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Newyddiadur Swyddogol Esgobaeth Caerdydd Issue 280 April 2020 Official Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Cardiff Pick up your FREE Catholic People copy today WE MUST FACE THESE DIFFICULTIES TOGETHER PASTORAL LETTER OF ARCHBISHOP They may also contribute to our Lenten prayers of the Church. choosing. The cross cannot be GEORGE STACK FEAST OF ST JOSEPH – discipline. The 8.8 million people in this country avoided. It has to be embraced in 19TH MARCH 2020 over the age of 70 must obviously have our A time of testing faith and lived through in order to special care as we are particularly vulnerable in catch a glimpse of what lies Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, this pandemic. A significant proportion of our I want to assure the priests and beyond. Although our celebration clergy also fit into this category. In the Church, people of the Diocese of my of this Easter may have to be We are living in strange and worrying times. we have a good network of outreach to the prayers for you and your loved more muted than in past years, Who would have thought that, following the elderly, sick and housebound. At this time, the ones, and for your parish the truth it celebrates will never natural disasters of recent months, we would good neighbour will ensure that those living community. I am grateful to those diminish. “Life and death now be facing the dangerous realities alone should be contacted and reassured that who have worked hard to provide contended. Combat strangely surrounding the coronavirus pandemic? Yet help is near at hand, should it be needed. information and help not least ended”. Our belief is that life will this is the new reality with which we have to through the Archdiocese triumph over death. That light will live. We have to adjust our everyday patterns Our churches will remain open website, social media and “The conquer darkness. The words of and lifestyle to these very challenging Catholic People”. These days of St. John Paul II are profoundly circumstances. I want to write personally to Bearing in mind what I have written, you will Lent are a time of testing as we significant at this time: each person in the Archdiocese of Cardiff as know that the Bishops of England and Wales follow our suffering Lord Jesus to “Do not abandon yourselves to we face these difficulties together, and in have implemented the decision to suspend the Calvary and beyond. The suffering despair. We are an Easter People support of others in our local community. public celebration of Mass in our churches on of the cross to which we attach and Alleluia is our song”. Good health is a precious gift. The advance Sundays and Holy Days. This decision includes ourselves cannot be avoided in of medical science and the development of a dispensation from the obligation to attend the painful circumstances of our With every blessing our National Health Service over the years Mass because of the danger of these times. lives. These are not of our George Archbishop of Cardiff have ensured that the quality of our lives has This cessation includes weekday Mass as well, rightly improved. “Life is precious. Handle with although the priest may celebrate Mass For further advice on the Corona virus look at the Catholic Bishops of Prayer” read a Wayside Pulpit some years ago. privately without a congregation. Our churches England and Wales site at https://www.cbcew.org and the Welsh These words seem particularly relevant during will remain open wherever possible in order government site at https://gov.wales/coronavirus. the health crisis we now face. I have attached that people may use them for private prayer two prayers which you may find helpful to use and devotions. The essence of these personally whether self-isolating or trying to go measures is that people must not gather in about the daily business of life. groups with all the dangers of cross infection this entails. Prayers and good works This decision has not been taken lightly, recognising that the Mass is the hallmark of Prayer and good works are the hallmark of the Catholic faith and practice. A number of follower of Jesus Christ. We do pray for all churches have the capacity to ‘live stream’ the those who have been infected by the virus, celebration of Mass in the absence of a especially those with underlying health congregation. It would be good to view these conditions which make them even more prone transmissions and join in the prayers with to serious missals, the scriptures and other worship aids. illness. As good citizens, it is essential that Failing that, traditional Catholic practices such we heed government and medical advice, as the Prayer of the Church, Lectio Divina, the whether it be self- isolating or not gathering