of arrival for the theological debates regarding Mary which document. Cardinal Frings and the German bishops wanted just man lives by faith). Faith is our treasure, which makes us you believe? And waits upon our act of witness. preceded the Council and also a point of departure for further to include Mary in Lumen Gentium. In the end it was Cardinal theological reflection in the years following the Council. The Koenig who attempted to reconcile the two groups.

04 Faith I Radiating the Word of Truth Lumen Gentium and the Place of Mary I Faith 05 “There still seems to be some confusion with Lumen Gentium and the Place of Mary regard to where we should locate the study of continued Mary in Catholic theology”

Perhaps one reason for such a strong reaction against a Mariologists such as Stefano De Fiores and Heribert Church to a merely human–rational institution, which thus misleads women who are seeking a legitimate and fruitful separate document for Mary was the fact that the proposed Mühlen put this down to a number of factors. First, there ceases to be the maternal womb of Christ.7 This loss in the role”.10 The loss of this feminine dimension of the Church document (De Beata) completely neglected Mary in relation to were weaknesses in chapter VIII. It did not adequately deal understanding of the Church’s feminine nature, together with gives rise to a false feminism in the Church – one which the Church. Nevertheless, to see chapter VIII as an with Mary’s relation to the Holy Spirit. It did not make the an inaccurate postconciliar interpretation of episcopal expresses itself in appeals for the ordination of woman. It has overwhelming victory for the ecclesio-typical movement necessary clarifications between acts attributed to Mary collegiality, has led to the Church becoming excessively led to an emphasis on the ideology of doing at the expense would be to oversimplify things. The chapter includes and acts attributed to the Holy Spirit. In the years after the bureaucratic – which, ironically, is something that Rahner of contemplation. This in turn makes the Church over- elements of both approaches. It begins by speaking of Mary Council this led to a trend which drew people’s attention himself had initially sought to prevent. bureaucratic and functional. in relation to Christ and goes on to speak of her in relation to away from Mary to focus on the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the Church. It is in this sense that the document can been chapter VIII said nothing of Mary’s relationship to the Father. According to Henri De Lubac, the dominance of such an Ultimately, for Balthasar, the answer to these difficulties seen as offering a synthesis of the theological debates that impersonal ecclesiology leads to the following problems in which arose in the postconciliar understanding of the Church had emerged in the years before the Council. Consequently Mariology was untouched by the general ecclesial life: a dry practice of the faith; an abstract theology can be found in the concrete, living person of Mary, who theological renewal that came in the years after the Council. which is expressed in objective rather than personalist constitutes the true life and mission of the Church. Vatican II as a Point of Departure According to Ratzinger, the victory of the ecclesiocentric categories; and a danger of reducing theological mysteries, “Wherefore this holy synod […] does not, however, have it in approach at the Council led to the collapse of Mariology as well as ecclesial relations, to the impersonal.8 mind to give a complete doctrine on Mary, nor does it wish altogether and the development of new forms of theology, to decide those questions which the work of theologians such as liberation theology, that attempted to replace the “The loss of this feminine dimension 2 has not yet fully clarified…” Marian dimension of the Church. of the Church gives rise to a false Notes Paragraphs 63-65 of Lumen Gentium detail the relationship “The fact that later the two fell apart, that Mary was feminism in the Church” 1J. Ratzinger, The Church at the Source, (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2005) 22. between Mary and the Church. Paragraph 63 begins by portrayed as an individual showered with privileges and 2Lumen Gentium 54. reaffirming the Christological teaching that had been stated thereby infinitely removed from us, while the Church was In this context Hans Urs Von Balthasar observed that since 3J. Ratzinger, Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2005), 151. 4J. Ratzinger, The Church at the Source, (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2005) 25. at the start of the chapter. Mary is united to the redemptive seen as being non-personal and merely institutional, the Council the Church has become more than ever a male 5Ibid. work of her Son. It then asserts that in terms of faith, charity damaged both Mariology and ecclesiology in equal institution, which without the Marian dimension threatens to 6L.Blair Masculine and Feminine Symbolism in the Church: A Reappreciation of the Marian/ and perfect union with Christ, she is the type of the Church. measure.”3 become inhuman and irrelevant.9 It is essential that we Feminine Dimension, (Rome: PUST, 1997), 29. 7L. Scheffczyk, “Mary as a Model of Catholic Faith”, trans. Gordon Seely in the Church Here the document is alluding to some idea of a future reality: rediscover the feminine, Marian dimension of the Church and Women: A Compendium, 89. Mary, as virgin and mother, is the perfect type of what the A further factor was the dominance of the ecclesiology of Karl because viewing the Church as a mere organisational or 8H. De Lubac, The Motherhood of the Church, trans. S. Englund (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1982), 160. Church is called to be. Paragraph 64 speaks of the response Rahner in the years immediately after the Council. He institutional entity not only impoverishes her from within but 9Elucidations, 70. of the Church in light of Mary who is her type. By following concentrated on developing certain parts of Lumen Gentium also “severely diminishes her authentic religious appeal and 10Blair, Masculine and Feminine Symbolism, 39. the example of Mary, the Church becomes like Mary in and despite his vast theological output, he gave no real responding to the will of God. After the example of Mary the emphasis to the relation between Mary and the Church. In Church is both Mother (of the faithful, through preaching and fact, he appeared not to like using feminine terminology when baptism) and Virgin (through keeping the pledge of fidelity to describing the Church. Again this led to a further separation Christ her spouse, keeping the purity of faith intact). It is that of Mary from the Church. same faith of Mary that enables her to utter her fiat. The Consequences of this Separation Chastity and Same-Sex Attraction Paragraph 65 builds on the previous two paragraphs but According to Ratzinger, to understand the Church merely moves from typology to moral example. It seeks to show the as sacrament and as the people of God is to see her in By James Parker relevance of this Marian dimension which shapes the Church a predominantly masculine sense.4 He believes that the for ecclesial life. Just as Mary is the model of the Church, so feminine dimension is essential in that it clarifies and she is the model for each member of the Church. Her deepens the concept of the Church. Only by recognising James Parker, facilitator of the London Chapter of EnCourage, gives an insight into the aims, example prompts the faithful to come to her Son, thereby this dimension can we understand the Church’s maternal shaping the Church’s apostolic activity. By following Mary the and bridal nature and so move beyond a mere sociological ideals and work of EnCourage in supporting people who experience same-sex attraction. Church enables Christ to be born in the hearts and minds of understanding of the Church: the faithful. EnCourage is a part of Courage International (http:// 3. Foster a spirit of fellowship in which all may share thoughts “The Church is more than ‘people’, more than structure couragerc.net), a ministry of the Catholic Church which and experiences, and so ensure that no one will have to In terms of her divine motherhood Mary is the example for and action: the Church contains the living mystery of ministers to persons with same-sex attraction and face the problems of homosexuality alone. (Fellowship) the Church to imitate. In terms of her motherhood in grace, maternity and bridal love that makes maternity possible. their loved ones. Mary is the model for each disciple who is called to bring There can be ecclesial piety, love for the Church, only if 4. Be mindful of the truth that chaste friendships are not only Christ into the world. Mary is therefore viewed in her relation this mystery exists.”5 Five Goals of EnCourage possible but necessary in a chaste Christian life and in to Christ and in her relation to the Church. Again we see 1. Live chaste lives in accordance with the Catholic Church’s doing so provide encouragement to one another in forming attempts to reconcile the two Mariological schools. To reduce the Church to the mere masculine is to lose what is teaching on homosexuality. (Chastity) and sustaining them. (Support) authentically ecclesial about the nature of the Church. For Post-Conciliar Developments Ratzinger, Mary’s motherhood gives the Church her ultimate 2. Dedicate one’s life to Christ through service to others, 5. Live lives that may serve as good examples to others. Although the intention of the Council Fathers was to provide personal concretisation in history. A particular consequence spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, individual spiritual (Good Example/Role Model) a framework for further theological reflection on the role of of such an objective approach to the Church, which direction, frequent attendance at Mass, and the frequent Mary within the life of the Church, this never really happened. characterises Rahner’s ecclesiology, is that ecclesial life falls reception of the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Looking at the Western Church of the 21st century, you In the years immediately after the Council things stagnated. into the trap of masculine rationality.6 This reduces the Eucharist. (Prayer and Dedication) would think it was preoccupied with the topic of same-sex

06 Faith I Lumen Gentium and the Place of Mary Chastity and Same-Sex Attraction I Faith 07 Pastoral Recommendations Chastity and Same-Sex Attraction continued for the Year of Faith

relationships. Maybe you wouldn’t be far wrong. Never before well as others from different denominations and occasionally has the need been so great for the people of God to provide different faiths. We also enjoy strong relationships with other spiritual and truly fraternal support for persons who Courage chapters across the world. Whatever same-sex In January of last year the Congregation for the Doctrine 6. The promotion of missions and other popular experience differing degrees of same-sex attraction or gender attraction or gender uncertainty a person may experience, of the Faith issued a series of recommendations for the programmes in parishes and in the workplace can help uncertainty. The Church needs to be the place where truth whether outright or only even very slightly, EnCourage seeks implementation of the Year of Faith. We reprint below the faithful to rediscover the gift of baptismal faith and can be looked in the eye without fear and without a person to provide a safe pastoral place where each story is listened the recommendations aimed at parishes. the task of giving witness, knowing that the Christian being pigeon-holed or stereotyped because of what they to, heard and understood. vocation “by its very nature is also a vocation to the might, or indeed might not, feel. It is for this reason that the 1. In preparation for the Year of Faith, all of the faithful are apostolate”. Church, out of great love and wisdom, rejects contemporary We place no expectations upon a person but merely hold invited to read closely and meditate upon Pope Benedict labels such as “homosexual”, “gay” and “queer” while taking each individual in a place of prayer and genuine support XVI’s Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei. 7. During this time, members of Institutes of Consecrated very seriously someone’s sexual attractions. wherever they are at on their journey. In his recent visit to the Life and of Societies of Apostolic Life are asked to work London group, Archbishop Vincent Nichols praised those 2. The Year of Faith “will also be a good opportunity to towards the new evangelisation with a renewed union to More than 30 years ago, Cardinal Cooke of New York saw the present for their commitment and said that “many will be intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, the Lord Jesus, each according to their proper charism, need to provide a setting where Catholics, their families and encouraged by the example that the group will give.” especially in the Eucharist”. In the Eucharist, mystery of in fidelity to the Holy Father and to sound doctrine. friends, plus any interested others, could gather in confidence faith and source of the new evangelisation, the faith of and safely address questions on human sexuality in a setting Above all we are about deeply respecting and honouring one the Church is proclaimed, celebrated and strengthened. 8. Contemplative communities, during the Year of Faith, of prayer and celebration of the Sacraments while remaining another. We don’t demand or expect change, yet this often All of the faithful are invited to participate in the should pray specifically for the renewal of the faith wholly rooted in the mainstream Church. And so Courage takes place as a gradual unseen process and looks different Eucharist actively, fruitfully and with awareness, in order among the People of God and for a new impulse for its was born, a spiritual and fraternal support group of Catholic for every individual once a significant spiritual walk with to be authentic witnesses of the Lord. transmission to the young. lay men and women who aspire to live chaste lives in Christ begins to take root. Some people attend EnCourage accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church. never having practised sexually. Others have practised for 3. Priests should devote greater attention to the study of 9. Associations and Ecclesial Movements are invited to years but sense there genuinely has to be more to life. Some the documents of Vatican Council II and the Catechism promote specific initiatives which, through the Courage, currently known as EnCourage in Britain, but soon attend while still in short-term or even long-term partnerships, of the Catholic Church, drawing from them resources for contribution of their proper charism and in collaboration to change its name to Courage in union with the international desiring a safe place to assess where they are at and to ask the pastoral care of their parishes – catechesis, with their local pastors, will contribute to the wider Catholic apostolate, has been in operation for more than 20 some deeper questions. preaching, sacramental preparation. They should also experience of the Year of Faith. The new Communities years across the country. offer cycles of homilies on the faith or on specific and Ecclesial Movements, in a creative and generous Above all, the group is very much a hospital for sinners rather aspects, such as “the encounter with Christ”, “the way, will be able to find the most appropriate ways What does EnCourage offer? We meet in the evening at least than a hotel for saints. And yet the call remains the same: to fundamental contents of the Creed”, and “faith and the in which to offer their witness to the faith in service twice a month as a group in the centre of London and be holy and chaste before God, however often, much or little Church.” to the Church. sometimes have a midweek celebration of the Mass. More we may fall into sinful patterns of behaviour. groups are being set up across the country as priests request 4. Catechists should hold more firmly to the doctrinal 10. All of the faithful, called to renew the gift of faith, should help to deal with the growing pastoral issues they are being Aside from offering support to individuals only just beginning richness of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and, try to communicate their own experience of faith and presented with. to discuss their sexual attractions, EnCourage seeks to under the direction of their pastors, offer guidance in charity to their brothers and sisters of other religions, provide space for those who have already identified reading this precious document to groups of faithful, with those who do not believe, and with those who are With more parents of children with same-sex attractions themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and who working toward a deeper common understanding just indifferent. In this way, it is hoped that the entire wanting support we have begun a system to help them to be wish to explore moving beyond a socio-political mindset to thereof, with the goal of creating small communities of Christian people will begin a kind of mission towards in touch with one another. We are beginning a women’s an eternal perspective rooted in their true identity in Christ. faith, and of giving witness to the Lord Jesus. those with whom they live and work, knowing that they group, a group for married men and another for young adults. “have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant We have regular retreat days and social events and welcome More and more people are beginning to see this as a second 5. It is hoped that there will be a renewed commitment for every man”. others who do not experience same-sex attraction or gender and more significant and life-giving “coming out”. This often in parishes to the distribution of the Catechism of the uncertainty but who share our vision, values and goals. We leads to them taking their rightful place alongside the Catholic Church, and of other resources appropriate for also help the clergy to understand more deeply the labyrinth thousands of others who, week in and week out, stand on families, which are true domestic churches and the that same-sex attraction and gender uncertainty can be. our sanctuaries and in our pews and offer their challenging primary setting for the transmission of the faith. same-sex attractions and temptations to the Lord along with This might be done, for example, during the blessing Above all, we keep returning to the truth that living chaste everyone else’s problems and struggles. of homes, the baptism of adults, confirmations and lives in accordance with the Catholic Church’s teaching truly marriages. This can contribute to the deepening of does bring about a deep joy and peace to the soul, whatever With genuine love and understanding, and without fear or Catholic teaching “in our homes and among our one’s sexual attractions. We aspire to serve as good prejudice, that is what EnCourage seeks to help individuals families, so that everyone may feel a strong need examples to others, being mindful of and witnessing to the achieve. But then again, isn’t that what the Church has to know better and to transmit to future generations truth that chaste friendships are not only possible but also always been about? the faith of all times.” necessary as Christians.

