Peter Hennessy: What a post-Corona Britain needs | Mary Dejevsky: Could the virus bring down Putin?
THE INTERNATIONAL 25 APRIL 2020 £3.80 CATHOLIC WEEKLY www.thetablet.co.uk Est. 1840
Lockdown lessons Karen Cunningham and Lauren Nicholson-Ward: Teachers on the front line
Joanna Moorhead meets Michael Craig-Martin • Adrian Chiles sharpens his darts • Brian Morton considers the New Abnormal Michael Banner on Jonathan Sacks • Melanie McDonagh on women deacons PLUS CATHLEEN KAVENY • RICHARD LEONARD • MAURO-GIUSEPPE LEPORI • LUCY LETHBRIDGE • JAMES MUMFORD • TIMOTHY RADCLIFFE
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THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY THE TABLET FOUNDED IN 1840
DEFEATING s Alexander Pope put it, “To err is human …” honestly and that lessons are learned. Effective and COVID-19 It is obvious that serious errors were made honest action from the government is overdue in A by various governments in the weeks before Britain too. NO POINT the coronavirus became a rampant It seems undeniable that in the early stages of the pandemic, but efforts to point the finger of blame at disease, Boris Johnson and his inexperienced team of TO BLAME specific targets are a waste of energy unless they lead ministers took their eye off the ball. The Conservative to lessons being learnt. The Labour party’s new leader, Party’s long-term neglect of the National Health GAME NOW Sir Keir Starmer, has been right to say that the point of Service was compounded by the unprecedented critical scrutiny should not be to score political points nature of the challenge it faced, with shortages in but to encourage better decision-making in the future. almost every department. But governments are made One such lesson, for instance, would be not to trust of human beings, and, as the poet said, human beings either the United States or China – or indeed other err. In recent weeks, bland reassurances that countries – to act in anyone’s interests but their own. everything is under control have been contradicted by Those two countries have become entangled in a reports of blunders the following day. Pretending all is crude blame game over coronavirus. Donald Trump, well, in order to avoid blame, damages public fearful of losing the forthcoming presidential election confidence and stands in the way of finding solutions. unless he can switch the narrative away from his The coronavirus is likely to be around for several failure to respond earlier to the threat of the months. The engineering industry responded pandemic, is claiming that China is criminally brilliantly when called upon to make good the culpable for allowing the coronavirus to spread as it shortfall in ventilators, as did the Army and the did, first in China and then to the rest of the world. construction industry when asked to provide new Perhaps – but, so what? There is no jurisdiction critical-care hospitals. Now the clothing industry where China can be called to account. Everyone should be urgently charged with manufacturing items knows already that China is a corrupt and oppressive of personal protective equipment for medical and society. The fact that its leaders failed to take adequate nursing staff; the chemical and pharmaceutical countermeasures when the epidemic first appeared industries should be mobilised to provide all the merely puts them in the same category as Mr Trump ingredients necessary for large-scale testing, which himself. Indeed, his lamentable prevarications and will be a key element in any plan to ease the lockdown. procrastinations have cost many lives. But saying so And so on. The defeat of the virus has to engage all our brings nobody back: what matters is that whatever resources and imagination. Apportioning blame for mistakes were made are investigated effectively and the mistakes of the past is irrelevant.
WORSHIP ressure on the British government to end the the government include a partial relaxation of the UNDER LOCKDOWN coronavirus lockdown is steadily growing, restrictions, perhaps starting with primary schools, P not least because every day it continues it which are thought to be infertile ground for the CHURCH inflicts a serious toll on the economy. The epidemic to spread. But for some weeks at least, the disruptions to everyday life it has caused also include precautionary principle would counsel strongly DOORS the almost complete cessation of organised collective against exempting places of worship from restrictions. worship. Churches of every denomination, Perhaps more promising would be for the SHOULD synagogues, mosques, gurdwaras and temples have all government to start moving from a compulsory form fallen quiet behind locked doors. This remarkable of lockdown to a more voluntary one. Compliance is silence has happened with the blessing of the relevant already largely voluntary in effect, as the police cannot STAY SHUT religious authorities, who recognise that the deadly oversee every supermarket queue. Indeed, the coronavirus can easily be transmitted wherever government’s own behavioural scientists have been crowds may gather. “Thou shalt not kill” in this case surprised by the willingness of the great majority of translates as “Thou shalt not gather together in citizens to cooperate freely, once they saw the need. So public”, which is a hard saying for people of faith it could become a matter for religious leaders whose main expression of it is through group activity. themselves to decide what degree of lockdown to Among those authorities are the leaderships of the continue with in their own case, trusting in their Catholic and Anglican Churches. They have been common sense and their duty to the common good. criticised for it, but by and large their memberships But caution is required. Lives are at risk. Removing have accepted the medicine while also looking for the statutory obligation to keep church buildings inventive ways to continue their religious observance. closed would merely transfer a difficult call from the Online streaming of Mass from parish churches has government to bishops and other faith leaders. The been surprisingly successful in enabling congregations bishops would need to explain more fully than they to join in the liturgy and participate spiritually if not have done so far why, as an expression of social in the flesh. The Church is more than a building. Take responsibility and Christian charity, they might decide the building away, and the Church still exists. to continue to keep church doors locked. Meanwhile These are among the reasons why the Catholic religious communities have been finding novel bishops in the United Kingdom should resist calls to methods of connecting their members one with press the government for an early release from another. It is proving an exciting stimulus to new ways lockdown so they could reopen their doors and of being the Church: virtual worship, and worship resume normal church life. Proposals being studied by alone or with our families, can be the real thing.
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PHOTO: CNS/REUTERS, REMO CASILLI
Mgr Jozef Bart, rector of the Church of 25 the Holy Spirit, prepares for the Pope’s arrival on Sunday with the help of a nun
COLUMNS BOOKS / PAGE 18 CONTENTS Michael Banner 25 APRIL 2020 // VOL 274 NO. 9349 Morality: Restoring the Common Good FEATURES in Divided Times JONATHAN SACKS 4 / A school on the front line A head teacher of a Catholic primary describes how the closure of schools has Rachel Kelly changed the lives of the children, staff and parents / Richard Leonard BY KAREN CUNNINGHAM The Well Gardened Mind ‘God does not send 5 / ‘We have rediscovered teaching as a vocation’ plagues to teach SUE STUART-SMITH The crisis has brought out the best in teachers, parents us things, though and children / BY LAUREN NICHOLSON-WARD William Joll we can learn The Bass Rock from them’ / 9 6 / To Mrs Whitaker, with love EVIE WYLD A moral philosopher remembers his old English teacher, ‘who worked in what is Melanie au fond a profoundly sacrificial profession’ / BY JAMES MUMFORD McDonagh’s Notebook 7 / Could the virus bring down Putin? ‘The sins of An experienced Kremlin-watcher argues that Vladimir Putin’s grip on power is looser the heart are than ever because of the threat to the country posed by Covid-19 / BY MARY DEJEVSKY worse than ARTS / PAGE 20 non- conformity 8 / ‘Be still and know that I am God’ with rules’ / 10 The leader of the Cistercian order reflects that this period of anxiety might bring a Interview new awareness of the presence of God / BY MAURO-GIUSEPPE LEPORI Michael Peter Hennessy’s Craig-Martin The Lion and 12 / Sidestepping the destroying angel JOANNA MO ORHEAD the Unicorn Is the coronavirus pandemic divine retribution? Or is it a moment of darkness that ‘The corona might lead to strengthening the bonds that bind us together? / BY CATHLEEN KAVENY Radio experience, though Heart and Soul: suffused in tragedy, 14 / A window into God’s love Faith in Lockdown has shown us The sermon given by the former Master of the Dominicans at the France the very best of Requiem Mass for his friend David Sanders / BY TIMOTHY RADCLIFFE D.J. TAYLOR
ourselves’ / 13 NEWS Music 24 / The Church in the World / News briefing The Strokes; Fiona REGULARS Apple; Thundercat 25 / Pandemic spurs talks on church reform, says Kasper BRIAN MORTON Word from 27 / View from Rome the Cloisters 15 Television Puzzles 15 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing Ride Upon Letters 16 29 / Chaplains at work in ‘field’ hospitals the Storm The Living Spirit 17 COVER PHOTO: PA/TASS, YURI SMITYUK LUCY LETHBRIDGE
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FEATURES / Education special
A head teacher of a Catholic primary in one of London’s largest housing estates describes how the closure of schools has changed the lives of the children, staff and parents / By KAREN CUNNINGHAM A school on the front line
N WEDNESDAY 18 March, all build-up to the school closure was, how do schools in England and Wales were we keep our children safe and happy? We told that they must close at the end tried to ensure that our children were not Oof the week to help prevent the burdened with fears about the school closing spread of the coronavirus. or with worries about the virus. While the A wave of emotions washed over the staff, school was still open, their day continued as children, parents and governors of my own normal, as far as possible. In front of the chil- Above, pupils pictured during a DT class at school, St John XXIII Catholic Primary in dren the staff remained cheerful, even while the west London school. Inset below, head White City Estate in west London, as the news behind the scenes they were busy setting teacher Karen Cunningham was announced. Many unanswered questions up Google Classroom, preparing learning were left in the air, one of the main ones being packs and creating revision study guides and learning platform. Google Classroom was set what impact the closure of the school would stationery packs for the children to use during up within a matter of days and staff and chil- have on the mental health and wellbeing of the expected school closure. dren were trained on how to access their our children and their families. learning at home. This has maintained a For the children, “coronavirus” was already ALL SENSE OF normality left the school on steady, manageable flow of work for the chil- a word they were beginning to hear every Friday 20 March. Although this was a sad dren during this school closure period. day: on the news, or overhearing adults talk- day for the staff and parents, we made sure I am a parent too, and I began with high ing about the havoc it was causing across the the children celebrated and had fun. Rather hopes for what “home schooling” would look world. Adults were, of course, already con- than wearing their uniforms, they came to like. I devised a timetable, assigned parts of cerned and anxious. Now children were school for their last day in brightly coloured our home as mini-classroom spaces, and got suddenly being told that they would no longer clothes. There was dancing, singing, games, the stationery ready. It took me about an hour go to school, or go to church, or see their treats and a “social distancing” samba parade to realise that my expectations had been wildly grandparents and aunts and uncles and led by the School of Rock band and our music unrealistic. My children were far from ready cousins, or have play dates or celebrate birth- teacher, Mr Dalledone. for mummy to be suddenly transformed into day parties with their friends – or even be Saying goodbye to the children was the their teacher. It took them more time than I able go outside to run around and play hardest part of the week. Although it had thought to settle into this new “normal” for more than an hour each day. was very painful, we all understood – and it took me more time than had I thought No amount of words could pre- that what was happening was to teach myself Year 8 algebra. I now under- pare them for what the next few right. The main way to contain stand better the pressure that home-learning weeks would be like. The the spread of the virus was for puts on a family. changes in their lives have been people to stay at home and to This experience has fed into the work we almost overwhelming. maintain social distancing. The set for our children. We have reconsidered It is too early to tell what community is pulling together. the time it is realistic to spend on learning impact Covid-19 will have on the Messages from parents have each day, and suggested active sessions to families in our community. I know boosted staff morale, funding from keep the children moving, as well as craft ses- some who have become sick, or who charities is supporting vulnerable fam- sions and time spent learning from a screen have lost their job or had their income cut, ilies, everyone understands the need to follow or laptop or PC. On average, we set three which is leading to anxiety over paying mort- the restrictions. pieces of work per day, plus daily reading. An gages and bills, or even being able to buy The government announced that schools English activity, a maths activity and then a food for their families. It is a desperately dif- would remain partially open for the children weekly RE or topic lesson. There is no pressure ficult time for so many, and it is impossible of key workers or those in vulnerable families for the work to be completed. We send regular to gauge the longer-term impact this will or with special educational needs. It’s been a emails to parents, assuring them that they have on children. privilege to be able to support the families of only need to do what is manageable. It’s not those working on the frontline in the fight easy for parents. Some of our families live in THE STAFF AT St John XXIII have showed against the virus. As a staff team, we have small apartments; some do not have a garden. amazing commitment in the middle of all the been determined to stay open throughout I have been inspired by the way they have uncertainties – and I have had similar stories this pandemic to do our bit for the good of responded to the tasks we have set. from other head teachers of schools across others and to be the servant leaders that Jesus London and beyond. The way they have taught us to be. IN THIS TIME OF uncertainty, there have been worked together, supported each other and, In order to maintain the education of our many positives to celebrate. Some families most importantly, cared for our children has children who are now spending their days at have never had so much time together, learn- been an inspiration and a real joy to see. The home with their parents, Mrs Gilmartin, the ing and playing and praying together. Many main concern for all of us throughout the Inclusion Manager, developed our online parents have volunteered to come in and help
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THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS ‘We have rediscovered teaching as a vocation’
The crisis has brought out the best in teachers, parents and children, writes Lauren Nicholson-Ward
EXTRAORDINARY times produce What have we learned? Perhaps that, extraordinary responses. After the Prime just as the Church isn’t a building but a Minister announced on 18 March that all communion, a school isn’t bricks and schools would close at the end of that mortar or limited by a curriculum, but a week, teachers raced to build online community in service to others. I hope learning platforms and create packs of we’ll remain unafraid to take risks, to printed materials, stationery and art make bold decisions for the good of those supplies for some of the children to take we serve; we are more likely to be forgiven home. Staff delivered the teaching packs to for thinking big and making mistakes than parents already in isolation, phoned for being timid and over-cautious. I pray support the school when we have been short parents to see how they could support that schools will have forged deeper staffed, and staff have made regular phone them, and donated money for food parcels relationships with parents grounded in calls to parents and children to catch up on for families in need. mutual understanding, compassion and their home schooling, deepening relationships We had to console school leavers who fellowship. I hope we’ll never forget how between teachers and parents. The commu- had come to realise that their adaptable and resourceful teachers, nity spirit has been wonderful. examinations had been cancelled and parents and children can be. It has also been a time to slow down, med- whose futures were now uncertain. There Since that first Monday when our new itate and pray. This year, in a special way, Lent were special assemblies and services to say little world came into being, I have not was a time for us to pray, to fast and to give goodbye to pupils in their final year. heard one pupil question why they are still alms. Although we weren’t together as a Despite the fear and uncertainty, teachers in school. Parents wearing their NHS school, this Lent as never before we were able have shown that they are ready to serve, lanyards continue to thank us as they drop to truly reflect on the sacrifices of Jesus and and to do it generously and boldly. their children off on the way to their next to spend time thinking about how we can love On the following Monday, staff and shift. The paths are decorated with chalk and support others. pupils were back in the classroom. The rainbows. And despite the dreadful reality To pray more. One day last week, a group headlines suggested that schools were of the reasons for it and the challenges it of us sat around the statue of Our Lady to closed. In reality their doors, and their brings, and the serious issues it has pray a decade of the Rosary. At the end, the hearts, were wide, wide open. In my own undoubtedly raised about the resourcing of children of the key-worker families offered school in the Midlands, a Church of our schools, I am thankful for the new their prayers up to Mary. One of the Year 1 England middle school, a dozen pupils reality. It is more compassionate, more children, whose mother is a nurse, prayed: arrived and lined up behind the cones creative, more prayerful and more loving. “Thank you for my mum, who is always there which we had placed across the There has been a rediscovery of teaching to help others.” It was a heartfelt, touching playground, spaced several metres apart. as a vocation. I see a profession that is prayer that reflected how we all feel about We blocked off corridors so that we totally devoted to the service of children our NHS staff. could use a limited number of rooms to and the community, full of renewed To fast. Our local food banks and local ensure they could be regularly deep gratitude for one another and for the authorities have been providing food and cleaned. Pupils listened to us explain that small, everyday joys of the classroom. vouchers to support communities in need. they must remain apart throughout the Many are saying that things will never go When some were in the supermarkets panic day, that they could not move seats or swap “back to normal” after this is over. I hope buying, there were families in our commu- computers, share pens or stand too close they are right. nities who barely had the money to buy when washing their hands. It was a surreal enough for that day’s meal. It has been a time experience to see our usually bustling Lauren Nicholson-Ward is the Assistant for us all to reflect on what we could do with- corridors almost empty and divided by Principal and head of religious education at out, and what we could share from our own barriers. Christ Church Academy, Stone, Staffordshire. household shopping for the food banks that support those in need. To give alms. Our parents who are key for those who mourn, and where we will pray Within all of this, as a school, we have been workers – often among the lowest paid – give for the men and women who worked selflessly guided by the words of our patron, St John to others simply by doing their jobs, so that to combat the virus and care for those who XXIII: “Consult not your fears but your hopes the sick are cared for and we can buy the food became sick. But we will pray, too, that chil- and your dreams. Think not about your frus- we need and receive our deliveries and travel dren return to school and to the ordinary trations, but about your unfulfilled potential. if necessary. That is real giving to others. rhythms of childhood, smiling and feeling Concern yourself not with what you tried and When this pandemic ends – and even secure: excited to meet their friends and their failed in, but with what it is still possible for though it seems to be going on for ever, it will teachers and to restart their learning with you to do.” end – the world we will come back to will not enthusiasm and energy. When we see their be the same, for teachers, for parents and, faces again – smiling and happy – teachers Karen Cunningham is head teacher of a most important, for children. It will be a world and parents will feel that life has returned to Catholic primary school in west London and where we will pray for those who died and something like normal again. mother of four young boys.
