January and February 2015 Volume 47 Number 1 Price £4.50 PROMOTING A NEW SYNTHESIS OF FAITH AND REASON St Joseph, Model of Heroic Fatherhood Editorial The Synod on the Family: A Mother’s Perspective Jacqueline Stewart “Do Not Be Afraid of Christ”: Our Lady and Freedom in the Teaching of Benedict XVI Donncha Ó hAodha What Does the General Instruction Actually Say About Chant? Joseph Estorninho A Match Made in Heaven: The Doctrine of the Eucharist and Aristotelian Metaphysics Dr William Newton Also Ray Blake on Pius X’s reforms and frequent reception of the Eucharist Michael Nazir-Ali on the recent interfaith colloquium on the family Gregory Farrelly on why the Rosetta comet mission matters Plus book reviews on science and theology; our duties to the gravely ill; the life and times of Cardinal Bourne; and the importance of saints as role models in a celebrity-obsessed age www.faith.org.uk SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF UNBORN CHILDREN PRO-LIFE YOUTH CONFERENCE 2015 The Pro-Life movement is growing. Be part of it. SPUC is holding its annual Youth Conference in Southport, Merseyside at the Ramada Plaza Hotel 6-8 March 2015 The cost of the conference is £100, including all meals and accommodation Open to those aged 16-35 SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardianal Burke Patron of the Order of Malta ● Obianuju Ekeocha Founder of Culture of Life Africa, which promotes the protection of human life in Africa ● Dr. David Paton Professor of Economics at Nottingham University and an expert on issues surrounding teenage pregnancy ● Ira Winter A member of the Life Fertility Care team, who provide an ethical alternative to IVF ● Fiorella Nash Pro-life feminist and a specialist in maternal mortality, abortion in China and international surrogacy ● Paul Tully SPUC‘s General Secretary and political co-ordinator, specialising in legal and parlimentary policy AND WORKSHOPS: Margaret Cuthill Post-abortion counselling Ira Winter Natural Family Planning Janet Secluna Thomas How we talk about disibility For more information and an application form, please contact Rhoslyn Thomas: 020 7820 3140 [email protected] National Headquarters: 3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB, UK Tel: 020 7091 7091 Fax: 020 7820 3131 www.spuc.org.uk Contents 02 St Joseph, Model of Heroic Fatherhood Editorial 03 The Synod on the Family: A Mother’s Perspective Jacqueline Stewart 12 “Do Not Be Afraid of Christ”: Our Lady and Freedom in the Teaching of Benedict XVI Donncha Ó hAodha 15 What Does the General Instruction Actually Say About Chant? Joseph Estorninho 18 A Match Made in Heaven: The Doctrine of the Eucharist and Aristotelian Metaphysics Dr William Newton Regular Columns 06 The Home Front: Antonia Robinson 11 Michael Nazir-Ali A Cure for Spiritual Dryness Man, Woman and Family: the Vatican’s ‘Humanum’ Colloquium 07 Parochial Life: Ray Blake The Most Pastoral of Popes 21 Cutting Edge: Gregory Farrelly The Space Achievement of 2014 08 Vatican: Andrea Gagliarducci Car dinal Sarah and Francis’s 22 Book Reviews Reform of the Curia Science and Religion; Solidarity With the Unresponsive; A Forgotten Cardinal; Saints, 09 Liturgy: Tim Finigan Heroes and Heroines Active Participation in the Liturgy 26 Emails to the Editor 10 Politics: John Deighan The Glasgow Midwives Ruling: 27 The Last Word An Assault on Conscience William Oddie Executive Editor c/o 106 Dixon Avenue, Glasgow G42 8ER, [email protected] Editorial Board Andrew Nash, Patrick Burke, Tim Finigan, Luiz Ruscillo, Andrea Fraile, Christina Read, Michael John Galbraith. Book Reviews Andrew Nash, [email protected] Advertising Manager Scott Deeley, c/o Holy Cross, 11 Bangholm Loan, Edinburgh EH5 3AH, [email protected] Subscriptions and Faith-Keyway Trust Publications Office Sr Roseann Reddy, 104 Albert Road, Glasgow G42 8DR, [email protected] UK £25/year, Europe (inc Eire) £29/E37/year. Surface Mail overseas £28/$56/E36/year. Air Mail overseas £33/$66/E42/year. Student rate £17/$34/E22/year. Single copies £5 inc. p&p. Bulk orders £3.50 plus p&p. Published by the Faith-Keyway Trust, registered charity No. 278314. Printed by Tudor Printing 01772 633098, ISSN 1356-126X. faith January and February 2015 Volume 47 Number 1 St Joseph, Model of Heroic Fatherhood Editorial Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” Gospel of Matthew 2:13 The non-saccharine nature of the Gospel stories is a constant father or to confidently surrender themselves to him,” reminder of their veracity. Arguably, it is only their regular observed Pope Benedict XVI during a General Audience in retelling from childhood that empties them, for some, of their January 2012. shock value. No author of a fictitious hagiography