There is a strong sense of genuine companionship and If you want to know more about EnCourage or its goals, visit healthy intimacy among those who attend. Our gatherings are http://couragerc.net/, email [email protected] made up of people of every age and from every continent, as or call 077 9921 6623.

08 Faith I Chastity and Same-Sex Attraction Pastoral Recommendations for the Year of Faith I Faith 09 “ To marry creates a real legal relationship, Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice with specific rights and obligations between By Cormac Burke a woman and a man: in relation to each other, to society, and to God”

Mgr Burke continues his series of reflections on the cardinal virtues and their place in recovering Two people in love marry because they want to be united, to does not think of its rights or measure its wrongs. To do so an authentic understanding of womanhood. The article that follows was originally delivered as a be one. He wants to feel that she is his, and she that he is is to fall into calculation. And love does not calculate. It lecture at Strathmore University, Nairobi. hers. Now, for a man and a woman to become truly one is does not centre on its own “rights”, but thinks of the rights, not possible. What they can become, in the biblical phrase, or the simple likes, of the other. is “one flesh”, which occurs through the conjugal act carried Introduction something for the other and the other agrees to give out in all its human fullness, meaning and dignity. There the A wife might say that in that case her husband will always Justice is the virtue by which we habitually give to each his something equivalent in return; this equivalence is what is spouses achieve conjugal oneness as they in effect say to win. A husband, equally, might say that in that case his wife due: what is owed to him or her. Justice also applies to our termed the quid pro quo. For instance, one agrees to build a each another: I share with you what I will not share with will always win. Yet it is not a question of winning but of relations with the governing authority, or the government house for another and the other agrees to pay for the anyone else. I give to you what I give to no one else, and loving. If one were to try to base a marriage on a strict quid with us: what is owed in one direction or another. Most finished house. Or two people may enter a partnership to that is my seed, my procreative power, which, united to your pro quo, on well-measured calculations, giving as much as questions of justice arise between individuals; then we have achieve something together, with or perhaps without a clear seed, can incarnate our love, take on flesh that will be the the other gives, it would not work. But then he will take what is termed commutative justice. agreement as to a specific division of responsibilities and living fruit of our love, the proof also that we want our love advantage of me, the wife might say. He might, but a payments or returns. to be a gift to God and to the future.1 husband certainly won’t learn to love his wife more if he A just society is one where each gets his or her due. I have sees that she is a calculator. After all, Jesus himself said a right to what is due to me. And by the same token I have a Justice and Marriage I have expanded on this at length elsewhere.2 Holding to our that it is happier to give than to receive. But our modern duty to respect or give what is due to others. The upsetting Matters of justice might seem to have little to do with present topic, let us look a bit more closely at those issues world seems far from understanding or heeding that divine factor here is the tendency, deeply rooted in all of us, to whether one is a man or a woman. A thief is a thief whether of justice involved in this divine plan of the union of man and pointer to happiness. think much more of “my rights” than of “my duties”. That a he or a she. And it is fraud whether one defrauds a man woman in marriage. self-centred tendency is the main obstacle to a just and or a woman. Yet it is true that sex and justice may on “Love does not stand on its rights; it harmonious society and to the personal, human fulfilment of occasions have a particular relationship. This certainly It should be obvious that the greatest infringement of justice each one. arises in that very special area of human life which is in this matter is when husband or wife, by having sex with a forgives. Love does not think of its marriage. third party, violates the exclusive right to intercourse which rights or measure its wrongs” Pope John Paul II points out that “if the promotion of the they have solemnly pledged to their spouse. The crime of self is understood in terms of absolute autonomy, people It is too often said today that marriage is a matter of love, adultery is not only a grave sin against chastity but equally a The individualist who marries just out of interest in his or her inevitably reach the point of rejecting one another... society and hence if love dies, marriage dies with it. This reflects a grave violation of justice towards the other spouse and personal happiness, no more, is not really in love, except becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but false idea of marriage and a poor idea of marital love. towards the children there may be. Given the close with himself or herself. Even if we take the frequent case of without any mutual bonds” (Evangelium Vitae, 20). Marriage is more than an emotion; marriage changes love association of the sexes in modern working life, men or a slightly toned-down individualism – I’ll make some effort into a lifelong commitment to be mutually faithful and to women need to observe delicate respect for the to make you happy, provided you make as much of an effort We live in an aggrieved world. An ever-growing number of accept and care for the children that may be born of this commitments of married colleagues; carelessness here to keep me happy – that is not married love either. It may people feel exploited, victimised, and entitled to commitment. could make them responsible for the collapse of a marriage indeed be the approach of both spouses; but it is still the compensation. There is a real temptation for people to take and the destruction of a family. meeting of two selfishnesses, of two fundamentally inward- themselves too seriously and lose their sense of humour. We can speak of marriage in different ways. It is a looking persons, who are simply not up to forging a happy They can no longer laugh at adversity and still less at sacrament. It is a covenant. It is a contract. These last two The “Marriage Debt” marriage. themselves. They tend to sink into self-pity, which is the terms mean basically the same thing: that to marry creates Now let us examine what is due in justice between husband most miserable type of selfishness, as well as perhaps the a real legal relationship, with specific rights and obligations and wife themselves. Moral theologians would probably In most cases this is the result of a lack of real marital most potent factor for loneliness and self-isolation. These between a woman and a man: in relation to each other, to single out the debitum or “marriage debt”, that is, the right commitment from the very beginning. In the words of Pope tendencies need to be borne in mind because they can society, and to God. to conjugal intercourse which each spouse has and owes John Paul II: “The fear of making a permanent commitment powerfully inhibit a proper understanding of justice. in regard to the other. It is a matter of justice that binds can change the mutual love of husband and wife into two What is the object of marital consent? The Catechism of the whenever reasonably requested by the other. The husband loves of self – two loves existing side by side until they end One must not take as one’s own what is not one’s own. If Catholic Church gives an appealing but also a very self- should know when it is not reasonable to make that in separation.”3 one does, one must give it back. This of course applies also committing description, saying that consent is the act “by request: for instance, when his wife is ill or at periods late in to gifts. I can give what is my own; then it becomes which the spouses mutually give and receive one another” pregnancy or just after childbirth. The problem that John Paul warns against is not inevitable. another’s possession, not mine. I cannot take that back, (no. 1639). So the marriage contract or covenant means that Self-love remains in all of us as an obstacle to growth in true without injustice. each spouse undertakes to give his or her own self, and The debt is of course equally owed by the wife. One oblative love. A true commitment to marriage gives the each undertakes to accept the self-gift of the other, as she particular case might be referred to in this regard, and that’s grace and strength to gradually overcome individual It is against justice to violate the rights of another by taking or he actually is. where a wife denies the conjugal act to the husband self-love, to learn to understand the other in depth, to learn or damaging what is his or hers, and not just in relation to because she is annoyed with him for some real or imagined to forgive and to ask for forgiveness, to be tolerant with the material goods. A person has a right to their good name. But what exactly does this mean? Does “giving oneself” fault. This form of vengeance, taking advantage of male defects of the other and intolerant with one’s own defects. Gossip (undermining the good name of another, even if the actually mean that each spouse becomes the possession of weakness, is unwise as well as usually unjust. It solves faults spoken of are true) is one of the most common and the other, losing all rights over himself or herself? No, that is nothing and tends to make relations worse. In short, married love, to be true, must be more determined most mean-spirited faults against justice: mean-spirited not possible. There are certain personal rights and duties to make the other person happy than to be made happy by because one takes away from another without any gain to that are untransferable; for instance, the right and duty to Married life cannot be lived on the basis of tit-for-tat. When that other person. Otherwise it is not true married love and oneself – except the sad satisfaction of giving vent to envy work for one’s own salvation; or, for that matter, the right to justice becomes an issue between husband and wife, the will be too weak to make either happy. That is one side of or dislike. vote in an election according to one’s personal convictions. marriage is entering serious difficulties. After all, where there the story. Nevertheless, the phrase “mutually give and accept each is love and above all committed love, matters of justice, of Issues of justice arise when there is a contract or a mutual other” has a real and profound meaning that corresponds rights and wrongs, claims and debts, should be easily However, there are further aspects to marriage where agreement between two people by which one does precisely to the nature of true spousal love. solved. Love does not stand on its rights; it forgives. Love important issues of justice enter. Justice towards the

