7801 the aids issue the tablet 1 december

THE1 DECEMBER 2012 £2.80www.thetablet.co.uk | Est 1840

TABLETTeresa Morgan’s

Advent meditation

Guest editor: Julie EtchinghamWITH Justine Greening, Ed Balls, Penny Marshall, Rohit Kachroo, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala,

David Harewood, Delia Smith and Dermot O’Leary

THE AID ISSUEA Special Edition to mark Cafod’s 50th birthday

PLUS Cardinal Angelo Scola interviewed • Edward Kessler on Vatican II and the Jews

Linda Woodhead: it’s tougher being an Anglican woman than a Catholic one

01 Tablet 1 Dec 12 Cover_Cover 28/11/2012 18:58

2 | THE TABLET | 1 December 2012

FOSTERING INTERFAITH RELATIONS

A lthough its relations with other faiths are far betterthan they were before the Second Vatican Council,the Catholic Church has still not resolved all thecomplexities of that new relationship. The way for-

ward is by theological exploration, dialogue and joint action.Theologians must not be discouraged from thinking outsidethe box, as happened in the Vatican’s disgraceful treatmentof the late Fr Jacques Dupuis SJ; nor should political com-plications stand in the way of addressing awkward questions,such as whether the Church should recognise a specificallyreligious claim by the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

The Vatican II decree Nostra Aetate transformed Jewish-Christians relations, outlawing Christian anti-Semitism andanti-Judaism. But it glossed over the land issue, not least becauseChristian Arab leaders became concerned that Palestinian inter-ests should also be recognised for the sake of balance. In itsfinal form, Nostra Aetate also had important things to say aboutCatholic-Muslim relations, and indeed relations with otherfaiths, too. But there are still loose ends. Does NostraAetate’s proclamation that the Catholic Church “rejectsnothing that is true and holy” in other religions mean thatthey can be regarded as alternative paths to salvation? If theyare not, what is the point of them? If they are, however, whathappens to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ?

Dr Edward Kessler’s article in The Tablet today in celebra-tion of Nostra Aetate tactfully raises several such issues. Norcan they be ignored in the work of Cardinal Angelo Scola,Archbishop of Milan, interviewed in these pages, who has courageously pioneered dialogue between Catholics and

THE TABLETTHE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY

Founded in 1840

Muslims through his cultural foundation, Oasis. It is simplistic to dismiss such efforts on the grounds that, logically, Catholicism and Islam cannot both be true; betterto start with the expectation that each of them may well betruer than the other side might have supposed.

Islam’s sublime emphasis on the holiness of God, for instance,can only be admired by Catholics. What cannot be said is thatwhen they pray together or side by side, only one of them ispraying to a God who truly exists. There is one true God andboth are praying to him – a radically uncomfortable thoughtfor fundamentalists of either type. This basic insight can trans-form interfaith relations, as in the foundation of a centre forinterfaith dialogue, which opened in Vienna this week withSaudi finance and enthusiastic backing from the CatholicChurch, the United Nations and Jewish groups. It is also relevant to the reality of modern Catholic education in Britain,where members of different faiths share the same classroom.It means, for instance, that the facilitation of prayer by Muslimpupils becomes a religious duty for Catholic teachers.

Latest statistics collected by the Catholic Education Servicepoint to the growing diversity of religion among the intakeof a typical Catholic school. But the gradual decline in theCatholic intake should not be regarded as a setback. A Catholicschool should enshrine the ideals of Nostra Aetate at its heart,rejecting “nothing that is true and holy”, and regard foster-ing interfaith relations as its special business. If the result isto be growth of respect rather than confusion, however, thereligious identity of Catholic pupils has to be secure. If it doesnothing else, a Catholic school must take religion seriously.

MESSAGE FROM THE GUEST EDITOR Beneath the statue of Christ at the frontof my parish church is a little metal boxset into the wall with a slot. Beneath theslot is the word “Cafod”. Its presence is areminder of the Church’s mission to thepoor, and a reminder that it cannotfunction without our help. Whether it’sa donations box in your church, a FamilyFast Day envelope in your child’s schoolbag or a Fairtrade sale after Mass, if you’re

a Catholic it’s likely Cafod has been a constant presence in yourlife, as it has in mine. It’s sometimes easy to forget that as ourcoins drop into its boxes, there is an echo on the other side ofthe world: in a child’s cry of joy at being fed or in a gush offresh water long-awaited.

Cafod’s beginnings were humble: a group of Catholicwomen gathered around a kitchen table in 1960, who set outto raise money for an infant nursing home in Dominica. Theyprinted 600,000 leaflets, hoped to raise £500 – and collected£6,673. They saved hundreds of lives. The next year, they raised£32,000 – and in 1962, Cafod was born.

In the Biafra crisis in 1967, as millions suffered violence andstarvation, Cafod was there. In Bangladesh and in Cambodiawhen natural disaster and war struck in the 1970s, Cafod wasthere. When famine hit Ethiopia in the 1980s, Cafod was there.In the 1990s, it co-founded Fairtrade and helped child soldiers lay down their weapons. As its mission to the poor

and desperate in 40 countries continued in the new century,it also became a campaigner on debt, climate change and poverty.

So when Cafod and The Tablet asked me to guest-edit thisedition to mark the charity’s fiftieth birthday, it was an hon-our to say yes. It’s a chance to take stock of its achievementsand to look at the challenges that lie ahead for all those work-ing in aid and development, including next year’s Hunger Summitahead of the G8 meeting. In this special edition, we hear fromnew Development Secretary Justine Greening, and a gaunt-let is thrown down for her on food security by Shadow ChancellorEd Balls. As South Sudan finds its feet as a new nation, one ofits bishops tells us how Cafod is walking with them.

Television newsrooms like mine grapple with how best tocover disaster and development; veteran ITN correspondentPenny Marshall examines how such reporting has evolved. Andas pressure grows on aid budgets and allegations abound ofcorruption, ITN’s Africa correspondent Rohit Kachroo askswhether it’s time to stop giving money to the continent. Wealso hear from some of Cafod’s supporters. David Harewood,the British star of the hit US series Homeland, writes aboutthe compassion to be discovered at the heart of disaster. Andat the start of Advent, Delia Smith and X-Factor’s DermotO’Leary share their recipes for frugal times and fishy Fridays.All Cafod life is here.

Julie Etchingham

■ Julie Etchingham presents News at Ten for ITV News.

02 Tablet 1 Dec 12 Leaders_Leaders 28/11/2012 19:10

■ SPECIAL FOCUS ON AID AND THE WORK OF CAFOD

4 ‘The right – and smart – thing to do’ Julie EtchinghamQ & A with Justine Greening, International Development Secretary

6 New nation’s baptism of fire Eduardo Hiiboro KussalaSouth Sudan is a year old, but it cannot yet go it alone

8 Media and the aid message Penny MarshallCharities and journalists are interdependent, but pitfalls lurk

10 Austerity fayre Delia Smith and Dermot O’LearyWaste not: a selection of hearty recipes for hard times

11 Is it time to stop giving to Africa? Rohit KachrooMany economies there are on the rise, says one correspondent

12 Feed the world Ed Balls and Mary CreaghAn appeal to the Government to tackle the food giants’ methods

14 Caretaker of the oasis Catherine PepinsterCardinal Angelo Scola on his mission to boost interfaith dialogue

15 Advent meditation Teresa MorganAre we ready to welcome God with us? asks the first in our series

■ VATICAN II: FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

16 When the Church came in from the cold Edward KesslerHow Nostra Aetate was a symbol of the new era for the Church

■ CHURCH OF ENGLAND SYNOD

19 Don’t blame the laity Mark Chapman

Bishops must work with the synod in future, not against it

20 A woman’s place Linda Woodhead

The Catholic Church welcomes women in the way the Church of England does not

1 December 2012 | THE TABLET | 3

CONTENTS1 DECEMBER 2012

21 PARISH PRACTICE

22 NOTEBOOK

23 LETTERS

24 THE LIVING SPIRIT

25 PUZZLES

32 THE CHURCH IN THE WORLDChurch backs Saudi interfaith centre

36 NEWS FROM BRITAIN AND IRELANDGo-ahead for first Catholic universities since Reformation

COLUMNS

5 DAVID HAREWOOD‘When there is enough food to feed the world,why are 870m people going hungry?’

18 CHRISTOPHER HOWSE’S PRESSWATCH‘Comment on women bishops kept on coming, driving far inland like a tidal bore’

BOOKS

26 THEO HOBSONOur Church: a personal history of theChurch of EnglandRoger Scruton

KATHY WATSONInconvenient People: lunacy, liberty andthe mad-doctors in Victorian EnglandSarah Wise

DAVID ANDREW PLATZERPatrick Leigh Fermor: an adventureArtemis Cooper

ARTS

29 FEATURELaura GascoigneRussian art

CINEMAFrancine StockThe Hunt

TELEVISIONJohn MorrishWhy Poverty?: Give Us the Money

THEATREMark LawsonThe Magistrate; The Mousetrap;and The Seagull

FEATURES

COVER ILLUSTRATION: JAMES BENN

03 Tablet 1 Dec 12 Cont_P3 contents 28/11/2012 19:07

‘The right – andsmart – thing to do’For this special edition of The Tablet, focusing on aid, theInternational Development Secretary, Justine Greening,tells Julie Etchingham why the Government backs aid,and what she’s doing with money once earmarked forIndia. But she warns that levels of state funding foragencies like Cafod cannot be guaranteed

T he woman given a one-way ticket inthe Cabinet reshuffle out of theTransport Department and into thechair of International Development

Secretary to spearhead Britain’s efforts onglobal poverty and hunger has found she hasa lot on her political plate.

In just three months, her department hasbeen accused of wasting millions on privatecontractors who run aid programmes onBritain’s behalf, has been forced to suspendaid to Uganda over corruption allegations –and now has similar pressure over Rwanda.It has also announced it’s cutting India’s aidprogramme by £200 million, because thecountry is now deemed too rich.

Ms Greening’s is also one of the few gov-ernment departments not to be the target ofcuts. As many of her colleagues grapple withausterity, DFID’s [Department forInternational Aid] spending is set to rise fromits current £8 billion to over £10bn by theend of 2014. In a period of tight budgetarycontrol – how will she spend her money?

Ms Greening is grappling with all this, asBritain’s role in combating world poverty andhunger takes centre stage. Next June, the UKwill hold a “hunger summit” ahead of the G8in Enniskillen. David Cameron is co-chairinga UN panel on what should come next afterthe Millennium Development goals – andthen, in the same month, the Rio+20 summit.

In a time of austerity, your departmentis seeing a huge rise in spending, from morethan £8bn in 2012/13. How does theGovernment justify this?Keeping our promises to the world’s poorestpeople isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s thesmart thing to do. Development tackles theroot causes of threats like terrorism, illegalimmigration, crime and disease. It is in every-one’s interests for countries around the worldto be stable and secure, to have educated andhealthy populations, and to have growingeconomies.

With such pressure to cut the overseas aidbudget, can you guarantee you’ll maintain it at

0.7 per cent of national income until the nextParliament?We’re on course to meet the target of spending0.7 per cent from next year and it’s aConservative-led Government which willachieve our long-standing promise to do so.

You’re carrying out a complete audit of yourdepartment. Do you think every pound isspent wisely at the moment?I’m determined to ensure our budget is spentwisely, which is why I’ve introduced new finan-cial controls in the department to ensureministers have greater oversight, signing offspending decisions of more than £1m.

But what about Nigeria? How can you justifythe £102m already spent there and commit afurther £126m over the next seven years whenan independent assessor says the money has“failed to produce any major improvement inpupil learning”? The ICAI [Independent Commission for AidImpact] report was a limited enquiry in thatthe team only visited one per cent of schools,most of which were only in only one state inNigeria, and they did not take into accountthe most recent evidence of the projects’progress. However, we will carefully reviewthe report’s recommendations and respondin due course.

You’ve just cut the aid budget to Indiadramatically – and have halted spending inUganda temporarily. Where is the moneyyou’ve saved going to be spent? What are yourpriorities?We will complete the short-term projects

which are already under way in India but wewill make no new financial aid grants. Thismeans spending £200m less before 2015,which will give me more flexibility to add toour programmes in lower-income countries.

Is it really morally right to cut India’s money,when it still has the biggest concentration ofpoor people in the world?The Indian Government last year spent

£50bn on health and education programmes.

When I travelled to India earlier this month,again and again I was told that it is Britishadvice to help India get the most out of theirown spend, and skills-sharing, that is valuedmore than the size of our aid grants.

With all the development charities comingtogether in 2013 on the issue of world hunger– what will DFID do to put this on the politicalagenda? What should the Prime Minister bepressing for?I very much welcome charities’ plans for afood campaign next year and I’m looking for-ward to working with them to highlight suchan important issue.The Prime Minister hassaid that he will use the UK’s presidency ofthe G8 to lead the way in the battle againsthunger, with a special event on food and nutri-tion a few days before the meeting, to followup on this year’s Olympic hunger summit.

Why is lack of food such a problem in thetwenty-first century? What is the main UKgovernment policy for addressing this issue?It’s shocking but the facts are that up to onebillion people do not get enough food to eatand a further billion are deficient in essentialvitamins and minerals. During the next year,we will push forward progress on the G8 NewAlliance on Food Security and Nutrition,which I co-chair.

Will this Government press for change to theEU Common Agricultural Policy [CAP] so thatfarmers in the developing world have a fairchance to thrive, rather than strugglingagainst a distorted market?Yes. The UK wants significant reform of theCAP so that, over the long term, farm pro-duction is not reliant on direct subsidies.

What is the Government doing to make sureBritish companies based here are paying theirfair share of tax on the profits they are makingin developing countries?As the Prime Minister pledged [on 21November], next year’s G8, which Britain ishosting, will seek to maintain the momentumgenerated by the G20 on information

Q & A with the International Development Secretary


JustineGreening.Photo: PA

DAVID HAREWOOD

‘When there is enoughfood to feed the world,why are 870 millionpeople going hungry?’

Just a few weeks ago I was inCharlotte, North Carolina, filmingthe final episodes of Season 2 ofHomeland. Like much of the EastCoast, we sat with bated breath,glued to the news reports, waiting forHurricane Sandy to hit. And my, didshe hit. In the cities of the“developed” West, with our soaringskyscrapers and modernunderground systems, we can befooled into thinking we areimpervious to the forces of nature,making it all the more humbling tosee the scenes that played out in NewYork, New Jersey, Florida andbeyond: families literally washed outof their homes, public transportbrought to a standstill and wholecities blacked out.

In the aftermath, we saw peoplesifting through what was left of theirhomes and businesses, desperatelysearching for fuel and fresh water.On their faces were shock andfrustration as they struggled to getback to normality.

While the circumstances weredifferent, it reminded me of my timein Maralal in north-east Kenya whenI visited families severely affected byongoing drought. There, wholecommunities are having their way oflife destroyed by extreme andunpredictable weather, leaving themwithout livelihoods or homes andwith very limited access to food andwater. There is often conflict too,over the few remaining resources.

I remember being genuinelyamazed at how everyone wasworking together in such achallenging environment, and by thegenerosity of the people whowelcomed me into their homes. Eventhough they were surviving on solittle, they felt willing, compelledeven, to share with me – a strangerthey may never see again.

