14 April 2018c.qxp_Cover 4/10/18 6:50 PM Page 1 THE INTERNATIONAL 14 APRIL 2018 £3.20 CATHOLIC WEEKLY THE www.thetablet.co.uk | Est. 1840 TABLET The way of Francis Laurence Freeman welcomes the Pope’s spiritual masterpiece Marianne Elliott remembers Belfast on the brink of the Troubles • Janet Soskice argues that 15 beauty can open the way to truth • Julia Langdon wonders if the Commonwealth still matters Joanna Moorhead meets John Studzinski • Christopher Lamb meets Vincenzo Paglia PLUS CHRISTOPHER HOWSE • RICHARD HOLLOWAY • MARK LAWSON • LUCY LETHBRIDGE 9 770039 883233 02_Tablet14Apr18 Leaders.qxp_Tablet features spread 4/10/18 6:56 PM Page 2 THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY THE TABLET FOUNDED IN 1840 GAUDETE oliness has something of a bad name. It occupied by those who have been most hostile to his ET EXSULTATE popularly means one of two things: either papacy. Francis is coruscating and relentless in his being so unworldly as to be hardly on the criticism of rigidity, legalism, clericalism, conservatism A DEFINING planet at all, or to have assumed an air of and traditionalism. They result, he says, in “a self- spiritualH superiority that disdains lesser mortals more centred and elitist complacency, bereft of true love…” DOCUMENT subject to the temptations of the flesh. In his These tendencies either turn Catholicism into little audacious new apostolic exhortation Pope Francis has more than a set of doctrinal rules that only an elite embarked upon a very personal definition of holiness properly understands and obeys; or they promote the that breaks through these blockages and turns these idea that salvation is to be gained by an act of will, to preconceptions upside down. be had if only people would work hard enough at it. Most Catholics would shy away from imagining These two strands often appear together. They are holiness either as applying to themselves or as a distractions from holiness, yet somehow they have serious aim in life, and are probably not comfortable become lodged in the popular imagination as accurate with being thought of as “religious”. Yet the call to descriptions. On the contrary, Francis insists, holiness holiness is universal, and the practice of it should be as does not imply never making mistakes or never falling natural and familiar as any good habit. The parent short; it is living in the humble awareness that we are who cares lovingly for a child, the carpenter who deftly always in need of the mercy of God. repairs a damaged wardrobe, the owner of a business Just as striking is Francis’ extension of the pro-life who behaves honourably and conscientiously towards position beyond a narrow focus to every situation their staff and their customers, indeed anyone who where human lives are threatened or diminished – aspires to become the person God means them to be, “the poor, the destitute, the abandoned and the is engaged in becoming more holy by virtue of it. underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly Holiness is not remote from everyday life. It is the very exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human stuff daily life is made of. Anyone can be a saint. trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of Gaudete et Exsultate is a remarkable document, and rejection…” He insists that the Catholic attitude to could be regarded as this Pope’s spiritual masterpiece. A migrants is not secondary to the Catholic attitude to thousand sermons could be preached on it, and the unborn, but part of a seamless whole. Working for everyone in the congregation would instantly sense that social justice is a work of holiness. the Pope is talking to them personally. But he does not This inspiring document should not be shirk controversy. He identifies two skewed brands of misunderstood as simply Francis’ response to his Catholicism, which he calls Pelagianism and critics. Like all good spiritual writing, there are lines on Gnosticism, which block the flow of grace and kill every page that will make all readers uncomfortable. holiness dead even while claiming to be its defenders. But Pope Francis clearly regards his job not only as These two ancient mindsets also happen to be apt comforting the afflicted, but also as afflicting the descriptions of the ultra-conservative positions comfortable. At which he undoubtedly will succeed. MARTIN ove is the greatest of all the supernatural squads. He persisted with his campaign for justice for LUTHER KING virtues. But it needs more than a little help the poor and his denunciation of government brutality from its junior friend, courage. The fiftieth and corruption – until the death squads came for him LOVE anniversary of the assassination of Martin too. He is due for canonisation this autumn as one LLuther King in Memphis, Tennessee, has come and martyred for “hatred of the faith”, whereby the Vatican gone. King spoke with astonishing