10 Faith I Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice I Faith 11 Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice “The bringing of children into the world asks continued more of the woman than of the man”

children. Justice towards the world. Justice towards God. showed them much respect or love. What or who today How easily we ignore or try to explain away the very first Finally, apart from being a matter of justice, it is also of Let us take a brief look at these, bearing two important inspires a natural respect? Loss of respect for everyone and command God gave to Adam and Eve and to all married course a question of faith and trust in God – always tests of points in mind. First, nothing that follows will have any everything is a hallmark of a civilisation in ultimate decline. people: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:38). the Christian life. As the prophet Isaiah says: “The Lord is a impact on those for whom marriage is simply a self- God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. At the satisfying venture and who are incapable of seeing it as a Nothing today is held as sacred, least of all sex and Are there unwanted children in the world? Not for God! sound of your cry, when he hears it, he will answer you. And calling, a mission, and a commitment of service and love. marriage. Chastity, before marriage or in marriage, is Although, sadly, it would seem that there are for world your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the And secondly, in principle, the themes of justice and mission ridiculed; only fools would try to hold by it. The family planners, and, more sadly still, for many parents. In a real way, walk in it’, when you turn to the right or when you turn in marriage apply equally to both husband and wife. Yet the means nothing. Why build a home when a mall or a disco is sense they are violating God’s will in depriving him of to the left” (Is 30:19-21). bringing of children into the world asks more of the woman much more fun? Having children? Well, perhaps just one or children he wanted and that they themselves in time would than of the man. To regard this as an unfair burden is the two, outside or inside marriage, may give some satisfaction have learned to love and treasure. God indicates the way. The question is whether we trust and modern feminist tendency. It takes prudence and wisdom, to me, but a child is such a burden! With an approach like love him enough to walk in it. as well as fortitude, on a woman’s part to see it as a that it is no wonder that Western society has been summed Spouses need to sense the pride as well as the challenge of distinctive feminine privilege. up as “The Lonely Crowd”. this God-given mission and duty. Facing up to it is the only way for persevering and growing in married love; the only Justice Towards the Children In the developing societies the problem is not over- way to that relative personal and family happiness that God Children are not an optional extra to marriage. To choose to population but corruption and mis-government. The solution wishes for married people here on earth, and for the marry is to choose to found a family; that is the only natural will only come from the children of generous parents who absolute happiness that he wishes for all in heaven. approach, and the only one likely to give happiness.4 So, have devoted themselves to creating a family with a the other side of the story is that couples have a mission to distinctive and cheerful personality, where the atmosphere Conclusion form a family, open to the natural fruit of their love. is one of generosity, mutual respect, honesty, loyalty and Our topic is justice. So, as we conclude, we must Notes 1In the measure in which one grasps this, one will be closer to understanding how a pride in one’s human ideals. emphasise that those who marry are in debt towards God. contraceptive marital act does not unite the spouses, but tends rather to separate This is a God-given mission. Most married people are They owe him what he has entrusted to them. Recalling the them. 2Covenanted Happiness, Scepter Press, Chapter 8. strangely unaware of what this implies, in terms of both Here in Nairobi we are not strangers to the western parable of the talents, we can say that the special talent 3Homily, 7 Oct 1979 (Washington, DC): http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/ privilege and responsibility. They think that the number of consumerist and hedonistic mentality; far from it. We can entrusted to the married couple is the generous formation john_paul_ii/homilies/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19791007_usa-washington_ en.html children, along with how spaced out they are in age, is their surrender to it, and lapse each one into a selfish, pointless of a family, and the determination to create a bright and 4We leave aside the few cases where a couple turn out to be naturally sterile. choice and no one else should have a say in the matter. and lonely life. Or we can fight to give to our children and to cheerful home. Those who, at the end, can render a positive 5It is John Paul II who makes this grave diagnosis: “our society... from various points of view, is a society which is sick, and is creating profound distortions in man” (Letter the future what we owe them. And so, whatever else account of how they have administered that talent, will be to Families, 1994, no. 20). Well, first of all the children should have a say. The spouses happens, we won’t die spiritually bankrupt. assured of a quick entry to the joy of the Lord. 6Allowing for the use, when justified, of NFP; cf. CCC 2368. are called to be parents, to form a family; but not a family most convenient to their calculated way of thinking, but one Justice Before God most generously conducive to the children making it up. Marriage is not a human invention. It was instituted by God That generally means a family of four or five children (or as a privileged gift to man and woman. People can misuse more), who are close enough in age to be able to fight or despise that gift as they are doing today. The great task together, to learn to make up, to realise that one cannot is to restore its dignity. That will only be done through always have one’s own way, to be loyal to each other. And couples who see marriage as a God-given gift, rejoice in its all of that under the dedicated and impartial refereeing of challenge and beauty, and respect the nature God gave it. the parents, who too are kept together by their shared Then it will come to life again. resolve to teach humanity to the unruly brood God has given them. God is the creator of marriage, and a party to each marriage covenant. He blesses the spouses and gives freely to them. Paul VI and the Year of Faith perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory.(24) In the Couples marrying are called not just to be a good husband Through the Church he teaches them their mutual rights and course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means and wife to each other, but to be good parents together duties. But he also has his rights in regard to married of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude.(25) towards their children. There are fewer greater missions: to couples – which means that, in marrying, a man and a In 1968 at the close of the last Year of Faith Paul VI form a real family where children find the atmosphere that woman also take on special duties towards God: duties to published a motu proprio, the Credo of the People of God. By these she makes her members participants in the helps mature them as honest, generous and responsible marry so as to create a home, duties to accept generously Below we publish the text of article 19, On the Church. Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the citizens. the children God wishes to give them,6 duties to maintain a grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her life and movement. united marriage and a united home that will both keep the We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, built (26) She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her Justice Towards Society spouses engaged in the task of learning to love, and help by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of Modern western society is beset with problems. Humanly the children grow in the reflection of their parents’ and of Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society grace: it is by living by her life that her members are speaking it can be said to be sick.5 The problem is not God’s love. instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that poverty; most people in the West have plenty to live on. community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim People of God they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation There is indeed a population problem, but it is not one of God does not want children to be born outside wedlock, or here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance over-population but of an ageing population (more and to grow up in a broken home. Nevertheless, he loves all the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through for these offences, of which she has the power to heal more old people, fewer and fewer young) and a people children. What he wants is that all be born and brought up which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of divided against itself, the old fearing the young and the in families where the parents, however poorly, reflect his continued throughout human history, and which looks for its the Holy Spirit. young despising the old. One of the reasons the young fatherly love. God’s clear right in this, as well as the clear have lost respect for the old is that the old perhaps never duty of couples, stems from the very institution of marriage.

12 Faith I Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice Woman and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice I Faith 13 A Tribute to Fr John Edwards SJ, 1929-2012 “‘Preach to the people with simplicity and piety… tell them the meaning of By Fr William Massie virtue and the danger of vice’ – that was the style and content of Fr Edwards”

Fr William Massie, parish priest in Scarborough, pays tribute the gospels, which owed much to eastern methods of mystical contemporary Church, or at least our sufferings, even when brought about through our own to a great Jesuit. contemplation – the rosary. not in ways that are pastoral and sins, can be a call on God for grace. For as the Church prays, convincing and true! So to make the sufferings we endure, if taken to Christ in the Sacrament John Edwards was a gunnery officer on a naval frigate during Fr Edwards worked as a parish priest in north London for some sense of “the Church’s teaching – designed for forgiveness, can bring us “increase of grace and the the Korean War when thoughts of the priesthood first began to years but entered into his stride when he began preaching God’s teaching actually” about sex and loving he would imagine reward of eternal life”, or, quoting from St Vincent de Paul, “the form in his mind. They followed a deeper conversion of life missions – in parishes and schools – up and down the country. listening to two experts, to two young lovers who have just had throne of God’s mercy is set on my wretchedness”. Here was brought about when he learned from a pamphlet picked up He also conducted retreats for many religious congregations sex for the first time, who were two real lovers, who want the immense encouragement to virtue alongside warnings against randomly from the back of a church about the extraordinary and groups of clergy and lay people. In a preface to one of his best for each other. For the girl it would go something like this: vice. “Does the Lord admit us into his presence with caution as miracle of the sun witnessed by several thousands during the books, a former bishop of Paisley, Stephen McGill, recalled a a ‘remedial apprenticeship’? Not a bit of it. He bounds towards Fatima apparitions of 1917. “If this is true then God is real…” retreat given by him to clergy years before, in the strength of “For this to be true and complete, I must know that you us and says, ‘Follow me!’ Imagine his choice of Levi, a man hot Fr James Hanvey SJ preaching at Fr Edwards’ requiem Mass in which he felt certain he had been stepping out briskly on the understand what it means to me. Because of what we have in his sins – a traitor, an apostate.” And to those who have been December told how, speaking recently about his vocation, Fr paths of the Lord. just done, I am now a different person. Not just in my body… disciples and have let their Lord down time and again there were Edwards had reflected thus: but in my very self. It is not just my body which I gave you and presented the scenes of Jesus after his resurrection. “St Ignatius Retreats and Missions which has been changed, it is my very self. It is I, totally, who says the Lord always comes as Consoler. The disciples fleeing “Now, it occurred to me that this was a just war and we were So what was so special about Fr Edwards’ missions and retreats? have been ‘possessed’ by you. And I see now why they use Jerusalem for Emmaus deserved to have their shoes blown off fighting it well, but [what] would [make] more sense, rather First, no one ever complained that what he said went over their that word: I can never be the same again now. And I want you them… Jesus rewards them with the Mass. Thomas doubted for than trying to blow people up, [would be] to try and make them heads. Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, later Pope St Pius X, warned to know that I am very, very glad. Glad to be possessed by eight days – he publicly denied a truth of the faith taught by the better: to be a doctor or a nurse; rather than inflict a blockade, against sermons “preached from the lofty heights of the pulpit” you; glad to have given myself to you; very, very glad that it is Magisterium [of Peter!]. The Lord says ‘Peace be with you’ and [it would] be better to grow food for them and, because I was a that were “nearer to the organ pipes than to the hearts of the you who have changed me.” Unfortunately Fr Edward’s book the punishment was the invitation, ‘Touch me – more closely than practising Catholic – although not a good one – I realised that faithful”. He advised priests: “Preach to the people with simplicity Ways of Loving is out of print, but I can assure the reader that anyone except my mother and the soldiers.’” the centre of the whole thing is sin actually. If you want to get and piety; give them the truths of the faith and the precepts of all the ends of marriage were very adequately discussed and to the fulcrum point and do something about that, you start the Church; tell them the meaning of virtue and the danger of that his conclusion – “outside of marriage: no deliberate, Several of those who took part in the most recent retreats with yourself. I thought of being a monk, but then I thought the vice.” And this was the style and content of Fr Edwards. On one willed, intended experience of sexual pleasure at all” – was were discerning their vocations with an eye to priesthood. idea of forgiving sin, just once, just one venial sin, was so evening of a typical mission he would speak of the “geography clear and coherent. Even the Lord’s prohibition of lust was The priesthood was not stressed, but the discernment of tremendous, that it would be worth anything trying for the of the afterlife” and encourage people to pray for their beloved made attractive as “an enormous compliment to women”. spirits was offered and explained in a way simple and priesthood.” Fr Hanvey commented: “Though the manner in dead. He explained indulgences as the “healing of the mutilations And his final remark won general if painful acceptance: “Tell enlightening. If we’re “blundering towards God” we’re led by which he expresses himself is fairly straightforward, there is left by our sins though they have been forgiven”. Then he would me the Church’s teaching on sex and loving is hard and I’ll consolations: “joy, peace, high spiritual morale, hope in high nothing naïve or simplistic about John’s reasoning or his invite people to come forward with names of their deceased loved agree with you; tell me it’s not beautiful and I’ll tell you you’re things”. If we’re pulled out of this direction the result is insight. It is his response in faith to the evil in the world. It is a ones on scraps of paper to lay before the monstrance on the altar. a liar!” When the history of the Church in our times is written, “desolation and low spiritual morale, darkness, doubt, direct and personal response to a direct and personal That showed true pastoral care. The truth that not only can we the question will be asked why, after the summer of 1968 depression, scrupulosity”. If we’re “blundering away from experience and I believe it was with him throughout his life. He still have contact with those we have loved who have died but we when Humanae Vitae was published, restating the truths on God”, willingly or unwillingly, “the devil incites us – sweet and understood then that the answer to the deep evil in the world can also help them is immensely consoling to the bereaved. At the need for sex to be open to life and within marriage, men plausible reasons given. The voice of the good Spirit can then and the suffering that we inflict on each other cannot, in the another time he would retell the story of the woman recorded in like Fr John Edwards were not asked to travel the length and be sharp! The spirit of darkness can disguise himself as an end, be some clever argument. It must be God himself and His Luke’s gospel, chapter 7, who bravely forced her way through to breadth of our land, to publish in our Catholic papers, to angel of light but he will give himself away by a cloven hoof Church and the capacity which only God has to bring ‘a Jesus in the home of Simon the Pharisee to weep for her sins at speak to our diocesan catechists and teachers. – excitement and compulsion rather than peace and greater good’ – as John expressed it in his writing – out of Jesus’ feet, wipe his feet with her hair and be told that her sins, tranquillity”. If uncertain as to a course of action, “experiment situations which seem completely lost. … It was to that her many sins, had been forgiven. Fr Edwards would comment: Son of Ignatius if you can and see if God ‘rewards it’. But never change a co-operation with God’s work that he gave himself with all the “We might think, ‘Lucky girl… to go to Jesus and be told that.’ Some of those who first encountered Fr Edwards at a parish previous good decision in a time of desolation.” supernatural resources of the priesthood, the sacraments and No, not really. We can do the same when we go to Jesus and mission then had the privilege of being guided by him through the spiritual exercises of Ignatius.” get our hands round his body, the Church, in the Sacrament of the Ignatian Exercises. The Jesuits are surely on home territory Oh, and advice for priests labouring in the vineyard, Penance.” With such beautiful and faith-filled ways of getting when preaching the Exercises and Fr Edwards was skilful apparently with little success: “If our work should be marked That “co-operation with God’s work” touched many lives and close to the Jesus of the gospels and finding there the Jesus of and deeply inspiring. His conferences were never dull. Just by self-emptying and humiliation, that’s ‘promotion’. Then transformed them. If the ministry of a priest is “tremendous” faith, of the Church as we live in her today, those who heard him as Admiral Lord Nelson urged his fleet to get alongside the we’re really identifying with our Master, whose life was were he only ever to absolve one sin, then the ministry of Fr were struck to the heart. Fr Edwards would hear confessions enemy and engage, the retreatant was told to get alongside marked by the crib, poverty and crucifixion.” John Edwards was rich indeed. during the Sunday Masses of a parish mission (a practice some Jesus Christ and ask for intimate, internal knowledge and union. priests frowned upon until John Paul II gave explicit recognition Those familiar with the Exercises will know the form: daily Perhaps Fr Edwards was saying in his missions and retreats little Early Life of its legitimacy and value in his 2002 Instruction Misericordia Dei) meditations on the entire history of salvation – from the creation that had not been said by countless good Jesuits over the John Edwards was educated at Ampleforth and then entered the and it would touch the hearts of priests to see their parishioners of the angels, and their fall, to the creation of the universe and years. But, thanks be to God and the Society of Jesus, he was Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, at 13. He went to sea in 1947 making their way to the confessional – some of them, one man, and our fall, to the arrival of Christ the Great King. “Crack, saying these things. He once remarked that he had only ever but left the Navy in 1953 to seek his vocation with the Society suspected, for the first time in years. crash… watch out, here comes our Lord. Terrifying? No – he had a few things to say but was discovering that he was now of Jesus. He was ordained a priest in 1964 and continued his comes… as a baby”. Once again, Fr Edwards’ skill, born surely “fashionable” again, and to an ever younger audience. His studies in Rome. Already as a young priest he was acquiring the Faithful to the Truth of his own prayerful meditation on Christ’s life and work, was to audience from Youth 2000, from the Faith movement, in skill of explaining the faith in ways fresh and convincing yet true Fr Edwards would often give repeat missions in parishes and explain the mystery of Christ with convincing insight and beauty. parishes in England, Ireland and Scotland, his loyal group of to tradition. In a letter to the Jesuit community in Farm Street re-visit priests once they had been moved on. As a result one Here too was practical advice. More on ways of praying: the those who attended Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Farm read out at his requiem, Archbishop Nichols recalled Fr Edwards often knew what he was about to say before he said it. But then acronym for remembering the stages of lectio divina was odd Street, were happy to fill his days with meetings and gatherings giving a day of recollection to English College seminarians in the he taught many a young, inexperienced priest how to speak but strangely memorable: Royal Marines are Politically Correct and a considerable correspondence. May this loyal son of the late Sixties. He recommended a method of prayer, centred on about matters which otherwise are rarely spoken about in the – Read, Meditate, Pray, Contemplate. There was more on how Church, son of St Ignatius, son of God, rest in peace.