Also surprising was theoverwhelming message of hoperunning through all their stories ofloss and devastation; an unwaveringhope and faith that their brothersand sisters – in Kenya, in Africa,across the globe – would not turn ablind eye to their struggle.

We live on a planet of limitedresources, an abstract notion formany of us, but for the poorest and

most vulnerable, those limits are alltoo real. For their sake, we mustcome together as a globalcommunity and work through thischallenge together. When there isenough food to feed the world, whyare 870 million people goinghungry? We must learn to sharewhat we have; no one race or nationhas a greater right to life thananother.

Of course the causes of hunger arevast and complex. That is why Cafodand other UK charities are comingtogether next year to demand notjust that we provide aid, but that wetackle the root causes of that hungerand find lasting solutions. And forme, it starts with something quitesimple: helping the small farmerslike those I met not just to surviveand provide food for themselves, butto grow their businesses and sell foodat reasonable prices. Small farmsaccount for 90 per cent ofagricultural production in Africa, butaid is barely reaching them. That iswhy Cafod’s Hungry for Changecampaign calls for small farmers toget the support and fair treatmentthey need to flourish.

As I left Charlotte, the newsreports were moving from theimpact of Sandy to the battle for theWhite House. And now PresidentObama, Homeland’s biggest fan, hasbeen returned to office, I hope he willconsider not just domestic but globalissues, too, where he could make alasting impact. Britain’s PrimeMinister, David Cameron, has a vitalrole to play as well and is co-chairingthe United Nations’ panel planninghow the world will tackle povertybeyond 2015. I hope both men,powerful as they are, will recognisethat there is no more importantexperience to inform their work thanlistening to the voices of those fightingthe daily battle to survive in thepoorest countries.

What swayed many votes in the lastdays of the US election was the imagesof President Obama showing solidaritywith and warmth for the sufferingresidents of New York and NewJersey. Before President Obama, DavidCameron and the other world leaderscome together in Britain next summerfor the next summit on hunger, I hopethey will visit places like Maralal,and meet people like those I met. Ifthey do, I’m sure they will come awaynot just with a better understandingof how to help those communities,but with a real determination to doso. We can but pray.

■ David Harewood is currentlystarring in the drama seriesHomelandon Channel 4 and is aCafod supporter.


exchange and the strengthening of inter -national tax standards. We will look to gofurther including, for example, on tax havensby improving the quality and quantity of taxinformation exchange. We will also work withdeveloping countries to help them improvetheir ability to collect the tax that is due tothem.

What’s your personal view of the role of theCatholic Church and its agencies in tacklingpoverty?I greatly value the role Cafod – and theCatholic Church more widely – play in tacklingpoverty around the world. The CatholicChurch not only gives humanitarian help intimes of disaster but also provides servicessuch as health and education in some of themost troubled parts of the world. Churchesare often the first places poor people turn toin times of need and faith organisations canreach communities that others can’t.

This is why DFID has pledged to work moreclosely with faith groups, following our launchof our faith partnership principles earlier thisyear, and I’m particularly pleased Cafod hastaken part in our working group identifyingkey areas to work on.

Cafod gets 15 per cent of its funding fromDFID. Can you guarantee this will bemaintained? Could DFID meet all itsaspirations without the help of charities likeCafod and Oxfam?Like all charities, Cafod needs to apply forfunding, and I cannot guarantee set levels offunding beyond what’s already been agreed,but Cafod is a valuable partner of DFID andI expect us to work together long into thefuture. Charities like Cafod and Oxfam areabsolutely vital to DFID’s work around theworld.

Achieving DFID’s goals won’t be possibleunless we work not just with governments,but with charities, faith groups and the privatesector, in all the countries where we’re oper-ating. There’s been a dramatic fall in charitablegiving – it’s fallen by 20 per cent in the pastyear. What impact could that have on aid anddevelopment work?

Charitable giving is still very much alive –Cafod’s Lent Appeal this year raised an incredible £9.4m. Match-funding from DFIDtakes this total to more than £18m, whichmeans tens of thousands more people willhave access to clean water and better hygiene.

Are you surprised that, given the recordeddrop in church attendance, faith-basedcharities still receive great support? Whatmight explain this?I’m not surprised, because of the great reputation for good work that faith-basedcharities have, among churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike.

Churches and other faith groups are oftenfirst on the ground and the last to leave whenawful crises occur around the world. Theirwork makes a difference to countless livesaround the world – and I think the generalpublic recognises this too.

Challenges for South Sudan

EDUARDO HIIBORO KUSSALA

New nation’sbaptism of fireNearly 99 per cent of South Sudanese voted for independence inJanuary 2011, and few of them will have expected anything but ahard road ahead. But the depredations of the Lord’s ResistanceArmy, which has caused havoc in the region since the 1980s, areheaping new miseries on the country

One hundred years ago this month,a group of Comboni Fathersreached Mupoi in what is nowSouth Sudan and – though little-

noticed at the time – brought the Gospel ofChrist to Sudan. Over the past century, theLord has walked with us and proved a reliablecompanion through years of hardship andsuffering. Sudan has endured one of thelongest-running civil wars of recent times.After more than 22 years of fighting and a2005 peace agreement between the Muslim-dominated north and Christian-majoritysouth, South Sudan became independent on9 July 2011.

On this wonderful occasion of the Church’scentenary, we will bear witness to the menand women Religious who brought us faith;we will thank those who work and pray withus today. But even as we share food in cele-bration and thanks together, we cannot hideaway from the challenges we face as a nation,from the spiralling prices of that food to thesevere refugee crisis in the north of the coun-try.

People around the world are all too awareof these challenges. Ask them what theyremember about the past year in South Sudan,and much as I would like them to say the firstanniversary of our independence in July, orthe upcoming centenary of our Church, I sus-pect most people will look back on 2012 asthe year they learned about a man namedJoseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s ResistanceArmy (LRA) and an indicted war criminal.The LRA and its leader originate from acrossthe border in northern Uganda, but they habit-ually take refuge in South Sudan, committingthe same atrocities here as they do in Uganda.Their trademark approach is to kidnap chil-dren and turn them into killers by forcingthem to murder the innocent, the vulnerable,or anyone who resists their rule.

In March this year, much to the surprise ofthose who have been living under threat ofattack from the LRA for the last decade, thesympathy of the developed world suddenlyshone upon us, thanks to the universal reachof YouTube and Twitter. It happened because

of Kony 2012, a short film made as part of acampaign to have Kony arrested by Decemberof this year. Kony 2012 was not just an internetfilm that went viral, but a placard, for thosewishing to show their support for communitieslike ours in South Sudan, and willing theUnited States military to solve the problemof the LRA by hunting down Kony.

Eight months on, the attention of the world’smedia has waned, and – despite the best effortsof the US military and other regional forces– both Kony and the LRA are still with us.Many children are still captive in the handsof the LRA, their parents unsure if they arealive or dead, or what emotional and physicalharm they have suffered. For those we haverecovered, we do what we can to help themreadjust and integrate back into our commu-nities, but sometimes the mental scars runtoo deep.

The tragedy for South Sudan is that – at atime when we are striving to establish ournew nation and overcome the challenges ofa weakened economy and high food prices,when we are still trying to accommodate thehundreds of thousands of our brothers andsisters displaced from the north of the oldSudan – we are having to tackle the presenceand the threat of the LRA in our region. Imake no apology for saying that we cannotdo it alone, and that we cannot rely on nationalgovernments in this region that have tried toget the job done but fallen short. What weneed to deal with the LRA is no less of aninternational effort than was needed to bringNorth and South Sudan to the negotiatingtable, and to secure our path towards independence.

As in that process, this will require a combination of protection and humanitarianrelief for civilians in affected areas, the removalof leaders like Kony, and a concerted campaignto negotiate and promote peace. We need tosee the defection and reintegration of LRAfighters, among them many of our abductedchildren.

I implore those in Britain, America andother countries who came together to cam-paign for peace in Sudan to do the same again

now that our peace is threatened once more.I implore their governments to find the finan-cial resources and the political will to turnthe goals and objectives of this strategy intoreality. For us, this is a matter of life and death.

What will it tell us about the relationshipbetween the developed and the developingworld if people in South Sudan, Uganda, theDemocratic Republic of Congo and othercountries in our region are able to say, thenext time there is a major LRA offensive orwave of atrocities: those in the West werewilling to watch an internet film in 2012,they were willing to wear a T-shirt and signa petition, but that is all they were willing todo? When it came down to the serious workof solving the problem, they were not inter-ested?

Of course, there are some whose commit-ment to our cause knows no bounds: ourfriends in Cafod and the other Caritas agencieswho have stood by us for decades, and theirsupporters in Britain and across the worldwhose donations mean shelter, food, water,dignity and security for our people. But it willtake more than their efforts and those of theChurch in South Sudan to secure the peace.We have suffered so much from a war that isnot our own and have often felt forgotten byour own governments and by the internationalcommunity. We need hope and action.

Just as 100 years ago when we embracedour faith, and last year when we embracedour independence, we hope that the peopleof South Sudan will continue to choose democ-racy over repression, diversity over division,human rights and justice over abuse, trans-parency and accountability over corruption,and equality between men and women overdiscrimination. Above all, I pray that we willcontinue to choose peace over war. And I praythat you will stand with us when we do so.

■ Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala is Bishop ofTombura-Yambio, South Sudan.

People fleeing violence gather outsidethe compound of the UN mission inKadugli, Sudan, last year. Photo: CNS


A major humanitarian tragedy is

unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

An armed rebellion in the east has so far forced more

than half a million people to flee from

their homes since April.

Our local Church partners are leading the way

in providing food, shelter and emergency supplies for affected families,

and CAFOD has pledged £200,000

to support this work.

Please join Father Arsène and all at CAFOD in

praying for a lasting peace.

cafod.org.uk/easterncongocrisis

“The Church right now is shoulder-to-shoulder with the people. We walk in solidarity with them. This is not just today, but it was yesterday and it will be tomorrow.

Caritas Goma, with the help of organisations like CAFOD, is working right now to get aid to people in need – food, tents, cooking utensils, blankets and soap.

We will try to bring hope to those who are feeling no hope and we will continue to work for dialogue between all sides.

We urge all our brothers and sisters in Britain to join us, and to pray for the peace we need.”

Father Arsène Masumbuko

CAFOD partner Caritas Goma

Eastern Congo Crisis

R41602Telephone: 0500 858 885

PENNY MARSHALL

Media and the aid messageCharities and journalists increasingly work together to cover events from some of the mosttesting situations around the globe. While media coverage can alert the rest of the world tothe plight of the most vulnerable, this dependency has pitfalls for all involved

E very night, 870 million people go tobed hungry. Most of the time, therest of us go to bed without givingthat appalling reality very much

thought. But occasionally a powerful newsreport shakes us out of our chronic indifferenceand makes us care. Sometimes, we may evenbe moved to donate money.

For charities, these are the golden momentsof fundraising. For reporters, they are impor-tant journalistic challenges. The two have along history of working together in conflictzones and disasters: aid workers need coveragefor their operations, and the media need char-ities for access to the stories. But this symbioticrelationship can be tricky, and it can presentmoral dilemmas for both sides.

When charities and journalists collaborateclosely they have a shared goal of drawingattention to the plight of those suffering. Thereis also an unspoken assumption that the cov-erage will help to bring in aid. Nothingexemplifies the power of TV news reports togalvanise opinion more than a single newsreport filed by the BBC’s Michael Buerk fromEthiopia which inspired the Live Aid cam-paign of 1984.

One of the organisers and founders of thecampaign was Midge Ure. “The BBC’s MichaelBuerk footage was a first,” he says, but he wor-ries that the continual search for similarfootage can lead to compassion fatigue. “Thattype of footage is de rigueur now. In fact, weare seeing far worse stuff – almost nightly,brutal images. I think the result is that we

have become more accustomed to horror. Thequestion for aid agencies and journalists is:how do you deal with that? Do you soften it,or harden it?”

Journalists often “harden it”. And they mayfeel in the process – subconsciously at least– the need to provide high-impact and positivecoverage of the charity to ensure their accessisn’t jeopardised and that donations will flowin. They may also, on occasions, be dependenton the charity or NGO for transport, food andwater and not want to risk the relationshipwith that agency, given they are effectivelyembedded within its front line.

I once witnessed a riot in a refugee campin Chad, caused entirely by the misjudgementof an NGO which had planted trees to provideshade for the thousands of displaced villagerswho had fled the war in Darfur. Unfortunately,what the NGO didn’t know was that plantingtrees was a sign of permanent settlement forthe people they were trying to help. The resultwas an angry mob who saw the trees as anomen that they would never be allowed toreturn home. I chose not to report this inci-dent, preferring to concentrate on the biggerpicture, examining the work being done toalleviate the hunger and suffering. In a two-minute news report, rather than a half-hourprogramme, time is often an important issuewhen deciding what to leave out. On reflection,I still think I was right; the tree-planting deba-cle was a footnote to a bigger positive story,but it was an interesting dilemma and onethat charities such as Cafod are aware of too.

“Our attitude is that we take journalists tosee our work, but how they report it is entirely

up to them, whether it’s good or bad,” saysCafod communications director, DamianMcBride. “We’ve got to have the courage ofour convictions that our money is being spentwisely and making a huge difference, and ifthat’s not what the journalist sees, we’ve gotto accept that but be prepared to argue ourcase. People watching at home won’t put theirtrust in us if they feel they’re only getting partof the story.”

Two years ago, BBC journalist EdwardStourton made a programme about the dev-astating earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath.It was an operation, he says, about which hesays “pretty much everyone now agrees therewere some serious mistakes made”. Both gov-ernmental and non-governmental agenciesare, with some honourable exceptions,“extremely thin-skinned” when faced withcriticism, he says, but some journalists canalso be nervous about exploring them.

“Most aid money is spent well by dedicatedpeople, but anyone working in the field willtell you that some of it isn’t, and that theyroutinely face real dilemmas. If you are helpingpeople in a war zone where you can’t operatefreely, for example, you are almost certainlygoing to have to accept that some of yourmoney/supplies will be stolen, and may wellhelp fund the war. Does that mean you stoptrying to help those who really need it?”

Stourton, who is working on a Radio 4 doc-umentary about aid which is a follow-up tothe original Haiti programme, believes thatin the future the issues about aid and aboutcovering aid will be even more complex.

“Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), whichhas a good record of being open about thesethings, showed us one of the clinics it runs inthe Nairobi slums,” he says. “It is well run,staffed by local people and has made a hugeand measurable difference to people’s lives.But there is an open sewer running down thestreet outside, and of course the clinic will goon having lots of patients while the slum hasno sanitation. In the long run, should MSFbe spending the money to lobby the KenyanGovernment to invest in infrastructure? Andwould anyone give them money for that ifthey did? Aid workers talk a lot about thesethings among themselves, but many of themdon’t like it if outsiders raise these questionstoo … and of course, the complex reality ismuch more difficult to ‘sell’ to donors thanthe idea that your pound can feed the childin the picture.”

The speed with which information can now

Reporting of humanitarian crises


A novel in the spiritof Newman and Vatican II.