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THE ROLE OF TEACHERS To Mrs Whitaker, with love
The moral philosopher James Mumford remembers his old English teacher, “who worked in what is au fond a profoundly sacrificial profession”
HIS ORDEAL is revealing few days later she was out biking worked in what is au fond a offering his life as a substitute for things to us about who we when she suffered a massive profoundly sacrificial the father at Auschwitz. Or of Tcherish. Our own inevitable stroke. By the end of the week profession. But her uninterest in the soldier throwing himself on winnowing process, who we call she was dead. career advancement even within the grenade. They laid down versus who we are content to wait that profession also allowed her their lives for their friends, to see on the other side, may sur- Pour away the ocean and to remain undeterred from its certainly. But perhaps there’s a prise us. “I didn’t think I would sweep up the wood, primary purpose: that curious, more mundane form of this love. miss her”, we might think. So too, For nothing now can come beautiful dialectical relationship There’s staying up all night conversely, may other people’s to any good. between instilling in pupils a penning copious comments – inevitable winnowing processes From “Funeral Blues” love of learning and imparting she wrote sides on this student’s hurt us. “I thought he would Zoom by W.H. Auden the skills so they could pursue shoddy A-level essays on Antony me at least.” that passion for themselves. and Cleopatra. Or the unpaid The ordeal may also be Some people are too One thing that reveals, I think, extracurricular tutorials to help creating space to reflect upon important for front-page is that some people could not me have a shot at Oxbridge. She whom we cherish among the obituaries. They work too have proved so pivotal in your was not rewarded or recognised departed, and why. My old productively to worry about life if they had had more concern for much of what she achieved. English teacher has moved from recognition. They do too well with their own. I had always The secret of one person’s the first category to the second; what is before them to do to thought laying down your life for success is another person’s she was buried last week. I had leave enough time to ensure your friends, according to Christ success remaining a secret. called Mrs Whitaker to see how they get the deserved credit, and the ultimate demonstration of she was enduring self-isolation, the accolades that come with it. love, is by itself dramatic. Think James Mumford is a British writer aged 70. Fine, she reported. A Certainly, as a teacher, she of the celibate Maximilian Kolbe on ethics, culture and literature.
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FEATURES / Russian politics
The constitution is being tampered with to enable President Vladimir Putin to remain in control indefinitely. Yet an experienced Kremlin-watcher argues that Putin’s grip on power is looser than ever before – because of the looming threat to the country posed by Covid-19 / By MARY DEJEVSKY
January, Putin had proposed amendments to the constitution that seemed designed to Could the virus ensure a smooth succession as his term drew to an end in 2024. They would have given constitutional status to the advisory State Council, given parliament, the Duma, more bring down Putin? weight in relation to the executive, and con- firmed that a president could serve only two six-year terms. As the proposals went through the legisla- PHOTO: PA/XINHUA NEWS AGENCY tive process, however, they underwent changes ROM CHINA, where the pandemic that would in theory allow Putin to stand for began, to the United States, where re-election again. This has provoked some Fthe disease has cut a swathe through lively debate in the Russian media and is not New York and other major cities, via a done deal. The changes had been due to be Europe and the United Kingdom, where the submitted to a referendum on 22 April, the prime minister, senior advisers and members early date suggesting Putin’s concern to hold of the Cabinet have fallen ill, the debilitating the vote before his ratings fell away. effects of the coronavirus have everywhere Covid-19 has changed all that. On 27 March, spilled over into the political domain. The Putin conceded the referendum would have fallout could even sway the result of the US to be postponed. As he set out ways to mitigate presidential election. the impact of the coronavirus, his demeanour There is one country, though, where the was low-key. A victory parade planned for 9 political ravages of the virus are potentially May to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of more destabilising than almost anywhere else, the defeat of Nazi Germany has been post- and that is Russia. The disease could pose a poned, depriving Putin of the chance to reset bigger threat to order in the Russian state, post-Crimea relations with the West. and to its president personally, than any crisis Putin has been less in evidence than might Vladimir Putin (pictured) has faced over his have been expected, with most of the disease 20 years in power. containment measures delegated to the There have been times in the past when regions. This could be a pre-emptive move Putin’s grip on power seemed to falter – but to escape responsibility if it all goes wrong – not many. There was his ill-judged response reformed to international standards and partly and it could go very badly wrong. Whereas to the Kursk submarine disaster just months not, is similarly betwixt and between. The Xi Jinping controlled the authoritarian levers after he first took office; the pensioner protests number of cases has surged, with the vast necessary to impose an almost total lockdown in the winter of 2005; and the fear that young majority in Moscow. If it spreads, there is a on Hubei province, it is doubtful whether Russians might try to emulate Ukraine’s risk not only of the sort of equipment and Putin has the means, even if he had the will, Orange Revolution or the Arab Spring. staff shortages reported in the UK and else- to do the same. The key to Putin’s popularity The crushing of pro-democracy street where, but of resentment and dissatisfaction has been his almost uncanny ability to stay protests between 2011 and 2013 exposed a among patients and their families. just a fraction ahead of what ordinary Russian new sense of insecurity in the Kremlin, while Putin has tried to pre-empt discontent voters were thinking; that sixth sense seems local environment and anti-corruption cam- within the health sector by raising wages, but less in evidence today. paigns are monitored lest they one day some doctors are expressing despair at the coalesce into a national opposition movement. prospects for coping with a pandemic. And PUTIN COULD weather the storm. Russia’s But the threat posed by Covid-19 is potentially if the system cannot cope, if funerals could huge expanse, its generally small family units more lethal. not be held – as emotive in Russia as anywhere and its relatively balanced population as – unrest, especially in less favoured regions, between old and young could spare it from ON A SOLEMN morale-boosting visit to a new could not be ruled out. It would not take much the worst of the pandemic. Russia has ample isolation hospital near Moscow, Putin was for this discontent to feed into a growing sense foreign currency reserves, a solid emergency shown on television enclosed in a bright yellow of failings in the wider economy. fund for a rainy day and – thanks in part to hazmat suit. But he was also shown cordially Food supplies have so far held up well, with Western sanctions – abundant supplies of shaking the bare hand of Denis Protsenko, little panic buying, despite the Soviet-era home-grown food. But a pandemic, an inad- the chief doctor – who subsequently tested empty shelves being well within living mem- equate health service, a flagging economy, an positive for coronavirus. Putin has since been ory. But the impact of the coronavirus in incomplete constitutional reform and the in self-isolation and is holding meetings depressing the world economy, and a dispute cancellation of a great national occasion hardly remotely. At 67, he is in the age group that with Saudi Arabia that has brought oil prices create a climate conducive to a smooth polit- the authorities have told firmly to stay at down below $20 a barrel, could push Russia ical transition – even one that is, in theory, home. Putin’s spokesman insisted the presi- into recession. If living standards decline, one four years away. In the coming months, Putin dent would stay at work. of Putin’s chief political supports – ordinary and Russian politics in general, could be in The timing of the pandemic’s arrival is about Russians’ sense of well-being – would start for a very rough ride. as bad as it could possibly be. Russia is in a to fade away. Having spent some of his political state of transition. Those born and educated capital legislating for an unpopular rise in Mary Dejevsky is a writer and broadcaster. under the Soviet system are bowing out and pension ages last year, the president does not She is a former foreign correspondent in a new, entirely post-Soviet generation is com- have as much left in his kitty as he did. Moscow, Paris and Washington, and a special ing to the fore. The health system, partly In his state of the nation address in correspondent in China and Europe.
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FEATURES / The pandemic and spirituality
DETAIL FROM A STAINED GLASS WINDOW(1922) BY DOUGLAS STRACHAN IN THE NORTH TRANSEPT OF ST GILES’ CATHEDRAL, EDINBURGH In Psalm 46, God invites us to be still in order to recognise his presence among us: “Be still and know that I am God, exalted over nations, exalted over earth! The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (Psalm 46:10f.). God asks us to be still. He does not impose stillness. He desires us to be still before him and to remain thus freely, by choice, that is, lovingly. He does not stop us like a policeman arresting a criminal on the run. He wants us to be still the way we are still before a person we love, before the tender beauty of a newborn baby asleep, before a sunset, or a work of art that fills us with wonder and quiet. God asks us to be still to recognise that his presence, as it is given us to know it, fills the whole universe; that this presence is what matters most in life. To be still before God is to recognise that his presence fills the pre- sent moment and gives our heart all it craves.
WHAT DOES THIS mean for our current sit- uation? It means that it is within our grasp to live it freely, even if it has been forced upon us. Freedom does not consist in constant, unlimited choice. Freedom is the grace to be able to choose that which restores our heart to integrity even when all is taken from us. Christ depicted walking on the Even when our freedom has been taken from water to reach his disciples us, we are in the presence of God, and are offered the greater freedom of being still before him, acknowledging him as a friend. This is the great testimony of the martyrs The leader of the Cistercian order worldwide reflects that this period and of all the saints. When Jesus walked on the waters to reach of anxiety, confinement and stillness might also be a time of new his disciples in the middle of a storm-tossed awareness of the presence of God / By MAURO-GIUSEPPE LEPORI sea, he found them unable to proceed on account of a contrary wind: “The boat, bat- tered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them” (Matthew ‘Be still and know 14:24). The disciples were battling power- lessly against the wind that was preventing them reaching the shore. Jesus found his way to them as only God can, his presence that I am God’ utterly free and unconstrained. Nothing, no contrary wind, not even the laws of nature, can stand in the way of the gift of the presence of Christ coming to save humankind. “Early in the morning he came walking toward them ERHAPS OUR first task as Christians, impossible in Western (or for that matter, on the sea” (Matthew 14:25). and as monks and nuns in particular, globalised) culture. We do not really stop is to find a way of investing what is even when on holiday. Only unwelcome acci- THERE IS, THOUGH, a storm of quite a dif- Pgoing on with sense. At heart, the dents stop our breathless race to draw ever ferent order that tends to resist the presence drama society is currently living through is more out of life, out of time and, more often and friendship of the Lord: that of our dis- not so much, or not only, the pandemic, but than not, out of others. Now, though, this trust and fear. “But when the disciples saw the pandemic’s consequences for daily life. epidemic has stopped us all, pretty much. him walking on the sea, they were terrified, The world has stopped. Enterprise, finance, All our projects and plans have been cancelled saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in politics, travel, entertainment, sport: all have for God knows how long. And have not we, fear’ (Matthew 14:26). Often, what we imag- stopped, as if for a universal Lent. But that monks and nuns, got used to rushing around ine we see through eyes disfigured by is not all. Public religious life has also like everyone else, ever thinking about our distrust transforms reality into a scary stopped. There is no public celebration of life in terms of future projections? “ghost”. At such times, we actually nurture Mass, no church assemblies or gatherings, By standing still, we rediscover the present the fear that makes us cry out. Yet Jesus is at any rate none at which the faithful meet moment, the instant given us here and now. also stronger than this interior tempest. He in person. It is like a great fast, a great uni- This is the true reality of time. It points to draws closer, makes us hear his voice. The versal abstinence. the true reality of ourselves, of our life. As friendliness of his presence carries a reso- The lockdown dictated by the risk of con- human beings we live only in the present. nance of its own that fills us with peace: tagion is presented and experienced as a But we are always tempted to remain “But immediately Jesus spoke to them and necessary evil. We have lost the ability to attached to a past that is no more, or to pro- said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid’” stand still. We stop only if someone stops us. ject ourselves toward a future that is not yet (14:27). “And those in the boat worshipped To come freely to a halt has become near – and perhaps never will be. him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’”
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RICHARD LEONARD
(Matthew 14:33). Only when the disciples recognise the presence of God and open God does not send plagues themselves to it, that is, when they are still before it, does the wind cease to oppose them (cf. Matthew 14:32): “Immediately to teach us things, though the boat reached the land toward which they were going” (John 6:21). we can learn from them
CAN THIS HAPPEN to us now, in the situation of peril and anxiety in which we find our- selves, faced with the spread of the virus and Some Christians seem to about the coronavirus pandemic you the consequences, surely grave and long- have a very limited image would be forgiven for thinking it did. lasting, that society will suffer? To recognise of the Holy Trinity: nasty Because God wants us to be fully free, our these circumstances as an extraordinary God the Father in heaven; world holds the possibility of our opportunity to welcome and adore the pres- sweet, lovely Jesus … and choosing evil; if it were otherwise, we ence of God in our midst is not to deny reality the bird! While the creeds teach that would be marionettes. This is a world or to renounce whatever human means are there is one God in three persons, they away from God directly causing suffering put in place to deliver us from evil. To think act as one in creating, saving and and destruction. otherwise would be an affront to those, like inspiring. In John’s Gospel Jesus says he Just because sometimes people grow the health professionals, who now sacrifice does nothing on his own (5:30); “the through pain and suffering, it does not themselves for our benefit. Father and I are one” (10:30); and “to mean God has sent these things as a test: Further, it would be blasphemous to think have seen me is to have seen the Father” rather this growth is a testament to God that God sends us trials just to show his good- (14:9). Christians believe that Jesus came accompanying us through every moment, ness in freeing us from them. God enters to fulfil the Old Testament; they believe, inspiring us to be in solidarity with all into our trials. He suffers them with us and too, that everything in the Old Testament God’s children, so that together we make for us, to the point of dying on the Cross. In should be interpreted through the the best decisions in the shadow of death this way he reveals that the sense of our lives, revelation of God in Jesus Christ. and the valley of tears. in trials no less than in consolations, goes This matters when we come to Nor does God send plagues to teach us infinitely beyond the resolution of present understand the meaning of plagues and things, though we can learn from them, peril. The true risk that looms over our life other natural disasters. For the peoples of and we are learning a lot right now about is not the threat of death, but the possibility the ancient world, if there was a flood, our delicate relationship with the created of living a senseless life, a life that is not plague or pestilence then God was saying order and how poor choices made in one stretched toward an ever greater fullness of something through it. But in the Gospels place can have unintended consequences life, toward a salvation greater even than the Jesus never sends a plague, a natural in other places. We are also learning that restoration of health. disaster or turns anyone into a pillar of the best response to natural disasters or The pandemic, with its corollaries and salt. If Jesus isn’t into murderous health emergencies is transparency, good consequences, is thus for all of us an occasion retribution, nor, if we take him at his government, honest reporting, human to be still, not just because we have to be, repeated word, is God the Father. Jesus is ingenuity, responsible citizenship, and but because the Lord invites us to stand the incarnate correction to false views of valuing the common good; we are also before him, to recognise that he, at this how God works in the world. learning how extraordinarily resilient moment, comes to meet us in the middle of So, even though Covid-19’s origins are some of us are in the face of tragedy the storm of our circumstances, in the middle yet to be finally established, they have a How can I be so confident that God is of our fears, offering to renew our relationship natural explanation, and the way the not deadly by nature? Because the God of friendship with him: “Take heart, it is I; virus has spread has been in measure the revealed in Jesus Christ is not a tyrant do not be afraid.” result of poor human decisions. God has but a lover, a God prepared to go to any not sent the pandemic upon us. lengths – even to give up his life on the LIKEWISE, WE should be aware that we are Whenever there is a local or a global Cross – to save us, even though we do not all responsible for each other, bound closely catastrophe, whether it is the fire that deserve it. John 1:5 says, “God is light, in together for good or for ill through the choices destroyed the roof of Notre Dame or the him there is no darkness.” If that is true, we make, through the way we behave, even spread of Aids, there are always some plagues and pandemics cannot be part of when we are out of sight or doing something Christians who say that it has been sent an arsenal of weapons deployed by an that seems to us insignificant. This trial as a punishment by God for various angry God to punish us for our should also render us more sensitive to the contemporary sins. This reveals a belief selfishness and greed. trials that strike other people, other nations, in God as a kind of extra-powerful figure Spiritual sanity in these difficult days whose suffering and death we often observe ruling the universe, a chief executive who rests in seeing that every moment of with indifference. Are we mindful, for tolerates bad behaviour up to a point, but every day God does what he did on Good instance, that while the coronavirus runs then his patience snaps and he stops the Friday: not intervening to prevent amok among us, the peoples of the Horn of nonsense, sending a tsunami or a humanity killing Jesus, but not allowing Africa have for months suffered an invasion pandemic to remind us who is boss. evil and despair to have the last word. of locusts that threatens the lives of millions God as a vengeful tyrant is a neat if The power of amazing grace enables us to of people? Are we mindful of the migrants frightening solution to the deep pain in make the most of even the worst locked in Turkey? Are we mindful of the our lives: our suffering has to come from situations, to help each other in every wound that still bleeds in Syria and through- somewhere, and perhaps it is way we can, and to let out the Middle East? A time of trial can make understandable that some seek the light and life have the last us harsher or more sensitive, more indifferent explanation that it is sent directly by God. word. Easter Sunday is or more compassionate. If we respond with But there is a huge difference between God’s response to Good love, the wounds that are left may, like those God permitting evil in our world and Friday: life out of death. on Christ’s risen body, stay open and turn God perpetrating such acts upon us. The into a surging spring of compassion. Church teaches that the first proposition Richard Leonard SJ is the author of What One task is entrusted to us monks and is true, but not the second, although does is all mean? A guide to living lives of CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 listening to some Christians talking faith, hope and love (Paulist Press).