14 Faith I A Tribute to Fr John Edwards SJ, 1929-2012 A Tribute to Fr John Edwards SJ, 1929-2012 I Faith 15 The Pro-life Voice on Campus “APS is going head to head with the biggest and By Alithea Williams most well financed and resourced student organisation in the country”

Alithea Williams, a recent graduate from Cardiff University and the former president of Cardiff always have the right to choose and is working with Abortion APS is Launched University Students for Life, is now a director and founding member of the Alliance of Pro-Life Rights…” So yes, APS is going head to head with the biggest Despite these difficulties, APS was formed in a spirit Students (APS). In the this article she explains the origins and aims and ideals of APS. and most well financed and resourced student organisation in of optimism. In February 2012, 10 students from four the country. But the pro-life voice can and must be heard – universities met to create a national body for pro-life and victories recognised. Recently, at Queens’ University students. For a disparate group of people who at first The Pro-life Voice in Universities the students union, the only response was to suggest they Belfast, students successfully campaigned to have a pro- couldn’t agree on anything we have come a long way. It often seems that there is an ever expanding number change their name. The next year, the same feminists put choice motion retracted, keeping the students’ union neutral. But even at the end of that meeting, I think we all had of pro-life organisations demanding our attention, and forward a motion that would require all students and student the sense that something significant had happened. We ultimately looking for our financial support. There are those organisations affiliated to the students’ union at Bristol “98% of the student body in the UK are now a registered company, with a full-time executive who engage in political lobbying, those who provide for University to adopt a pro-choice stance. The SFL committee director and support from figures including Lord David women in crisis pregnancies, those who educate, those spent months fighting this undemocratic motion, but despite does not even have the chance to hear Alton, Ann Widdecombe and Sr Roseann Reddy. Being a who hold demonstrations or prayer vigils… the list goes much hard work – which resulted in its members becoming the pro-life message” registered company does not mean that we are a profit- on. Consequently people rightly ask, do we really need notorious on campus – the motion was sneaked through. making organisation – far from it! However, it does give us another pro-life organisation? Can’t those already existing It seems incredible that in a democratic society, a students’ Attempts to silence the pro-life voice at universities remind us a governing structure and a degree of accountablility and all just work together? This is a common response made union, which is supposed to represent the interests of all just how important it is that pro-life societies continue to exist transparency. by those sympathetic to the pro-life cause upon hearing students, one group can seek universally to impose one and grow. A key insight of the Faith movement is that ideas about the mission of the Alliance of Pro-Life Students, a ideological view, and silence those who dissent from it. matter. Ideas trickle down from academia and influence and At this early stage of our development we do not have the new organisation dedicated to building, supporting and Fortunately, BSFL has managed to continue despite these shape our culture. APS shares that insight with the Faith administrative capacity to fulfil all the stipulations required connecting pro-life students. Although at APS we are all for restrictions, and later even put forward a joint motion with movement and we are deeply conscious that universities are to become a registered charity. We have just held our first co-operation, and although we fully support the fantastic the feminist society to help student parents. This led to the where the leaders of tomorrow are formed. We desperately launch event at the Merchant’s Hall in Edinburgh. This was work of existing pro-life organisations, we nonetheless firmly provision of crèche facilities and more flexible appointment need pro-life intellectuals, doctors, lawyers and politicians; intentionally a high-profile event. More than a hundred people believe that APS addresses a real need. Now, more than ever, hours for students, thereby allowing Bristol University to where will they come from if students never get to hear the turned up to listen and support us, despite being heckled we need a dedicated body to encourage and protect the become more inclusive towards those students who find message of life? The average student knows next to nothing on their way in by protesters, who had even tried to get the interests of pro-life students. themselves with child-care commitments. about abortion, euthanasia and embryo research, and venue to cancel our event. A crowd of nearly 200 came to our consequently cares even less. London launch to support APS and to hear Lord Alton speak The last few years have seen a real surge in student pro-life Lamentably this attempt to gag open and free debate was not eloquently in defence of the unborn. We were delighted with activism. Hundreds of young people have been brought an isolated event. Motions have also been put forward at In fact, we often welcome a bit of opposition, because at the success of our launches, and heartened by how many together at events like SPUC’s youth conference, and Life Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge and UCL. The case at UCL was least we know people are paying attention. It can often feel people believe in us. training days. New student pro-life societies have been notorious enough to receive media attention. After the like an uphill battle just to get people to attend talks, but formed up and down the country, from Exeter to St Andrews. Catholic society hosted a pro-life speaker, a motion was great things can be done. As well as BSFL’s student parents But APS is about so much more that one-off events or However, despite these positives, or perhaps because of passed stating that “any future open events focusing on the motion, there’s the example of Edinburgh Lifesoc, who held a high-profile gestures. Our mission is “to build university them, students who stray from the so-called pro-choice line issue of termination must invite an anti-choice speaker and a debate with a physical audience of 300 and a Facebook communities in England, Scotland and Wales that have a that is so entrenched in universities today are facing pro-choice speaker as well as an independent chair, to ensure audience of 3,000. Often, such events are the only chance lasting and profound respect for human life from fertilisation increasing levels of opposition and oppression. there is a balance to the argument”. Although this pays students have to hear crucial facts about life. But, out of 343 to natural death”. Essentially, we will be an umbrella group for lip-service to the notion of being even handed, push it to its universities, only seven so far have pro-life societies. This student pro-life societies across the country. Our minimum Although the strength of this opposition is a clear indication logical conclusion and its absurdity is apparent. Would this means that 98% of students in the UK do not even have the requirement for societies who affiliate with us is that they that the pro-life movement is vibrant and making progress, happen to any other student society? Would the Conservative chance to hear the pro-life message. share our understanding of what pro-life means. That is, that the mounting protests highlight the need for action to prevent society be forced to host Labour speakers for “balance” or the they respect life from conception until natural death. Our role the pro-life message being completely stifled. Indeed, the Atheist society a Muslim speaker? Of course not. Imagine the Challenges Facing Pro-life Work on Campus is not to micro-manage individual pro-life societies. APS does censorship being enforced through pro-choice motions in uproar if a student Lesbian Gay and Bisexual society were Another challenge facing student pro-life societies is their not take an official view on many things; for instance if a student unions is alarming not least because it endangers the forced to give a platform to homophobes. Why then must transience. Often these societies die out once a key individual society wanted to use graphic imagery, we might advise them right to free speech. The leadership of APS know, from those who hold pro-life views be subjected to such draconian has graduated; sometimes they last only as long as their on the pros and cons, but would ultimately leave it to their first-hand experience, how isolating it can be for anyone measures? The immediate purpose of the motion was to founder’s degree course. Many readers of Faith magazine will own discretion. We believe very much in the principle of trying to give voice to the pro-life cause on campus, and how obstruct the work of pro-life societies and ultimately to have known about, or been involved in, student pro-life work, subsidiarity. APS will not control individual societies: they will much true bravery is required to make a stand. strangle the pro-life voice on campus. The UCL Student Union but the oldest current society (Cardiff SFL) is only in its fifth continue to run themselves as before. also voted to adopt a fixed pro-abortion stance and formally year. Rather than being able to capitalise on the hard work of The Bristol University Pro-Life Experience affiliate itself to the organisation Abortion Rights. a previous generation of students, much time and energy is Aims and Ideals The story of Bristol University Students For Life (BSFL) is spent setting up pro-life societies in universities which until Our key aims and ideals can be summed up in three words: a case in point. In March 2010 the Cardiff University pro- Fortunately, after a hard battle by students and with advice recently had one already. build, connect and support. Following our Edinburgh launch, life society invited two Bristol students to attend the Third from the barrister Neil Addison, union trustees were forced to an eighth student pro-life society has joined the seven International Youth Pro-Life Conference. Despite not having admit that this move was “completely illegal”. In recent weeks, Furthermore, students who are committed to the pro-life existing ones in the UK. We aim to build more. Students for thought very deeply about pro-life issues before, within a year a radically pro-choice motion was withdrawn from King’s cause, even if they have great leadership potential, will Life of America, from whom we take great inspiration, helped they had started their own group. It would be safe to say that College London, but it is expected to return in March and we not necessarily have the know-how or pioneering instinct found 350 societies in six years. If we could achieve even these students were wholly unprepared for the opposition need to be ready. It is hardly surprising that these motions necessary to start up a pro-life society from scratch. External a tiny percentage of that success, think what a difference they faced from the outset. At their first public outing, the arise when the official website of the National Union of support, leadership training and connecting with other pro- that would make. We also want to build and train existing freshers’ fayre, their stall was ransacked by the feminist Students states: “NUS […] will unite against MPs who try to life students are essential in the work of building a culture of societies. We do this by having a full-time member of society and their leaflets taken. When they complained to take women’s rights away… NUS believes women should life in our universities. staff available to talk to students. And we aim to speak at