New Generation Publishingon Amazon now £6.99

be transmitted, the rise of social media, 24-hour news channels and the internet havealso changed the way journalists and aid agen-cies inform viewers and raise money.Journalists can find themselves very depend-ent on facts being given to them from charityand NGO field workers; facts which are often,at the time, uncheckable. Damian McBrideacknowledges this adds an extra duty of careto the aid agencies.

“At a time when news organisations aroundthe world are cutting their travel budgets, andwhen everyone is reliant on social media forup-to-the-minute news, aid agencies have avital role to play simply in feeding back thefacts and pictures from the ground, and help-ing newsrooms to tell the story,” he explains.“But for that reason, it’s all the more importantthat what we are feeding back is an objectivepresentation of the facts, and a full picture ofwhat’s going on.”

McBride uses as an example the EastAfrican drought of 2011, when some aid agen-cies depicted the base of their operations asthe epicentre of the disaster because theywant the world’s press and the internationaldonors to descend on them, when actuallythe need was far greater in other areas. Thesame was true of Haiti in 2010.

Michael Buerk didn’t overstate the situationin his award-winning coverage of theEthiopian famine of 1984 when he describedit as a “biblical famine now in the twenty-firstcentury”. More than 600,000 people died


Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education

before the world took notice. Interestingly inthe intervening 30 years, there has in factonly been one other official, UN-defined,famine – in southern Somalia. The dreadfulbenchmarks they have to meet: at least 20per cent of households facing extreme foodshortages, acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of people, and two deaths per 10,000people every day.

But that hasn’t stopped heart-wrenchingreports about hunger in Africa recurring onour TV screens, as genuine “food crisis” after“food crisis” has hit. Each report is likely tocontain harrowing shots of crying babies beingweighed on flimsy scales and listless adultsbatting flies from their faces. It is as if therewere a template for covering Africa which isunspoken but unbreakable. Stewart Purvis,a former editor of ITN and now a professorof journalism at City University, says journal-ists and aid agencies covering disasters needto challenge the templates that exist, or riskcompassion fatigue.

“Broadcasters believe they need strikingimages to get the audience’s attention whencovering stories in far-off lands that viewersknow little of. Starving children meet thatneed,” he says. “NGOs need to provide strikingimages to get on TV to get their activitiesnoticed and their funds raised. The effect ofthis is that stereotypical images appear againand again and the audience’s ability to beshocked each times is lessened.”

Midge Ure also acknowledges the moral

dilemma faced by journalists. “It’s always adelicate balance between being intrusive andtelling the story. People do get charity fatigueseeing the harrowing repetitive images andthere is a danger that they glaze over. Thereality is that sad, anguished images touchpeople’s hearts at a basic level, which is whythe camera zooms into a dying child.”

The alternative, says Professor Purvis, isnon-stereotypical stories that use non-stereotypical images. “That means a leapof faith and imagination by broadcastersand NGOs and maybe even viewers too.”

The best journalists don’t just show thedying child; they make that leap of faith andshow children playing, smiling, even hopingfor a better future as well. And the best charitiesand NGOs talk honestly about the problemsthey face trying to help the people they careabout. When this happens, charities and jour-nalists alike are working at their optimumand the best stories are filed – stories whichdo not oversimplify the tragedy, and dignifythe survivors rather than just pity the victims.

Ultimately, the best news coverage is thatwhich reminds us of our common humanity– those are truly the golden moments whichunite us all.

■ Penny Marshall is social affairs editor forITV News, and a former foreign correspondent.She won a Bafta, an Emmy and a RoyalTelevision Society award for her coverage ofSerb-run detention camps in Bosnia.

The effects of recession,rising food prices andclimate change arecontributing to, if nota complete turnabout,then certainly aserious rethink aboutwhat we cook, whatwe eat, and, morealarmingly, what we

throw away, writes Delia Smith.An astonishing one-third of the food we

buy is wasted, and the cost in energyemissions in merely producing unwantedwaste is the equivalent of taking one car infive off UK roads. My book Frugal Food wasprompted partly by these considerationsand partly by the fact that I believe therecan be a positive response to all this.

Eating more frugally is a challenge, but itcan often be more fun. Using cheaper cutsof meat, cooking meals with no meat at all,or simply enjoying good square mealsinstead of junk food, is actually moresatisfying. And just think – to sit round atable and eat a substantial, beautifully cookedmeal can cost less per head than two largecappuccinos in a coffee shop. My team and Ihave recently developed a “Christmas in aCrisis” menu – three courses for £4.79 perhead for 6 people. Here are two recipes fromFrugal Food, which was first published in 1976.

■ Frugal Food is published by Hodder &Stoughton (2008). © Delia Smith 2012. Allroyalties from the sale of Frugal Food aregenerously donated to Cafod. For moreDelia recipes go to deliaonline.com

Food for thought


Austerity fayre

A fish pie should be a celebration ofthe best offcuts of whatever seasonalfish is available, but this is especiallyso in the winter months whenmussels, scallops, cod and plaice areat their best and smoked fish isabundant, writes Dermot O’Leary,(pictured right). This is just as goodmade with tail fillet offcuts, so askyour fishmonger for any cheap fishpieces. Cooking the fish and pastrylid separately is a nice touch as itmeans you get a perfect pastrytopping.

Ingredients (Serves 8)1 sheet ready-made puff pastry1 egg yolk, beaten300g white fish fillets, skinned300g smoked fish fillet, skinned900ml milk1 bay leaf4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil50g butter1 onion, finely chopped1 small carrot, finely chopped1 celery stick, finely

chopped75g plain flour100g frozen peas,

defrosted200g prawns, peeled200g fresh scallops,

cleaned (with the roeleft on)

salt and freshly groundblack pepper

Preheat the oven to Mark 4(180˚C/350˚F). Roll out the puffpastry to a thickness of about 5mm.Place the dish you will be using forthe fish pie upside down on thepastry and cut around the rim.Carefully pull away any unwanted

pastry and place the lid on a bakingtray lined with greaseproof paper.Brush a little egg yolk over the lidand add any pastry shapes made

from the offcuts, if youwish. Brush with egg againand set aside.

Now put the white andsmoked fish in a large fryingpan, pour over the milk andadd the bay leaf. Poach overa low heat for about 5minutes until the fish is justcooked. Discard the bay leaf,

strain the milk into a jug and setaside. Flake the fish into a largeovenproof pie dish and scatter thehard-boiled eggs evenly over the fish.

Heat the oil and butter in asaucepan and slowly sweat theonion, carrot and celery till soft. Stirin the flour and salt and pepper andcook for another 1-2 minutes.

Slowly add the reserved poachingmilk and bring to the boil. Stircontinuously until the sauce thickens.Add the peas, prawns and scallops,stir together and pour over the fish.

Place the dish in the oven for20-25 minutes. After about 5minutes of cooking time, put thepastry lid in the oven (it should takeabout 15-20 minutes to cook).

When the fish pie is hot andbubbling, and the pastry is golden,remove from the oven and place thelid on top of the dish before serving.

■ Dermot O’Leary presents The XFactor on ITV and jointly owns theFishy Fishy restaurants in Brightonand Poole. Fishy Fishy Cookbook,by James Ginzler and Loz Talentwith a foreword by DermotO’Leary, is published by NewHolland (£16.99).

Dermot O’Leary’s Fishy Fishy fish pie

▼ Split Pea and Vegetable Soup(Serves 6)Yellow or green split peas will do for thisdeliciously thick and substantial soup.

225g green split peas, washed75g butter 110g streaky bacon, rinded and chopped

small1 medium onion, peeled and chopped2 sticks celery, chopped1 large carrot, scraped and chopped½ small turnip, peeled and chopped½ small swede, peeled and chopped1.7 litres stock (or water)Seasoning

First, in a large cooking pot, melt the

butter, then cook the bacon and onion in itfor five minutes before adding the rest ofthe vegetables. Give them a good stir roundand let them colour a little at the edges overa fairly low heat. Then pour in the stock andadd the washed split peas. Bring everythingback to simmering point, skim the surface ifthere’s any scum, put a lid on and continueto simmer very gently for about 1½ hours,or until the peas are absolutely soft. Nowliquidise the soup just a little (or else sieveit) – it shouldn’t be too uniformly smooth.Taste, season, reheat and serve the soupgarnished with some croutons crisp-fried inbutter.Note: There’s no need to soak the split peas,but the length of cooking time may vary 30minutes or so either way.

▼ Steak and Onions in Guinness (Serves 2)If you long for a thick, juicy, grilled steakand can’t afford it, try this recipe withbraising steak – it’s every bit as good.

350-450g lean braising steak (in 2pieces)2 large onions, peeled and cut into rings150ml GuinnessBeef drippingSeasoning

Pre-heat the oven to 150˚C/300˚F/Gas mark 2.In a frying pan, melt a little dripping

and fry the onion rings over a mediumheat until they’re nicely tinged with

brown and starting to caramelise allround the edges. Now remove them to aplate, add a little more dripping to thepan if you need to and brown the meatover a fairly high heat. This browning(on both sides) will help the flavour.

Next, take a shallow gratin dish orcasserole, arrange a layer of onion in it,place the steak on top and season well.Add another layer of onion, pour in theGuinness, cover closely with either a lidor a double sheet of foil and cook nearthe top of the oven for 2 ½-3 hours, oruntil the steak is tender. This goes verywell with creamed potatoes – and withthe oven on for that long, you mightcontemplate cooking another casseroleat the same time.

PHOTO: TREVOR LEIGHTON

ROHIT KACHROO

Is it time to stopgiving to Africa?If there is one continent linked in the Western mind to aid, it is Africa. But as countries in this longstanding recipient ofcharity show growing signs of prosperity, one foreigncorrespondent working there asks whether it still needs our cash

I am looking out across a skyline that isrising from the ground. Sprinkledamong grand, historic buildings whichhint at the city’s imperial legacy, are

brand-new office blocks. And ahead of meare the gigantic construction sites where sky-scrapers will soon become shining symbolsof progress.

“We are going places – you just watch,”Abraham confidently tells me. He is a 23-year-old coffee barista who proudly brewsthe local beans for visiting tourists, business-men and, yes, charity workers too.

This is Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia– a country that you may associate withpoverty, famine and charity appeals byunshaven rock stars. But nowadays its peopledeserve our awe as much as our sympathy.Over the last decade, they have achievedannual economic growth of 7 per cent. Thoseastonishing numbers might be enough tomake Chancellor George Osborne weep, butthe figures are not unique to Ethiopia. Muchof Africa is booming – bristling with confi-dence. Seven of the world’s 10 fastest-growingeconomies are African.

If, when you hear about Africa, you thinkof skeletal children, and dictators ridingaround in Bentleys, you are not completelywrong. Those images have become clichésfor a reason: in too many parts of this con-tinent they are an enduring reality. But thereis another side to the story of this continent.As I stare out towards the Addis cityscapewondering how different it might look in 12months from now, I know that I am lookingat proof that Africa is rising, and fast.

This is not the continent that it was whenCafod first began appealing for help in thewake of the humanitarian crises of the 1960s.Today’s Africa has the capacity to feed muchof the rest of the world. Thanks, in part, tomassive investment from China, its potentialis being unleashed to the sound of a millioncement mixers.

Yet Ethiopia remains the biggest recipientof British aid. Is that right, when its ownwealth is growing so rapidly, and while ques-tions persist over the way it treats some ofits own citizens?

“In countries like Ethiopia, British moneyis going to prop up a government whichabuses human rights; it shows the farce ofBritish aid,” says Ian Birrell, a former deputyeditor of The Independent, who has writtenextensively about the limits of foreign aid.

“There are increasingly loud voices ques-tioning these Western salvation fantasies.

“My view is that aid has always been a cor-rosive and corrupting influence, underminingthe establishment of democracy.”

Birrell believes that a harmful culture ofdependency has developed among some “poornations”. Charity, he argues, is killing Africa– stifling enterprise and providing a simplebut inadequate solution to its complex prob-lems. He believes that Africa’s currenteconomic growth should give Western nationsthe opportunity to step back from their cur-rent approaches towards aid.

“Aid is not the reason behind African suc-cess. It doesn’t work, and it becomes moreoutdated with every day that passes. The vastmajority of the continent is in a healthy state.The economics are changing fast – andincreasingly the most important issue isequality.

“One problem with aid is that we have thisvast, growing, competing mass of charities,consultants and governments, all pushingthis one image of Africa – that it’s a helplessrecipient of our largesse. This is a false por-trayal, and it is disruptive. It stops peoplefrom visiting the country, and it stops busi-nesses from investing.”

But an end to aid to Africa seemed a dif-ficult proposal to consider as I walked arounda rural hospital ward in southern Niger lastJune, surrounded by the screams of the livingand the weeping of the dying. In one cornerof the room was the haunting vision of eight-month-old Jahaman, his tiny chest rising andfalling as he struggled for breath. Within 24hours he was dead. It was a brutal reminderthat Africa is home to many of the neediestpeople in the world – that the economic boomin many of its countries is only experiencedby a minority of its people.

As Africa correspondent for ITV News, Ifind myself too often reporting on starvation

– in West Africa this year and in the Horn ofAfrica last year, where famine hit millions ofpeople. This continent remains a place wherethere is far too much poverty and disease;where too many children die of illnesses thatcould be prevented by simple treatmentswhich cost a few pennies; where hunger crisesstrike far too frequently; where war oftencompounds problems made by MotherNature.

So, should people watching the images thatwe broadcast of suffering in Africa resist theirurge to donate?

“It is very understandable that people wantto give,” says Ian Birrell. “But you have to lookat how good intentions backfire. Go on holiday – go and spend your money thereinstead.”

Mike Sunderland, spokesman for Save theChildren, one of Britain’s biggest charities,argues that Africa is still in need, and thataid today will help Africa to become moreself-reliant tomorrow.

“International development support –including through aid – has contributed tothe economic growth happening in Africa,”he says. Thanks to overseas aid, millions morechildren are going to school, surviving pasttheir fifth birthday and helping to bring theircountries out of poverty.

“There are plenty of countries – take Liberiaand Sierra Leone in West Africa, for example– that are still very much in the rebuildingstage after their public services were wipedout by civil war. Liberia only has around 100doctors. There are many countries in LatinAmerica and Asia that relied heavily on aida generation ago but now receive very littleaid money.

“Aid will not by itself deliver development,and the long-term measure of aid’s successis that countries no longer need it.”

It is a dream for donors and recipientsalike. All African countries hope for a daywhen they don’t need the help of generousforeigners. That day may not have arrived.

■ Rohit Kachroo is Africa correspondent for ITV News. He is based in Johannesburg.


Ethics and the developing world

An office block goes up in Addis Ababa.Photo: Reuters, Thomas Mukoya

Food policy at home and abroad

ED BALLS AND MARY CREAGH

Feed the worldAs aid agencies begin their campaign on hunger in the run-up to Britain hosting next year’s G8summit, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor and Environment Secretary urge the Government to tacklethe multinationals whose business methods affect what we all eat – and what it costs

In the early years of the last LabourGovernment, food was rarely at the topof the agenda. We kept tabs on the priceof a loaf and a pint of milk for what it

told us about weekly shopping bills and infla-tion, although we did not go anywhere nearit with VAT. We batted for the interests ofBritish farmers in Brussels, a welcome changefrom the beef wars of the John Major years.And, occasionally, when an infection crisisthreatened, we became experts on beef, eggsor poultry.