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MELANIE McDONAGH’S NOTEBOOK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 nuns in a special way: that of offering prayer The sins of the heart and supplication, imploring salvation. By our baptism, by the gift of faith, by letting us encounter him through the Church, and are worse than non- by the gift of a particular vocation to live close to him in the “school of the Lord’s ser- conformity with rules vice” (Rule of St Benedict), Jesus Christ calls us to stand before the Father and to ask all things in his name. For this he gives us the Spirit who, “with sighs too deep for words OUR LORD got quite THERE’S BEEN a lively correspondence helps us in our weakness; for we do not know irritable with those about the issue of women deacons in this how to pray as we ought” (Romans 8:26). Pharisees who criticised paper. It’s interesting to note that St Before entering into his passion and death, the disciples for not Paul’s greeting to “our sister Phoebe” in Jesus told his disciples: “I chose you … so washing their hands Romans 16 does indeed call her a deacon that the Father will give you whatever you before eating; right now, I fancy, our but the word is sometimes translated as ask him in my name” (John 15:16). He did sympathies would be with the obsessive “servant”, which tells us something about not choose us to pray only, but to be always hand washers. But there was more to his the actual office. heard by the Father. riposte to the Pharisees in the gospel of The issue seems to be whether deacons Mark that should make us think. He said, are regarded as a preliminary step to the OUR GREAT treasure is our poverty as men twice, “Can’t you see that nothing that priesthood or as an office in its own and women who have no power except that goes into a person from outside can make right, which is how it works in the case of of imploring with faith. This charism is that person unclean because it goes not many male married deacons. The given us not for ourselves alone, but to con- into the heart but into the stomach and example of the Church of England is tribute to the fulfilment of the mission of passes into the sewer? (Thus he problematic here. When it took the the Son: the salvation of the world. This pronounced all foods clean.)” It is one of decision to ordain women as deacons, it awareness of our primary task of prayer for the very rare occasions when the gospel did so on the understanding that this all should make us assume responsibility writer actually glossed the text. would not automatically mean that they for our faith and for the round of liturgical Well, of course Our Lord spoke with progressed to the priesthood; in practice, prayer with which the Church entrusts us. authority and his point was that the sins once the step had been taken, that was At this time, when most of the faithful are of the heart are worse than non- precisely what happened. It increased deprived of the shared Eucharist that nor- conformity with rules. But given that one the pressure for women to move to mally draws them together in churches, hypothesis – not the only one – to ordination as priests and bishops. how deeply we should feel responsible for account for the spread of the coronavirus As far as I can see, the nearest we get the Masses we may continue to offer in our is that it derived from the consumption of to the office of woman deacon in the monasteries, for the prayer of the Divine bats sold in Chinese wet markets Catholic Church is in the person of the Office that continues to gather us together (possibly via pangolins), I am starting to parish sister, the nun who takes on the in choir. We do not enjoy this privilege have a little more sympathy with the job of catechesis and sacramental because we are better than others. It is per- concept of unclean food. preparation. If they were ordained as haps because we are so evidently not that That list in Leviticus 19 about winged deacons I shouldn’t mind a bit. it is given us. This should make our implor- creatures the Jews should regard as ing humbler, poorer, and so more efficacious detestable includes the bat (as well as the IN HONOUR of Max von Sidow, who before the gracious Father of all. More than ibis, pelican and hoopoe). Without died recently, I rewatched Ingmar ever, let us be aware that all our prayers, all wishing to designate any of God’s Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal, in our liturgies, must foster in us an awareness creatures unclean, perhaps we could note which he plays Antonius Block, a of oneness with the entire Body of Christ, that there are some that are probably best crusader returning to Denmark during which is the Church, the community of all avoided. Bats, for instance. I’m not sure the Black Death, who takes on Death the baptised that opens its arms to embrace what the Bible says about pangolins. himself in a game of chess. all humankind. The first time I saw it, I was bowled Each evening, in every Cistercian mon - ALAS, the lockdown hasn’t meant doing over; the second, I found it a simple astery in the world, we enter the night, at anything useful like learning a foreign lan- exposition of agnosticism; this third the end of Compline, by singing the Salve guage or taking up needlepoint. I have time, a depiction of a soul seeking God Regina. Let us do so conscious of the darkness however dipped once or twice into the ter- and finding silence – the condition of that often shrouds humankind, instilling a rific study edition of the New Jerusalem many Christians. Each time, I was fear of being lost in the dark. We invoke upon Bible, edited by Henry Wansbrough OSB. captivated by the player-actor, Jof, and the world’s “vale of tears”, upon all the “exiled The Acts of the Apostles are laid out, as his vision of the Virgin, crowned, children of Eve” the sweet, consoling light they should be, like a story, in chapters; teaching the infant Jesus to walk in the of the “merciful eyes” of the Queen and whereas what we listen to in church are fields. Mother of Mercy, praying that the gaze of little extracts. If children in Catholic It’s interesting though, that the thing Mary may show us Jesus in every circum- schools had the chance to read the Acts of that makes the viewer’s flesh creep is the stance, every peril, opening our eyes to see the Apostles a chapter at a time, like a reading from Revelation that begins and the presence of Jesus consoling us, healing normal book, its character as a series of ends the story: “And when the Lamb had us, saving us. Our entire vocation, our mis- adventure stories might be better opened the seventh seal, sion, finds expression in this prayer. May understood. (To say as much isn’t to say there was silence in Mary, “our life, our sweetness, and our hope”, they are untrue, as when we say someone heaven about the space of grant us to respond with humility and is telling stories.) All those episodes with half an hour”. It’s that courage, offering our life for the peace and magicians and shipwrecks are quite silence that haunts joy of the whole human race. exciting. One of the last things you ever Antonius Block. learn in a Catholic school is Scripture – Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori OCist is the Abbot other than carefully selected bits of the Melanie McDonagh is senior writer at General of the Cistercian order. gospels. It might be worth a try. the London Evening Standard.
10 | THE TABLET | 25 APRIL 2020 For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk All that they can be.
GIVE YOUR CHILD THE BEST OPPORTUNITY
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FEATURES / Theology and Covid-19
Is the coronavirus pandemic divine retribution for our sins? to develop a smallpox vaccine. He listened attentively when his slave, Onesimus, told Or is it a moment of darkness that might lead to a strengthening him about methods of inoculation used in of the bonds that bind us together? / BY CATHLEEN KAVENY Africa. Widely read in science and medicine as well as theology, Mather discovered that Onesimus’s account correlated with reports from Turkey describing efforts to impart a mild case of the disease in order to secure Sidestepping the immunity.
WHEN A smallpox epidemic infested New England in the spring of 1720, Mather sent destroying angel a letter to all local medical practitioners, urging them to give serious consideration to the inoc- ulation method. While most demurred, Zabdiel Boylston, a local minister with an “Because of the destroying angel Church and State. They were convinced God informal medical practice, took up Mather’s standing over the town, had a special covenantal relationship with suggestion. Conscripting members of his own a day of prayer is needed that we may New England, modelled on and even replacing household into his research efforts, he prepare to meet our God.” the biblical covenant between God and Israel. attempted to inoculate two slaves, as well as If the people of New England fulfilled his own young son, by applying pus OU MIGHT think these words were the obligations of the covenant, they from a smallpox sore into a small written by a contemporary fire- would receive unparalleled spiritual wound inflicted on each subject. Yand-brimstone preacher reflecting blessings and worldly prosperity. All three survived. on the coronavirus pandemic. But If, however, the people deviated Mather did not see himself as they were penned by Boston’s most renowned from their obligations by sinning, theologically inconsistent in rec- Puritan preacher, Cotton Mather (1663- God would punish them in pro- ommending inoculation. He was 1728), urging his congregation to respond portion to their wrongdoing. affirming a central tenet of the appropriately to God’s wrath, which was No one doubted that prayer was an broader Christian tradition: divine punishing the people with a devastating out- essential weapon in the fight against the will for human beings does not only oper- break of smallpox. smallpox infestation. But did it have to be the ate directly, but also through secondary causes Puritans in eighteenth-century Massa- only weapon? Famously, Cotton Mather said such as scientific experimentation and medical chusetts did not believe in separation of “no”. He encouraged and defended local efforts progress. But Mather’s support for experi- mental medical efforts did conflict with the covenantal imagination in several ways. As the influential American historian Perry Miller pointed out, the method of inoculation St Joseph’s RC Primary School itself is troubling, because it works by delib- erately inserting a divine instrument of Hurst Green, Lancashire destruction into the body of a member of the community. If medical efforts blunt the epi- demic without any concomitant improvement HEAD TEACHER in the people’s moral character, how can the smallpox infestation be a specially tailored -++ ('(4&3%0:$730,#--% divine correction? The implication of this line 37504105"70!7:'54/'&0 4!!&70 :&&7 0.876&.. 41$0 719&70 of reasoning was too terrible to contemplate: maybe God was not particularly interested 4&&00 in New England after all.
.'19790410-%050.37("3 4305"70.&97350:5".&40 COTTON MATHER is interred in Copp’s Hill (642:6 03"..&04101$&:190 5 430.170./07&7871073'450 Burial Ground in the North End, where he 3"..&304105"70 0:1903":67305"708434.10./073'450 is surrounded by his worst nightmare: exu- berant expressions of Italian Catholic culture. 79':54.10 .6&9 4970410 But the influence of the Puritan covenantal imagination on American sensibilities remains strong. Many Americans still believe that the 4306:5790.'535:1941$0! 0 /3579 )+- US is divinely called to special blessings – and subjected to specially designed divine pun- "70.8761.63 377 05.0:((.415 :107*7(54.1:&0 ishments when citizens fall short of their duty. 7:907:"76 /.607(572!760)+)+ So, naturally, some preachers view the coro- navirus pandemic as God’s punishment for Further information & application 7:6"0 the sins that beset the nation. And some reli- Website 35#.37("3#"'635$6771&:133"' gious believers are calling for a day of Salary scale #- repentance in order to turn back God’s wrath. Closing date 5" : 0)+)+00000000000000000000000000000000 But what sins to repent? Unlike the morally 35 Interview )- : 0)+)+ homogeneous Puritans, we have no consensus
about the offences provoking divine anger. Different factions conscript the virus to shore up their respective moral narratives. Social conservatives proclaim it is divine pun- ishment for transgenderism and sexual
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PETER HENNESSY’S THE LION AND THE UNICORN
impurity; liberals view it as retribution for our exploitation of the Earth’s resources. Both The corona experience, though sides have one thing in common: they each think God’s condemnation in the pandemic applies to other people, not to them. suffused in tragedy, has shown I would like to make a counter-intuitive suggestion: rather than proclaiming a day of us the very best of ourselves penance, we should hold a day of thanksgiving. We can give thanks together for workers in the health-care sector. We can all be grateful for the brilliance and ingenuity of the global It’s perilous, perhaps sustained post-corona and be turned scientific community, racing to find an effective even foolhardy, to try into something durable? Long ago we vaccine. We can all proclaim appreciation for and write the history of did exactly this in the decisive war and the many acts of kindness our fellow citizens an event as it is still post-war years of the 1940s, which also have shown to vulnerable neighbours, and unfolding. But so shaped the Queen and to which she the steadfastness of those who work in the extraordinary are the times that this is returned in her short but moving food and delivery industry. exactly how I am filling the 12 weeks address from Windsor Castle last week. Gratitude unites, it does not divide. And the NHS has instructed me to stay at That great burst of reform and social by starting with gratitude, we can begin to home along with 1.5 million others betterment was powered by a identify the only sins most of us can do any- deemed to be specially vulnerable. formidable “never again” impulse – thing about – our own. Gratitude to God, and Of one thing I am sure. Henceforth, never again would we have to go to others, invites a healthy self-scrutiny. Are those who write the history of Britain through an economic slump like that of we doing our part? Are we contributing what post 1945 will divide it into BC, Before the 1930s; never again would the bulk we can to the common good? Are we raising Corona, and AC, After Corona. Ours is of our people suffer chronic multiple up the next generation to care for the most an experience laced with sorrow, loss deprivations. vulnerable? Or just to focus myopically on and widespread anxiety. In 1942, the greatest social their own kith and kin? Never before have we been both arithmetician of the age, Sir William collectivised – the huge surge of extra Beveridge, produced a map for the GRATITUDE ALSO helps us take the long state power requiring us to be the pathway to reconstruction. He saw “five view. The seeds of our deliverance from today’s “Corona state” itself embodying the giants” on the “road to recovery”: pandemic may have been planted decades liberties we have temporarily lent to the WANT, DISEASE, IGNORANCE, ago. Accomplished and compassionate health- government – and atomised at the SQUALOR and IDLENESS. care workers do not spring into existence same time. Beveridge’s key insight was that all full-grown. God’s concern for us today was It is impossible to be as detached and five had to be struck simultaneously if operating years ago, in the day-to-day lives, coolly analytical about what is the outer crust of deprivation was to be education, and families of the people we unfolding as a professional historian cracked and the whole scheme would depend on now. It is the patient, thoughtful should be, but I have chosen two only work if full employment was preparations and advances made in ordinary methods to increase my chances. I am maintained. There has never been a times that will provide the resources to sur- keeping a daily “Corona Britain” diary. report like it, before or since. mount our challenges in times of crisis. Historians have a tendency to tidy The wartime coalition government of The great twentieth-century Protestant things up when an event is over. Diaries Winston Churchill began the theologian Karl Barth argued that God’s mes- can be an antidote as we travel a implementation; the Attlee sage begins and ends with gracious mercy. It baffling arc in the cycle of our collective governments of 1945-51 completed it. is true that divine judgement casts a shadow, and individual histories. It was the heart of a post-war but the shadow must never be allowed to And I have started to write a book consensus, of Britain’s post-1945 “new eclipse the light. God’s “No” to sin is always about the refreshed and extended duty deal”. in service of the divine “Yes” to a relationship of care which might make the weather A new Beveridge is above all what with humanity and all of Creation. in our post-corona politics and society, post-corona Britain needs. We already The Puritans knew this, although it didn’t and lead to a substantial array of have the “never again” impulse. Can we always seem that way. The minister Michael improvements and reforms in the early find the people to draw us such a plan? Wigglesworth wrote “God’s Controversy with 2020s that would be a worthy Can we see those in the political class New England” in 1662, when the land was memorial to those we have lost and who can conjure the words to carry the suffering a drought. Speaking in God’s voice, those we have still to lose, as well as spirit and the skills to turn it into policy the poem portrays destruction as the inevitable ensuring that the year of loss is not and practice? consequence of sin. There could be more pun- followed by a decade of squandered Brexit wore us out – three-and-a-half ishment to come: “I’le strike at once an opportunities and narrow partisan scouring, souring years in which the all-consuming stroke; Nor cries nor tears shall politics. worst characteristics of our politics then my fierce intent revoke.” While clearly I have sensed the possibility of this were on display. The corona experience, revelling in the drama, Wigglesworth does each Thursday evening at eight when though suffused in tragedy, has shown not leave people without hope: “Ah dear New- we come out of our houses, lean out of us the very best of ourselves once more. England! dearest land to me; Which unto our flats and cheer, clap, rattle our pots We can do it. It is entirely up to us. God hast hitherto been dear, And mayst be and pans to show how much we cherish The road to 2050 can be still more dear than formerlie, If to his voice our NHS staff and all who work on the the remaking of us; a thou wilt incline thine ear.” front lines in care homes, pharmacies, high road, not a low road Ultimately, the point of a trial is not to break stores, transport and delivery or one of for the country and our a community’s relationship with God, but to the three-quarters-of-a-million people to travel. make it stronger. volunteers. I am not alone in hearing in that glorious cacophony the sound of a Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Cathleen Kaveny is a professor of law and people and a nation rediscovering their Contemporary British History at Queen theology at Boston College and a past better selves. Mary University of London and an president of the Society of Christian Ethics. The question is: can it – will it – be independent crossbench peer.