16 Faith I The Pro-life Voice on Campus The Pro-life Voice on Campus I Faith 17 The Pro-life Voice on Campus “More Christians were martyred in the last century than in all of continued Church history before 1900”

universities and hold training events and video conferences. at events run by SPUC and Life, and are in contact with Anglicans and Ecumenism terrifying Spirit of Vatican I that really mentions a Vatican statement on We also aim to produce a handbook, which would include Students for Life of America, Stand True, Priests for Life, sees the Church as the Pope’s personal interfaith marriages. The one paragraph information about how to set up a pro-life society, fund- Youth Defence in Ireland, and the National Campus Life After centuries of “good and truly fiefdom and him as its master rather that mentions the subject appears in raising ideas, a guide to writing a constitution and a list of Network in Canada. We would like to encourage students to brotherly relations” things have got than its servant.” a 2004 statement titled “The Love of useful contacts. This, along with our website, will be a great work with and perhaps take internships with these groups. rough – there are “tangible difficulties”, Christ Towards Migrants”. resource for pro-life students. in the diplomatic language of church “Imagine There’s no Heaven” Finally, we aim to support. We will be available to help any statements – between the Russian Since you’re probably as ignorant of the We also aim to connect. It is so important that like-minded pro-life group who needs it, by sharing our experience, Orthodox Church and the churches Look at suicide bombers, the guy at the thing as we were, It says that marriages students are brought together to share and inspire each providing resources and protecting their interests. We expect of the Anglican Communion, and the other table was saying. They show what between Catholics and non-Christians other. Being part of a (generally disliked) minority in a that pro-choice motions will continue to be put forward at Orthodox insist it’s the Anglicans’ happens when you believe in heaven. “should be discouraged, though to a university can be very isolating, and knowing you are not student unions. We plan to pool the experience of those who fault. So writes Metropolitan Hilarion The other guys at the table nodded or varying degree, depending on the alone means so much. Events like the SPUC Youth Pro-Life have already faced such motions, and put together packs of Volokolamsk, the Russian Church’s grunted in agreement. religion of each partner, with exceptions Conference have been instrumental in bringing students with all the necessary legal information. We also want to ecumenical officer, to the newly in special cases in accordance with the together, and have been very fruitful. It was because of provide packs for new groups to use at freshers’ fayres. And appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Everyone knows that. It’s the Time/ norms of the CIC and CCEO [in other events like this that APS could come into being, with four with the help of video conferencing we can talk to students Justin Welby. Vanity Fair/Slate.com line. Religion lets words canon law].” directors across the country, in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh face to face whenever they need it. people do horrific things to other people and Bristol. We plan to bring students together for training He brings up women priests and “in the name of God”. Belief in heaven It closes with a quote from John Paul II: days and a summer pro-life festival, as well as online. Our If you would like to find out more about the work and mission bishops, the blessing of same-sex makes people reckless. The world would “In families where both parents are Facebook page has already been very useful for sharing and of APS, please visit our website: “unions” and “marriages” (he uses the be safer without it. Catholic, it is easier for them to share stimulating debate. We are also connecting with other www.allianceofprolifestudents.org.uk quotation marks), and the ordination of their common faith with their children. organisations, nationally and internationally. We have spoken or call us on 07568 355 677. homosexuals. Of course, speaking with all due respect, While acknowledging with gratitude this is stupid. Recklessness goes both interfaith marriages which succeeded in These “deviations from the tradition of ways. If you believe in heaven, you’ll nourishing the faith of both spouses the Early Church …increasingly also sacrifice pleasures in this world, and children, the Synod encourages estrange Anglicanism from the and maybe even your life, for the good pastoral efforts to promote marriages Orthodox Church and contribute to a of others. All those Catholic hospitals between people of the same faith.” further division of Christendom as a didn’t get built by people like the guy at Notes From Across the Atlantic whole”. He hopes the Anglicans will the other table. Pro-Life Lefties by David Mills, executive editor of First Things listen and that “good fraternal relationships between us will revive”. It’s a matter of drawing out the timeline “Abortion”, writes the political director far enough. If you think, and really of the Huffington Post UK, “is one of We presume he’s not holding his breath. believe, that your life lasts through those rare political issues on which eternity, the cost of giving up even life left and right seem to have swapped Liberal Ultramontanism itself shrinks to nothing. ideologies: right-wingers talk of equality, human rights and ‘defending The distinguished Catholic historian Look at it this way. You’re 20 years old the innocent’, while left-wingers Eamon Duffy is “a theologically liberal and someone tells you that if for just one fetishise ‘choice’, selfishness and ultramontanist” in his fellow Catholic day you work like a dog with a unbridled individualism.” historian William Tighe’s striking phrase, psychopath for a boss, being alternately used in a short review we published in baked in the Sahara and frozen in Siberia, We think that’s much less of a surprise November. Bill tells us that he heard and being eaten by mosquitoes and than he does, but to his credit Mehdi Justice, Peace and the Martyrs who teaches at Notre Dame and wrote friendship not only among Christian one TLU insist that before breakfast the horseflies the whole time, you can cruise Hasan rejects the cultural left’s “my “Peace After Genocide” (June/July churches but also between religions,” Pope could declare that women could through the rest of your life without a care body, my life, my choice” line. Writing in Thousands and possibly tens of 2012), offers four ways in which the because “members of different faiths be ordained and then after breakfast in the world. You’d take the deal. the New Statesman he says: “Such thousands of Christians die for the modern martyrs advance the Church’s recognise holiness in martyrdom.” ordain as many of them as he liked. rhetoric has always left me perplexed. faith every year, notes Daniel Philpott, work of justice and reconciliation. At the crassest level, the level the Isn’t socialism about protecting the writing in the Jesuit magazine America. Finally, martyrdom invites forgiveness, This liberal ultramontanism helps theological expert at the next table weak and vulnerable, giving a voice to They have died in India, Vietnam, Iraq, First, their deaths testify “to the justice which for the Christian not only cancels explain the hatred some dissenting should understand, belief in heaven the voiceless? Who is weaker or more Colombia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, that is violated in their very murder: that the debt but invites others to Catholics (not Duffy) have for the Pope, makes saints as well as suicide vulnerable than the unborn child? Which Egypt, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Sri of religious freedom.” conversion and reconciliation. writes an English priest, Fr Ray Blake, bombers. We’d just point out that it’s member of our society needs a voice Lanka, China and Indonesia, most on his weblog. produced a lot more saints. more than the mute baby in the womb?” killed by Muslims. More Christians were Second, their deaths “afford church Martyrdom, Dan concludes, is an act of martyred in the last century than in all communities the chance to recognise in remembrance, like the Eucharist, in “They seem to have the idea that Mixed Marriages “I consider abortion to be wrong of Church history before 1900. each other what all Christians regard as which “we make the past present”, and anything they object to is the personal because of, not in spite of, my the truest devotion to Christ – following is an act we should perform often, and responsibility of the Pope, that he alone In an article on English women progressive principles,” he concludes. Their deaths, Christians know, bear him in his death on the cross.” Third, with gratitude. We would add that the is the brake, holding back their own becoming Muslims that we quoted “That I am pro-life does not make me much fruit. Writing in America, Dan, and similarly, “martyrdom witnesses to highest form of gratitude is imitation. vision of the Church. This is the a couple of issues ago, the author any less of a lefty.”

18 Faith I Notes From Across the Atlantic Notes From Across the Atlantic I Faith 19 Cutting Edge Notes From Across the Atlantic Science and Religion News continued