in Rosary, Stations of the Cross and the desire to big numbers in addition to undertaking the make a spiritual communion. These actions will basic hygiene instructions. Working from home join us together as members of the Mystical where possible, avoiding non-essential travel, Body of Christ. We may be physically more limiting social outings. All of these measures separated at this time, but we remain united have their place in helping to avoid infection as through faith and baptism in bonds which well as the danger of cross contamination. cannot be broken. No one is forgotten in the 2 CATHOLIC PEOPLE ‘Battersea boy’ who only wanted to be a simple parish priest but became Archbishop of Cardiff and later Southwark Peter Smith liked to say that he paedophile ring, Smith was aghast was “just a Battersea boy”. that McSweeney had lied to him. Certainly the tenth Roman “He could not understand how Catholic Archbishop of anybody who professed to love Southwark, to give him his full God could abuse anyone,” recalled title, was never accused of a colleague. As Smith walked putting on clerical airs or graces. through London wearing a dog Puffing a Silk Cut cigarette and collar, strangers unaware of who he sipping a gin and tonic, Smith was sometimes shouted anti- would relay, with mischief in his clerical abuse. “Sometimes people blue eyes, how he had tried without spit,” he told an acquaintance who success to evade high had witnessed this. “It is just how it ecclesiastical office. “All I wanted in is.” Peter Smith was born in life was to be a simple parish southwest London in 1943, the priest, and I’ve been thwarted,” said younger son of Cuthbert Smith, a the man who was twice an technical clerk at a printing press, archbishop. and Kathleen (née Kennedy). He In 1995 he had been asked to attended Clapham grammar school be Bishop of East Anglia. “Can I and then worked for a year at say no?” was his initial response. Coutts & Co, the Queen’s bankers, Six years later he was in the shrine where he smoked a pipe. The day of the Virgin Mary in Walsingham, he blew ash over a letter, he Norfolk, when he took a call from swapped to Rothmans, becoming the papal nuncio. “It is good that a lifelong chainsmoker. Coutts you are in Walsingham because offered Smith a post after he Our Lady said ‘yes’ (to the Angel finished his degree in law in 1966 Gabriel),” the nuncio purred down at Exeter University, but by then he the phone. “Now you are going to had sensed a call to the say ‘yes’ to the Holy Father and go priesthood, to the surprise of his to Cardiff.” Anglican father. Trouble shooter “But the Ordained in 1972 Upon arrival at previous archbishop hasn’t St John’s Seminary in Wonersh, resigned yet,” sputtered Smith. Surrey, he was greeted by a The Tablet's tribute to Archbishop Peter However, the incumbent, John clipboard-clutching priest who Ward, had the previous day been remarked, “Ah yes, Smith. You’re Archbishop Peter’s long-term public affairs several other issues that raised challenging obliged by the Vatican to resign his from the world.” (Many training for adviser Charles Wooky remarked that you moral questions. see, after a scandal involving two the priesthood had attended junior knew you had arrived at the right venue Charles Wookey referred to the Archbishop's paedophile priests in his seminary.) He was ordained in when you saw him standing at the door, as “combining firm convictions, calm wisdom archdiocese. Both were jailed. Amid 1972, sent to Rome to study canon cigarette in hand (often already on his and clarity of thought and argument with a the ensuing uproar, the Vatican law and returned to Britain to teach second), amiably chatting to anybody he genuine desire for engagement and dialogue. selected the unassuming Smith as canon law at St John’s Seminary. happened to meet. HisApproach was marked by a principled an ideal trouble- shooter. In Cardiff He became rector in 1985. Smith That is also my recollection when I attended pragmatism - always true to the Church's he proved a gentle leader, preferred aspirants to the several events with the Archbishop. In one moral and social teaching while engaging with approachable, concerned, ready to priesthood to have experienced life formal dinner at Cardiff City Hall he others to advance respect for human dignity listen, always deploying common before applying for seminary. Eyes- disappeared for several minutes and I met him and the common good.” sense. He combined the sharpness a-glint, he would say: “They should at the door of City Hall. The Tablet article stressed that Archbishop of a canon lawyer with a experience what it is like to have a He had received me into the Catholic Peter always sought ways of creating a straightforward manner.

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