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FEATURES / David Sanders OP
Timothy Radcliffe, former Master of the Dominicans, gave the following sermon at the Requiem Mass for his friend, David Sanders, at Blackfriars in Oxford on 30 March A window into God’s love
HE RAISING of Lazarus is a story David Sanders (left) Later, he took part in Roger Scruton’s about a family, about friendship and died on 30 March, enterprise of smuggling Western Tabout a brother. So it says something aged 81. He had intellectuals into meetings with Czech about what it means for us to remem- incurable cancer and dissidents in pre-Velvet Revolution Prague. ber and pray for David. His family is taking had contracted He joined the Dominican order in 1965, and part online, and we think of them. We have Covid-19. was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop received innumerable messages from his He grew up in a Christopher Butler on 2 October 1971 at friends, and welcome them too. And we north London Blackfriars, Oxford. He held many different Dominicans are of course his brothers, and parish run by posts within the province including Prior of also his friends. Olivetan Blackfriars in Cambridge, senior tutor in the Friendship is fundamental to our Benedictine monks. Hall and Studium, and Master of Students. He Dominican spirituality. Dominic was a man After studying edited the journal Priests and People – which of many friendships, especially with women. English at King’s College London he went to became The Pastoral Review – for 13 years. An easy friendship between men and women Tanganyika for three years, teaching in a In his last years Sanders – who had taught was from the beginning part of our preaching. school run by German Benedictine in Jamaica for nine years – was the Blackfriars was refounded almost a hundred missionaries, and was there during the enthusiastic coordinator of the St Martin years ago by Bede Jarrett, and it was said that Zanzibar revolution in 1964, which led to the Mission campaign, raising money for the he had a natural capacity for friendship. Bede formation of the united Tanzania. Dominican apostolate in the Caribbean. wrote: “Our lives are made and marred by our friendships. In the worlds of nature and his family and weeps for his friend’s death, friend, even though it will cost him his life. grace, love is more powerful than reason, as some of us weep today. Above all David The divine love is brought down to earth. heart than head, friendship than law.” He said enjoyed people. He was endlessly fascinated David’s friendship was down-to-earth. He that fidelity in friendship is “the most beautiful by people and wanted to know all about them, always brought one back to reality. If I was thing on Earth”. and why they thought what they thought. in a tizz about something, I would talk with Friendship matters because it is a sharing When he came back from his chemotherapy David. He had the gift of cutting to the quick, in the life of God, the eternal friendship of sessions, we would meet and he would tell putting everything in perspective. Often I Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Every friendship me about the nurses and doctors he had seen. could not quite follow his reasoning, but the teaches us something about the life of God. He was interested in their particularity, their conclusions rang true. Veritas, the motto of That is why we need many friends, many win- individuality. the order. dows into God’s love. This gives us a tiny glimpse of how God He showed this realism supremely in how David and I joined the order the same day, loves each of us. God does not love humanity he faced his death. When he discovered he in 1965. I must confess that I didn’t at first in general. According to Aquinas, God knows had cancer, his first reaction was to ask if I like him much. He was always going on about the uniqueness of each of us in a way that we had a good book on death. He was curious as “When I was in Africa”, which made me feel do not. When we glimpse that, we cannot but to what it would be like. He said to a friend, very inexperienced. The breakthrough came love others. Hatred is in a sense abstract. That “I have been preaching on the Resurrection when we were using a terrifying machine to is why Bede Jarrett taught us to delight in for all these years and I had better show that clean potatoes which threatened to cut off particular friendships. We should only beware I believe in it.” And so, when death was near, our fingers. We both burst into laughter and of particular enmities. he rang me on his mobile to say goodbye. The that was the beginning of our friendship. The raising of Lazarus shows God’s love next day he asked the nurses to let him die Friendship grows out of shared joy. incarnate. This is love made flesh and blood. in peace. Now his curiosity will be satisfied. Jesus enjoys the company of Lazarus and It takes the form of Jesus going to visit a sick In the middle of the drama at the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus turns to his Father. “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” He bears witness to what is at the core of his being, Tablet binders. his relationship with his Father. David knew The perfect way to save that he was a man of prayer. When we joined the order, the English Province was in a state and store your issues of chaos. David taught me that one could only survive and flourish if one was rooted in prayer. Not just the Liturgy of the Hours, but daily, silent prayer. Being quiet in the To order call: +44 (0)20 8748 8484 presence of the Lord. Listening every day for or email: [email protected] the Lord’s voice. So let us now pray for him. He was not per- WWW.THETABLET.CO.UK fect. We ask the Father to forgive him his sins. And we give thanks for this wonderful brother, friend, brother-in-law and uncle.
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WORD FROM THE CLOISTERS [email protected]
amid the Covid storm. Hilary Lagden’s hus- Remembering a band died of cancer in February. Because of the restrictions, “My entire support network beloved Austin Friar was seized from me just when I needed it most,” she writes. “Devastated with grief, and MY OLD headmaster died last week, and having never lived alone before, I found it although I knew there were more powerful hard to get out of bed. I was in shock from sources of authority in the universe, it was my loss, isolated from the Church, isolated difficult for a schoolboy to imagine them. from family and friends and isolated by my That Fr Bernard O’Connor was firm but kind deafness with only my Hearing Assistance was part of the formative infrastructure of Dog, a black cocker spaniel, for company. I my childhood. was completely unable to pray. I could only Bernard O’Connor was born in Dublin in hope that God heard my groans of despair.” 1927. He was one of a group of talented Irish Hilary found the closure of her local church Augustinians who established Austin Friars particularly hard to bear. But something unex- School, Carlisle, in 1951. He taught Maths, pected happened. “On my third day of isolation became housemaster of Clare House, and then I began to feel a little different. I’d had no dis- headmaster. He went on to negotiate the inde- fidence that he had a point worth making. tractions to stop me thinking about my loss, pendence of the Augustinians in Britain from He was once in the frame to be Prior General nor had I been under any pressure to join well- the Irish Province in 1977, becoming the first of the Augustinians. He died on 16 April of meaning friends for lunches or outings that Provincial of England and Scotland. Covid-19, aged 92. would’ve distracted me for a while, and then He moved into parish work in Longtown, Fr Paul Graham, an Austin Friars old boy only served to emphasise my loneliness when near Carlisle, then served in parishes in who went on to join the Augustinians and they were over. Being alone is giving me a Dundee, London and Birmingham. Gifted has had a couple of stints as Provincial himself, blanket of protection before I have to emerge with great clarity of mind, his interventions told us: “If the Holy See were ever to look for into the normal world again. I have discovered in both provincial and general chapters were a miracle to support Fr Bernard’s cause, he that ‘aloneness and loneliness’ are not as models of clear exposition and incisiveness. got me through O-Level Maths.” unbearable as I thought they would be.” His occasional letters to the editor of this “I have been thrown in at the deep end”, she paper always came with a self-deprecating READERS’ LETTERS tell of both the heart- writes. “But in enforced solitude I have found covering note that did not disguise his con- break and the unexpected glimpses of grace a very remote glimmer of peace forming.”
PUZZLES
PRIZE CROSSWORD No. 704 Alanus n We cannot process entries or prizes at 18 Niels ----, Danish physicist, winner of the Archbishop of Canterbury who restored 1` 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 present. Please keep entering. Winners Nobel Prize for work on atomic structure (4) monastic life (7)
7 8 8 will be notified and prizes awarded 22 Medieval manager and pilgrim with a Tale 5 Totally selfless love as Christ taught in as soon possible. for Chaucer (5) John 13 (5) 9 Across 23 City in the Netherlands, birthplace of only 6 Lion in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia (5) 10 11 7 ------Caeli, hymn and Advent Mass from Dutch pope, Adrian VI (7) 9 He helped bring down the body of Christ Isaiah 45:8 (6) 24 St Peter ------, French Marist martyred from the Cross (9) 8 Iberian city with Gothic cathedral (28 April 1841) as missionary in Oceania (6) 14 Assyrian city whose people repented after 12 13 13 dedicated to Santa Maria (6) 25 Of the nature of, e.g., Bucephalus and the preaching of 13 Across (7) 14 14 15 16 10 City victim of eruption of Vesuvius (7) Incitatus (6) 15 Saint, husband of Anne and mother of 15 17 18 11 Santa Maria ----- Minerva, church in Rome Down Mary (7)
19 20 19 21 containing the tombs of St Catherine of 1 Scriptural texts for the Mass that change 16 English composer of War Requiem and Siena and Fra Angelico (5) each day and are spoken or sung (7) Missa Brevis (7) 22 23 12 A currency of the Middle East (4) 2 A ceremonial cloth placed upon the lap of a 19 Max -----, German Romantic composer 13 Reluctant prophet saved from drowning bishop when he is seated at Mass (7) especially of major works for violin (5)
24 25 by a huge fish (5) 3 Product associated with Spanish town 20 Parisian artist, early Impressionist, 17 Patron saint of the physically and mentally famously painted by Goya (5) associated with painting dancers (5) 26 ill, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (5) 4 Saint (tenth century), reforming 21 National from the Middle East (5)
Please send your answers to: Crossword Competition 25 April, SUDOKU | Challenging Solution to the 4 April puzzle The Tablet, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY. Each 3x3 box, each Email: [email protected], with Crossword in the subject field. row and each column Please include your full name, telephone number and email address, must contain all the and a mailing address. Three books – on Augustine, Christianity and numbers 1 to 9. Thomas Aquinas – from the OUP’s Very Short Introduction series will go to the sender of the first correct entry drawn at random.
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Solution to the 4 April crossword No. 701 Across: 1 Sacre; 4 Of Arms; 9 Martinu; 10 Urban; 11 Irma; 12 Diatonic; 14 Common; 19 Trumpets; 20 Loki; 22 Coeur; 23 Showers; 24 O’Neill; 25 Tract. Down: 1 Summit; 2 Chrome; 3 Evil; 5 Faustina; 6 Rubens; www.oup.com 7 Seneca; 8 Numismatist; 13 Corporal; 15 Stucco; 16 Eugene; 17 Bodega; 18 Tissot; 21 Coat.
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LETTERS
•THE EDITOR OF THE TABLET• 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY [email protected] All correspondence, including email, must give a full postal address and contact telephone number. The Editor reserves the right to shorten letters.
Global authority TOPIC OF THE WEEK l You were right to say in your editorial that the world will not return to “normal” after the Virus opens a spiritual powerhouse pandemic (“Shaping our brave virtual world”, 18 April), but the FOLLOWING ON from the report (News because a spiritual powerhouse is opening idea that in the digital age this from Britain and Ireland, 18 April) that the before us that we never encountered before. will trigger the decline of congregation of Wrexham diocese trebled at A new church could well mean a staying-at- “globalisation” and a reversion the virtual Easter services this year, I just home community, and not just for the to the primacy of the nation have had the privilege of taking part in a elderly and infirm. We are encountering the state raises many questions. Zoom community liturgy for the second beginning of a powerful and radical form of Pope Francis in his recent Sunday of Easter. The Liturgy of the Word prayerful worship. Urbi et Orbi address used the lasted 45 minutes. It was prayerful and (FR) TOM GRUFFERTY biblical image of the storm at thought-provoking; there was good singing PORTSMOUTH sea (Mark 4:35-41) to tell the and a lovely interaction between the 31 world that we are all in the participants. There was real long-distance HOW ASTONISHING it was to see the Urbi same boat and we need to row fellowship, humour, and no collection. This et Orbi blessing from Rome this year. For together. It was a call for the new community is a lay initiative and it will once we could appreciate the great St unity of humanity and another meet every Sunday at 9 a.m. Peter’s Basilica for itself, not just as a plea to world leaders to find This is one of numerous initiatives in background to events of the papal year. ways in which we can live response to Covid-19. I heard that Fr A sense of awe and mystery pervaded the together in our common home. Richard Gibbons, parish priest of Knock, in immense empty spaces, bringing out the In last week’s New Statesman three days over Easter, blessed 900 homes. beauty of tessellated pavements, gilded John Gray questioned whether The people of that parish will never forget ceilings, the great supporting pillars it is possible to find global such a brave gesture as they saw their priest straining upwards, seeming to come alive, solutions to global questions. blessing them from the front gate. the silence. “Geopolitical divisions Beyond lockdown we all need to ponder DENIS BAYLIS preclude anything like world the many different forms of worship, BEDWORTH, WARWICKSHIRE government,” he added, since the different powers would compete to control it. But David Miliband sees an On the bright side I feel deeply for all those who a radio play and knitting are opportunity after the crisis for have been bereaved or suffered still consolations. the international community to l I am finding the lockdown a hardship because of this JANE O’MAHONEY reboot the global settlement relief. At first, I wondered pandemic. I feel mean writing LAUNCESTON, CORNWALL that followed the Second World whether I would ever want to this letter as I am aware of so War and move away from the go back to the other way of life: many facing so much hardship. Corbyn’s commitment fortress mentality of recent relief organist, helping in choir, But I must acknowledge that years. leading the RCIA. personally, I have benefited. I l Former Labour leader The Church has a voice here I have repotted the plants, trust that when we are once Jeremy Corbyn has a decades- and Pope Francis was being sorted the garden, weeded the more allowed out I shall have long commitment to peace, prophetic in his call for unity. filing cabinet, filed all the stray more to offer than before, as I human rights and global So was St John XXIII in 1963. piles of paper. I am taking have had more time to think justice. Whether it is climate change or regular exercise and enjoying about it all. Praise God for this How surprising then to read the pandemic, his words could the spring sunshine and the unexpected gift. in a book review by Terry have been written last week. exuberant growth of the green MARION MORGAN Philpot (11 April) that “Corbyn “Today the universal spaces near me. I am catching BRISTOL has a long, murky and well- common good presents us with up on reading periodicals and documented history of problems which are worldwide books and the pile by the bed is l Things could be worse. Pope association with terrorists, in their dimensions; problems, at last diminishing. Innocent III, in conflict with Islamists and anti-Semites”. therefore, which cannot be In addition, I can participate King John, placed England Corbyn was arrested for solved except by a public in the streamed Masses from under an interdict from 1208 to protesting against apartheid in authority with power, the comfort of my home and 1214. Baptisms and extreme South Africa at a time when organisation and means meditate before the Blessed unction were allowed. But not Nelson Mandela was still coextensive with these Sacrament (streamed) 24/7. My the celebration of Mass, described by the British problems, and with a shopping is done by kind weddings and funerals. government as a “terrorist”. He worldwide sphere of activity. neighbours (I am 78). I have Perhaps the churches were urged dialogue with the Sinn Consequently the moral order had lots of phone conversations, closed. Certainly, the clergy felt Féin leadership even prior to itself demands the some with people with whom I out of pocket. the Hume-Adams peace talks establishment of some such had almost lost touch. This (MGR CANON) NICHOLAS FRANCE which gave birth ultimately to general form of public slower pace suits me. Of SOUTHAMPTON the Good Friday Agreement. authority.”(Pacem in Terris, 137.) course, I miss, as we all do, the He has also sought KEVIN MCDONALD physical experience of being in l I would like to assure consistently to engage all sides ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS OF church, both for Mass and for Christopher Howse (Notebook, in the Middle East in the SOUTHWARK, LONDON SE1 private devotion. 18 April) that a hot water bottle, search for peace and justice.