Internationally, we were alert for food crisesand famines, although too often – from NorthKorea to Darfur – we were prevented by con-flict from reaching those in greatest need.But food was almost never the main focus,either domestically or internationally. Thefood price spike of 2008 changed that.

Today, any government that does not havefood policy high on its agenda is not doingits job. In 2010, the then Labour Governmentpublished the first food strategy for 60 years,setting out steps to ensure we grow more,waste less, and ensure that all in the UK havea healthy, affordable and sustainable diet.

Throughout human history, food shortageor price spikes have driven social unrest.Today, not least because of the impact of climate change and speculative activity onthe markets, the shortages and price spikesare becoming worryingly frequent and wide-spread. Since 2008, spikes in the price ofmaize, rice and other staples have had a directimpact on the growing tension in North Africaand the Middle East, where the Arab Springtook hold. Indeed, the man who promptedthat wave of revolt was a young Tunisian vegetable seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, who setfire to himself after struggling to supportinga large family on less than £100 a month.Food riots also hit several other countries,from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Food supplyand food security is on the agenda like neverbefore.

In the UK, real-terms food prices rose bymore than 12 per cent in the four years toJune 2011, a period during which we haveseen a sustained decline in earnings. Thewebsite Netmums has found that one in fivemothers regularly misses meals as they pri-oritise their children. Low-income familiesare now eating 30 per cent less fresh fruitand vegetables than they were in 2006. Theseare early warning signs of food poverty.

Last year, FareShare, the food waste charitythat distributes surplus food from super -markets and manufacturers, contributedtowards more than 8.6 million meals, feeding36,500 people a day. Food banks are not thesolution to food poverty – an adequate incomeis – but they can play a vital emergency role.The Trussell Trust expects to feed more thana quarter of a million people in the UK thisyear, double the number it fed last year.

Drought in the United States and Russia,and the wettest summer on record here inthe UK, will ensure that there are severeshortages again next year. We could see short-ages spread to Asia, where the economic andgeopolitical consequences of instability inChina or India would be incalculable. TheGovernment’s chief scientific adviser, Sir JohnBeddington, has set out the long-term chal-lenges of feeding a global population of eightbillion people by 2025. Yet at the same timewe are seeing the increasing diversion of

agricultural land to tourism, or biofuels, andother uses, without adequate regard to a sustainable food supply.

It is both understandable and welcomethat developing countries want to attractinternational investment. But the idea ofcountries experiencing mass hunger whilesimultaneously registering as net exportersof food was grotesque in the nineteenth cen-tury, let alone today, so we must ensure thatthe benefits of investment are fairly shared.It should mean good local jobs with decentwages and working conditions. Small farmers,most of whom are women, need access tofair land rights with adequate water, transportinfrastructure and the lines of credit that areoften put at the disposal of the multinationalcorporations.

The Western economies have a vital roleto play as well. It is little wonder that foodprices are high when governments are stillheavily subsidising biofuel production usingagricultural land, despite the dubious carbon

benefits of replacing road fuels with biofuels.In Europe, we need real change to the EU’s

Common Agricultural Policy, whose produc-tion subsidies distort the market. Companiesbased in Britain, while operating in devel-oping countries, must pay their fair share oftax on the profits they make there. That iswhy Labour called on the Government tomake a full assessment of the impact of itsproposed changes to the tax rules for multi-nationals headquartered in Britain and wewere disappointed that it pressed ahead without doing so.

Worldwide, we need a transparent marketfor food. Funds invested in commodities fromthose not engaged in producing or using themhave risen a thousand-fold in a decade. Theprice volatility of commodities has increaseddramatically. This makes planning for pricefluctuations by food producers and suppliersmore expensive – a cost passed on to the con-sumer. The UK Government failed to supportFrench moves for greater transparency duringthe French presidency of the G20, while theUS has subsequently acted unilaterally.

The current trends risk holding back thedevelopment of whole countries and regions.The time to act is now, on greater trans-parency in the market, on land ownershipand tax, and on the environmental impactof agri-business in the developing world.

It is heartening to see Britain’s leadingcharities coming together next year to cam-paign on the issue of hunger in their biggestmass mobilisation since Make Poverty Historyin 2005, and to see the leadership Britain isnow showing on this issue. We must maintainthe momentum in the run-up to next summer’s G8 summit here in the UK.

This should be a priority for the PrimeMinister, not only because it is the right thingto do for the poorest people in the world, butalso because it is in Britain’s interests to fixthe global food system. If we do not, it putsat risk the powerhouses of the global economy,and will drive up shopping bills even furtherhere at home. When it comes to the world’sshared interest in a fair, sustainable and stablefood system, we really are all in this together.

■ Ed Balls is Labour MP for Morley andOutwood and Shadow Chancellor of theExchequer. Mary Creagh is Labour MP forWakefield and Shadow Secretary forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs.


Low-income families are noweating 30 per cent less freshfruit and vegetables than

they were in 2006. These areearly signs of food poverty

Please accept my donation of

£12 £33 £65 Other £

Title Initials Surname

Home address

Postcode

I enclose a cheque/postal order/charity cheque made payable to CAFOD

Or, I would like to pay by:

Visa MasterCard CharityCard American Express Switch/Maestro

Card Number

Switch/Maestro only) Issue No (Maestro only)

Start date Expiry date

Signature Date

I am a UK taxpayer and would like CAFOD to treat all qualifying gifts of money made in the past 4 years and in the future as Gift Aid donations. I confirm I have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year (6 April to 5 April) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the charities or Community Amateur Sports Clubs that I donate to will reclaim on my gifts for that tax year. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. I understand CAFOD will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that I give.

Your donation will help people all over the world, wherever the need is greatest. Thank you.

CAFOD will store and process your information in accordance with the Data Protection Act. We may contact you but will only share your details with external organisations if they are working on our behalf. CAFOD is the official agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Registered charity no. 285776

Please send this form to: Freepost, RSHJ-KJBY-YXLT CAFOD, Romero House 55 Westminster Bridge Road London SE1 7JB

Web: cafod.org.uk/advent Telephone: 0207 095 5688

In some parts of the world today the joy surrounding the birth of a baby can soon turn to anguish for many mothers. They worry that, with food in short supply, their children will go hungry. Thankfully though, there’s a very simple solution.

Plumpy’nut is the fastest and most cost-effective way to save a malnourished child. With your help, we can get this protein-packed peanut paste to the children suffering from malnourishment and help them quickly reach a healthy weight. And that’s just the start. Our long-term programme of nutrition and development is offering people a way out of poverty by helping them to prepare for the future.

Please make a donation today

R41342

is born is bornWhen a child

Phot

ogra

ph R

yan

Wor

ms/

Cari

tas

Give the gift of life todayGive the gift of life todayYour Advent gift will help us be there when food is scarce


The Tablet Interview

Angelo Scola is apologetic. He canonly stay a day in London. “I havesuch a large diocese,” says the car-dinal, and indeed he has: Milan,

the largest in Europe. But that has not deterredhim from continuing a major challenge hehas set himself: encouraging dialogue betweenChristians and Muslims. The work of his cul-tural foundation, Oasis, begun 10 years ago,is to foster mutual understanding betweenthe two faiths.

This is the work that has brought him toLondon, to speak at a meeting in the Houseof Lords and, later, to give a lecture atHeythrop College. The lecture theatre iscrowded with around 300 people, from sem-inarians to theologians, Cardinal CormacMurphy-O’Connor and Prince Michael ofKent. Quite a few people with a message toimpart are prepared to lecture in a languageother than their native tongue, but not manywill take questions or be interviewed, evenwith a skilful interpreter at their side. ThatCardinal Scola is willing to do both says muchabout how passionate he is concerning dia-logue and how urgent he believes it is formore people to be involved.

The starting point for Scola’s interest inengagement with followers of Islam was, ashe told the House of Lords meeting, his con-viction that the Muslim presence in Europehas encouraged a renewed reflection on reli-gions in the West and their contribution tosociety, as well as challenging that society,given its increasingly secular status quo.

As far as encounters between different reli-gions is concerned, Cardinal Scola believesstrongly that communication involvesexchanging not only ideas but differentnarratives about God, the human conditionand our purpose. The difficulty with this isthe barriers that are put up that thwartsuch dialogue. But even when it does suc-ceed and becomes an enriching experience,there are further risks. Mutual recognitionis the goal, he argues, but not creation of a

global sort of melting potwhere different faiths arelost and in their placeis a fuzzy, vague, com-mon ethic. Only if peoplebear witness to their own faith, he argues,will mutual understanding develop.

In Britain, interfaith dialogue has a longtrack record, developed partly through thenation’s links with Commonwealth countriesin the Indian sub-continent. One might argueit is one of the most positive outcomes of thecolonial past. But for many other countriesin Europe, not least Italy, migration fromMuslim countries has been a relatively recentdevelopment and has caused tensions withthe host countries, for whom an encounterwith another faith, even one with Abrahamicroots, has proved difficult. Add to that thefallout from 9/11, and you have a recipe forpotential disaster.

These are the circumstances in which Oasishas operated since Cardinal Scola foundedit in 2004. It’s a clever name, with its MiddleEastern meaning of a place of peace and calmin the desert. The title also references a speechmade by John Paul II in Damascus in 2001,when he spoke of Muslims and Christianscherishing their places of prayer “as oaseswhere they meet the All Merciful God on thejourney to eternal life, and where they meettheir brothers and sisters in the bond of reli-gion”.

For a short time before his busy day started,Cardinal Scola had a moment in an oasis ofcalm at the nunciature in Wimbledon, southLondon; it was an opportunity to talk to himabout his work with his foundation. So I askedhim, given the work done in interfaith dia-logue by organisations like his own, whetherthe situation since 9/11 had improved. Inresponse, he warned of major problems.“In countries which define themselves asIslamic, Christians are exposed,” he said.“There are persecutions, and they are pushedto have to leave their own country. In the

countries of the Arab Spring, there are somethings which make us hope – they are put-ting certain things at the centre, such as thedignity of the human person, freedom, but,at the same time, we can see some risks.”

The cardinal stressed that Muslims andChristians are obliged to live together inthe pluralist societies of the West but thatsuch a world risks being full of conflict.Dialogue, he opined, is both an obligationand something chosen as a political good.“We need to talk about substantial commu-nication which starts from the fact that weall share a common human experience; weneed humility to start from there to get todealing with complex problems. Withoutthat, we will not achieve a new political cul-ture, and difficulties and conflicts will grow.Europe and the Church itself will be in greaterdifficulty.”

With Oasis, Cardinal Scola has tried to finda way to meet Muslims as equals and to chal-lenge the tendency for Europeans to thinkof Islam as something they need to defendthemselves from. “We have seen how multi-culturalist policies are proving theirinadequacy but it is not enough,” he said.“It is becoming ever more clear that the mostacute problems in Muslim society are evermore similar to those in our own societies.”

Yet the cardinal sees dialogue and under-standing as no excuse for relativism. Friendscannot turn a blind eye to restrictions on,say, converts to other religions or on women.

For all his reservations, it is clear thatCardinal Scola has a certain admiration forMuslims. He recalls a moment some yearsago when a large number of Muslims gath-ered in front of Milan’s spectacular Gothiccathedral and prayed. Photos of the eventshow dozens upon dozens of upturned backs

Caretaker ofthe oasisHe has led two of the great dioceses of theChurch in Italy and founded an organisation topromote Christian-Muslim dialogue. On a flyingvisit to London, Cardinal Angelo Scola talked toCatherine Pepinster about the importance oflistening, while holding fast to difference


in front of the duomo. “It was personal andpublic at the same time, and still requiresour reflection”. He characterises Christiansin Europe as old and tired. “We Catholics areweak”, he says. “We have to find our rootsonce more and the beauty of life lived accord-ing to Christ. The human person can onlycommunicate what he thinks is true andbeautiful and good.”

As he travels around his Milan diocese,Scola sees children at Mass in the parishes– “and lots of grey hair, and – how you sayit – dyed hair”. There is a hint of a smile ashe says this. He is an attractive combina-tion of pastor and theologian, truck driver’sson and philosopher.

Born in Lombardy in 1941, Scola first stud-ied philosophy at the Catholic University ofMilan, where he was heavily involved withthe lay campaigning group, Catholic Action,before entering the seminary. After ordina-tion he received his doctorate in theologyfrom the University of Fribourg, by whichtime he was already a collaborator with theCommunion and Liberation movement, andthe Italian editor of its journal, Communio.Pastoral work and academic posts followed,before he became Bishop of Grosseto in 1991,rector of the Lateran University in 1995and then Patriarch of Venice in 2002. Heused to set aside Wednesday mornings to beavailable to anyone who wished to see him.In 2011 he was moved to Milan, a see longconsidered one of the most important in theworldwide Church, thereby assuring him of

a place on any list of those deemed “papa-bile”.

After the removal of Archbishop MichaelFitzgerald from the presidency of the PontificalCouncil for Interreligious Dialogue and PopeBenedict’s controversial speech in Regensburgin 2006, some observers have suggested thatsympathy for Muslims and commitment todialogue is no longer top of the Vatican’sagenda. But the Pope’s appointment ofCardinal Scola to Milan, given his interestsand his continued work with Oasis, suggestsotherwise.

Scola first became interested in dialogueafter a 2000 trip to Damascus, when he metlocal bishops of different rites who asked himhow he could help Christians in the Muslimworld. As Patriarch of Venice, he was able tobegin his work and the Oasis Foundationwas created, focusing on research, bringingscholars together and publishing books, amagazine and a newsletter.

Time after time in Christian history, faithhas flourished in the face of difficult situa-tions, such as those experienced by manyChristians in the Middle East today. But inparts of Europe decline is evident, includingin the Catholic Church. So does CardinalScola think Europe is still a Christian con-tinent? “It is pluralist, sure,” he responds.“But secularisation in somewhere like Milanis different from that in London. I think thatin certain places – such as Spain, Bavaria andamong Catholics in the UK – Christian val-ues are still strong, but practice, no. When

I visit parishes, I see that people have a strongdesire for God. And I have a simple view oflife: God asks something of us.”

Simple ideas, of course, can often be theones that work best, and the parish systemcan provide an ideal opportunity for dialogueand encounter at the grassroots level. “InMilan, there is a structure for sport, etc,through the parish centres,” Scola explains.“Now many of them attract Muslim childrenso parishes can extend people’s horizons.”

That, of course, means that Muslims andChristians can come together at the level ofcivic society. But can they pray together? “InAssisi,” Cardinal Scola recalls, “John Paul IIand Cardinal Ratzinger said we are not hereto pray together but we are here together forpraying. We have to make a necessary dis-tinction. God is the one God, but how welook at God is different.”

The Oasis Foundation has been built onthat distinction – that it is possible for us tocome together, in mutuality, but not blendedtogether, as if there were no difference. Or,as Scola put it to his audience at HeythropCollege: “The important thing for humanbeings is to listen in order to learn. In Europe,we are not always so open, but we must lis-ten deeply to the other one.” Speaking tomembers of the audience afterwards, it wasclear they felt that not only had they heardfrom Cardinal Scola, but that he had listeneddeeply, too. A theologian and philosopherhad visited London that day, but so had apastor.