would consider the raw facts of Jesus’s life to be in any way He pointed out that “it isn’t always easy today to speak about decorous for a deity-made-man. fatherhood and, not having adequate role models, it even becomes problematic to imagine God as a father.” Yet there they are. The facts. Incredible. Inconvenient. Immovable. Christ did spend his first New Year on this earth In a recent book entitled Faith of the Fatherless, the American fleeing into exile in Egypt. Unlike much of the preceding story psychologist Paul Vitz attempts to draw a definite link of the Incarnation, this dramatic episode temporarily draws between fatherlessness and atheism. He profiles dozens of our attention away from the maternal nature of Mary and prominent atheists, from Dawkins to Nietzsche to towards the paternal nature of Joseph. Robespierre, finding a clear common denominator as he goes: “In no case do we find a strong, beloved father with a close In doing so, it highlights another fact that is incredible, relationship with his son.” immovable yet also inconvenient for many moderns: all men are called to fatherhood. So what is to be done? As with the sons of Jacob in the Old Testament and, subsequently, the Son of Man in the New “All of us, to exist, to become complete, in order to be mature, Testament, the answer is clear: Ite ad Joseph – Go to Joseph. we need to feel the joy of fatherhood: even those of us who are celibate,” said Pope Francis in his daily homily 26 June 2013. It is in Saint Joseph that we find a model of manhood that embodies a heroic paternalism applicable both to those who “Fatherhood is giving life to others, giving life…for us, it is live out their fatherhood generatively and also to those who pastoral paternity, spiritual fatherhood, but this is still giving pursue their paternity through the priesthood or other forms of life, this is still becoming fathers.” apostolic celibacy. Indeed, Joseph himself falls into the latter category. The reality, however, is that fewer and fewer men are living out fatherhood than ever before, and fewer and fewer children are Joseph is prayerful, noble, loving, hard-working and always experiencing paternity. docile to the will of God. He adores Our Lady. He sacrifices everything for Christ. A recent report by the Centre for Social Justice think-tank revealed that three million children in the United Kingdom are In contemporary society, the generative father who doesn’t now growing up predominantly with their mothers. This is imitate Joseph can lapse into a range of behavioural patterns often due to unavoidable circumstances deserving of from demitting spiritual leadership in the family to neglecting understanding, care and compassion. Such legitimate the well-being of his wife. As the old aphorism recommends, mitigation, though, cannot diminish the inherent need of a the best gift a father can give his children is to love their child to have a mum and a dad. mother. The absence of fathers in families is clearly linked to higher Meanwhile, the spiritual father who does not imitate Joseph’s rates of poverty, youth crime and teenage pregnancy, says the generosity can easily lapse into self-absorption and self- think-tank report. It warns that the UK is experiencing a gratification. The result is an elimination of the fruitful “tsunami” of family breakdown. In one neighbourhood in the paternalism to which all priests are called by Christ. The Riverside area of Liverpool, there is no father present in 65 per clerical state should never become a brotherhood of cent of homes with dependent children. bachelors, still less a redoubt for those content with a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle. While the natural fall-out from fatherless families is demonstratively deleterious, the supernatural fall-out is The Catholic evangelist Matthew James Christoff states that equally baleful. “there will not be a New Evangelisation without the evangelisation of men”. If the forthcoming 2015 Synod on the “For those who have had the experience of an overly Family can begin to grapple with that issue it will be doing the authoritarian and inflexible father, or an indifferent, uncaring, Church and wider society a great service indeed. Let us pray or even absent one, it is not easy to calmly think of God as a to Saint Joseph that it does. 02 Faith I Editorial The Synod on the Family – A Mother’s Perspective By Jacqueline Stewart When the synod entitled “Pastoral Challenges of the Family in Equally, the teachings on divorce and remarriage are clear the context of Evangelisation” was announced by Pope Francis and unambiguous. As a lay Catholic wife and mother, I simply back in 2013, I thought it sounded like a very good idea.