SSPX first year using the new translation of Starting with the absurd. A man in the Science and Scientism colonised the land and were soon “What is the nature of reality? Where the Novus Ordo, and everyone seems north of England was arrested and followed by other animals. did all this come from? Did the universe Readers may know that the Society happy. No one complains, anyway, convicted under the act for … even the At the heart of the natural sciences need a creator? … Traditionally these of St Pius X, the group that sort of left and everyone we hear around us at Anglophobes among you won’t believe is falsifiability, the ability to prove However, something as seemingly are questions for philosophy, but the Catholic Church after the Second Mass seems to have learned the new this … growling at some labrador a theory false by experiment or old-fashioned as fossil science may philosophy is dead.”4 Vatican Council (the theology of responses. There’s not an “And also retrievers. Oh yes, and saying “Woof.” observation. Usually, when a theory provide a new twist to this story. communion and schism is a subtle one), with you” to be heard. OK, there was The conviction was later overturned. It is contradicted in this way, it is not Retallack has investigated palaeosols Hughes points out that we must has ejected one of its four bishops. this one elderly man sitting behind us only cost the English £8,000. immediately abandoned but rather (sediments linked to fossilised soil distinguish science from the opinions of one Sunday who bellowed out all the adapted, or the data treated as suspect, indicating exposure to air, and thus dry scientists on non-scientific subjects. It Already infamous for his Holocaust old responses, and he certainly looked More worrisome, writes Melanie or other unknown factors invoked, land) from the Precambrian era. Fossil is not the number of scientists who hold denial, Richard Williamson led the angry, but just one man on one Sunday. McDonagh, the respected writer until the contrary evidence becomes soils are usually recognised by such an opinion that makes it valid, but the opposition to the reconciliation with the Matthew Parris, a Tory, reported overwhelming or an alternative theory things as plant roots, but it is difficult to scientific or philosophical merits of their Church offered by Pope Benedict. He Not what some people expected. Back listening to a pro-life Member of produced that accounts for the new data recognise a palaeosol in sediment that arguments. He gives the example of the apparently refused to obey the group’s before the American bishops finally Parliament and, noticing the man’s as well as the old. lacks plant roots. Geology and debates over embryonic stem cell superior general approved the new translation, the name, checked his religion. Finding out geochemistry show that palaeosols are research. Many of its defenders were and his council and wrote an open bishop of Erie, former head of the that the MP was a Catholic, he Such a revision concerning the early associated with rock formed under scientists and many of its opponents letter demanding that the superior bishops’ liturgical committee, warned dismissed his argument because “he stages of evolution on earth has non-marine conditions. Retallack were religious, so it was easy to general resign. that it might lead to a “pastoral presumably believes that … almost any recently been proposed by Gregory concludes that these palaeosols are caricature the debates as a clash disaster”. In a major public lecture, termination after conception is not just Retallack1 of the University of Oregon from rocks from the Ediacaran period. between the modern, rational, scientific The SSPX, headquartered in Écône, Donald Trautman declared that “as a a sin but a mortal sin.” in the magazine Nature. Many devout In his analysis the Ediacarans lived not view and an irrational, religious Switzerland, has insisted that the text for public proclamation, in many Christians still doubt the scientific only on the sandy beds of shallow, mindset. However, it was not the current pope is the pope but that the instances it borders on failure… As it McDonagh also mentions the criticism evidence for evolution, yet material sunlit seas but on land, in dry air, science that was in dispute but the Church he runs is somehow deeply stands, the New Missal is not pastorally that a professor of psychiatry at evolution is part of the unfolding of perhaps like lichens. These, then, were ethics, and ethics are not (to use the defective and “modernist”. The society’s sensitive to our people… Our liturgy University College Dublin received for what might be termed God’s script the first creatures to colonise the land. language of the Faith movement) members are, they say, true Roman needs not a ‘sacred language’ but a not declaring her Catholicism when written within Nature, something of If this theory is correct, the evolution of materially determined – and so cannot Catholics, faithful to the Church as she pastoral language”. writing on abortion for the British key importance to the philosophy and life from water to land did not happen in be empirically falsified. really is, without the deformations Journal of Psychiatry. theology of the Faith movement. The the way we thought it did. brought by the Second Vatican Council The bishop smuggles in a lot of dubious article referred to should remind us of It is said that Albert Einstein stated: (all of whose documents their founder ideas in that distinction between No one called for a pro-choice the detailed work that has been done The Folly of Scientism “The most incomprehensible thing signed). Theirs is “the Rome of the “sacred” and “pastoral,” and his foundation to admit its bias in a recent and is still being done in this field. about the universe is that it is ages”, as they like to put it. understanding of “vernacular” is more paper on the same subject. “It’s Austin L Hughes, a professor of biology comprehensible”, in other words than a little biased. He overlooks the religious belief that appears to Evidence for the common descent of all at the University of South Carolina, has governed by scientific laws. Even the The group’s announcement said that problems with the previous version, undermine the validity of your research living things is clear from their written a perceptive, thought-provoking strongest scientific arguments “this painful decision has become which is a little like ignoring the and your academic integrity,” she notes. biochemical similarities. For example, all article in The New Atlantis magazine, concerning the apparently unique necessary by concern for the common approaching white light when you’re “Secular prejudice doesn’t count.” living cells use the same basic set of concurring with my own view of human ability to comprehend the good of the Society of Saint Pius X and standing on a railroad track. nucleotides and amino acids. current philosophical trends in popular material universe fail to explain why this its good government, according to Finally, James Delingpole mentions that Evolutionary biology has come a long scientific presentations.2 One of these should be so. Hughes rightly criticises what Archbishop Lefebvre denounced: But we agree with him in calling for a his niece told him that whenever way thanks to developments in trends is “scientism”, the view that scientists such as Richard Dawkins for ‘This is the destruction of authority. translation, faithful to the Constitution students at her state school mention biochemistry and genetics, particularly science is the only source of truth and viewing humanity’s intellectual How can authority be exercised if it on the Sacred Liturgy, “that is accurate, Muhammad, they are required to add the ability to analyse DNA and genomes. reality. Hughes states: “It is frequently achievements merely as examples of a needs to ask all members to participate inspiring, reverent, proclaimable, “Peace Be Upon Him,” though they’re claimed that natural science does or generalised “survival of the fittest”; after in the exercise of authority?’” understandable, pastoral in every sense allowed to say “PBUH” instead. The consensus on the evolution of soon will constitute the entire domain all, many of these achievements have – a text that raises our minds and primitive life is that simple life forms of truth. And this attitude is becoming no evident survival motive, nor do they The SSPX demands more obedience to hearts to God”. We just think that’s “You can imagine the fuss,” he writes, (prokaryotes, organisms whose cells more widespread among scientists confer any fitness advantage. its leader than it is (at the moment) what we’ve got now. “if at every mention of the name Jesus lack a distinct nucleus) inhabited the themselves.”3 willing to give the pope it acknowledges Christ all children of whatever creed Earth about 3–4 billion years ago, Hughes points out that the advocates as the pope. But perhaps Williamson The Public Order Act were forced to raise their arms in the air eukaryotic cells (those with a nucleus Contemporary philosophers have of scientism labour under conceptual could say that despite all appearances and add ‘Our Lord and Saviour, He is which contains the genetic material) largely abandoned metaphysics and the confusions that are obvious upon he really and truly still belongs to the Last month, we published English risen, Alleluia.’” emerging 2-3 billion years ago. About resulting vacuum has been filled by philosophical reflection. In fact, far from SSPX because, though he disobeys barrister Paul Diamond’s report on 600 million years ago, in the Ediacaran vocal, intelligent, but (usually) philosophy being obsolete, scientism “Modernist Écône,” he is faithful to the official bigotry against Christianity in The Public Order Act, argues Rod period, multicellular organisms began philosophically untrained scientists gives a new impetus for its revival. “Écône of the Ages”. England, which uses the Public Order Liddle, source of the first story, “is used to appear in the oceans. Then came the whose pronouncements generally go Act and its outlawing of speech that … to criminalise people who express Cambrian explosion, which gave rise to unchallenged. Religion, and especially Notes 1‘Ediacaran life on land’, Gregory J Retallack, Nature The New Translation is “threatening, abusive, or insulting” inconvenient political views”. And also a huge diversity of life forms: most Christianity, is derided as fiction. This 493, 89-92 (3 January 2013). as an excuse. As it happens, a recent against anyone “who has been a bit types of modern animals appear in the attitude has influenced metaphysics, 2See Cutting Edge, Faith, May/June 2012. 3 As we write, the Catholic Church in the issue of The Spectator includes arsey to the fuzz and they can’t get him fossil record from this era. About 500 epistemology and ethics. Hughes Austin L Hughes, Fall 2012 issue, The New Atlantis. 4Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand English-speaking world is finishing the more evidence. on any other charge”. million years ago, plants and fungi quotes Stephen Hawking as saying: Design (2010), Random House Publishing Group.

20 Faith I Notes From Across the Atlantic Cutting Edge I Faith 21 “Islamic persecution of Christians has in many countries reached Comment on the Comments crisis point; but the leaders of most formerly Christian countries by William Oddie apparently do not even notice it, let alone protest about it”

Western Leaders and Take the recent appeals of four individual’s religious observance discriminated against if they still had Christians, considered together by the impinges on the rights of others, some “the choice of leaving their job and the Persecution of Christians European Court of Human Rights in restrictions can be made.” finding new employment”. The Strasbourg, three of which the Court essential thing, of course, however We have all realised, of course, that we cards containing this information, powerful guide for my conduct and my rejected, one of which it upheld. By a But exactly how does refusing to hard it may seem at first, is to see are living in an increasingly secularised between 2004 and 2006. When her values and my ideals.” majority of five to two, judges of the conduct a same-sex civil partnership this marginalisation not as a sign of society; we don’t need to be told it. re-conversion to her old faith emerged European Court of Human Rights ceremony, or refusing to give sex defeat but as the opportunity predicted Most us above a certain age can under the Morsi regime, Nadia was Well, now. President Morsi of Egypt is supported the claim of Nadia Eweida, a therapy to gay couples, impinge on more than 40 years ago by the present remember a time when the Christian sentenced to 15 years in prison; so too due to meet President Obama, possibly BA check-in clerk who was sent home anyone’s rights? There are plenty of Holy Father: religion, or at least Christian values, were her seven children. Even the in March. Jordan Sekulow thinks in November 2006 for refusing to registrars prepared to carry out this attracted from the surrounding culture clerks who processed the identity cards (writing of the case of Nadia Mohamed remove a small silver crucifix, that this procedure (which did not exist when “The church will become small and will at least a basic minimum of apparent were imprisoned. Ali) that the US State Department was a violation of her rights. Mr Ladele became a registrar): and the have to start afresh more or less from respect. A politician would tend not to should play “more of a role in Cameron duly tweeted that he was couples involved would have been the beginning… As the number of her draw attention to the fact that he wasn’t The case is the latest example of the discouraging this kind of persecution. “delighted that the principle of wearing quite unaware even of Lillian Ladele’s adherents diminishes … she will lose particularly a churchgoer. If asked increasingly dire plight of the nation’s The US should not be an idle bystander. religious symbols at work has been existence, let alone of her views on civil many of her social privileges… It will be about Christianity, he would make it roughly seven million Christians, say The US provides more than $1bn to upheld”. The genial Eric Pickles said partnerships. hard going for the Church, for the plain he was in favour of it: Churchill human rights advocates. Egypt each year. The State Department that he too was delighted. process of crystallisation and famously said he was “not a pillar of should speak out forcefully against this As for giving “sex therapy” to gay clarification will cost her much valuable the Church, but a flying buttress, “Now that Sharia law has become an kind of religious persecution in Egypt.” But what about the three Christians couples, how on earth would a energy… supporting it from the outside”. integral part of Egypt’s new whose claims were rejected by the heterosexual person remotely know constitution, Christians in that country But will it? Will President Obama use court? Cameron and Pickles said how to do that? And would a gay “But when the trial of this sifting is past, But we are now at a different stage in are at greater risk than ever,” writes that billion dollars (which he will add, nothing about them; nor, in most couple having difficulties in that a great power will flow from a more our growing secularity. In the West – Jordan Sekulow, executive director of don’t forget, to America’s multitrillion- reports that I heard, did the BBC (later it department really want the advice of spiritualised and simplified Church… and everything I now say applies as the American Center for Law and dollar deficit) to bring pressure on Morsi mentioned them in passing). someone so totally unqualified to give And so it seems certain to me that the much to the US – we have now reached Justice. “This is another tragic case to protect his own Christian minority, it? Would a heterosexual couple want Church is facing very hard times. The the point at which, not only is there a that underscores the growing problem Obama’s fellow Christians? Does the The court ruled against Shirley Chaplin, the advice of a gay sex therapist? So real crisis has scarcely begun. We will good deal of overt hostility to of religious intolerance in the Muslim “devout” Barack Obama give a flying fig a nurse who was told to remove a why did Relate fire Gary McFarlane in have to count on terrific upheavals. But Christianity, but even those who say world. To impose a prison sentence for about his brothers and sisters (even his crucifix necklace at work. The judges the first place? I am equally certain about what will they are themselves Christian behave a family because of their Christian faith sisters and brothers) in Christ? said Chaplin’s employer banned remain at the end: not the Church of the as though they have no belief in or sadly reveals the true agenda of this necklaces for health and safety And why exactly didn’t David Cameron political cult, which is dead already, but loyalty to the Christian religion and their new government: Egypt has no respect Of course, no other Western leader has grounds, so asking her to remove the and Eric Pickles support them? Even in the Church of faith. fellow Christians. for international law or religious liberty.” attempted to defend the Copts, either. symbol was not excessive – though the case of Nadia Eweida, are we not But no other Western leader has how this argument could be seriously entitled to doubt their sincerity? If “She may well no longer be the We are living in a world, for instance, in So, what, it might be wondered, will described himself as a “devout” upheld, when after a nursing career of Cameron, in particular, is so keen on dominant social power to the extent which Islamic persecution of Christians President Obama, himself supposedly a Christian, certainly not David Cameron, 30 years not a single incident had religious liberty, whatever happened to that she was until recently; but she will has in many countries reached crisis believing Christian, say about all this? though Cameron does say he’s a occurred remotely involving her crucifix his promise to legislate to protect it? enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen point; but the leaders of most formerly In an interview in Christianity Today believer, of sorts. in either health or safety, beats me. This is yet another promise which has as man’s home, where he will find life Christian countries apparently do not magazine, Obama once made the not been and probably will not be kept. and hope beyond death.” even notice that it is going on, let alone following avowal: “I believe in God and I’m a Christian and The judges also rejected the claims of And more to the point, why were protest about it. Buddhists in Burma, I worship – not as regularly as I should, Lillian Ladele, a local authority registrar government lawyers sent to Strasbourg It has become a famous passage; but yes. But Christians in the Middle East? “I am a Christian, and I am a devout but I go to church,” he said. “Do I drop who said her Christian faith prevented to argue against all four claimants, how are we to respond to its challenge? Christian. I believe in the redemptive to my knees and ask for guidance her from overseeing same-sex civil including Nadia Eweida? It is undoubtedly full of hope; but it Consider the shocking story (one death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. whenever an issue comes up? No, I partnerships, and Gary McFarlane, a warns us, in an almost Churchillian way, among an increasing number of I believe that that faith gives me a path don’t. But it’s part of who I am.” marriage counsellor who refused to This is what James Eadie QC, of struggles and apparent defeat ahead examples of the growing oppression of to be cleansed of sin and have eternal offer sex therapy to gay couples. In Cameron’s Government’s expensive before the “fresh blossoming”, the Coptic Christians under Egypt’s life. But most importantly, I believe in Not, though, so much part of who he is both cases, the court argued that barrister, told the court (on his behalf): broad sunlit uplands, of life in the true brand-new Islamist dictatorship) of the example that Jesus set by feeding as to make him want to defend his employers had been entitled to strike a that the refusal to allow an NHS nurse “Church of Faith” of the future. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was brought the hungry and healing the sick and fellow Christians in Egypt against balance between claimants’ rights to and a British Airways worker to visibly up as a Christian, and converted to always prioritising the least of these persecution. He’s a Tory so he’s a manifest their religious beliefs and the wear a crucifix at work “did not prevent The wonderful thing about this visionary Islam when she married a Muslim, over the powerful. Christian seems almost to be what he’s rights of others not to suffer either of them practising religion in pope, though, is that even as he looks 23 years ago. saying. David Miliband, unlike his two discrimination. private”, which would be protected by towards the struggles we will all have to “I didn’t ‘fall out in church’ as they immediate predecessors as Labour human rights law. go through, he makes real and He later died, and his widow decided to say, but there was a very strong leader is an atheist, and so is Nick Freedom of religion, they piously convincing his vision of the future: he return to her Christian faith, together awakening in me of the importance of Clegg. The real point is that so far as intoned, is “an essential part of the He argued that a Christian facing works it into the present reality in which with her children. She registered as these issues in my life. I didn’t want to their social beliefs and values are identity of believers and one of the problems at work with religious we already live. We only need to know such under the Mubarak regime, and walk alone on this journey. Accepting concerned, all three of our party leaders foundations of pluralistic, democratic expression needed to consider their that these things are true, and that he applied for and received new identity Jesus Christ in my life has been a are as alike as peas in a pod. societies … However, where an position and that they were not has seen this future; and lo, it is so.