Advent is a time of watchfulness andpreparation. But, says Teresa Morgan in thefirst of her meditations, we are preparingfor a mystery and for the unknown.

The arrival of another Advent Sunday remindsme of a comedian I heard on television afew years ago, making fun of the way peopleare always surprised by the time of year. “Canyou believe it’s nearly Christmas already?Amazing, isn’t it?” No, he said, it isn’t! If we’djust had Easter or the August bank holiday,it would be amazing, but we’ve just hadNovember, and before that, October, so whatdid we expect?

He was right: it is absurd the way we’re per-petually surprised by the most predicableaspects of our lives. I think the trouble isthat although we know when events such asChristmas are coming, and plan for them inpractical ways, we overlook the differencebetween knowing and preparing experien-tially. Children are never surprised byChristmas, because they do prepare: theyremember and recreate past excitements, lookforward and wait impatiently.

For the rest of us, who need to be reminded,the theme of Advent is: be prepared. Watchand pray. Don’t be caught napping, withoutoil in your lamp.

Watch and pray. But another thread runsthrough our Advent readings: a more ques-tioning theme, less certain of itself, fearfully

aware of how little it knows about what it’spreparing for.

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,when I wil fulfil the promise I made to thehouse of Israel” (Jeremiah 33:14-15). But whatwill the one who comes be like? Will the moun-tains quake at his presence? Will he burn likea refiner’s fire? Will he speak tenderly toJerusalem, and feed his flock like a shepherd?Will he cast down the mighty from their seats,or reign himself from the throne of his ances-tor David? Will he be a man, or a woman, ora child?

In the weeks ahead, we shallhear many prophecies of the oneto come, past and future. We shallponder different visions of theMessiah in the gospels, from theSon of Man who arrives in powerand glory, to the baby in themanger. And when we have heardthe prophecies, put oil in our lampsand settled down to watch; asthe nights draw in, and the winter grows darkerand colder, we will wait, and in our waitingcome face to face with our own unknowing.

And out of unknowing, question after ques-tion rises, like bubbles in a glass. Will thelonged-for God, the One who was and is tocome, come to us, to our hearts, in our mor-tal lives? Will he come soon?

How will he come? As a king, or a shep-herd? A healer, or a friend?

What kind of Messiah are we looking for?And what do our hopes say about us? Arewe looking for a Messiah to solve our prob-lems, to share our struggles, to lift us out ofour mortality? What if the one who comesisn’t the one we’re looking for? Will we recog-nise him? Will we welcome her?

Our Advent readings are dense with mys-teries from the past and visions of the future.As we listen, they also tell us something aboutourselves: our needs and assumptions, hopesand fears. Above all, they show us the depth

of our unknowing. They ask, are we prepared? Not

in the way we prepare for the prac-ticalities of Christmas, by shoppingand cooking and wondering wherethe year went. Not even in the waychildren prepare, reliving last year,looking forward and ticking offthe days. Are we prepared to recog-nise the gulf between knowingand experiencing God, and step

into it? Are we prepared to suspend planningand expectation; to forget everything we thinkwe know and wait in darkness for an unimag-inable encounter?

Having no idea how the Messiah will come,are we ready to welcome God with us?

■ The Revd Dr Teresa Morgan is NancyBissell Turpin fellow and tutor in ancienthistory at Oriel College, Oxford.

Advent meditation: Are we ready to welcome God with us?

EDWARD KESSLER

When the Churchcame in from the cold

If the Second Vatican Council marked a new era, nothing symbolised the new age and what itmeant for relations with the rest of the world as did Nostra Aetate, the groundbreakingexposition of relations with other faiths, particularly Judaism

One of the final documents of theSecond Vatican Council, NostraAetate turned out to be one of itsmost significant, transforming

Jewish-Christian relations. Pope John XXIII(Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, born in 1881) hadalready received wide attention a year earlierfor publicly greeting Jewish visitors with thewords: “I am Joseph, your brother.”

According to Catholic scholar Fr EdwardFlannery, Nostra Aetate “terminated in a strokea millennial teaching of contempt of Jewsand Judaism, and unequivocally asserted theChurch’s debt to its Jewish heritage”. It markedthe beginnings of a fresh approach to Judaismwhen the Roman Catholic Church “came inout of the cold”.

Although it omitted mention of theHolocaust or the existence of the State ofIsrael, Nostra Aetate was forceful in its con-demnation of anti-Semitism. Mostimportantly of all, it ushered in a new era,fresh attitudes, and a new language of dis-course never previously heard in the CatholicChurch concerning Jews. The concept of adialogue now entered the relationship.

One consequence was a reawakeningamong Catholics to the Jewish origins ofChristianity. They were reminded that Jesuswas a faithful Jew and “that from the Jewishpeople sprang the Apostles”, the foundationstones and pillars of the Church who “drawsustenance from the root of that good olivetree on to which have been grafted the wildolive branches of the Gentiles”.

The ramifications were manifold. Christianswere taught that Jesus, his family and his fol-

lowers were Jewish and the Jewish back-ground to Christianity was stressed. Christianswere taught that Jesus “had very close rela-tions” with the Pharisees. They learnt thatthe final text of the Gospels was edited longafter the events described, which meant thatthe authors were sometimes concerned withdenigrating those Jews who did not followJesus and equally concerned with vindicatingthe Romans, whose goodwill they were seek-ing.

All this was courageously admitted by theVatican’s 1985 document on the teaching ofJudaism, which stated forthrightly: “It cannotbe ruled out that some references hostile orless than favourable to the Jews have theirhistorical context in conflicts between thenascent Church and the Jewish community.Certain controversies reflect Christian-Jewishrelations long after the time of Jesus. To estab-lish this is of capital importance if we wishto bring out the meaning of certain Gospeltexts for the Christians of today.”

As a result of a soul change epitomised byNostra Aetate, Christianity shifted from whatwas, for the most part, an inherent need tocondemn Judaism to one of a condemnationof Christian anti-Judaism. This led not to aseparation from all things Jewish but, in fact,to a closer relationship with “the elder brother”.In the words of German theologian JohannesMetz: “Christian theology after Auschwitzmust stress anew the Jewish dimension ofChristian beliefs and must overcome theforced blocking-out of the Jewish heritagewithin Christianity.”

Yet, while condemning anti-Semitism, andbeing published just 20 years after the SecondWorld War, which had devastated Europeand particularly its Jewish population, NostraAetate avoided the topic of the Holocaust.This omission may possibly have been becausefew leaders of the Christian Churches didmuch to help Jews.

Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII from 1939to 1958, was (and remains) a controversialfigure, with some claiming that he knew muchand did nothing of importance to help Jews,whereas others retort that he did what hecould and encouraged others to do more. Theimpression of Vatican policy of the 1930s and

1940s, indeed of the two popes of that time,Pius XI and Pius XII, is hardly a positive one.Yet, it is essential to remember that in Nazi-occupied countries other than Germany, theChurches were often targeted themselves,and were thus preoccupied with protectingtheir own flocks rather than with the fate ofJews.

However, individual Christian leaders didextend their support to Jews, with one of themost honourable examples being AngeloGiuseppe Roncalli who, as papal nuncio forTurkey and Greece, made available baptismalcertificates to thousands of Hungarian Jewsin a bid to persuade Germans to leave themunmolested. This was the very same “Joseph”who was to open his arms to the Jews andthe world through Vatican II.

In 1987, in the wake of the controversy overPope John Paul II’s reception of AustrianPresident Kurt Waldheim, who had been anactive Nazi, the Vatican promised to reflecton the Holocaust and “We Remember: areflection on the Shoah” was published by theVatican in 1998. It stresses the evils of anti-Semitism, concluding with the desire “to turnawareness of past sins into a firm resolve tobuild a new future in which there will be nomore anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews but rathera shared mutual respect”.

There remains a special European and aspecial Christian angle to dealing with theShoah. It happened in a supposedly liberal,democratic and well-developed civilisation.The vast majority of Europeans looked onwhile their Jewish neighbours were beingtaken away and murdered.

As far as Christianity is concerned, andmost Europeans were of course, at least nom-inally, Christians, the problem is even moreserious: some 1,900 years after the life of Jesusthe Jew, his people were murdered by baptisedpagans who, by their action and inaction,denied their Baptism, while most otherChristians, from the highest to the lowest,looked aside. In my view, the Holocaustremains a threat to Christian self-understand-ing today, as it did at the end of the SecondWorld War. It is perhaps no coincidence thatJohn Paul II, whose pontificate witnessed

The Second Vatican Council and the Jews


more progress between Catholics and Jewsthan any other pope, was the first pope tovisit a concentration camp (Auschwitz) andto pray there (in 1979); the first to visit YadVashem in his pilgrimage to Israel (in 2000)and the first to place words of apology foranti-Semitism in the Church in the cracks ofthe Wailing Wall.

One key feature of Nostra Aetate was itsassertion that “Jews remain most dear to God”who “does not repent of the gifts he makesnor of the calls he issues”. In other words, itstated that God’s covenant with the Jewishpeople had never been broken and retainedeternal validity; God did not renege on hispromises. If Jews were not rejected, thenJudaism was not a fossilised faith, as had beentaught previously, but a living, authentic reli-gion.

Few biblical concepts have been as troublingto Christian-Jewish relations than theChristian claim to be the successor covenantpeople, elected by God to replace Israelbecause of the latter’s faithlessness. Knownas substitution theory or replacement theology,it argues that, since the time of Jesus, Jewshave been replaced by Christians in God’sfavour, and that all God’s promises to theJewish people have been inherited byChristianity.

This raises a crucial question in today’s rela-tionship – can Christians view Judaism as avalid religion in its own terms (and vice versa)?Directly related to this is the need, from aChristian perspective, for reflection on thesurvival of the Jewish people and of the vitalityof Judaism over nearly 2,000 years – this isthe “mystery of Israel” upon which Paulreflected in his Epistle to the Romans. ForChristians, the question is whetherChristianity can differentiate itself fromJudaism without asserting itself as eitheropposed to Judaism or simply as the fulfilmentof Judaism.

Questions also need to be considered fromthe Jewish perspective. What was the divinepurpose behind the creation of Christianity?What are the implications for Jews that, as aresult of the Jew Jesus, two billion Christiansnow read the Jewish Bible? Martin Bubersuggested that Jesus was “my elder brother”.Nostra Aetate (and many Christian state-ments) turn for help from St Paul, in whoseview both Israel and the Church are elect andboth participate in the covenant of God. ForPaul, it was impossible to view the Jewishpeople as a whole as first elected by God andthen later displaced. God would not simplyelect and then reject. The Church’s electionderives from that of Israel but this does notimply that God’s covenant with Israel is bro-ken. Rather, it remains unbroken – irrevocably(Romans 11:29). For Paul, the mystery ofIsraelites is that their rejection and their stum-bling do not mean that they cease to beaccepted by God. Rather, they allow theGentiles to participate in the peoplehood ofIsrael.

Indeed, so strongly does Paul make thispoint that he offers a severe warning that gen-tile Christians should not be haughty orboastful toward unbelieving Jews – much less


cultivate evil intent and engage in persecutionagainst them. Christians have rememberedthe Jews as “enemies” but not as “beloved” ofGod (Romans 11:28) and have taken to heartPaul’s criticisms and used them against theJews while forgetting Paul’s love for the Jewsand their traditions (Romans 9:1-5).

Romans 9-11 therefore provided NostraAetate and the Church with the means to re-assess attitudes towards Jews and maintainthe continuing validity of God’s covenant withhis Jewish people.

One might argue against Paul by sayingthat if Jews have not kept faith with God, thenGod has a perfect right to cast them off. It isinteresting that Christians who argue thisway have not often drawn the same deductionabout Christian faithfulness. Actually, Godseems to have had a remarkable ability tokeep faith with both Christians and Jews whenthey have not kept faith with him, a point ofwhich Paul is profoundly aware in Romans9-11. He goes out of his way to deny claimsthat God has rejected the chosen people, andasserts that their stumbling does not lead totheir fall.

One topic not mentioned in Nostra Aetatethat causes more controversy than any otheris the subject of peace and understandingbetween Israelis and Palestinians, or perhapsmore realistically, conflict and misunder-standing.

Political factors alone do not fully explainwhy Israel – the nation state created after theSecond World War – is such a controversialtopic. For Jews, of course, the centrality ofthe land of the Bible, as well as the survivalof more than a third of world Jewry, is at stake.Christians, for their part, not only disagreeas to the place of the people of scriptural Israelin Christian theology, but feel particular con-cern for Christians who live in the nation stateas well as other Palestinians.

Although there have been great changes inChristian teaching on Judaism, attitudestowards Israel continue to be difficult. Simplyput, it has been easier for the Church to con-demn anti-Semitism as a misunderstandingof Christian teaching than to come to terms

with the re-establishment of the Jewish state.Once again, it was John Paul II who was notonly the first Pope to visit a synagogue andpray there with its congregation (1986) butthe first to exchange ambassadors with theState of Israel (1994) and make a pilgrimageto the Holy Land in the Millennium.

Some Christians are extremely critical ofIsrael, such as the authors of “Kairos Palestine”,a document issued by a number of leadingChristians from the Holy Land in late 2009,which depicts Israel as responsible for a com-plex conflict. When Churches adoptdivestment initiatives directed against Israel,a country whose policies they sometimes likento the former apartheid regime in SouthAfrica, many see these as attempts to dele-gitimise Israel’s very existence, although thatmay not be the intention. The fact that theChurches do not act similarly regardinghuman-rights abuses and state violence inmany other places, especially in the widerMiddle East, adds to the strain.

There is another complicating factor. ForChristians in the Holy Land, the relationshipwith Jews exists within a framework of a largerdialogue with Muslims. Christian Palestiniansare concerned at the prospect of the gradualIslamisation of the nascent state and of a timewhen Hamas and other Islamist parties mighttake over completely.

Nablus, a city that once had a sizeableChristian population, now has almost none.The significant reduction in the Christianpopulation elsewhere in the Middle East addsto feelings of insecurity, but there is one con-tribution Jews and Christians can bring fromthousands of miles away: hope.

Nostra Aetate was a milestone in Christian-Jewish relations and began an immenselydifficult but rewarding exercise – namely, totake the “Other” as seriously as one demandsto be taken oneself. In the words of theVatican’s 1975 “Guidelines on Nostra Aetate”,Judaism and Christianity must be understoodon their own terms: “Christians must striveto learn by what essential traits the Jews definethemselves in the light of their own religiousexperience.”

It is clear today that many of the main divi-sive issues have been either eliminated ortaken to the furthest point at which agreementis possible. The efforts of Catholics towardsrespect of Judaism project attitudes that wouldhave been unthinkable half a century ago.

For 50 years Jews and Christians have wit-nessed a massive change and giant strideshave been made, but we are talking of adynamic and relentless process. We will neverbe able to sit back and say, “The work is done.The agenda is completed.” On many majorissues, Jews and Christians find themselveson the same side of the fence, faced with thesame challenges. The agenda is changing andnew issues are no less vital and pressing.