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LETTERS
When we read in the date earlier in the week would Catholic tune light of Laudato Si’, there is beatitudes Jesus says “Blessed allow the restoration of one of nothing unorthodox about the are the peacemakers”, are we to Our Lady’s feasts to the date l Ian Thomson writes (“A song radical, earlier version of “The believe he meant only insofar enjoyed since the nineteenth of hope”, 11 April) about “Wa Prelude”, whatever the later, as we could stay entirely aloof century, if not earlier. Habibi”, a song that has been Anglican version of the poet from people whose views and JOSEPH FLEMING viral on the internet over the may have thought! attitudes are not our own, and PANTYMWYN, FLINTSHIRE past couple of weeks. It is in ANDREW CARTER which we may even find fact an Arabicised version of a SCARBOROUGH, NORTH reprehensible? Visible women traditional Catholic hymn YORKSHIRE (DR) SIMON HEWITT tune, often sung during Lent (DR) MICHAEL CALDERBANK l Dr Anne Inman (Letters, 11 before the Second Vatican Healthy scepticism WEMBLEY, MIDDLESEX April) need not despair of Council to the Redemptorist seeing women contributing to Edmund Vaughan’s text, “God l Many of those who now come Lost feast livestreamed Masses. of mercy and compassion”. The out on to the streets on Holy Week services tune is a traditional French Thursday evenings to applaud l I was glad that Cardinal streamed from the cathedral melody, said to have been the NHS will be among those Vincent Nichols reminded us of here in Aberdeen were borrowed from an opera by the who watched as Jeremy Hunt the relevance of the historic enriched by the presence of Italian composer, Giovanni slashed its funding to such an devotion to Our Lady of the St Andrew’s Community, a Battista Pergolesi (1710-36). extent that the junior doctors Perpetual Succour (Easter Arts, group of young women who PAUL INWOOD went on strike, and who then 11 April). live on the cathedral premises HAVANT, HAMPSHIRE voted his government back into I still treat 27 June as the so are part of the “household”. power at the next general feast day for this Marian They formed the Dreary vision election. Is this hypocrisy, devotion. However, the congregation, did the collective amnesia or Bishops of England and Wales readings, and sang the psalms, l In Anthony Gardner’s timely contrition? decided some years ago to some plainchant and some article on Wordsworth PETER ENTWISTLE remove this feast from the Taizé chants. (“Wordsworth’s retreat into PRESTBURY, CHESHIRE Calendar and passed the Easter Sunday Mass, said by orthodoxy”, 18 April) there is responsibility for celebrating the bishop, was streamed from an unfortunate error in one of Back to Church Our Lady’s feast to the St Joseph’s, Woodside. The the quotations. Wordsworth Redemptorists in the United readings were all done by wrote of the “visionary l Melanie McDonagh Kingdom. women, filmed in their own dreariness” of what he saw in (Notebook, 11 April) worries The Bishops’ Conference of homes, and some music was his childhood when he was that with our churches being Scotland did the same. The supplied by a family group – once lost in the hills (a startling closed, we might lose the habit feast seems to have four girls with their parents – and disturbing oxymoron), not of attending. Some might, but disappeared from other also from home. a “visionary dreaminess” (a when our churches do reopen it liturgical calendars such as So women are definitely mildly comic, Romantic could also be seen as an Ireland, the United States visible in livestreamed Masses cliché). It is the unshowy opportunity to invite our and France. in this part of the country, and I precision of his language when lapsed friends to return with It is not as if there are no free expect we are not alone. intimating spiritual truths us. “I’m going back to Church dates in the Calendar. A move (DR) SHELAGH NODEN about creation that makes tomorrow, come back with me.” of St Cyril of Alexandria from DIRECTOR OF MUSIC, ST MARY’S Wordsworth essential reading NEIL TULLY 27 June to an uncommitted CATHEDRAL, ABERDEEN at this time; and read in the FLINT, FLINTSHIRE
THE LIVING SPIRIT AND LITURGICAL CALENDAR
Now, therefore, enter your own refuge. This one is all, all their minds, ✦ CALENDAR ✦ inmost heart, and make a and this all is one. It is to transform the dwelling-place for God. Make the house of God, it is world by miracle Sunday 26 April: Third Sunday of Easter (Year A) Him a temple, make Him a the city of the King, it is upon miracle of Monday 27 April: house, make Him a pavilion. the body of Christ, it is love, but God did Easter feria Make Him an ark of the the bride of the Lamb. It not will that for him. Tuesday 28 April: covenant, make Him an ark of is the heaven, it is is the On the contrary, he Easter feria or St Peter Chanel, the flood; no matter what you sun, it is the moon, it is the willed that he should Priest and Martyr or St Louis M Grignion de Montfort, Priest call it, it is all one house of God. morning star, the daybreak be, humanly speaking, a Wednesday 29 April: In the temple let the creature and the evening … failure, should be nailed to the St Catherine of Siena, Virgin and adore the Creator, in the house If you have this, then you cross and suffer there in Doctor, Patron of Europe let the son revere the Father, in have everything. If you have helplessness. Indeed, the moment Thursday 30 April: the pavilion let the knight adore everything, you have nothing in which his love was Easter feria or St Pius V, Pope Friday 1 May: the King. Under the covenant, let more to look for, and your heart consummated, in which the crisis Easter feria or St Joseph the Worker the disciple listen to the Teacher. is at rest. of his redeeming power was Saturday 2 May: In the flood, let him that is HUGH OF ST VICTOR reached, was when the hands that St Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor shipwrecked beseech Him who FROM COMFORT, EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER could heal with a touch were Sunday 3 May: guides the helm. HOWSE (CONTINUUM, 2004) nailed back out of reach … Fourth Sunday of Easter God is become everything to CARYLL HOUSELANDER you, and God has made No doubt, one who loved men as FROM THE LETTERS OF CARYLL For the Extraordinary Form calendar everything for you. He has made [Christ] did would have longed to HOUSELANDER , EDITED BY MAISIE WARD go to www.lms.org.uk the dwelling, and is become your heal all their sickness, to enlighten (SHEED & WARD, 1965)
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BOOKS •OUR REVIEWERS• MICHAEL BANNER is dean and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge RACHEL KELLY’s latest book is Singing in the Rain • WILLIAM JOLL was a London art dealer and now lives in the Hebrides The centre cannot hold A powerful defence of morality does not know where to start MICHAEL BANNER
PHOTO: PA, TOBY MELVILLE endanger your possession of the adjective, Morality: Restoring the Common and vice versa. And yet he walks his difficult Good in Divided Times path with considerable aplomb, so that the JONATHAN SACKS most important tension in his book is created (HODDER & STOUGHTON, 384 PP, £20) not by the conflicting demands of the role, but by the altogether more fundamental TABLET BOOKSHOP PRICE £16 • TEL 020 7799 4064 matter of two very different starting points for his thought about morality. On the one hand, and early on, Lord Sacks MAGINE THERE is to be a debate at the picks out Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue as Cambridge Union, or some similar locale. a great influence on him, quoting the famous IThe motion: “This House believes in (it really should be infamous) claim from that morality”. Who would you want as a proposer? book that “we have – very largely, if not entirely I doubt that you could do any better than – lost our comprehension, both theoretical Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. He is a powerful and practical, of morality”, and that we are debater. He has ready to hand a stock of Jonathan Sacks headed for a new dark age. But, as Lord Sacks authorities, old and new, to make his case on immediately points out, the pessimism of this behalf of morality, lands some flashy blows prognosis is not one he shares. He is resolutely on the chins of his opponents, and rounds it It is often said about elections that in the hopeful about morality. all off with whimsical humour. In support of end the result depends on the few undecided morality, he assembles a notable array of wit- voters, and for all I know it’s the same with THE THINKER who tries to combine these two nesses – on a single page, George Washington, debates at the Cambridge Union. There will starting points is bound to struggle, I suggest. Alexis de Tocqueville and John F. Kennedy be a good number of people who would like The pessimist is inclined to think that morality are lined up on behalf of the claim that religion where Lord Sacks is coming from, as they say needs saving, and saving in particular by some is essential to the fabric of a free society. – think of them as the choir to whom he is sort of wide-ranging and far-reaching intel- Against morality’s detractors, or supposed preaching. And there will be a good number, lectual defence which takes us, as Lord Sacks detractors, he doesn’t pull his punches – Marx, perhaps, who don’t – perhaps they don’t quite does, from Socrates to Nietzsche, from Adam Nietzsche and Freud gave us postmodernism, recognise the dystopian picture of modern life Smith to Derrida. But the optimist is not which in turn has given us a post-truth world. from which the case for morality promises to typically an optimist in virtue of having been And what’s the difference between the mafia save us. So it will be down to the swing voters, convinced about the robustness of these dialec- and a postmodernist? “The mafia makes you who will be charmed or not, as the case may be. tical manoeuvres, but on account of a sense an offer you can’t refuse; a postmodernist The real question, however, is not about that morality is something that humans just makes you an offer you can’t understand.” winning a debate, but about winning an argu- do. The optimist (and Hume, for example, was ment, which is a fundamentally different a moral optimist in these terms) thinks that enterprise. “The best philosophers go slowest,” defending morality by long and twisting argu- said Wittgenstein – and they go slowest ments is about as vital to its continuance as is because they want to arrive at their conclu- a tortured defence of music, friendship or cook- sions by the longest not the shortest route. ing to the persistence of those activities. Postmodernism doubtless provides some Pessimism makes a bleak diagnosis and promising material for comedic knockabout, prescribes a demanding course of treatment; isrun by Church House Bookshop but the philosopher wouldn’t want to win optimism sees the patient in a rather different – one of the UK’s leading religious easy laughs, but to take on postmodernism’s light, and eschews the proposed regimen. Of booksellers with thousands arguments in their most telling form – even course the optimist and the pessimist are of titles in stock. if that means presenting them more power- likely to have words with each other as to the fully than they have been presented by their merits of their respective claims. But Lord To place an order call: +44 (0)20 7799 4064 proponents, and even if that makes the case Sacks wants both of them on his side at the Email: [email protected] against your favoured position stronger than same time. It may be deemed the master any you have yet encountered. stroke of an accomplished debater to have all International P&P charges will apply. Lord Sacks finds himself, of course, in the opinions on his or her side; but if the argu- perilous position of anyone who is cast in the ment, and not just the debate, is to be won, the published review. role of a “public intellectual”. If you focus on the tensions would need to be accepted and deserving the noun you will probably resolved rather than effaced.
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BOOKS
RECENTLY Did Jesus Really Exist? And 51 Other Questions / NIKOLAAS SINTOBIN SJ / MESSENGER PUBLICATIONS £11.95; PUBLISHED TABLET PRICE £10.75 / Light-hearted yet theologically sound answers to leading questions about the Christian faith
PHOTO: GIULIA DUEPUNTOZERO Leave comfort root-room from her long career as a doctor. Given that the evidence of gardening’s benefit is so com- RACHEL KELLY pelling, why is horticultural therapy not taken more seriously as a standard treatment for anxiety and depression? (Full disclosure: we The Well Gardened Mind actually met for coffee a few years ago to talk SUE STUART-SMITH about this; I had written a memoir about my (WILLIAM COLLINS, 352 PP, £20) experience of severe depression and how nature, as well as poetry, had helped heal me.) TABLET BOOKSHOP PRICE £18 • TEL 020 7799 4064 It seems especially odd that horticultural therapy is not more mainstream, given that the idea that gardens and nature can help HERE IS only one problem with reading people recover from mental illness first this delightfully titled and delightful Medicinal plants became prominent as long ago as the Tbook. And it is one the author, Sue at the Chelsea eighteenth century. Stuart-Smith, a psychiatrist and psycho- Physic Garden Reformers such as the British doctor therapist who is married to the landscape William Tuke (1732-1822) campaigned against architect Tom Stuart-Smith, herself identifies have a better quality of life; prisoners given the appalling conditions that the mentally ill on page 182. the chance to grow plants are less likely to were subjected to. Tuke believed the environ- At the start of her chapter on “War and reoffend; and vulnerable young people who ment could be curative. In 1796 he built an Gardening”, in which she describes how garden are more likely to stay in education. asylum known as The Retreat, in countryside soldiers fashioned flowerpots from spent Some of the ground is familiar, but Stuart- near York, where patients could garden. Well German shell casings in the First Smith brings fresh discernment. into the twentieth century, many institutions World War, she admits: “More It seems odd She recounts the parable of continued to have large walled gardens, in than once in the course of writing Maurilius, the fifth-century which flowers, fruit and vegetables were cul- this book I have felt rueful about that horticultural Bishop of Angers. A woman tivated by patients and used in hospitals. sitting at my desk while Tom was therapy is entered his church begging him Everything changed dramatically in the outside in the sunlight getting on to deliver the last sacrament to 1950s because of the introduction of, and with things in the garden.” not more her dying son, but he pushed her belief in, new and radical drugs. The main Her plea that we need to redis- mainstream away. Finishing Mass was more focus of care switched to medication, where cover nature in the modern world important. The boy died without it has largely remained. is so powerfully argued that I too his blessing; the bishop was dis- Thankfully, we are beginning to come full wondered why I was sitting indoors reading traught and travelled to England, where he circle. Levels of anxiety and depression have her book on a sunny afternoon, rather than spent seven years as a gardener for a noble- increased. This, coupled with the growing grabbing a trowel and digging as if my life man. This is usually interpreted as his doing body of evidence on nature’s beneficial effects, depended on it. penance. Stuart-Smith concludes it was more is giving green interventions a new impetus. Because, Stuart-Smith argues, in many ways benign. Maurilius wanted to make things Schemes whereby GPs prescribe a course of our lives do depend on our connection with good again, and he did this by turning the gardening are on the rise. They might also the natural world. Recent studies have found soil and making a garden. prescribe Stuart-Smith’s book – to be read that elderly people who garden live longer and I also welcomed Stuart-Smith’s insights only after the sun has gone down.
Sister act Wyld had chosen this format to allow a free the most successful episode was a winter play between parallel narratives so as to picnic, on the beach, into which one of the WILLIAM JOLL encourage a form of ambiguity and cross– narrators is dragooned by a deeply sinister fertilisation, but I also found the break-up of priest and a quartet of local harpies. Ruth, the structure confusing. the unwilling hostess, is addressed by Janet, The Bass Rock There are three narrative strands, all set in the Obergruppenführer of the group: “‘Now EVIE WYLD North Berwick – although there are staffage I understand Betty has organised sandwiches (JONATHAN CAPE, 368 PP, £16.99) scenes in London – and the physical atmos - – fish paste and cucumber …’ She looked up phere of the Bass Rock and its surroundings at Ruth and Ruth nodded. ‘If you could say TABLET BOOKSHOP PRICE £15.29 • TEL 020 7799 4064 are wonderfully evoked. Anyone who yes, dearie, that’ll save me looking up has spent time on the east coast of after every item, thank you. Now, pork Scotland will recognise the truth of and egg pies?’” HIS IS Evie Wyld’s third novel, following Wyld’s descriptions of light on the Ruth is married to a profoundly on from After the Fire, A Still Small colour of rock and water. The earliest annoying man, perhaps verging on TVoice (2009) and All the Birds, Singing narrative is concerned with witchcraft caricature, certainly designed to be two- (2013), and it is considerably more ambitious and male thuggery, has a male narrator, dimensional, but it is the relationships in scope. Not only is it consciously separated and is set in the far past. Of course it between women in this tessellated work from the Australian/non-British streak in her is linked by language to the other two, set that triumph, notably that between Viviane make-up that fed the imagination that made soon after the end of the Second World War, and Maggie. I wholly recommend this book those books so powerful, it incorporates a and in the present day, but I was not wholly but you may need to give it two goes – I did. triple narrative – and a large cast – that convinced by the link. And some readers may be reminded of Cul- demands constant attention from the reader. The two more modern parts are excellent, de-sac, a 1966 film by Polanski that floated I formed the impression on first reading that albeit sometimes quite confusing. For me, into my mind when I was reading it.
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• DIGITAL ARTS • Tour the SISTINE CHAPEL and other Vatican highlights online • From LA BOHEME to PORGY AND BESS, the Met Opera’s free nightly opera streams TED TALK: RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS, navigates the pandemic with courage and hope • All links at WWW.TINYURL.COM/TABLETDIGITALARTS How Catholicism coloured my life
Michael Craig-Martin talks to Joanna Moorhead about his latest work in support of the NHS, and the education that paved the way for his art
ONE OF us was expecting the virus crisis: but perhaps, Sir Michael NCraig-Martin muses, artists were among those best prepared to weather it. That’s certainly the feeling from his own perspective, at least. “To begin with, I’ve lived alone for many years, so I’m used to my own company,” he tells me. “On top of that I often work from home, and I’ve got an office here. So I’ve not had to reinvent myself – it’s more of the normal.” That, though, is about the practicalities: when it comes to the terrible realities of the moment, the pandemic has been every bit as seismic and unsettling for Craig-Martin as it has for everyone else. Which is why he was so pleased to get his latest commission – a colour-your-own thank-you poster for NHS staff, downloadable from the BBC website. “To have something so specific to do at the moment, when you’re feeling helpless, and to be able to use what I can do positively was a real treat,” he says. We’re speaking on the phone, but I get a tangible sense of his warmth and thoughtfulness. The poster features gerberas – known as African daisies – which bloom in a riot of colours. And colour is at the heart of Craig- Martin’s long career: he’s well known for his array of bright, bold images, mostly highlight- ing everyday objects. They burst with colour, lifting them to a new level and invariably tak- ing the viewer’s spirits soaring alongside. So he feels very much like an artist for the moment – and what’s more, he says, the pan- demic is changing his view of the objects he wants to portray. Where once there were light bulbs, safety pins, sunglasses and coffee cups, stand by for post-virus Craig-Martin works that feature organic items – the fruit, flowers and vegetables he’s currently sketching when flowers I’m known for. But somehow, at the One version of Michael Craig-Martin’s poster he gets in from his forays to the supermarket. moment, drawing fabricated objects didn’t “It’s the only place I can go right now, and feel so interesting, in the circumstances.” he tells me, he lived a life in an area peopled they’re the most interesting things in there,” Now 78, Craig-Martin’s life boomeranged by Irish and Italian immigrants steeped in a he says. “They’re naked, and they’re colourful. from this side of the Atlantic to the other, and level of Catholicism that was commonplace I’ve been doing lots of drawings of them – back. Born in Dublin, his family moved to at the time, but extinct today. And it was the and of course, it’s not fruit and vegetables and the US when he was a young child, and there, Church, and the education it provided, that
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COMING Warren Lee The pianist gives a piano recital on Facebook Live on 25 April as part SOON of At Home with the London Mozart Players www.tinyurl.com/tablet-LMP
© MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GAGOSIAN; PHOTO: ARIC ATTAS proved to be one of two forces underpinning RADIO his artistic career (the other was Yale, where Virtual belief he went on to study). But his schooling came first, and in partic- When to stream and when not ular, it was the years he spent at his Benedictine high school in Washington that D.J. TAYLOR would prove pivotal. Most, though not all, of the teachers were monks; and they gave him Heart and Soul: Faith in Lockdown France a way of looking at life and the world that was BBC WORLD SERVICE “intelligent, clever and sophisticated”; a teach- ing model so thoughtful and open-minded N THE outskirts of Paris the local that, paradoxically, he believes it actually made wildlife is making a noisy come- it possible for him to later stop being a Oback: owls, deer, foxes, all kinds of Catholic. And certainly as an artist, it offered hitherto nervous fauna are using an exciting and life-enhancing breadth. humanity’s enforced sequestration as an “It introduced me to modern art, to the opportunity to make their presence felt. So theatre, to architecture, to literature,” he says. this excellent World Service documentary In today’s world, he considers faith education (19 April), part of the long-running Heart to be untenable, and yet he knows he owes and Soul franchise, began with its presenter, a huge amount to his own school and all it John Lawrenson, attending to a volley of hoot- gave him. ing sounds. But the question was: reduced to As well as its education, being raised silence, solitude and quiet reflection, how Catholic gave him access to a world of colour. were France’s religious communities going “The Church I grew up in still had a culture Craig-Martin’s steel sculpture Gate, 2011 about practising their faith? According to from the Middle Ages, based on images rather Lawrenson and his ecumenical collection of than words. Our church had stained glass interviewees, the coronavirus crisis had windows and statues and paintings; it was a could seek out the ones who spoke a language inspired “brilliant new ways” of worshipping visually based environment, and that definitely they recognised.” It was all about maximising and communicating. had a big impact on me.” Today, he says, he potential, he says – and the students who left Some of this, naturally, involves the greater works with black outlines “and what are they, the art world to work in different occupations use of technology. Fr Guillaume, a priest if not stained glass windows?” gained just as much as the Hirsts and the attached to a “super-presbytery” at Nogent- And his best-known work, An Oak Tree – Taylor-Woods. le-Roi, with 40 churches in its care, is a conceptual piece comprising a glass of water What depresses him today, aside from the officiating at Masses livestreamed over on a shelf with a text mounted on the wall – pandemic, is the state of the education system YouTube. Some of his colleagues, involved in was, he confirms, inspired by transub- and how the “extraordinary creativity” a home-schooling project designed to help stantiation. “I was trying to engage of the British schools and univer- local children with their English, could be with maximal change with sities that began in the 1960s heard singing along to the Beatles’ “Yellow minimal effect and I and continued into the 1990s Submarine”. Elsewhere, the mosque at St- thought: transubstantia- has been undermined by Denis was using Zoom and WhatsApp to keep tion, that’s the answer.” regulations and tick- in touch with its congregation, while a rabbi boxes. “What we did at from the seventeenth arrondissement spoke RELIGION, HE SAYS, Goldsmiths depended warmly of the “social networking experiences” was tied up with a sense on trust, not regula- that were facilitating daily prayers. of the philosophy of life. tions,” he says. “I never Virtual attendances, as elsewhere, were on “And what I took from knew what hours I was the up. At the same time, the lack of real-life that was the idea that the supposed to be working interaction meant some things had to be put special existed in the ordi- – I just taught, as much as on hold. Confession via telephone was a step nary. And I think that was needed.” too far, Fr Guillaume explained: the priest underlies everything. You Now, he fears the virus may had to be physically present. Similarly, there don’t need to look for the special, make more of an impact on were one or two Jewish prayers that required it’s not necessary. All you need is right higher education than almost any a live audience. there in the ordinary.” other sphere. “Higher education is going to If the first half of Faith in Lockdown France Craig-Martin surely took all he’d learned be devastated, possibly more than anything concentrated on practical responses, the sec- about education in his Benedictine schooldays else, because the foreign students won’t be ond strayed into the thornier territory of trying with him to Goldsmiths in London, where here any more.” to make sense of it all. Here the general opin- he taught for more than 20 years after he Until recently, Craig-Martin had always ion, whether expressed by Christian, Muslim returned to this side of the Atlantic in the been struck by how his generation was “the or Jew, was that it offered a chance to show mid 1960s. Goldsmiths was to make him as luckiest of all … we’d known no wars, no great our mettle. Meanwhile, as Lawrenson noted, famous as his own art, because while there cataclysm”. All that is over now. “Normal has something else hovered in the air above the he influenced a whole host of emerging talents gone,” he says. “Everything will be changed.” talk of apps and stoicism. It was the including Damien Hirst and Sam Taylor- widespread belief that, post-virus, nothing Wood. But it’s the ethos he helped create that •Versions of Michael Craig-Martin’s poster could ever be the same again in our relation- he remembers with greatest pride. “It was for the NHS can be downloaded for colouring ships with the world we inhabit. A huge based on the idea of absolute respect for one in at: reservoir of moral-cum-spiritual capital has another,” he says. “The students had an amaz- www.tinyurl.com/tablet-MCM1 and been built up, and those involved in creating
PHOTO: CAROLINE TRUE PHOTO: ing array of people to teach them, and they www.tinyurl.com/tablet-MCM2 it are desperate not to see it squandered.