22 Faith I Comment on the Comments Comment on the Comments I Faith 23 Letters to the Editor The Editor, St Mary’s and St David’s, 15 Buccleuch Street, “ In any organisation which tries to legislate its way to Hawick TD9 0HH, [email protected] equality some will end up being more equal than others”

willing to “enshrine gay marriage in law interesting reading, and from Nick apologist William Lane Craig – why? isn’t a shred of evidence of any living Further we would draw Mr Williams’ on the grounds of equality of right for Clegg. With the emergence of the black Because in Dawkins’ view Lane Craig thing ever evolving into some different attention to the words of Pius XII in his all, while in the name of the same churches, which are engaged in is an apologist for a genocidal deity kind of living thing capable of breeding encyclical letter Humani Generis: “For principle of equality forcing Catholic electoral registration drives and are with an inferiority complex who delights but infertile with its parent stock. All these reasons the Teaching Authority of adoption agencies with long and seeking to become a political force as in dashing children’s heads against living things go on producing young the Church does not forbid that, in successful records of placing children in America, the Coalition parties risk walls. If this were true we could equally after their own kind and no other kind. conformity with the present state of in loving homes to close down punishment in the marginal seats. argue that Mr Dawkins is an apologist human sciences and sacred theology, because those agencies will not place for the men who brought us the Nazi The Church’s teaching is incompatible research and discussions, on the part children with homosexual couples”. It could be argued that “gay rights” are death camps, Cambodia’s Year Zero with an evolutionary origin for Eve’s of men experienced in both fields, take William Oddie and ‘Gay Rights’ but a side show and that the defining and the Soviet gulags. body. Leo XIII’s encyclical Arcanum place with regard to the doctrine of The above were writing in a national issue delineating the gulf between the Divinae Sapientiae speaks in a way that evolution, in as far as it inquires into the Dear Father Editor, newspaper of liberal inclination within a Catholic Church and the modern world, Interestingly, a fellow Oxford professor would rule out such an origin. He also origin of the human body as coming From time to time William Oddie has few days of each other, so I do not or the “wider world” as Dr Rowan and atheist, Dr Daniel Came, said: “The uses the word “mirabiliter” to describe from pre-existent and living matter – for asked if “gay rights” are now the most think Catholics or Christians in general Williams calls it, is the acceptance or absence of a debate with the foremost the formation of Eve’s body from the the Catholic faith obliges us to hold prominent defining issue delineating can claim a monopoly of concern over rejection of the Jesus of history, his apologist for Christian theism is a side of the sleeping Adam – indicating that souls are immediately created by the gulf between the Catholic Church aspects of “gay rights” campaigning. Revelation and the structures he left for glaring omission on your CV and is of an event which transcended the laws God” [italics added]. and the modern world (Faith magazine the transmission of that Revelation. course apt to be interpreted as of nature. January-February and November- Furthermore, the judge who ruled cowardice on your part.” If you want to The teaching authority of the Church December 2012). I am not certain. against the Leeds Adoption Agency Yours faithfully, see Lane Craig in action there’s a The doctrines concerning the formation does not define on this issue but does While few reasonable people across said very firmly: “Those who follow Kenneth Kavanagh YouTube video of him beating of Adam and Eve were proposed by grant that it is quite legitimate to the divide dissent from the Catechism religious beliefs long established Byron Crescent Christopher Hitchens in a debate. the Catholic bishops and popes for enquire into the origins of the material of the Catholic Church’s teaching across Europe cannot be equated with Bedford more than 1,800 years before Leo XIII body. Mr Williams may disagree with us that homosexual people “must be racist bigots. Christian views have a I have no problem with reconciling a wrote that encyclical. They did this in on this matter, and he is free to do so, accepted with respect compassion legitimate place in a pluralist, tolerant form of evolution with scriptural their role as authentic teachers in the but we take issue with the implication and sensitivity”, few too, in my and broad-minded society.” The era R ichard DaWKINS and accounts of creation: does not Genesis Church. Why does the Faith movement that we are trying to overturn a settled experience, support a notion of “gay when gay presumptions cannot be Cardinal Pell tell us that God formed Adam from the seek to overturn this teaching? teaching of the Church. rights” which involves intolerance and questioned and challengers are (pre-existing) dust and breathed life oppression of those whose views differ silenced by police intervention or Dear Father Editor, into Adam? Faith and science are Yours faithfully, from “gay opinion”. smeared as phobic has passed. I welcomed the commentary in Faith complementary. Tim Williams Praise from across the pond magazine (July-August 2012) regarding Madison Terrace, Writing in The Times, Henrietta Royle, Susie Leafe, a member of the General the “debate” between Cardinal Pell and Yours faithfully, Hayle, Cornwall Dear Father Editor, chief executive of the coaching and Synod from the Truro Diocese, and a Richard Dawkins. Christopher Keeffe strategy consultancy firm Fanshaw feminist, provided us with a wider and 155 Butler Road Editorial comment Sorry to bug you, but I just wanted to Haldin, made the point that while most useful analysis. She pointed out that It appears to me that Professor West Harrow We are extremely grateful to Mr say thanks for making your religion Conservatives have no difficulty with we have become used to thinking that Dawkins is presented as some kind of Middlesex Williams for his letter. We would page – http://www.faith.org.uk/Links/ equality for gay people, “a significant equality has been achieved when the “bogeyman” to frighten those with wholeheartedly agree with him that EducationLinks.htm chunk of the party’s core supporters state ensures that everyone is treated faith. God created “by his Word” but would clearly doesn’t think that has to include in the same way. She went on to say Evolution and the origin argue that to understand properly what My name is Sarah Taylor and I’m a redefining the traditional concepts of that George Orwell recognised that Yet having travelled through his book of the Human body is meant by God’s “Word” one must Sunday School assistant in Oklahoma. marriage to suit a small portion of the “when the authorities claim they are The God Delusion it is clear that read the Prologue to St John’s Gospel. While I usually work on the music population without so much as a by acting in the interests of ‘equality’ it is Dawkins has a very childlike image of Dear Father Editor, coordination, I’ve recently been helping your leave”. She continued: “There are usually little more than a thinly veiled God. He seems incapable of In your comment on Fr Kevin The Word was with God in the out with a world religion seminar. Your plenty of Labour supporters who feel attempt to establish the supremacy of understanding that a mature faith, like O’Donnell’s letter, in your November- beginning and was God but that Word site has been very helpful! Thank you! the same, as that party well knows.” one factional interest over all others”. a mature relationship, knows and December issue, you use the words became flesh. In Faith magazine She believes that in any organisation accepts that life between the lover and “emergence”, “progress” and we propose a vision in which God’s Yours faithfully, Tim Montgomerie, founder of the which tries to legislate its way to the loved is not always easy. “evolution” in connection with the creation is ordered unto the Word Sarah Taylor Conservative Home website, also equality some will end up being more origins of the human body. becoming flesh. Oklahoma writing in The Times, seemed to equal than others. Dawkins presents his ridicule of faith as question the wisdom of “a plan to a positive proposition: there is probably What strikes one about these words We would note, too, that the Church introduce gay marriage which will so Homosexual people do not form a no God so we should just get on with – all of which denote a process – is that has never interpreted the book of enrage some Christian voters that homogeneous group; they hold a range life. If he is going to adopt this stance they owe everything to Charles Darwin Genesis in a simplistically literal way. they’ll form a campaign that endangers of opinions on gay rights, equality and he must be prepared to accept the and nothing to Holy Scripture. The Long before Darwin published his [Tory] MPs in marginal seats.” tactics. The fanatical impetus for philosophical burden of proving the Bible is eloquent that God created by Origin of Species St Augustine was change is coming not from gay people non-existence of God. His Word – by fiat. One has only to read interpreting the book of Genesis in a And Paul Simons, writing in the Times as such but from a small caucus Genesis and the Psalms to see this. highly sophisticated way. We would correspondence columns, described surrounding David Cameron, whose Dawkins has failed to debate with that There is also an ineluctable chemical refer Mr Williams to the great bishop of as “dysfunctional” a society which is interests and affiliations make excellent American Protestant obstacle to Creation as process. There Hippo’s De Genesi ad litteram.

24 Faith I Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor I Faith 25 “The English National Curriculum has many weaknesses and they almost all spring from Book Reviews its lack of any coherent philosophical basis”