■ Edward Kessler is co-founder and currentexecutive director of the Woolf Institute inCambridge.

(Next week: Michael Fitzgerald onNostra Aetate and Islam.)

CHRISTOPHER HOWSE’SPRESSWATCH

‘Comment on womenbishops kept oncoming, driving farinland like a tidal bore’

To be gored by a bull is generally asurprise. The rejection of womenbishops by the General Synod of theChurch of England surprised thepress in a deeper manner, as if thebull had turned and shouted “Olé!”as the horn went in. It was againstnature.

“The Church of England wasplunged into turmoil last night,” saidthe Daily Mirror, and most reportssaid something similar. The vote bythe Church of England, said TheTimes, had “thrust it into its biggestcrisis for decades”. The report, byRuth Gledhill, its religioncorrespondent, who could never beaccused of lacking interest in hersubject, went on to say that “theChurch will now be open toaccusations of bigotry, underminingits right to a voice in public life”.

As for poor Justin Welby, whonext year becomes Archbishop ofCanterbury, “the Church that chosehim as their new leader brought hisbrief honeymoon to an abrupt andhumiliating end”. I don’t know about“honeymoon”, it seemed more likecrashing the car on the way to thewedding.

The Times seemed to be taking itall personally. The Daily Telegraph,in a leading article on the eve of thevote, had self-denyingly concededthat “it would be wrong for us topronounce on the merits of theproposals on the table, or theirtheological validity”.

But The Times felt no suchreticence. “The theologicaljustification offered by opponents ofwomen bishops is weak,” itpronounced. After the cataclysm, aTelegraph leader said: “The Churchof England has certainly landeditself in a mess – but it is for theChurch itself, not high-mindedoutsiders, to fix it.” That was not howThe Times saw things. “The Churchof England has acted like a sect andperpetrated a disservice to thenation and other faiths,” it declaredin the manner of the headmaster ofRugby exposing the delinquencies ofFlashman.

But help was at hand, MissGledhill discovered a few days later,

in the shape of William Fittall,“whose advice to the Church is rarelyif ever ignored” – a rare attributeindeed. He is the synod’s generalsecretary and had suggested, in asecret memo (now a formerly secretmemo), “a clause to consecratewomen bishops with no provisionfor opponents, being put to synod”in July. Sounds a breeze.

All week, while tension over theEU budget crisis rose and fell, alongwith the real flood waters that sweptthe nation in a rainy spell, commenton women bishops kept on coming,driving far inland like a tidal bore. “Ihave no particular interest in thedebate,” John Cooper of Glasgowwrote to The Sun, in an openinggambit that would normally do littleto secure publication for his letter.“But it did seem strange that theyshould vote against it yet the Queenis the head of the Church and theyare happy enough with that.”

It was a thought that had notescaped Allison Pearson, who in herTelegraph column asked: “If bishopsswear an oath of allegiance to awoman, how can a woman not bepermitted to be a bishop?” MelissaThompson in the Mirror posed aparallel question in asking why“nearly a third of all jobs in theRoyal Navy and Army are closed towomen”. The Ministry of Defencereplied: “Jobs where the primaryduty is ‘to close with and kill theenemy’ are strictly men only.”Seeking other shops closed towomen, she found the 330,000Freemasons in England and Wales,who refuse admittance to women,oh, and the Garrick Club.

This took on a new significancewhen MPs grew truculent after thevote. Simon Hoggart in hisparliamentary sketch in TheGuardian was not alone in notingthat when “Sir Tony Baldry, the ToryMP for Banbury, who rejoices in thetitle of second church estatescommissioner” was haranguing thewicked churchmen, he was doing sowhile wearing a Garrick Club tie.

The Evening Standard hadlassoed one of the front-runners forfemale episcopacy, should such athing come to exist in this realm.The Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin ischaplain to the Speaker of the Houseof Commons. She has a way withwords that does not quite obscureher meaning.

“I feel a huge sense ofdisappointment on behalf of theChurch,” she said. “We’re going toend up navel-gazing at ourselves.That cannot be helpful.”

■ Christopher Howse is an assistanteditor of The Daily Telegraph.


Three Month Renewal CourseAn excellent opportunity for personal

and spiritual renewal for religious, clergy and laity.

Spring ~ 10 Jan - 28 Feb 20137 week course includes:

• 2 week Scripture School• The Human Journey - A Spiritual Destination• Living God’s Dream• Stress Management• Prayer & Eucharist• The Spirituality of True Self Esteem

Summer ~ 8 Apr - 4 July 2013Autumn ~ 2 Sept - 28 Nov 2013

Scripture School 2013Fr Ciaran O’Callaghan CSsR

13 - 26 January 2013 Week 1: Major Theme:

Intro to the Gospel of Luke Yr C

Minor Theme: How Israel’s Experience of the

Wilderness Shaped its Relationship with God

Week 2: Major Theme: The Wider Holy Land

Minor Theme: Exploring the Acts of the Apostles

Retreats 2013Refl ecting with Paintings 1

Borrowing the eyes of others8 - 10 February Fr Denis McBride CSsR

Lenten Week RetreatWhat must you let go of this Easter for

your heart to be free?18 - 23 March Fr Daniel O’Leary

Holy WeekJourneying with Jesus to Easter

25 - 31 MarchFr Maurice O’Mahony CSsR,

Sr C Mouat OP & Sr J Smith SP

Transition WorkshopFacing Change in Later Life

22 - 26 April Dr Stephanie Thornton

For further details of all courses,please contact:

The Secretary, Hawkstone Hall, Marchamley, Shrewsbury SY4 5LG, England

Tel 01630 685242Email [email protected]

www.hawkstone-hall.com

Hawkstone HallRedemptorist International

Pastoral Centre

Year of Faith

MARK CHAPMAN

Don’t blame the laityMost observers inside and outside the Church of England have concluded that last week’s failureby the General Synod to vote through legislation allowing women bishops has left it in turmoil.Here, a member of the synod claims that the problem is a lack of trust by the bishops

S eldom do the decisions of the GeneralSynod of the Church of England makemuch of an impact outside the some-what closeted world of ecclesiastical

enthusiasts. But last week the Church’s gov-erning body voted to reject the legislation toallow women to become bishops – and themedia is still reeling. Although there was anoverwhelming majority in favour, the neces-sary two-thirds majority was not achieved inthe House of Laity, and the motion fell. I felta sense of bewilderment and anger, and sharedtears with my women colleagues. After all,the Church of England has ordained womenas priests for 20 years, and it seemed a logicalprogression to move to women bishops.Church people have quickly criticised theHouse of Laity as unrepresentative of opinion,calling for a reform of the electoral system onthe grounds that electors frequently knowvirtually nothing about the candidates.

But I am not sure that the House of Laitywas really to blame. What was being votedon was not simply the principle of womenbishops, but the safeguards offered to thoseopposed to women’s ministry. When womenwere ordained priests, a mechanism was cre-ated so that parishes could refuse theirministrations, and could also ask for “extendedepiscopal oversight” from bishops who didnot ordain women. With this precedent, virtually everybody in the Church thoughtsomething similar would be needed if womenwere to be ordained as bishops.

Consequently after the principle of womenbishops was accepted, a series of draftinggroups took soundings over a number of yearsto produce proposals that were carefullycrafted. The basic idea was that women bishops should have the same legal jurisdictionas all other bishops, but that pastoral careand celebration of the sacraments would bedelegated to male bishops for those parishesunwilling to accept episcopal oversight froma woman or even from a man who hadordained a woman. This measure was presented for consideration to the GeneralSynod in July 2010.

What happened then was unprecedented:no doubt with good intentions, theArchbishops of both Canterbury and York –in an act which rode roughshod over the hardwork of the drafting committees – introducedan amendment that would have created par-allel legal jurisdictions, and which had thesupport of the majority of bishops. This wouldhave meant that the diocesan bishop would

not have been legally responsible for the dio-cese, which could have resulted in incoherenceor even conflict between bishops in mattersof clergy discipline. The rejection of thisamendment by the synod spelt the end of thecredibility of the House of Bishops. The arch-bishops did not seem to realise that a blatantrefusal to listen to the formal mechanisms ofsynod would be disastrous for efforts at build-ing the sort of trust needed to move themeasure through the legislative process.

In the new General Synod, to which I waselected and which met in November 2010, itwas clear that there was a poisonous relation-ship between the House of Bishops and theHouses of Clergy and Laity. In what was sup-posed to be a straightforward piece ofrubber-stamping, the synod rejected a bishop,who was a suffragan to the Archbishop ofCanterbury, as chairman of the business com-mittee. The other two houses simply did nottrust the impartiality of a member of theHouse of Bishops being in charge of synodbusiness.

In the subsequent months, the AnglicanCommunion Covenant, which was supposedto offer a mechanism for conflict resolutionamong the worldwide Churches, was rejectedin the dioceses, despite – or perhaps becauseof – the support of most of the bishops forthe covenant. The dioceses were also askedto vote on the women-bishops’ legislation –and 42 out of 44 voted decisively in favour.The matter returned in February 2012 fordiscussion – amendments were discussed,and firmly rejected. Instead, synod asked thebishops not to change anything substantialat the final stage of scrutiny. But having failedto learn from July 2010, the bishops intro-duced a last-minute and ill-drafted

amendment which seemed to allow parishesto choose their own bishops on the basis of“theological convictions” which would havegone against one of the cardinal principles ofchurch government since the time ofAugustine’s conflicts with the Donatists.

Some bishops – most notably the Bishopof Liverpool – broke ranks and recognisedtheir own folly. Not surprisingly, most of thosein favour of women bishops firmly rejectedthe amendment – and since it couldn’t bechanged at this stage, the measure wasreturned to the bishops for further amend-ment. It was obvious to most of us that circlescannot be squared, and there has to be a limitto compromise for the sake of coherence.Synod was consequently forced to meet againin November. Finally, it discussed a measurethat was substantially unchanged from thatfirst proposed in July 2010.

What was clear in the run-up to the synodand in the debate itself was that the significantminority who did not support women bishopsand their sympathisers did not have sufficienttrust that those responsible for the provisions– the bishops – would make them work unlessthey were forced to by law. The bishops hadfailed to trust the mechanisms of synod. Forthose who are likely to be suspicious of bishopsanyway, and who certainly feel beleagueredby the dominant liberalism of the Church, itmeant little that the bishops rallied behindthe measure on Tuesday. The damage hadalready been done in July 2010.

The measure will no doubt return soon –and perhaps next time the bishops will workwith synod rather than against it and realisethat it is synod that provides the mechanismfor listening to the mind of the Church, andnot the loud-mouthed lobbyists who can easilybend bishops’ ears. Synods can work, but theyhave to be trusted. And in an EstablishedChurch it is to the House of Laity that theRoyal Supremacy – which had previouslybeen exercised by Parliament – has been delegated. Chastened bishops might do wellto remember that – and then the Church ofEngland might have the leaders it so richlydeserves, men and women.

■ Mark Chapman is vice principal of RiponCollege Cuddesdon, Oxford, and reader inmodern theology in the University of Oxford.His books include Anglicanism: a very shortintroduction (OUP, 2006), and AnglicanTheology (T&T Clark, 2012). He is a memberof the General Synod’s House of Clergy.

TheArchbishopsof York andCanterburyat ChurchHouse.Photo:Reuters


Women bishops

Sex discrimination in the Church

LINDA WOODHEAD

A woman’s placeThe Church of England is supposedly more hospitable to women than the Catholic Church. Afterall, the Anglicans ordain women priests and there are laywomen on the General Synod. Here, an Anglican authority on the sociology of religion turns conventional wisdom on its head

L istening to the General Synod debateon women bishops last week, I chor-tled with recognition when I hear theline: “Of course women aren’t just

there to make the tea … Though that is animportant aspect of diaconal ministry.” Iremember being surprised when I was beinginducted as tutor in doctrine and ethics at anAnglican clergy-training college to be askedif I could sew tablecloths. I was equally sur-prised to find that when I addressed certaingatherings of clergy I seemed to have donneda Harry Potter invisibility cloak.

What shocked me more was the way thatinsults and downright cruelty went uncheckedand unchallenged. I remember a woman ordinand in an Anglo-Catholic college havingher “pray for me on the day of my ordination”cards torn up and returned to her pigeonholeby fellow ordinands opposed to the ordinationof women. And I remember how, at the ordination services I attended for some of thefirst women to be made priests, the presidingbishops told them not to celebrate out of compassion for their opponents.

That was 20 years ago. Surely things havechanged? It’s true that half of all Anglicanordinands are now female, and a third of allclergy. Moreover, the gender equality scores(where 100 per cent would be perfect equality)have risen from 19 per cent in 2000 to 35 percent in 2010. But progress has been spotty –in 2010 Blackburn and Chichester Diocesescould still only manage a score of 11 per cent.With the exception of a few high-flyers,women priests are often marginalised – inthe least popular parishes, outside the positions of greatest power, and as unpaid or“non-stipendiary”. According to the Church’sown statistics, in 2011 fewer than a quarterof stipendiary clergy were female, comparedwith more than half non-stipendiary.

Anglican theology also remains a male bas-tion. In the university departments in whichit is largely housed, women make up only 28-30 per cent of the staff, according to a recentstudy from Durham University (this compareswith 57 per cent in languages, 48 per cent inlaw, and 27 per cent in maths). In fact it’s evenworse, because not all of the 28 per cent aretheologians, fewer still systematic theologians.Women trained in theology often move intoareas which are more open to their talents,including practical theology, Christian ethicsand sociology of religion.

Moving beyond the Churches, it’s easier to

name prominent Catholic women in Britishsociety than prominent Anglicans. In planninga series of debates on religion in public life,my colleagues and I kept thinking of womenwith interesting things to say on the subject– and realising that they were nearly allCatholic. It’s not that Anglican women don’tmake a vital contribution to society, butCatholics seem more willing to own their faithand speak openly about it.

Ironically, it may be that the ordination ofwomen in the Church of England has actuallyserved as a brake on progress. By limiting thepriesthood to celibate men, the CatholicChurch has inadvertently liberated a largeand well-educated laity to get on with livingout their faith, independent of clerical con-

straints. By contrast, ordained Anglicanwomen may find that wearing a dog collarmeans you can be put on a leash.

It’s not that the Church of England is asovertly authoritarian as the Catholic Church;it exercises control in more subtle ways. Aprime one is the cult of niceness. You mustn’tbe ambitious, and you can never, ever getangry. This applies to women more than tomen: they must be patient and caring at alltimes. Any form of protest or demand is inter-preted as pushy, unfeminine and unchristian.

The problem is compounded by a pervasiveAnglican commitment to the importance ofunity and inclusion. It’s this pursuit of the“common good” that has led the bishops togo to extraordinary lengths to make sure thatthose who oppose women’s equal treatmentdon’t feel excluded. They have, in effect,allowed the establishment of a Church withina Church – and this is what opponents ofwomen bishops want to strengthen, contraryto all traditional understandings of the bishop’srole as guarantor of unity.

By virtue of being lay, women in the CatholicChurch escape a lot of these pressures. TheirChurch’s teachings give more weight to issuesof truth and justice than the Church ofEngland’s, and there’s a humour and honestearthiness about the Catholic Church and awillingness to criticise and challenge, whichI often miss in my own.