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MUSIC Also slowish out of the blocks is singer Fiona Soundtracks for Apple, whose last album The Idler Wheel … came out in 2012. The drop-quote from Fetch the new abnormal The Bolt Cutters (Epic) has to be “Kick me Three zingers for the zeitgeist under the table all you want/I won’t shut up”. Apple doesn’t do pretty. She isn’t so much a BRIAN MORTON throwback to Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette as the true keeper of that ruthlessly The Strokes: The New Abnormal honest, self-revealing flame. While the Strokes CULT/RCA don’t do inwardness, preferring to observe Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters youthful foibles from the VIP area, Apple is EPIC a ruthlessly honest singer, or like Casablancas, Thundercat: It Is What It Is sometimes just a talker: “Shameika” and BRAINFEEDER “Fetch The Bolt Cutters” are delivered in a hoarse, urgent speech-song. ESPITE THE ravages of the other The other artist perfectly soundtracking global pandemic (hip-hop, that is) the new abnormal is a virtuoso bass player Drock music still seems to be in called Stephen Bruner, whose musical per- rudely good health. There is no America rather than the coronavirus lockdown sona is the martial arts videogame-inspired current band ruder than the Strokes, who (they were big Sanders supporters) but the Thundercat and whose new album It Is What have made a 20-plus-year career out of rich- title seems doubly relevant now. It Is (Brainfeeder) is another maturely chas- kid obnoxiousness and a refusal to play the Squabbles between the members meant tened look at life in 2020 that takes in media game. that the last two albums were partly disowned, potty-mouthed Steely Dan funk, deep sad- Strokes albums come along infrequently – but the band seems united now, and united ness at the loss of friends, and urban anxiety, it’s part of their schtick that they don’t really in nostalgia for the kind of music they grew but constantly leavened by his faster-than- need to work – and it’s now seven years since up with. Billy Idol and Tony James turn up fingers-can six-string bass and an Comedown Machine, but they couldn’t have with a co-credit on “Bad Decisions”; “Brooklyn unshakeable instinct for melody. One song, come up with a more zeitgeist-grabbing title Bridge To Chorus” is pitch-perfect new wave; “Existential Dread”, is less than a minute, than The New Abnormal (Cult/RCA). and the opening “The Adults Are Talking” is but it sums up the Thundercat philosophy: The band has been rather good at grabbing joyous, subtle guitar rock. Singer Julian “As long as I keep breathing/I know I’ll be the moment. Their classic Is This It became Casablancas masters everything from Lou all right”. Elsewhere he recommends dancing a kind of alternative soundtrack to the 9/11 Reed snarl to a falsetto that rivals Prince. as the best specific against sorrow. It’s not a aftermath. The new one references Trump’s Maybe a bit retro, but great stuff. bad prescription.
TELEVISION horror, the highest bidder might be a Muslim lost. Johannes cannot speak his grief and it A rich, rounded, education centre. is tearing him up inside, the only relief he Poor Johannes, played with such unforget- seems able to manage is bouts of boxing which powerful journey table conviction by Lars Mikkelsen: he is a leave him physically bruised and punished. The priestly saga is back with a punch great, creaking tree buffeted in a relentless When in the last service in August’s church, wind. Ride Upon the Storm has always seemed he stands at the lectern and says, “Here I LUCY LETHBRIDGE to be as much about masculinity as stand, I can do no other”, it is as if he speaks Christianity, but early indications are that in for a whole world on the brink of extinction. Ride Upon the Storm the new series, it is the female characters who At the end of episode two, there is a scene CHANNEL 4 begin to get coloured in. Johannes is with his baby grandson which is so surrounded by adaptability, com- moving that I had to press pause HE SECOND series of the magnificent promise, emotional sharing, by to gather myself before going on. Danish drama, Ride Upon the Storm, saplings that bend in the new I’m noticing more in this Tis only three episodes in and already modern breezes but do not series how beautifully shot this I feel thoroughly wrung out by it. At break, by women who want slow, powerful drama is. the end of the first series last year I wrote that to talk of feelings and, some- There are so many moments I hoped we would see some more women get- times, anger. Alone he howls of visual beauty: the long, ting their “dark night of the soul” in future his anguish at a world that panelled grey corridors of the episodes – for the gigantic, tormented figure seems filled with lightness, vicarage; the wintry water that of the pastor, Johannes Krogh, so dominated frivolity and pale common sense, constantly seems to be lapping the action that women occasionally felt rel- all enemies of his own towering nearby; old brickwork and yew egated to the kitchen. Now, however, they are convictions. He still rages over Bishop hedges in cool Scandinavian light; moving to the centre. Monica – remember her? – who says, “When Johannes standing, battered with uncompre- The death of the Kroghs’ priest son, August, the time comes, we’ll do a nice closing cere- hending grief in August’s church, its furniture 18 months before, has devastated his parents, mony,” over her shoulder as she leaves a wrapped in plastic ready to be taken away, Johannes and Elisabeth; his embattled, embit- meeting on the future of August’s church. the crucifix on its side against the wall. The tered wife, Emilie, has since given birth to his For 250 years the Kroghs have been pastors camera lingers on Mikkelsen’s austere but son, Anton; his brother, Christian, the un- of the Danish Church and now even members expressive face, framed by his pastor’s frilled favoured son of his father, has become a of Johannes’ own family are going in for ther- collar like a portrait by a Dutch master. bestselling mindfulness author and started apy, meditation, dreamcatchers, naming Ride Upon the Storm is a challenging watch, up a business, Open Mind, for spreading ceremonies, Halloween parties (“with its effect relying on cumulative passions rather Buddhist teachings. And August’s old church spaghetti”) and candles (“It’s an import, it’s than cliffhangers, but it’s so well worth the is about to be sold off to the highest bidder not Danish”). Elisabeth even visits a spiritualist effort. Its characters are rich, rounded and due to a declining congregation. To Johannes’ to try and make contact with the son she has real, and its themes are mighty.
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court in Nairobi last week However, crowds have been Cattolica, the Archbishop of accused of having “negligently attending public Masses, Luxembourg said: “Lack of spread an infectious disease” allowed by the government, solidarity during the after reportedly failing to with some restrictions in place. coronavirus crisis can become observe quarantine orders on the fatal wound. I fear that for return from a trip to Italy. The Duterte urged to aid jobless many this will mean a Catholic priest denies the Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of disenchantment with the charge and was released on bail. San Carlos last week called on European project.” the government of President Priests hand out face masks Rodrigo Duterte of the Catholic organisations in Catholic priests have distributed Philippines to do more for Europe have condemned the more than 500 face masks door those made unemployed by the granting of far-reaching powers to door in Abidjan, according to coronavirus lockdown. “We to Hungary’s premier Viktor Fr Emmanuel Wohi Nin, strongly demand that the Orban, enabling him to rule by This year’s “One Boston Day”, to secretary general of the Ivory Department of Labour and decree without parliamentary remember the victims of the Coast Catholic Bishops’ Employment immediately scrutiny during the coronavirus 2013 Boston Marathon Conference. He said: “We bring release financial assistance to all crisis. The 11 Catholic groups, bombing, was marked by a the prayer we say every day for affected workers,” said the including Justice and Peace virtual interfaith prayer service the whole of humanity that is bishop. Despite the risk of being Europe, the European Parishes that included Boston’s Cardinal suffering, but in addition we shot, many poor people still go Colloquium, Pax Romana and Sean O’Malley (pictured), have decided to offer free face out looking for food or work. Pax Christi International, said: Muslim leader Shaykh Yasir masks to the poorest and most “This pandemic will not be Fahmy, and the Revd Liz vulnerable populations.” Catholics in Pakistan are being overcome if democracy is Walker, a Presbyterian minister asked to reach out to at least two humiliated or fundamental and former TV news presenter. Zambia’s Catholic bishops have vulnerable families in their rights trampled on.” Opening the virtual service, set up a Covid-19 Response neighbourhoods suffering Boston Mayor Marty Walsh Fund to help prevent the spread during the coronavirus said: “Whenever I need the of the disease and support lockdown. Fr Ryan Joseph, Church, the Church is there for health facilities responding to Rector of the Saint Pius X me, and whenever the Church the pandemic. Bishop Moses Seminary in Karachi, said: “We needs me, we are not always Hamungole of Monze said the told the faithful: look for the there for it. Right now we need fund will support projects for poor and needy of any religion the Church … When this is the sick, elderly, people with in your neighbourhoods and over, we have to be there for mental and physical disabilities, help them; buy food for poor the Church.” orphans and the poor. families.” Fr Arthur Charles, of the church of Sant’Antonio in Catholics provide hope Karachi archdiocese, said that In Kenya last week the food packages were being given Archdiocese of Nyeri and the to “900 families in the parish Diocese of Kitui joined forces to who live below the poverty line”. launch a call centre supporting In Lahore, Archbishop In Egypt, the Coptic Studies people suffering in the Sebastian Francis Shaw has Centre of the Library of coronavirus pandemic. Hope4u donated 15,000 face masks to Alexandria has launched online aims to raise more than a health and other workers. lessons on St Corona (pictured). million dollars to provide people Professor Ezzat Salib, expert on with food and other necessities. Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi, Coptic heritage at the Ministry In Mombasa, the archdiocese is the leader of a prominent of Tourism and Antiquities, also providing emergency food Indian Muslim group, Tablighi made the first broadcast last and funds, while in Nairobi’s Jamaat, has been charged with week on the Facebook page of Kibera slums, Religious sisters manslaughter after a large rally the library. Coptic Christian are handing out food vouchers President of Tanzania John held in New Delhi in March communities in Egypt to needy families. Pombe Magufuli (pictured) was blamed for spreading the celebrated Easter without being The number of Covid-19 last weekend called for three coronavirus. Police say that able to go to churches owing to cases in Kenya has risen to 270, days of prayer nationwide for a Saad, who denies the charge, coronavirus security measures. with 14 deaths. The government successful deliverance from the ignored two notices to end the has imposed a dusk-to-dawn coronavirus pandemic. event at a mosque in the capital. Thirty-five Catholic groups, curfew and has restricted “Tanzanian compatriots … I including the Malta Catholic movement in Nairobi, urge you to use these three Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Youth Network, Charismatic Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale. days, 17-19 April, to pray to head of the Commission of the Renewal and the Legion of Meanwhile Fr Richard God for His protection and Bishops’ Conferences of Mary, are backing the Onyango Oduor appeared in healing,” tweeted the the European Union, has said condemnation by Archbishop President, who is a Catholic. the coronavirus pandemic could Charles Scicluna of the closure Tanzania has not imposed deliver a mortal wound to an of the country’s ports to boat For daily news updates any restrictions on movements EU already paralysed by the migrants from North Africa as a or closed its borders, but has refugee crisis and by the protection against Covid-19. on the top stories, visit suspended social gatherings growing individualism of its www.thetablet.co.uk and ordered the closure of member states. Writing in the Compiled by James Roberts educational institutions. Italian Jesuit magazine Civiltá and Ellen Teague.
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NEWS •QUOTE OF THE WEEK• Whenever I need the Church, the Church is there for me, and whenever the Church needs me, we are not always there for it. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh at the ‘virtual commemoration’ of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing (see page 24)
ROME / Hierarchy is in ‘crisis all over the Western world’, prelate warns
which Francis has repeatedly Pandemic spurs talks on called for during his pontificate. Bishop Bätzing, also speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, said that he wants to shift percep- church reform, says Kasper tions of the Church’s teachings away from being seen as “pro- hibitive morality” disconnected CHRISTOPHER LAMB sion on reform”. His remarks came The cardinal told the newspaper from people’s lives. as the new president of the bish- that changes were needed as a On same-sex couples, the THE MAN described as the “Pope’s ops’ conference, Bishop Georg result of the sexual abuse scandal, bishop argued that “for a long time theologian” says the Covid-19 pan- Bätzing of Limburg, endorsed the which has “deeply shaken” the in moral theology we’ve said that, demic is spurring discussions on blessing of committed same- Church’s credibility, “espe- if it’s true love that lives commit- reform inside the Church. “The sex relationships and cially that of its ministers”. ment and faithfulness, we must Church is in a crisis all over the ordaining married men. But he warned against recognise it … if people decide for Western world,” Cardinal Walter Ahead of the family any “simple innovation themselves how they live, can’t we Kasper (inset) told the Frankfurter synod in 2014, Francis that throws the old over- tell them that their relationship Allgemeine Zeitung last week. asked Cardinal Kasper, a board and considers that is blessed by God?” The 87-year-old prelate said former president of the it has to reinvent the The bishop said the final doc- that responses to the pandemic, Pontifical Council for Church”, and to instead go ument voted on at last October’s including the suspension of public Promoting Christian Unity, to put back to the Gospel. synod on the Amazon stressed liturgies and closure of places of forward proposals on how divorced Reform, he argued, must look that more importance was placed worship, show that “the Church and remarried Catholics could be to connect church structures to at the synod on priestly ministry has no choice but to face a discus- readmitted to the sacraments. Jesus’ life and message, something than clerical celibacy.
n AS THE WORLD slowly recovers will be fine if it is fine for me. It The pandemic “reminds us that of the entire human family,” from the Covid-19 pandemic, there begins there and ends up selecting there are no differences or borders Francis urged. is a risk it will be struck by an even one person over another, between those who suffer”, the “Let us welcome this time of trial worse virus – that of selfish discarding the poor and sacrificing Pope said. “We are all frail, all equal, as an opportunity to prepare for our indifference, Pope Francis said at those left behind on the altar of all precious. collective future,” he said, because the Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, progress,” he said in his homily at “May we be profoundly shaken without a vision that embraces writes James Roberts. the Mass, celebrated on the by what is happening all around everyone, there is no future. “Let us This dangerous virus is “spread by twentieth anniversary of St John us: the time has come to eliminate show mercy to those who are most the thought that life is better if it is Paul II’s naming of the Sunday after inequalities, to heal the injustice vulnerable for only in this way will better for me and that everything Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. that is undermining the health we build a new world.”