bravery of loving has recognised that work for social justice was a AND those who oppose us. He saw love as a vital part of religious obligation, a core duty of any faithful creating communities that work for everyone and not Christian. The same logic must surely apply to Bobby COURAGE just for the few. His assassin was an avowed racist, and Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Should they not King had lived with death threats most of his life. If also be counted among the saints in heaven? anyone had courage, he did. The speeches of Martin Luther King were explicitly King’s murder was followed not only by a wave of religious, far more so than his admirer Nelson race riots but also the assassination of Robert F. Mandela. But Mandela also displayed a rare kind of Kennedy. He had also lived bravely under death courage – fortitude over a hideously long spell in threats. Death at the hands of a lone madmen with a prison – and his Christian roots surely helped him grudge and a gun was an all too common part of the endure it. King, meanwhile, stood in the long American scene. tradition of black Baptist preachers who raided the Courage can sometimes seem at odds with love Old Testament for resonant phrases and images. He itself. The daily temptation to avoid the risk by scaling turned them into political tools. back the public activity that attracts such dangerous “I have a dream,” he announced, “that one day every attention has to be tremendous. Giving way would valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall spare those they loved and who loved them back the be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and trauma and heartache an assassination would bring. the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory Yet King and Kennedy pressed on. of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it As did the Blessed Oscar Romero, Archbishop of together.” Dreaming such dreams, and working to San Salvador, who knew that at least six of his priests make them happen, takes boundless courage. It serves had been murdered by government-backed death as a fitting epitaph for all of them. 2 | THE TABLET | 14 APRIL 2018 03_Tablet14Apr18 Contents.qxp_Tablet features spread 4/10/18 6:58 PM Page 3 PHOTO: THE OLD BOGSIDE, COURTESY MUSEUM OF FREE DERRY Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, 12 staunch ally to Pope Francis and champion of Oscar Romero Derry/Londonderry before 6 the civil rights marches of the late 1960s and the Troubles COLUMNS CONTENTS A R T S / PAG E 1 7 14 APRIL 2018 //VOL 272 NO. 9246 Philanthropy John Studzinski JOANNA MOORHEAD FEATURES Radio 4 / Rejoice and be glad Meeting the Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation is a radical call to holiness, and defines Man I Killed the spiritual underpinnings of this papacy / BY LAURENCE FREEMAN Christopher D.J. TAYLOR Howse’s 5 / ‘Go against the flow’ Television Notebook Extracts from the Pope’s apostolic exhortation Jesus’ Female ‘It seems important Gaudete et Exsultate, which was released on Monday Disciples: The that one can New Evidence declare one’s name 6 / Before the Troubles LUCY LETHBRIDGE solemnly and Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Could the expect to be 30 years of violence that preceded it have been averted? / BY MARIANNE ELLIOTT Theatre believed’ / 11 Pressure 8 / More than in the eye of the beholder MARK LAWSON A leading philosopher of religion argues that in being attracted to and in creating beautiful things we may be drawing closer to finding truth / BY JANET SOSKICE B O O K S / PAG E 2 0 10 / Family at the crossroads Christopher On Monday the Commonwealth heads of government meet in London. Faced Howse with Brexit and an ageing monarch, what is their role? / BY JULIA LANGDON Faith Finding a Voice 12 / The Tablet Interview: Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia CARDINAL One of Francis’ most energetic allies in the Vatican on his hopes of widening the VINCENT NICHOLS debate on family matters within the Church / BY CHRISTOPHER LAMB Timothy Connor The British Mosque: An Architectural and NEWS Social History REGULARS 23 / The Church in the World / News briefing SHAHED SALEEM From the Archive 14 24 / Francis emphasises the holiness of everyday life Richard Holloway Puzzles 14 Natural Causes: Letters 15 26 / View from Rome Life, Death and the The Living Spirit 16 27 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing Illusion of Control From the BARBARA Vineyard 30 28 / Safeguarding specialist sent to Ampleforth EHRENREICH 30 Glimpses of Eden COVER PHOTO: CNS/REUTERS, ALESSANDRO BIANCHI 14 APRIL 2018 | THE TABLET | 3 04-05_Tablet14Apr18 Francis ap ex.qxp_Tablet features spread 4/10/18 6:25 PM Page 10 FEATURES / Gaudete et Exsultate PHOTO: CNS, PAUL HARING Rejoice and be glad Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation is a radical call to holiness in today’s world.