Catholic women in Britain are also helpedby the fact that they belong to a minority witha history of struggle against poverty and prejudice. Members of religious minoritiestend to support one another. They encouragegirls to be educated, get good jobs and gainthe advantages that their parents – above alltheir mothers – could only dream of. In prac-tice this means that Britain has many goodCatholic schools with inspiring women teachers. Until recently, some of those teachersused to be nuns, sent with a mission to upliftand educate the Catholics in Britain. Iattended one myself for a few years, and veryempowering it was too. State-assisted Catholicschools often do similar work.

Anglican schools seem not to offer theirpupils such clear identity, nor to help working-class girls in the same way. The Church ofEngland remains class-ridden. Public school-boys are prominent among its leaders, andthe model of the pastor with supportive wifeand large family lives on.

All this may offer a crumb of comfort toCatholics, but it’s not really good news foreither Church. The Catholic Church has provedmore hospitable to women in spite of its officialteachings and practices, not because of them,and the Anglican Church has managed to turnits ordination of women into a problem ratherthan a solution. This is serious for bothChurches, as they contemplate declining numbers. When they began to lose power andprestige after the 1970s, increasingly well-educated but still-faithful women were thenatural group to step in and inject new energy.By excluding them from senior leadershippositions and influence, both Anglicans andCatholics have squandered a vital resource.Some women have done their very best to savethe situation. But their difficult experiencesand repeated disappointments make it everless likely that their daughters will do the same.

■ Linda Woodhead is professor of thesociology of religion in the department ofpolitics, philosophy and religion atLancaster University.

A newlyordainedpriest, one ofthe first in theUK, shares ajoke with theassistantBishop ofLondon outsideSt Paul’sCathedral. Photo: PA


It is more difficult to persuade people thatthere is a value and a purpose in addingtheir efforts to less tangible forms of campaigning, such as putting pressure ongovernments or demanding changes to thelaw. During Cafod’s Thirst for Change campaign last Lent, 400 cards in the shapeof water drops were given out in our parishand everyone attending Mass was asked towrite a message to the Prime Minister urginghim to take action for the millions livingwithout access to clean water and sanitation.

Standing at the back of church, I collectedcash donations for Cafod’s work but receivedonly two cards for David Cameron, one ofthem with just the parishioner’s name on it.And yet, together with all the other cardsand petitions which were signed all over theUK, Thirst for Change was the biggest single

campaign the Department forInternational Developmentfaced in 2012, and it helpedsecure a major increase in gov-ernment funding for water andsanitation projects worldwide– proof that campaigningworks.

It is, however, all too easyfor organisations, parishes andindividuals to be satisfied withbeing purely fund-raisers anddonors and putting to one sidethe energy, enthusiasm andeffort required to create fun-damental change, tackling theroot causes of that need. WhenI visit schools in the parish, I

find a different attitude. The fund-raisingaspect is still there, but what really motivatesyoung people is the desire to demand changeand to challenge an unfair system.

Through Facebook and Twitter, our youngpeople watch events unfolding in real time;they feel part of a global village and theyidentify with the struggles they see. Throughnational or global movements, they can findout what like-minded people are planningto do to make their voices heard. For example,they might hear that a group is going tooccupy their local library to try to save itfrom spending cuts, and they decide to goalong to join them. They see that they nolonger need to join a political party to make

When I tell people that I belongto a “campaigning parish”, itprovokes different reactions.Some think it means taking

action together as a group: standing outsideembassies waving placards and shouting slogans in defence of persecuted Catholiccommunities somewhere in the world; orringing bells outside government buildingsdemanding the cancellation of developingcountries’ debt.

Others think it means something quieterand more personal: learning and prayingabout the problems in the world which ourCatholic values compel us to care about –the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, or thosedenied justice – and adding our names to apetition that upholds those values or puttingour coins in a collection bucket in the hopethat, together, we can make adifference.

For a long time, my parishhad a strong Justice and PeaceGroup that emphasised bothtypes of campaigning. As itsmembers grew older, the groupcould not sustain itself.However, like the grain ofwheat Archbishop OscarRomero described in his lasthomily, the spirit they createddid not die. Many of the thingsthat make us continue to be acampaigning parish today aredue to the commitment tosocial justice which took rootin that Justice and Peace Group.

Our parish supports a local food bank thathelps those who are struggling in these tougheconomic times. Failed asylum seekers andrefugees are helped through rice collectionsused to make up food parcels. In addition,the parish raises funds for a home for theelderly and sick in India. The way to succeedwith these projects is to start small. Myinvolvement with the Catholic aid agencyCafod started with my running the GreatNorth Run to raise money. In addition toCafod, there are a number of Catholic agenciesparishes can contact, such as Sciaf (ScottishCatholic International Aid Fund) and CaritasSocial Action. They all provide practical helpto those in need.

PARISH PRACTICE

Fight the good fightJOHN McBRIDE

We are called to prayer but also called to action. So what kind of action do we engagein, if we are to make the world a better place? Fund-raising for charities? LobbyingParliament? Collective protest? And what will really make a difference?

their voice heard. Cynics might say this issimply the blind optimism of youth; I believeit is something deeper than that. It is aquestion not of age, but of attitude.

Earlier this year, I visited the Korogochoslum on the outskirts of Nairobi in Kenya,with a population the size of Sunderland (c. 200,000) crowded into one square mile. Ivisited some of the campaign groups there,and saw the same urgency and enthusiasmthat I see in my local schools here, the samepassion for justice and peace that inspiredthose first volunteers in my parish. The menand women I met in Korogocho – and theirparish priest, Fr John Weebotsa – were notcontent to wait for others to set up a youthsports society or a community peace-buildingproject or a local radio station or a women’sempowerment project. They needed a handto set things up, but then invited politicians tohear their views. They raised the voices of thepeople who were concerned about jobs,women’s rights, security and a lack of oppor-tunities for young people.

Gandhi said: “Be the change you want tosee.” He was right; if you wait for someoneelse to do something, you might wait a longtime. If you see the injustice in the fact thatone in eight people on this planet do nothave enough to eat, if you want to demandthat Mr Cameron makes that the top itemon the agenda at next year’s summit of G8world leaders, then get your parish to joinCafod’s Hungry for Change campaign. Bydoing so, yours will not only be a campaigningparish, but one that reaches out in solidarityto our needy brothers and sisters.

Find out what local charities are doing tohelp the disadvantaged and vulnerable –and advertise their work in the newsletter sothat parishioners can support them. If youfeel strongly about an issue or a campaign,find ways to tell people and ask for their sup-port. By publicising your efforts in your localmedia, you will show the wider communitythat your parish is living out its faith; it is aplace where the Gospel is lived and Christiansare known by their good deeds.

■ John McBride is a Cafod supporter andcampaigner who was nominated to run withthe Olympic torch in Kenya for his work in thecommunity promoting development issues.

TO DOBe willing to speak up for

what you believe inStart small and watch thingsgrow. Get on the emailing list

for news of campaigns byCafod, Sciaf, Caritas SocialAction and other Catholic

agenciesFind out what local charities

are doing to help the vulnerable and advertise

their work in the newsletter


21 Tablet 1 Dec 12 PP_P27 parish practice 28/11/2012 14:10 Page 14

NOTEBOOK

Game changerLAST SEASON it emerged that theManchester City manager, Roberto Mancini,was given a relic of St Thérèse of Lisieux inthe weeks leading up to his club’s clinchingof the Premier League title. Now we canreport that Mr Mancini, a Catholic, regularlyattends Mass at the Church of the HolyName, Manchester.

It is understood that he attended Mass atthe church on the morning last May whenCity dramatically beat Queen’s Park Rangers3-2 on the last day of the season at theEtihad stadium – an event promptly dubbed“the miracle of Etihad”.

It is appropriate that Mr Mancini chosethat church: at the back of the building is alarge picture of St Luigi Scrosoppi, the patronsaint of footballers. St Luigi, an Oratorianwho came from Udine, in north-east Italy,worked with the poor, established schoolsand encouraged youngsters to take play sport– he is often depicted holding a football.

A generous lifeAMONG THOSE who suffered the effectsof Hurricane Katrina when it hit NewOrleans in 2005 was Sr Helen Prejean, thewell-known campaigner against capitalpunishment. Sr Helen, whose book DeadMan Walking was turned into a moviestarring Susan Sarandon, saw her conventbadly damaged as Katrina swept throughLouisiana. A few weeks later, Sr Helen wasin London to give The Tablet lecture. Apacked house donated around £1,000 tothe rebuilding of her home – thanks to thegenerosity of lawyer John McInespie, whoinsisted on paying all the costs of Sr Helen’svisit to Britain to give our lecture.

It was not the first time that McInespie,who has died at the age of 64 from braincancer, helped Helen Prejean, nor the firsttime he helped Catholic charities and theChurch. After studying law at GlasgowUniversity and at the Jesuits’ GeorgetownUniversity, Washington DC, McInespie carveda successful career as both a lawyer and alobbyist. From late 2002 he advised on apro bono basis the nunciature of the HolySee to the United States on dealing withsexual-abuse cases coming to light withinthe Catholic Church of the United States.This led to a series of meetings with JohnPaul II in Rome in 2003. John McInespieretained strong links with the Jesuits atGeorgetown, endowing a full professorialchair in the name of the Supreme Courtjudge Mr Justice William J. Brennan Jr,with whom he had a lifelong association.

John McInespie’s Requiem was due to beheld on Friday at the Church of theImmaculate Conception in Farm Street,central London.

Eliot’s patrimonyWHEN POPE Benedict XVI announcedthe creation of personal ordinariates forAnglicans to become Catholics while retainingelements of their “patrimony”, many queriedwhat the latter might mean. The recentlypublished Customary of Our Lady ofWalsingham – effectively the breviary forthe group – may provide an insight.

Among the “post-biblical” readings in thebook (used as the second reading at Matinsand Evensong, or within the Roman Officeof Readings) are a number of Anglicanwriters. They include Lancelot Andrewes,John Keble, Michael Ramsey and T.S. Eliot.The customary says they were chosen fortheir “thorough congruence with a Roman(Catholic) doctrinal understanding”. Fr AidanNichols, one of the editors, explained that it“is hard to think of any other parallel” wherenon-Catholic writers have been included ina prayer book sanctioned by the Church(although he pointed out there is a Byzantinewriter who appears in the office of readings).

Fr Aidan, a cat lover, explained that theT.S. Eliot text is not one of his feline poemsbut has been taken from Murder in theCathedral. “Unfortunately, St Gertrude ofNivelles, the patron of cats, is not in theordinariate’s calendar,” he told us.

Getting ‘Satisfaction’MYSTERY SURROUNDS the identity of ayoung Irish priest who was filmed in themiddle of a heaving mass of screaming fansat a Rolling Stones concert in 1965.

He appeared in Charlie is My Darling, afilm about a Stones’ tour of Ireland shownon BBC2 last Sunday. He was clearly visiblein the front row seemingly enjoying arendering of the hit song “Satisfaction”,despite chaotic scenes of fighting and destruc-tion going on in the Dublin cinema where

the concert took place. Asked afterwards bythe Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham,whether he enjoyed the show, the unnamedpriest replied: “No, I think the screamingwas a little bit much.” Questioned further, hesaid the Rolling Stones were “very goodartists” and that it was fans – not the band –who were responsible for the “immoral effect”he had witnessed.

So who was the priest and does he still likethe Rolling Stones? We’d love to know.

Wobbly startTHE DAY after the vote for women bishopswas lost in the Church of England’s rulingGeneral Synod, the incoming Archbishop ofCanterbury, Justin Welby, was putting abrave face on things. The archbishop-elect,who had passionately urged the synod tovote for the legislation, reflected that he hadachieved the rare distinction of losing a voteof confidence without having assumed office.

He made the remark on Wednesday lastweek as he accepted his Spectator award forPeer of the Year in recognition of his workon the Parliamentary Commission onBanking Standards. Soon afterwards, hewas on a plane to Nigeria to take part in anevent organised by the Tony Blair FaithFoundation. Together with the former primeminister, he took part in a video conferenceaimed at bringing peace between warringChristians and Muslims.

On his return to Britain last Friday, Welbytold The Times: “As they work together,they begin to deal more effectively withtheir conflicts.” Could he have been thinkingabout the situation nearer home?

Dance of faithHE HAS been dubbed the “the real-lifeBilly Elliot”. Now a 22-year-old dancer fromNewcastle upon Tyne has called on thehelp of fellow Catholics to raise the £20,000he needs to take the next step towards ful-filling his talent.

Eliot Smith needs the money to take upa place at the prestigious Martha GrahamDance School in New York, which hastrained some of the world’s finest dancers.Smith, who began attending Mass atWestminster Cathedral after moving toLondon to begin a dance degree in 2008,has already raised a third of the £30,000cost of the two-year-long course. He hasnow appealed for help in generating therest in an article about his life, faith andburgeoning career for the WestminsterCathedral magazine, Oremus.

The young dancer is no stranger tofundraising. In 2010 he used his talents toraise money for the cathedral by organisinga special dance performance called MISSA.


22 Tablet 1 Dec 12 Notebook_P28 notebook 28/11/2012 14:40 Page 14


Anglican attitudesIs it really true that “the very basis of theAnglican Settlement is a tacit agreement thatno one part of it should ever push its case sofar as to drive another part out into the cold”(“Measure of compromise”, leader, 24November)? Since when? 2012 is the 350thanniversary of the 1662 Act of Uniformity,which precisely and deliberately drove over1,500 ministers into the cold. That hardlyseems like a tacit agreement. The same wastrue in the sixteenth century. Twentieth-cen-tury attempts at wider comprehension wereconsistently blocked by the same alliance thatblocked the proposed legislation on womenbishops. By all means let us protect minori-ties, but let us also broaden the list of thoseto be protected. Where, for example, wouldyou put the Society of St Pius X in such a list?David M. Thompson(Emeritus Professor of modern church history)Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

With all the recriminations and franticefforts to salvage something from the chaosof the vote against women bishops in theChurch of England, I never once heard a sin-gle voice suggest that this might just be thechoice of God expressing an opinion on thesubject. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Good Lordused the weak and powerless, the voicelesslaity to speak to the leaders and tell them thatthis is not the way forward.

Too much of the debate was about equal-ity, about not being out of step with society.What about being “salt of the earth” and “thelight of the world”? In other words, what abouthaving the courage to be different? Christiansare not called to be the same, we are calledto be different, in order to witness to the worldthat God’s ways are not our ways. Let the Lordlead the way, and if it is his will it will happen in its own good time.(Fr) Anthony DoyleLondon E9

Setting aside the awesome chutzpah it musttake for a Catholic journal to counsel anotherdenomination on its shortcomings in therealm of gender equality and democracy, yourleader’s criticism of the Church of Englandfor its failure to compromise sufficiently overthe appointment of women bishops showedbias and inconsistency.