GERMANY gious communities in Germany the coronavirus is not spread met representatives of the Federal when distributing Communion,” Republic and the German states said Fr Jüsten. Bishops push for lifting to discuss the suspension of reli- Meanwhile only 12 per cent of gious services. Fr Karl Jüsten, the Germans are in favour of holding of Mass restrictions Catholic Church’s liaison officer local church services during the for relations with the state, crisis according to an INSA- told domradio.de afterwards that Consulere poll commissioned by GERMAN bishops have expressed contribute to preventing the the Church might be more impa- the daily, Tagespost. A clear major- their disappointment this week spread of the coronavirus. tient to lift the suspensions than ity think it unnecessary. that German Chancellor Angela “However, the suspension of the other Christian denominations The poll, conducted between Merkel did not announce that the public religious services since receiving the Eucharist was 10 and 13 April, asked 2,108 adults suspension of church services and encroaches massively on people’s “decisive” for Catholics. whether they agreed with the religious meetings would be lifted, right to practise their religion Discussion was already under statement: “Local church services writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt. freely and was particularly hard way on how this might be possible should be allowed during the In a statement from the to bear for the faithful during Holy when the celebration of public corona crisis as they are part of German bishops’ conference, the Week and the Easter Triduum,” Masses under strict hygienic con- primary care.” president, Georg Bätzing, Bishop Bishop Bätzing said. ditions was resumed. The poll results showed that 15 of Limburg, said: “This is difficult Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki “Several suggestions have been per cent of German Catholics were to understand in view of the relax- of Cologne agreed with Bishop made such as using tongs or laying in favour and 69 per cent against; ations in other fields of public life Bätzing, saying: “Now that [some the Eucharist out on the altar and 24 per cent of the members of the that have now been announced. of] the suspensions are being allowing the faithful to take a host, Free Churches were in favour and We have accepted the suspensions lifted, the churches must be or for the priest to use disposable 60 per cent against, and 13 per up to now because we held them opened for public services.” gloves. What must be guaranteed cent of Protestants were in favour to be appropriate and wanted to On Friday last week, the reli- under all circumstances is that and 71 per cent against.
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RUSSIA / Senior priest speaks of ‘some dissatisfaction’ with the closure of churches Peskov, said he had lit a celebra- tory candle instead in the chapel of his Novo-Ogaryovo residence. Catholics follow Orthodox Meanwhile, in an Easter mes- sage, the Russian Church’s leader, Patriarch Kirill, urged Christians on Easter lockdown to watch Easter services on TV and refrain from visiting churches. Church leaders across Eastern JONATHAN LUXMOORE The Moscow-based priest spoke Europe’s 11 mostly Orthodox as Orthodox Christians celebrated countries issued similar appeals, RUSSIA’S Catholic Church is fol- Easter last Sunday, according to although some insisted places of lowing the example of Orthodox the old Julian calendar. In a Tablet worship should remain open for leaders in its response to the interview, he said that Russia’s small congregations. Ecumenical Covid-19 pandemic, and is count- Catholic Church had encouraged Patriarch Bartholomew I called ing on local authorities not to use its members to accept local gov- on the Orthodox faithful to resist the crisis as a pretext for imposing ernment regulations during the any “sense of alienation” from the new curbs on religious commu- pandemic, and had not heard of “agonising decision” to close nities, according to a senior priest. any confrontations at places of churches, adding that he believed “At present, there’s no unified, worship. He added that Catholic the “unprecedented crisis” had standardised federal regulation churches would reopen once their “revealed the power and value of on quarantining across Russia at Orthodox neighbours took a deci- love and solidarity”. state level, and local rulers can sion to do so, and hoped that the Bishop Virgil Bercea of Oradea In Romania, Bishop Virgil make their own rules,” said Mgr current crisis would have no last- Bercea of Oradea, from the Greek Igor Kovalevsky, the secretary- ing effect on the country’s minority peacefully and calmly in Russia, Catholic Church, which combines general of the Russian Bishops’ religious communities. so we need not worry unduly. Our the eastern rite with loyalty to Conference. “The authorities have had to concerns reflect the same concerns Rome, also defended the decision “Catholics here are generally work much more with the as the Russian state.” to close places of worship, but told aware of the seriousness of this Orthodox majority Church, mak- President Vladimir Putin The Tablet that the Covid-19 problem … But there’s been dis- ing sure it informs its faithful declined to attend the Easter vigil restrictions had reminded cussion as to whether churches about quarantine rules,” Mgr in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Catholics of “the nightmare of should have closed, and some peo- Kovalevsky said. “At present, the basilica, unlike in previous years, communist rule”. ple are dissatisfied.” Catholic Church is developing although his spokesman, Dmitry (See Mary Dejevsky, Page 7.)
UNITED STATES besides the priest, would be In Kansas, a court overturned allowed to join any one service. Governor Laura Kelly’s rule that Pockets of resistance emerge All the participants would have gatherings be limited to fewer to keep six feet away from each than 10 people, even though six on Mass attendance other. In Boone, North Carolina, deaths and 80 cases of coronavirus a parishioner at St Elizabeth of have been traced to religious gath- the Hill complained that Fr erings. US District Court Judge SOME religious leaders, including putes are landing in the courts, Brendan Buckler offered a public John Broomes’ order still required a few Catholic clerics, are chal- writes Michael Sean Winters. traditional Latin Mass on Easter congregations to observe social lenging the US government’s social Bishop Peter Baldacchino of La Sunday. Karen James told the distancing. The judge explained distancing regulations, most of Cruces, New Mexico, became the National Catholic Reporter she his ruling, saying: “Churches and which ban gatherings of more than first US bishop to announce plans saw 22 people enter the church, religious activities appear to have five people. As is now customary to begin public liturgies again, but which would have violated state been singled out among essential in the United States, many dis- insisted that only five people, and diocesan regulations. functions for stricter treatment.”
BELGIUM: Cardinal Jozef De Kesel archdiocese in 2015 and the CHINA: The Diocese of Shanghai has cancelled all pilgrimages in May, has temporarily delegated his bishops’ conference the following including the popular feast day of Mary Help of Christians on 24 May. Due to responsibilities as head of both the year, when he was also created a the coronavirus pandemic, all pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels cardinal. The archdiocese has three Sheshan have been cancelled for this year, writes Ellen Teague. and the Belgian bishops’ conference auxiliary bishops – one for its The shrine, which is located to the west of Shanghai, is China’s national while he undergoes treatment for Flemish-speaking areas, one for Marian shrine, and on 24 May hundreds of thousands of Chinese Catholics an undisclosed illness, writes Tom francophone areas and one for the travel to Sheshan on pilgrimage from various Chinese provinces, as well as Heneghan. federal capital Brussels — who have from abroad. The decision to cancel this year’s pilgrimage was agreed with A statement on 14 April by the taken over his diocesan duties. The the local authorities. bishops’ conference said that De two vice presidents of the episcopal “This is the first year that the shrine has been closed on reasonable Kesel, 73, “is currently suffering from conference – Tournai Bishop Guy grounds,” a Shanghai Catholic told AsiaNews, adding that, “on other years health problems. It is not a corona- Harpigny and Antwerp Bishop there were political closures and restrictions”. In his 2007 Letter to Chinese virus infection. Due to the proposed Johan Bonny – and its secretary Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI chose 24 May as the World Day of Prayer for medical treatment just started, the general will cover for him. the Church in China to ask Our Lady of Sheshan for strength in the face of cardinal will not be able to continue In a statement on the coronavirus persecution, unity among Catholic communities, and commitment to the performing his duties for a few last month, De Kesel said that it good of Chinese society. Since 2008, the Shanghai Religious Affairs Office weeks.” “places us before an obvious fact: and the state-sanctioned pro-Beijing Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association De Kesel took over the Brussels we are and remain fragile beings”. have tried to make it harder for Chinese Catholics to visit Sheshan.
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VIEW FROM PORTUGAL ROME Fátima’s celebrations go ahead without Christopher Lamb the faithful ARDINAL George Pell has re- In 2017, Pell sat down for a private dinner emerged on to the public stage with with Scott Pruitt, then administrator of the characteristic aplomb. Just four days US Environmental Protection Agency, who PORTUGUESE Catholics, and others, have after his convictions for child sexual rejects the scientific view that climate change reacted angrily over the past few days to abuseC offences had been unanimously quashed is caused by human activity. news that despite all the restrictions on by the Australian High Court, he threw him- Pell is now a free man and almost everyone gatherings and recommendations on self straight back into the thick of the culture in the Vatican, who had always been sceptical social distancing, the government plans wars with an engrossing interview with of the charges brought against him, is breath- to allow public celebrations for 1 May, Andrew Bolt of Sky News Australia. ing a sigh of relief. But Pell’s release is also a writes Filipe Avillez. It’s clear from the interview, broadcast on boost for those pushing an alternative ecclesial By contrast, for the first time in a 14 April, that the 78-year-old prelate intends vision to that advanced by this pontificate. century, the 13 May celebrations in to continue to try to influence church affairs Fátima will take place without the and that he will remain a leading light among IGITAL audiences for the Vatican’s faithful, as decided by the local bishop, those Catholics who have set themselves online output are at an all-time even though there are expectations that against Pope Francis’ reforming agenda. On high. There were 14.5 million views public Masses may be restored by then. Holy Saturday the Vatican’s former treasurer on the Vatican News website during There has till now been little resistance sat down for a 50-minute discussion with Mr HolyD Week – where all the Pope’s lockdown to containment measures and Portugal Bolt, one of Australia’s highest-profile con- liturgies have been livestreamed – and 5.5 has been dealing relatively well with the servative commentators and one of the million users. Holy Week last year saw 1.5 pandemic, with death and infection rates cardinal’s most vocal media defenders. Egged million users and 3.5 million views. well below those of other European on by Bolt, Cardinal Pell suggested that his In spite of their popularity, Francis is countries such as Britain, Spain, France prosecution in Australia was motivated by ambivalent about livestreamed liturgies and and Italy. But many Catholics were taken his enemies, in particular because of his pro- audiences. He warns against “virtualising” aback when the government announced life stance and his outspoken defence of the the Church. During one of his early morning that commemorations for 1 May, traditional family. He even hinted it could be homilies recently he referred to a bishop who International Workers’ Day, and for the linked to the opposition he had stirred up try- had “scolded” him for not allowing a larger 25 April revolution which ended the ing to root out financial corruption in the congregation – safely socially distanced from dictatorship in 1974, were to go ahead, Vatican. This has little currency in Rome, each other – to be present in St Peter’s at the although scaled down. where the general view is that the cardinal’s livestreamed liturgies “so that the people can n WORLD YOUTH DAY and the World worst enemy is himself. be seen”. The Pope added: “It’s true that right Meeting of Families have been “You and the Pope are not close,” Bolt now we should build this familiarity with the postponed due to the coronavirus observed. “He is very much on the left and is Lord this way [virtually] … but in order to pandemic, the Vatican announced on a global-warming preacher. You are a con- get through the tunnel, not to stay here.” Monday. The World Meeting of servative and a climate-change sceptic. He He is reflecting a tension between the neces- Families was to take place in Rome in has been a weak leader, and you’ve demanded sity for the Church to be visible online, and June 2021, and World Youth Day was reforms of your Church. On this matter [abuse the realisation that the Christian community being organised by Lisbon for August charges] has the Pope supported you as you is not merely digital. Francis’ pontificate is 2022. would have wished?” Pell admitted that he characterised by a desire to “touch the wounds” A short notice published on the and the Pope did not see eye-to-eye theolog- of humanity, to embrace the poor, refugees Vatican website stated that “due to the ically but insisted that he had been “very and the marginalised. That’s not possible with current health situation … the Holy supportive”. Francis is, he told Bolt, “owed social distancing. The 83-year-old Pope uses Father, together with the Dicastery for respect”. But the cardinal’s reluctance to chal- every digital avenue to connect with people Laity, Family and Life, has decided to lenge Bolt’s attack on Francis was telling. during the pandemic, while at the same time postpone the next World Meeting of For many of the Pope’s opponents, Cardinal stressing that the community of the Church Families … and the World Youth Meeting Pell, a scholar and skilled administrator, is is never just a virtual, or gnostic reality. to June 2022 and August 2023, seen as a powerful buffer against the direction respectively”. Francis wishes to take the Church. During HE HOLY SEE – under fierce criticism Pope Francis has also created a new the conclave in 2013 that elected Francis, Pell for its attempted rapprochement commission to deal with the is believed to have been among those sup- with the Beijing regime – has taken pandemic, which will be led by the porting Cardinal Angelo Scola. another tentative step towards Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human In my new book, The Outsider: Pope Francis rebuildingT relations with China. La Civiltà Development. Its aim is “to express the and His Battle to Reform the Catholic Church, Cattolica, the Jesuit journal overseen by the Church’s concern and love for the entire I detail how, while the cardinal was called to Secretariat of State, has launched a Chinese human family in the face of the Covid-19 Rome by Francis to reform Holy See finances digital edition. The fortnightly periodical, pandemic”. and was part of the Pope’s inner circle of advis- which this year marks its 170th anniversary Meanwhile the Vatican Secretariat of ers, Pell opposed Francis over Laudato Si’, (it’s precisely 10 years younger than The State named a Bank of Italy official, the two family synods and the Amazon synod. Tablet), now has a website in Chinese. La Giuseppe Schlitzer, to head day-to-day In an interview with me in 2014, the cardinal Civiltà Cattolica, led by the entrepreneurial operations of the Financial Information took issue with a question I posed over Fr Antonio Spadaro, a close adviser to Authority (AIF). Mr Schlitzer replaces whether Jesus might have given Communion Francis, has also set up an account on Tommaso di Ruzza, who was suspended to divorced and remarried Catholics. “They WeChat, the popular Chinese social media as part of a police investigation. killed Jesus,” he replied. In other words: “No!” and messaging app.
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PHOTO: FACEBOOK appeal. Bishop John contact details to be placed on the Congregation for the Sherrington, the Conference’s parish websites. Evangelisation of Peoples was lead for life issues, said that welcomed by Archbishop hospices are in desperate need Bishop Brendan Leahy has Kieran O’Reilly SMA, chair of of resources, adding: “This spoken of the impact of the the Board of World Missions donation can help provide pandemic on Church services Ireland, who said that Fr personal protective equipment and sacraments, particularly the O’Sullivan’s knowledge of the for those who work there and so postponement of First Holy missionary challenges facing the ensure the continuation of care Communions and Church today would bring a and support for those who are Confirmations. In a statement new dimension to the work. dying at this time of crisis.” after Sunday Mass at St John’s Founded almost 200 years ago, Cathedral, the Bishop of World Missions Ireland is the BBC Scotland has re-broadcast Limerick said that he would Pope’s official charity for a documentary about write to children preparing for overseas mission. Shrewsbury Cathedral seminarians at the Pontifical the sacraments to encourage (pictured) has recorded the Scots College in Rome. Priest them despite the delay. He will The Irish Church’s development largest congregations in its 170- School was originally aired in invite them to write back or agency, Trócaire, is warning year history since it started live December 2019 as Sgoil nan send a drawing to tell him what that, as they try to cope with the streaming services. Sagart on BBC Alba, the they are learning about Jesus or coronavirus pandemic, Malawi On Easter Sunday, 11,446 country’s Gaelic service. The the Holy Spirit. has just one intensive care bed people watched Mass online, repeat was welcomed by Bishop for every million people while more than 10 times the usual John Keenan of Paisley, who Sierra Leone has no ICU beds attendance of 1,000 people. The said it would help mitigate the and South Sudan has only two highest number of service views restrictions that inevitably affect ventilators for 12 million people. was on Good Friday, when this year’s Vocations Awareness The agency is urging those who 13,594 people watched the week, and “cause some of those want to help to make financial liturgy. The monthly total of who watch to consider what it is contributions online or via the unique views exceeds 83,000, God wants of them and how phone. It is asking that Trócaire with some 33,307 logging in for they can respond by considering collection boxes be retained by the first time. As well as daily a vocation”. those who took them home until Mass, the cathedral livestreams it is safe to return them. The liturgies including morning, The National Board of Catholic boxes are usually returned after evening and night prayer, Women (NBCW) has welcomed Easter Sunday. amounting to more than Bishop John Sherrington’s 40,000 hours of streaming in warning that lockdown could be Aid to the Church in Need is to the last month alone. life-threatening for victims of A member of the Missionaries hold a virtual Mass for domestic abuse. Celia Capstick of Africa (White Fathers) with persecuted Christians on 13 £15,000 for hospices and Freda Lambert, more than 25 years of service in May. The Mass, which will be The English and Welsh bishops’ coordinators of the Social the Middle East and Africa has celebrated at Farm Street conference’s Day for Life fund, Responsibility Committee of the been appointed as the new Church in Mayfair at 10 a.m., which supports projects that NBCW, said that parish National Director of World coincides with the feast of Our protect the dignity of the safeguarding officers are in a Missions Ireland. The Lady of Fatima. person, has donated £15,000 to good position to listen and appointment of Fr Michael P. Hospice UK’s coronavirus help. They called for their O’Sullivan MAfr (pictured) by Compiled by Liz Dodd.