In its layout the Companion is designed for us to experience and encourage Beauty In the Word – Rethinking philosophy of education has always please. One important practical point: to be a working document with space within one another a shared thirst for the Foundations of Education said: “The ‘Catholicism’ in a Catholic the governors of Catholic schools can left for notes and reflections. It includes the truth about God and about our school cannot be added on to an now opt for Academy status. This enhanced references to Veritatis existence. By Stratford Caldecott, Angelico Press, existing curriculum or atmosphere.” enables them to determine their own Splendor and comes with the original 2012, 168pp £9.95 curriculum instead of being forced to Catechism paragraph numbers, which Praying the Creed together at Mass The author writes: “This book is part of follow the politically correct, and are very useful for cross-referencing. defines what we believe as a Catholic Stratford Caldecott is a serious author a wider ongoing project, and I am anti-Christian, National Curriculum. So Comparing several paragraphs allows Community. How we receive, who has a high view of education, excited at the prospect of helping to a Catholic maintained school could the reader to see that Fr Tolhurst’s understand and essentially put into which this book expresses. It is a noble develop over the next few years … implement the ideas of this book. intention is to make the language of the practice this experience marks us out book which will be a stimulus to all other books and supporting materials Catechism more fluid and less as Christians. It is fitting then that Pope concerned with education. for homes, schools and parishes.” Is Since Academy schools are not under A Concise Companion and academic. It also has an excellent Benedict has chosen to explain the this a weakness, the current lack of the the control of local authorities, it is a Commentary for the Catechism appendix that looks at Catholic Prayers Creed further in this book, working his The book considers a Catholic practical applications of the theory? source of great wonder to me that all of the Catholic Church in an attempt to further bolster the link way systematically through each philosophy of education, with especial Not at all, but it could be seen as such Catholic maintained schools have not between faith learning and faith section, hoping throughout to reawaken regard to the Triduum of ancient in pragmatic England, where theory is opted for this status; it is an even By James Tolhurst. Gracewing, 1994, practice. and re-educate. civilisation: grammar, dialectic (logic) not highly regarded. greater wonder that the Catholic 218pp, £9.99 and rhetoric. The author outlines what diocesan authorities are, it seems, While the language used by Fr Tolhurst What underpins the entire body of this these were in the ancient world, gives One would also want to argue that in actually discouraging the governors of In this Year of Faith it seems that we are is certainly easier to understand, the text is the desire of the Holy Father to something of their development England, in the independent sector, Catholic schools from exercising their all being called, at a level suited to our Companion is by no means simplistic. It communicate the essential nature of through the centuries and then explains there are Catholic schools with a very legal right to opt for Academy status. own situation, to engage with, be requires us to be active participants in the love of God. Love as freedom, love how they fit in today and why they are Catholic curriculum. One of my One of the most distinguished Catholic challenged by, and essentially grow in our own learning, not passive and as relationship, love as sacrifice and so important. Those who recommend grandsons, aged 14, studies at his maintained schools in England understanding of our own personal faith unthinking. Not only is Fr Tolhurst love as hope: “Whoever is moved by the book – and there are several Catholic independent school the describes itself thus in its official and also the faith that has been passed encouraging the faithful to use the love begins to perceive what ‘life’ really celebrated names – are highly following subjects: English (with visits literature: “State-funded Independent down to us by the Apostles. Catechism as a living document, is.” He constantly directs us towards distinguished in the world of to Shakespeare productions and poetry Catholic School”. O si sic omnes! something that is integral to maturation understanding our relationship with philosophy. learned by heart), Latin, Greek, French, One of the key works that grants us of faith, but he is also attempting to God as a living and lived reality, always history, geography, mathematics, Something of the flavour of the book access to information about the latter is equip us to answer questions about our nudging us to take this understanding There is, of course, very much a need physics, chemistry, biology, art, music can be obtained by visiting Stratford the Catechism of the Catholic Church faith that others may ask of us: “I out into the world in service of our for books of theory, especially and, of course, religious education, as Caldecott’s website http://beauty-in- which, while being a document of fervently hope that this volume will help neighbour, which in turn leads us into a curriculum theory, which is predominant well as learning three musical education.blogspot.co.uk/ fundamental importance and to highlight what is basic and essential deeper and more fulfilling relationship here. The English National Curriculum instruments, debating, acting in accomplishment, can for some seem in Catholicism and encourage us all to with Christ. has many weaknesses and they almost Shakespeare and playing number 8 for Eric Hester complicated, dense and intellectual. For live it in our lives and explain it to those all spring from its lack of any coherent the rugby XV of his age group. Bolton these and other reasons, Fr Tolhurst who ask it of us.” Throughout this book, the Holy Father philosophical basis. This book is at its observes that the Catechism is too weaves clarity of understanding of the strongest in relating its theory of the His cousin, one of my granddaughters, The Unintended Reformation often left unused and unconsulted in The beauty of this Companion is that it historical context of the constituent curriculum to theology. The book is at another Catholic independent school many homes. A Concise Companion is not another person’s view of the parts of the Creed with succinct and subtitled “Rethinking the Foundations has a similar curriculum. I think that the By Brad S Gregory. Belknap Press of and Commentary for the Catechism of Catholic faith. It is the same faith we thought-provoking contemporary of Education”. best Catholic independent schools in Harvard University, 2012, 574pp, £25 the Catholic Church is written as a live and profess, explained in a way that insights for Christians today to ponder. England represent a practical model remedy to these reactions and will be much more accessible for many Essentially, he brings the Creed to life The book is concerned with that should be considered alongside Nowadays, historians are presenting experiences of many Catholics and as a Catholics. for us and invites us to respond. fundamentals of religious educational the theory of this most interesting book. the Reformation without all the anti- work that will hopefully provoke the philosophy. Anthony Esolen, writing in Catholic propaganda: no longer it seen faithful into a living relationship with I Believe In One God: The Creed This book is a satisfying and the Foreword, states the nature of the I do hope that teachers will read this simply as a victory over Roman their faith, which is underpinned by Explained enlightening read, sharpening the focus problem: “We do not know what or how book as well as governors, those obscurantism. Cardinal Wolsey was no knowledge and understanding. on something so integral and familiar to to teach children because we do not important people whose powers are advertisement for the Church, but the By Pope Benedict XVI, St Paul’s us as Catholics. During this Year of know what a child is, and we do not being stolen in many Catholic machinations of someone like Thomas Fr Tolhurst begins his book by Publishing, 2012, 160pp, £9.99 Faith, this book could be read in know what a child is because we do maintained schools by local authority Cromwell leave a bad taste. … explaining the journey and purpose of sections as part of a more meditative not know what man is – and Him from and – dare one say – diocesan the Catechism. For those of us who Both the foreword and the introduction approach to understanding the Creed whom and for whom man is.” The bureaucrats. One knows of schools Professor Gregory takes an original have never known our faith as separate of I Believe In One God: The Creed or as a resource for use as part of a author himself says that we cannot talk where the important duties of governors approach to the upheaval of the 16th from the existence of the Catechism it Explained draw our attention to the study group. However it is approached, about the curriculum because we do are being concealed and they are being century. He divides his book into six provokes a response of gratitude and monumental opportunity that lies before an enhanced and deeper understanding not know what life is for: “It is as sidelined by being given most sections: God, doctrine, the Church, thankfulness for the clarity of message us in this Year of Faith. It is an of the core beliefs of our Church will though we were attempting to construct unsuitable, and essentially trivial, tasks morality, capitalism and knowledge. In granted to us in its pages. He then opportunity to further develop our own surely follow. the top floor of a building without such as superficial school visits. each section he examines what the systematically follows the four sections faith but, as the many events and bothering with the lower floors or reformers taught – with their of the Catechism from the Profession of publications planned for this Year Natalie Finnigan foundations.” Well put. The book It would be good to get the bureaucrats concentration on the ipsissima verba of Faith to Christian Prayer. testify, it is also an unmissable chance Glasgow emphasises what the Catholic to read this book – prayers to St Jude, Scripture, and the influence of the new

26 Faith I Book Reviews Book Reviews I Faith 27 Book Reviews continued PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES EDWARD HOLLOWAY learning – and the unintended results of many ways, badly. The Counter- that Trinitarian speculation began with their teaching. Reformation retained the virtues and Karl Rahner. Intending no disrespect to devotions and produced saints and the great Jesuit theologian himself, the In the case of doctrine, the rejection of new religious orders, but regarded with way Trinitarian theology has been Rome in favour of Scripture as the sole suspicion any new insights (especially taught, with admittedly a few Volume 1: Volume 3: authority led to conflicting views among in the sciences). The Jesuits, who made honourable exceptions, has left many the reformers themselves concerning cautious attempts to bridge the gap, of us unaware of the preceding 2,000 A Critique of an Abstract Scholasticism Noumenon and Phenomenon: who was to interpret the Word of God. ended up being suppressed for their years of reflection on the matter. The and Principles Towards Replacement Rethinking the Greeks in the Those who argued from the pains by Clement XIV. It is only recently course I followed on the Trinity in fundamentalist approach were always that there has been any sort of a seminary threw me straight into Age of Science going to be in the minority. The more synthesis – and this is still being fiercely Rahner’s “grundaxiom” with no Volume 2: latitudinarian majority gradually saw resisted in some quarters. background whatsoever. I don’t think I Rethinking the Existential reason as a way to interpret God’s am alone in this experience. Price per volume: £5.00 +p&p revelation. The view of God as Creator Professor Gregory calls attention to the of all tended to give way to the natural effect of concentrating on the value of You will have noticed that the price of science view, which seemed to offer a Scripture at the expense of the ordinary this book is marked in dollars rather satisfactory explanation. pursuit of virtue, bolstered by the than pounds. At present it is difficult to sacraments (especially the Mass), the get hold of in the UK. Nevertheless for Available from: The author is particularly interesting in consecrated life of priesthood and anyone trying to plug a hole in their Sr Roseann Reddy, Faith-Keyway Trust Publications Office, 104 Albert Road, Glasgow G42 8DR his section on capitalism, which he religious and the whole devotional life theological knowledge I heartily calls “the goods life”. The Golden Age – all banished as popish superstitions. recommend taking the trouble to find a of Holland plays a major part in the The new house, “empty, swept and put copy and read it. I am thinking here process because it was seen how in order”, brought with it new problems. especially of busy priests in a parish. complete religious toleration went with The reformers paid a dearer price, but conspicuous growth in GDP. With less the Catholic Church – having corrected At 200 or so pages it is relatively short. emphasis on a single religious many of the abuses of which it was Not being a French speaker I can’t erspectives denomination, avarice came to be seen guilty – was then content to insulate vouch for the accuracy of the P ST PHILIP’S as “at worst a public virtue, despite itself from new insights, and it too is translation, but I can vouch for its being a private vice”. now suffering the unintended readability. One might need some in Theology consequences of its isolation. theological background but it is Vol. One BOOKS That this mentality spread can be basically accessible. The chapters Christ the Sacrament of Creation Rare and secondhand Catholic books gathered from the portrait of Captain Readers will have to forgive the follow a traditional format moving from Edward Holloway bought and sold. Distributor for Bernardo de Vargas Machuga, painted technical expressions – some of which Scripture to Tradition and the councils in 1599 with the motto “By compasses may be familiar to Ivy League of the Church. After that comes a sort Newman’s Letters and Diaries. The first volume of collected writings by Fr Edward and the sword, more and more and graduates, though I am still not sure of doctrinal synthesis which is basically Holloway seeks to present his contributions to Faith more.” Whereas surplus income had about ‘supersessionisal’ They will also Thomistic. This is then followed by Proprietor: Christopher Zealley formerly been diverted to charitable note that there are nearly 150 pages of an illuminating chapter on how the magazine to a wider readership. A champion of Catholic orthodoxy, Fr Holloway sought to bring causes, now it was diverted to oneself: notes – in case you think that the Trinity relates to us and how our 82 St Aldgates, Oxford OX1 1RA “merchandise of gold and silver. …wine author is short-changing you! There are salvation is wrought by the Trinity. This about a new reconciliation between science and and oil. …chariots and slaves, and the many other little gems in this well- chapter in particular is helpful because religion. In this way he anticipated and also participated Tel: 01865 202 182 • Fax: 01865 202 184 souls of men” (Rev 18:12ff). written and frequently amusing book. it brings home the relevance of the in Pope John Paul II’s programme of intellectual Quarterly catalogues free on request. The author presents cogent arguments Trinity to our lives. renewal in the Church. In this volume you will We travel to buy collections of Catholic books. He also highlights the marginalisation of which need to be considered. This find stimulating writing on the key themes of his theology – as a result of the nature of book should keep you going till Lent. The book does not, perhaps, offer the synthetic perspective, including the existence of Shop in central Oxford, near Catholic Chaplaincy. internecine religious squabbles, and the most daring of speculative analyses nor God; the development of Scripture; Christ as Son Over 9,000 books on view, new and secondhand. increasing role of the new learning. This Fr James Tolhurst is it the last word in Trinitarian theology, of Man; Mary Immaculate; the nature of the gradually lessened the influence of Chislehurst, Kent but it is full of good, solid Catholic Church, and much more. religion on those who formed national doctrine. This volume is the first to be Visitors welcome policy and tended to substitute ethical The Trinity: An Introduction to the published in a new series entitled Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm. considerations for religious morality – Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God “Ressourcement Thomism” by the 15 minutes walk from railway station or making governments the arbiters, and Catholic University of America Press. If 160 pages £8.95 5 minutes from Westgate car park. social expediency the rationale. So now By Giles Emery OP, trans Matthew the subsequent volumes are as useful ISBN 1-871217-50-4 you know… Levering, The Catholic University of as this, the series is something to get [email protected] America Press, 2011, 219pp, $24.95 excited about. Available from: Catholicism reacted slowly (the Council www.stphilipsbooks.co.uk Sr Roseann Reddy of Trent’s 18 years make EU summits Anyone educated in theology in the last Fr Kevin Douglas look like a walk in the park), and in 30 years might be forgiven for thinking Hawick 104 Albert Road, Glasgow G42 8DR

28 Faith I Book Reviews faith From the Aims and Ideals of Faith Movement

Faith Movement offers a perspective upon Our understanding of the role of Mary, the unity of the cosmos by which we can the Virgin Mother through whom the Divine show clearly the transcendent existence of Word comes into his own things in the flesh God and the essential distinction between (cf. John 1:10-14), is greatly deepened and matter and spirit. We offer a vision of God enhanced through this perspective. So too as the true Environment of men in whom the dignity of Man, made male and female “we live and move and have our being” as the sacrament of Christ and his Church (Acts 17:28), and of his unfolding purpose in (cf. Ephesians 5:32), is strikingly reaffirmed, the relationship of word and grace through and from this many of the Church’s moral the prophets which is brought to its true head and social teachings can be beautifully in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of explained and underlined. Man, Lord of Creation, centre of history and fulfilment of our humanity. Our redemption through the death and resurrection of the Lord, following the tragedy of original sin, is also thereby seen in its crucial and central focus. Our life in his Holy Spirit through the Church and the Sacraments and the necessity of an infallible Magisterium likewise flow naturally from this presentation of Christ and his work through the ages.

www.faith.org.uk