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NEWS FROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND
PERSON IN Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth, on the decision to close churches for private prayer: THE NEWS “Are we reversing the hierarchy of values, putting physical health above spiritual?”
CORONAVIRUS / Doctors, nurses and volunteers, as well as patients, praise the work of an active ministry Chaplains at work in ‘field’ hospitals
ELLEN TEAGUE Communion. However, hospital goggles, hair nets, and no faces to and SARAH MAC DONALD trusts have varying policies. see. This alone put so much fear Bishop Tom Williams, an auxiliary in them and they too were CATHOLIC chaplains in Britain in Liverpool with a background instructed to wear the full PPE. and Ireland have spoken of their in chaplaincy himself, said: “In It is utterly heartbreaking. The experiences ministering to those Liverpool archdiocese, and reality of the current situation feels sick and dying in hospital with mainly because of our high per- inhumane and not what we as car- coronavirus. centage of Catholics in the ers are used to.” Fr James Mackay, parish priest population, we have a strong tra- Tallaght hospital has ensured of Our Lady of Walsingham, dition of cooperation and support that every ward has access to iPads Custom House, east London, is from our hospital trusts.” He told so that patients who are well heading a team of nine priests at The Tablet that chaplains “are enough can speak to their families NHS Nightingale London, with often the bridge between the clin- over the internet. If patients are regular phone support from his ical teams, the patients and their too unwell, the chaplain calls the bishop and vicar general. “It is families”. family after visiting the patient incarnational how we are a field In Dublin some of the 76 lay and lets the family know how their hospital,” he told The Tablet. Fr James Mackay and ordained chaplains serving loved one is doing. “It gives the Fr Mackay is allowed to bring in the archdiocese have described chaplain an opportunity to con- sacraments to the sick and dying In the Archdiocese of harrowing scenes in the city’s hos- nect with the family and see how at their bedsides and minister to Birmingham, Fr Craig Fullard, a pitals. Shauna Sweeny, a lay they are doing as well,” said Ms staff and bereaved families. By hospital chaplain with the Royal chaplain at Tallaght University Sweeny. contrast, his Anglican counter- Wolverhampton NHS Trust, told Hospital in Dublin, said: “Patients Fr John Kelly, also a chaplain parts have been asked not to The Tablet that trusts in the arch- have not seen their family in weeks at Tallaght University Hospital, minister at patients’ bedsides by diocese had invited chaplains into and feel isolated and lonely. agreed that chaplains were there their bishop. Fr Mackay said that the hospitals. They are given train- Families are at home waiting to to connect people, sometimes in Anglican chaplains “want to get ing and provided with Personal hear from the hospital and feel their last moments. stuck in” but can only minister Protective Equipment (PPE) and helpless.” “On Good Friday I visited Mary, remotely. are told they are needed for staff Typically, families would be with a patient I had met on many occa- “The first patient to die in the and families, as well as patients. their loved ones morning, noon sions during her treatment for Nightingale was a Catholic and “The chaplains are allowed to and night, she explained, but that cancer,” he said. “She recognised in the presence of his wife and visit wards, following all the hos- cannot be the case now. Yesterday, my voice behind the protective two nurses I anointed him,” he pital guidelines,” he said, “and we she tended to a young man with mask and goggles. Having listened said. Wearing full protective gear, can anoint using cotton buds.” He a young family who was dying. to her fears and sense of isolation he used a cotton bud to admin- explained that sacramental care “His wife and brother came in I was able to connect her by Zoom ister the oil and hovered his hand is very important for patients and to say their last goodbyes to him. to her husband and two sons. This over his head, which was “just as he spends significant time sup- I facilitated the visit with them; was the last time they were able profound” as touching the patient, porting staff too. they had 15 minutes to see him to see and hear their mother’s and was “massively meaningful” He described the ministry as “a and say goodbye as they would voice. After her death the nurse to the patient’s family in Ireland. new way of being parish” and never see him again. They were and I placed a wooden cross in He baptised another patient, at expressed his admiration for the surrounded by people with masks, her hand as we prayed for her.” the request of his son. “amazing front-line workers who Three patients have died at the are in there for 12-hour shifts”. Nightingale among 30 patients Bishop Paul Mason, who chairs overall, with several hundred oth- the Healthcare Reference Group ers expected in the coming weeks. of the English and Welsh bishops’ Fr Mackay has been in every conference, said this week that Isolated but not Alone day since the hospital opened, whatever support chaplains are and the chaplaincy is available giving, in line with policies of the 24 hours a day for end-of-life care. hospitals in which they serve, it An online directory of resources for use As well as praying with non- is “a great opportunity to give wit- during the Covid-19 pandemic Christian colleagues and patients, ness and is much appreciated by Updated daily with links to live-streamed he said there was also an active patients, families and staff”. Masses, tips on how to survive self-isolation, ministry to staff and volunteers. Official church policy, particu- special prayers for the crisis and information “The ministry is very fruitful larly amid reports of shortages of in terms of spreading the Gospel,” PPE, is for priests to provide as counselling and support groupss he said. “We are already feeling much pastoral care as possible by www.thetablet.co.uk/coronahelp value in the response of doctors non-face-to-face means, to reduce 180 and workers to us, who are saying the spread of the virus. This would SINCE 1840 that it is good that we are here.” include offering spiritual
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NEWS FROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND
PANDEMIC / Public health director cautions against visiting churches for private prayer more that our prayer is rooted in our hearts and can be shared with our families. Open churches will only tempt people to travel. And Row breaks out over that is not good practice now.” In a separate tweet last week, Bishop Egan also called on Catholics to visit their parish church during their exercise “in order to touch church closures it – wipe it clean afterwards! – and in a moment of prayer unite yourself with the Risen Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament”. LIZ DODD Professor Jim McManus, a director of public health, vice president of the Association of SENIOR CATHOLICS are calling on the gov- Directors of Public Health UK and health- ernment and their bishops’ conference to care advisor to English and Welsh bishops, reopen churches for private prayer, despite a told The Tablet Bishop Egan’s advice medical expert warning that doing so will could lead people to contravene the lockdown contravene lockdown measures in place to guidance. stop the spread of the coronavirus. “Catholics need to be seen to be living the The Universe Media Group, which publishes restrictions on others as an act of solidarity the newspaper, The Catholic Universe, wrote and charity to help stop the spread of this to the prime minister last week urging him virus. If our Holy Father is embracing and to permit Catholic churches to allow people living these restrictions, and praying through limited access for private prayer because they them then we should do likewise,” he said. provide “essential services to the public”. “Social distancing means we avoid journeys The call was echoed by the Bishop of wherever possible and don’t touch surfaces Portsmouth, Philip Egan, who said in a tweet: we don’t need to. This protects others and “On this Divine Mercy Sunday I wonder again The decision to close churches was taken ourselves from spreading the virus. If you can about the closure of our churches for private after the government announced strict lock- easily exercise in a way which takes you to or prayer. I know it’s an emergency and so tem- down measures to slow the spread of the past your parish church as part of exercise porary measures are needed. But are we coronavirus. The lockdown prohibits all but then stopping for a moment to bow to the reversing the hierarchy of values, putting essential outings for daily exercise, or to get Blessed Sacrament is fine. physical health above spiritual? Let’s pray we food and medicine. “Some of us live several miles from church can reopen soon.” Cardinal Vincent Nichols said in a state- and making a journey solely to do that fails ment announcing the closure: “It’s not to live out these guidelines and is not keeping essential for people to travel to go to church faith with the burden we all have to bear right in order to pray. We have to learn more and now,” Professor McManus said.
The resident chaplain, Fr Care homes suffer from Peter Blundell, is able to anoint the sick, following lack of PPE and testing church guidelines, and the home has produced a booklet of prayers and ELLEN TEAGUE great relationship with hymns that can be read to them, but what they could those who are very sick or CATHOLIC care homes are provide was extremely dying. suffering from a lack of limited. Up to now care Carol Hill, director of Personal Protective homes have not been a Catholic Care in Leeds, told Regular Mass & Service Times Equipment (PPE) for staff priority but we think that is The Tablet that its staff and inadequate testing, changing.” must be self-isolating with The Tablet can confirm. The lack of testing “is symptoms in order to be Farm Street Church, London has Andrew Quinn, chief almost as serious as lack of tested, which she described livestreamed Masses on the parish executive of Father PPE”, Mr Quinn said. as “too late”. “We feel the website daily at 10am and 6pm. On Hudson’s Care in the Three residents have died virus spreads before Sundays Mass in Latin is livestreamed Archdiocese of with the virus, but two symptoms emerge,” she at 11am and in English at 6pm. Birmingham, said that St weeks ago, with more than said. She feels provision of Joseph’s Care Home in 20 staff self-isolating after PPE is inadequate. A priest is available for consultation Coleshill had to share PPE showing symptoms, there Claire Learner of St with other adult care were no testing facilities to Joseph’s Hospice in north over the telephone at any time. services over the Easter confirm whether or not London also expressed All welcome weekend. they were virus-free. concern about a lack of Further PPE was Meanwhile, one senior PPE, saying: “We’re not purchased “at considerable care leader worked a given any priority as a Please phone 020 7493 7811 cost” from other suppliers double shift of 20 hours to specialist palliative care for more information and private companies, Mr ensure a resident who provider even though we Quinn said. “The local needed end-of-life care had are regulated as a hospital Live streaming events can be found authority and NHS have a familiar face present, and by the Care Quality at Jesuit.org.uk/events been as helpful to us as three members of staff have Commission and not adult they can be, and we have a moved in to the home. social care.”
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COMMUNITIES / Channel 4 documentary branded dangerous and irresponsible by Catholic chaplain Traveller film ‘reinforced prejudices’
LIZ DODD UK, which Fr Dan Mason said A spokesman for Channel 4 between crime levels and some face extraordinary levels of racism told The Tablet: “We stand by the Traveller sites was undertaken by THE NATIONAL Catholic chap- and discrimination. journalism in this programme, highly professional people. lain for Gypsies, Roma and “Almost every man, woman and which examined an important “The programme included con- Travellers (GRT) has strongly crit- child has suffered some form of issue that was addressed fairly, tributions from Travellers and icised a Channel 4 documentary hate speech or hate crime,” said accurately, and with due impar- Traveller advocates as well as that he said “sensationalised” Fr Mason, adding that the “sen- tiality in accordance with the people who detailed their expe- important issues and could rein- sationalist language and dubious Ofcom Broadcasting Code. riences of living near certain force prejudice. statistics” were dangerous and “Channel 4 regularly addresses Traveller sites and who ques- Dispatches: The Truth About irresponsible. uncomfortable issues and any tioned the authorities’ approach Traveller Crime focused on “Coming amid a national crisis, delay in transmission would have to criminality. offences allegedly committed by and a pandemic that’s hitting been unfair on the contributors. “Other representative groups GRT communities, focusing on minority communities so hard, “The statistics were drawn from were approached but did not one community in Lutterworth, is particularly unacceptable,” said government and police sources respond or declined to take part Leicestershire, and others in the Fr Mason. and analysis of the association in the programme.”
n The Bishops’ Conference of and Bishop Richard Moth issued a place every Thursday at 7 p.m., with reasons, they did not want to create England and Wales has emphasised joint statement on “coronavirus and the first due to be celebrated by an unnecessary sense of alarm. He that all people with Covid-19 must access to treatment”. Cardinal Vincent Nichols in also emphasised that the Church’s be treated fairly, given that all are It comes as the bishops’ Westminster Cathedral. position was substantially the same made “equally in the image of God”, conference announced a weekly Bishop Mason told The Tablet that as the official position of health writes Ruth Gledhill. Mass for the sick and healthcare the Church has been following the services and the government, Entering the public debate on workers, which will be celebrated debate about allocation of adding: “In no way can we judge the the allocation of scarce resources by a different bishop and treatment resources closely. They quality of a person’s life by how for treatment, Bishop John livestreamed from his diocesan waited until now to issue the young, fit or healthy they are. We Sherrington, Bishop Paul Mason cathedral. The Masses will take statement because, among other are all made in God’s image.”
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EXTRA TIME Sharp practice ADRIAN CHILES
HEN ALL this first started, become so bad at it, that if I post a score there was only one thing I high enough to take me down past 400, Wpanic-bought – a 300, 200 or 100, my heart sinks, for that’s dartboard. My dad first when the maths gets tricky. showed me how to throw a dart about 40 I’ve also, in a bid to improve, been years ago. On that day I achieved a working on my action. My reasoning promising level of competence, in that being that there must be something more darts actually hit the board than fundamentally wrong with it for me to be missed it. With such a great start in the so consistently hopeless. I read game, the future was full of promise. I somewhere that the ideal position for the was given a dartboard for my bedroom front foot is for it to be pointing directly and I’ve played, irregularly, ever since. I’m at the target. And read somewhere else sorry to say that over four decades my Unless you count that the ideal position for the shoulders is game has improved not at all. Lockdown at a right angle to the target. This all presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity overtaking Jimmy makes sense, but to achieve these two to change this. Greaves on the M1, this things at the same time requires a degree It’s a funny thing with darts, I’ve never of flexibility I no longer possess. The first been a great fan of it, but I’ve always been was my first encounter time I attempted it my whole body was dimly aware of the goings-on in the game with a celebrity tremoring to such an extent that as some kind of sporting cultural throwing a dart with any accuracy at all backdrop to my life. Eric Bristow was a was quite impossible. big figure in my youth. After university I Hedges out of which he took two Furthermore, I read somewhere else did a week’s work experience at a local cigarettes. I’d stopped smoking about a that the best way of holding the dart was newspaper, the Solihull Times. Eric was year before, but without hesitation took with only the thumb and forefinger. Since appearing at a pub in the area doing some one of them, got a light from Eric, the the shaking elsewhere subsided, I’ve promotion for an electronic darts thing, Eric Bristow for goodness sake, and enjoyed some success with this grip. But and I was sent along to cover the event. I smoked it like a pro as the two of us shot I’ve just looked at Eric on YouTube and was so nervous I could barely hold a pen. the breeze on his life and times. I suppose not only are his shoulders nowhere near Unless you count overtaking Jimmy it has to count against him that he filled side-on, he seems to have all of his fingers Greaves on the M1, this was my first me with beer and started me smoking hooked over the top of the dart as he encounter with a celebrity. again, but the man was charm itself. May throws it. And sometimes the little finger “C’mon,” said Eric. “Let’s do the chat at he rest in peace. sticks right out like he is sipping tea in the bar.” I remember him telling me his love of Downton Abbey. There’s nothing for it: I’ll I nodded and made some kind of noise the game started with his love of the have to go back to my oche, back to the indicating I thought this was a good idea. mental arithmetic. Every time I struggle drawing board, and start all over again. He ordered two pints of lager and with subtractions on my long journey produced a packet of gold Benson & down from 501, I think of him. I’ve Adrian Chiles is a radio and TV presenter.
Glimpses of Eden JONATHAN TULLOCH
THOUGH WE’RE marooned on lockdown, cherry tree. An urgent message to return to the birds are on the move. This morning, their native forests was waiting for them breakfast mug of tea in hand, I stood on the there. The brilliant, gleaming white, wasn’t backdoor step, listening to a loud winter frost, but blossom. Time to go! They chuckling, rising from the cowfield ash tree. rose again. The flock tossed itself higher, A flock of fieldfares had gathered in the still and like a sail catching the wind, began to leafless branches. Each autumn, up to three billow away through the sky and their quarters of a million of these members of voices slowly faded. The silence didn’t last the thrush family arrive in Britain, and long. A different note took over from the spend the following months wayfaring Russia. This little flock, with its fieldfare fieldfare’s hyena giggling. A trilling, through the countryside, feeding on worms. gurgling sound, was on its way back home. twittering melody – the year’s first swallow In April, they make their way back to their The birds careered out of the ash tree, arriving from Africa. Even as we hunker breeding grounds in Scandinavia and and threw themselves into the arms of the down, we’re in the middle of epic journeys.
Volume 274 // No. 9349 // ISSN: 0039 8837 Published 50 times a year. Periodicals Postage Paid at Rahway, NJ, and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER: Send airspeed address corrections to The Tablet, c/o Air Business Limited, 4 The Merlin Centre, Acrewood Way, St Albans, Herts AL4 0JY, UK. © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited 2020. The Tablet is printed by Warners Midlands Plc, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, for the proprietors The Tablet Publishing Company Limited, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY 25 April 2020
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