You clearly implied, for example, that thelarge majority who supported the measurewere motivated principally by the desire toingratiate themselves with the wider societyand its “shifting sands of public opinion”whereas your seemingly more principled dis-senters would have somehow been perfectlyjustified to do the same for the rest of theChurch, if only their own protection from

sector agencies like Cafod and local charitieson the ground, who best understand how toget aid to those who need it? We all know thatthere are millions of people in the world inUganda, India and elsewhere who are in des-perate need, but greater steps must be takento ensure that British aid actually reachesthem.Erik PearseWolverhampton, West Midlands

Aquinas – never more relevantTracey Rowland’s article (“A symphony of theo -logical renewal”, 17 November) and the

female bishops had been better guaranteed.You further implied that, since the

Archbishop of Canterbury’s earlier attemptat compromise had been rejected, he shouldnot be numbered among the “advocates ofwomen bishops” whose intransigence youblamed mostly for the failure. Nothing couldbe more misleading: he was, as we all know,a passionate advocate of the measure exactlyas it was presented to the synod.

There are times – surely this is one of them –when compromise as a first priority, howeverwell meant, simply demands from both sidestoo many moral and intellectual conces-sions. That is why people vote. The problemfor the Church of England was not a failureto compromise enough but a complex votingsystem which failed to represent the evolvedvalues of the whole faith community as itresponds to the Spirit working through thewider world. Nevertheless, their brave com-mitment to voting on major issues, with itsroots in the historical Church and implicitrespect for the laity, remains wholly enviable.John McLaughlinBirkenhead, Merseyside

While the Church of England failed toendorse the ordination of women to becomebishops by a mere six votes, we in the CatholicChurch face Herculean efforts to even allowthe open discussion of the possibility ofwomen’s ordination to the priesthood. Withinthe past week an American priest, Fr RoyBourgeois, internationally known for hiswork on human rights in Latin America, hasbeen excommunicated, dismissed from thepriesthood and laicised by the VaticanCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (TheChurch in the World, 24 November).

This punishment for Fr Roy because of hispublic support for women’s ordination is a graveinjustice in the eyes of God and all decenthuman society. As a gesture of solidarity onFriday last, I handed in a letter of protest tothe Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faithon behalf of We Are Church Ireland, callingfor open dialogue in the Catholic Church onthe issue of women’s ordination and to endthe scandalous sanctions against priests andtheologians who, led by the Spirit of God, advo-cate open dialogue on this issue.Brendan ButlerMalahide, Co. Dublin, Ireland

Trust the people on the groundFollowing David Blair’s column (“Aid for Indiamust be spent elsewhere”, 17 November) andthe Department for InternationalDevelopment’s announcement that it is sus-pending aid to Uganda due to concerns overcorruption, is it not time for the Governmentto channel a far greater proportion of itsexpanding aid programme through third-

LETTERS The Editor of The Tablet 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GYFax 020 8748 1550 Email [email protected] correspondence, including email, must give a full postal address and contact telephone number. The Editor reserves the right to shorten letters.

About the Book Follow Grace on a spiritual adventure through life’s little obstacles. While everything she needs is provided for her, there is always someone trying to lure us down the wrong path. Our Spirit will always guide us, if we listen carefully.

About the Author Michele Drella was born in Brooklyn, New York. Before becoming a writer, she worked for over twenty fi ve years in the fi nance industry in both trading and marketing. The story of A Mazing Grace came to Michele one morning by way of divine inspiration, as is refl ected in the story’s underlying message. Michele lives in Westchester, New York with her daughter, Nicole and her two dogs, Bella and Kayla. A Mazing Grace is her fi rst children’s book.

A Mazing Grace Michele Drella

You can order A Mazing Grace directly from the publisher at www.westbowpress.com. Th is book

is also available at your local resellers. ISBN: 978-1-4497-4781-7 © 2012 Author Solutions, Inc.


We call these weeks of preparation for theFeast of the Nativity the time of Adventbecause the spirit of this season is await-ing that which will come, the one who willcome … Advent gathers up all the pas-sages of the Old Testament and speaksdirectly to people’s hunger for God …Advent is a celebration of the coming ofsalvation that Jesus accomplished 20 cen-turies ago – but this salvation is not historybut is the future. Advent also signifies theSecond Coming of Christ when he willcome to judge, when he will begin his work.Here in the Church we are working tomake the Kingdom of God a reality.Everyone who struggles for justice, every-one who makes just claims in unjustsurroundings is working for God’sKingdom, even though not a Christian.The Church does not comprise God’s entireKingdom; God’s Kingdom goes beyondthe Church’s boundaries. The Church val-ues everything that is in harmony with herstruggle to set up God’s Kingdom. AChurch that tries to keep itself pure anduncontaminated would not be a Churchof God’s service to people. The authenticChurch is one that does not mind con-versing with prostitutes and publicans andsinners, as Christ did – and with Marxistsand members of the bloc and those of var-ious political movements – in order tobring them salvation’s true message.Jesus came to save people in whatever situation he found them.

Archbishop Oscar RomeroHomily, 3 December 1978

So Advent is, for me, not only a timeto celebrate Christ’s birth, but also to cele -brate the person he became, the examplewhich he set, the truth which he embod-ied that we are also called to follow. At atime when society is pleading with us tohave more, buy more, consume more, weare asked to empty ourselves and this, Ithink, is for two reasons. The first is thatwe need to create room inside us to receivethe Word of God. Secondly, we are askedto enter into solidarity with others, par-ticularly, perhaps, those who live inpoverty.

Susy Brouard Cafod Advent reflection

Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent

The living Spirit

subsequent letters (24 November) highlightthe loss of clarity of vision and suffocatingsemantics that has occurred within theChurch. For over 20 years I have run work-shops and seminars on St Thomas Aquinas,focused on linking his thoughts to everydayproblems of the individual and society. Theseevents were not for the clergy, but for man-agement and the general public. They sawimmediately the relevance of Aquinas, withhis amazing balance of reason and emotionsas he explores subject areas. It is a disgraceto attempt to lock him away with commentslike “Baroque”. We keep talking about “evan-gelisation”, but within our grasp we haveAquinas. All we need to do is get the laityenthused over the potential of Aquinas,then get them to use their individual imag-inations to create workshops for the public.Finally, it was Carl Jung who said, “To findthe solution to most of modern man’s prob-lems, we have to turn to the medieval.”Tom Baxter Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire

Tracey Rowland’s Vatican II “symphony” waslong and detailed. All the more amazing thatthere was no mention of a major instrumen-talist, more likely a conductor. BernardLonergan SJ was the greatest interpreter ofAquinas in the twentieth century. His “sway”,as Bishop B.C. Butler called it, has movedmany and has had a lasting foundational effect.Butler called Lonergan’s thought “hard- currency philosophy and hard-currencytheology”. That is what we need.Patrick KirkwoodSydney, New South Wales, Australia

Lost causeWhy does the Vatican want to raise Latin’sglobal profile (The Church in the World, 17November)? Latin is a European dead lan-guage. True, at the division of the RomanEmpire 17 centuries ago, re-standardising onLatin, the living vernacular and administra-tive lingua franca, made sense. Even after itceased to be the common medium of scholar -ship (never just the hieratic language of apriestly caste), indeed up to 50 years ago, mostWestern grammar schools afforded intensivetraining in Latin. But not now. Indeed, widecultivation had obscured the fact that Latin

is a hard language, only mastered with long,expert grounding. Top classicists at Eton orWestminster who have had the grounding canstill turn a neat Latin epigram. Most other clas-sicists have only a reading knowledge of Latin.The resulting blunders of traditionalist enthu-siasts may be amusing, but the struggles ofAfrican seminarians learning a smattering ofLatin through newly acquired English orFrench under inexpert teachers are not.

To translate the works on canon law and tofree theology and philosophy from their Latinstraitjacket seems a more reasonable objective.Latin, for all its lovely sonority, was never theideal vehicle of thought; nor – as St Hilary ofPoitiers complained, endeavouring in thatfourth century to paraphrase Greek’s rich ver-satility in the Latin vernacular – of prayer.Tom McIntyreFrome, Somerset

United witness against violenceSarah Mac Donald’s article (“When the talk-ing must go on”, 3 November) is informativeabout the tragic situation in much of NorthernNigeria. It would have been helpful, though,to have mentioned that, along with the mis-sionary sisters whose work she describes, otherChristian groups and denominations are alsodoing their best to lessen the effects of militant groups. Not least among them areBen Kwashi, the local Anglican bishop, andalso his colleague the Archbishop of Nigeria.It is a good example of a united Christian wit-ness not always in evidence elsewhere.B.M. GloverLonglevens, Gloucester

Christmas in due timeSimon Bryden-Brook (Letters, 24 November)may be seen to imply that the institutionalChurch is depriving its members of a true cele -bration of Advent. He may be interested tolearn of my experience of the liturgy here inRio de Janeiro. As the days get lighter, longerand hotter as Advent moves towardsChristmas, there is no hint of liturgical antici -pation of the feast of the birth of Jesus until24 December. The celebration of theIncarnation could be said to be enriched there-fore, since Catholic practice appears untouchedby the commercial Saturnalia of which MrBryden-Brook speaks. There is little of the richNorthern European cultural tradition ofcarol singing here among Catholics in this partof Brazil, for better or for worse.Martin HealRio de Janeiro, Brazil

Etonian lapseOn the subject of Eton’s Catholic expansion(Notebook, 17 November), William F. Buckleyhas written in his literary biography MilesGone By: “In 1855, five years after the found-ing of Beaumont, the headmaster had issueda challenge to the headmaster of Eton to a soccer match, and got back a note: ‘What isBeaumont?’ – to which the fabled answer hadbeen, ‘Beaumont is what Eton used to be, aschool for Catholic gentlemen’.”(Fr) E. Corbett Walsh SJWeston, Massachusetts, USA

For more of your correspondence, go to the new Letters Extra section of

The Tablet’s expanded website:www.thetablet.co.uk

CorrectionIn last week’s leading article (“Expresslyfrowned upon”, 24 November), it was statedincorrectly that the University of California,San Diego had withdrawn an invitationto Professor Tina Beattie. It was, in fact,the University of San Diego. The error,which we regret, was the result of a latesub-editing change.

PUZZLES

● The answers to this week’s puzzles and the crossword winner’s name will appear in the 22 December issue.

Crossword competitionPlease send your answers to: Crossword Competition 1 December,The Tablet, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY.Please include your full name, telephone numberand email address, and a mailing address.A bottle of wine courtesy of J. Chandler & Co. Ltdwill go to the sender of the first correct entrydrawn at random on Friday 14 December.

Down

1 See 11 Across 2 Last form of defence concerning problemfor Didymus (7) 3 Little dog at home is name in revivalistchurch architecture (5)4 Avoiding medieval punishmentstool? (7)5 Irish county for poor nuns? (5)6 Quiet job description for working-classOrwellian (5)9 & 18 Across: Arbiters moan about mebeing in a traditional form of the Mass (9,4) 14 About the time Nativity beast embracedby stigmatic Capuchin artist (7)15 Chip element mostly a religiousimage (7)16 More untidy Frenchman initially givingname to star groups (7)19 Live following broken leg in parishchurch land (5)20 Yorick’s gravedigger’s saying thereforeShakespearean! (5)21 Informal tale of island visited bySt Paul (5)

A long-established Catholic family firm of wine merchants specialising in the

supply of Altar Wines to the Clergy and Convents

“SANCTANA” & “SANCTIFEX” Brands

J. CHANDLER & CO. LTDNew Abbey House

Fyfield Road, WeyhillAndover, Hants, SP11 8DN

Tel: 01264 774700Fax: 01264 774747

Across: 1 Bedlam; 5 Samos; 8 Caius; 9 Thunder; 10 Pyre; 11 Cephalic; 13 Papal; 14 Cross; 19 Acanthus; 21 Well;23 Tartini; 24 Index; 25 Noses; 26 Nomine. Down: 2 Eritrea; 3 Luso; 4 Mother; 5 Southern; 6 Medal; 7 Saruch; 8 Cope;12 Matthias; 15 Sheldon; 16 Martin; 17 Julian; 18 Flax; 20 Arras; 22 Siam.

■ Solution to the 10 November crossword No. 335

CROSSWORD No. 338

Compiled by Alanus

SUDOKULevel: Challenging

Each 3 x 3 box, eachrow and each columnmust contain all thenumbers 1 to 9.

Congratulations to Alan Geary, of Carrington, Nottingham, winner of the10 November crossword competition. His was the first correct entry drawn atrandom. He will be receiving a copy of Begat: the King James Bible and the EnglishLanguage, by David Crystal, OUP.


Solution to the10 November puzzle

Across

7 Let us pray more about where Obamapresides (6) 8 Manservant with copy of Lives of theSaints? (6)10 Moths upset I’m back in the greatdoctor’s philosophy (7)11 & 1 Down: Future pope arranged atow with jolly ark (5,7) 12 See 17 Across 13 Endorse Legion of Mary founderinformally (5)17 & 12 Across: Latin Mass from theCongo as bus with mail turns up (5,4)18 See 9 Down 22 Spanish poet rewrites carol (5)23 Granny returns with me as this HighPriest interrogates Paul in the Acts of theApostles (7) 24 Saint for throat problems in thesound of fire (6) 25 Saint with ceremonial garb spinninglight (6)

1

7

10

12

14

19

22

24

2

6

2

20

1

17

3

14

2

13

16

4

9

23

3

8

13

25

4

11

21

4

18

5

15

7 6

16

25 Tablet 1 Dec 12 Puzzles_34 Puzzles 28/11/2012 14:16 Page 22

BOOKS


he era of the Church of England’sascendancy ended very slowly. Inthe middle of the nineteenth century, its political privileges

began to be lost: the full logic of Establishmentwas already in the past. But its cultural cen-trality lasted into the mid twentieth century,when Roger Scruton was in short trousers,attending school assemblies that used thePrayer Book and the King James Bible, andwatching the Queen’s Coronation on the tel-evision. He misses those days. There are twolayers of nostalgia here: Scruton is nostalgicfor the era in which Anglican sentiment wascentral – and that sentiment was itself lookingback to a more politically substantial nationalfaith.

All such nostalgia is wholly benign inScruton’s eyes; we ought to look back in rev-erence at the glory days of Establishment, andaffirm what remains of it. For England’s reli-gious settlement, after the tumult of the CivilWars, cannot be over-praised. The nationalChurch fused a wise, gentle form of Christianitywith the key principles of political modernity,enabling a uniquely orderly polity, in whichother religious opinions were allowed a limitedfreedom that gradually increased. This settle-ment was the making of modern England;the proper response to it is gratitude.

TScruton’s skill as a prose poet of Tory

Anglican sentiment is not in doubt. There areplenty of passages in Our Church that conjurewarm feelings towards little rural churches,with their reassuring scent of musty localpiety, and towards the understated wisdomof traditional Anglican worship. Such poetrydominates Scruton’s reflections on religion.He will not, cannot, admit that there mightbe some degree of tension between nostalgicreligious nationalism (however lovably gentle)and understanding and communicating themessage of Christianity in today’s world. May -be the contradiction is not too acute: maybethere is life in a ruin, as Burke said. Maybethis tradition can still be fertile ground forauthentic Christian witness. On the otherhand, maybe such a Church is guilty of mixingup the Gospel with something else, somethingthat muddies and muddles it – guilty, in otherwords, of serving two masters. A serious bookon the Church of England would at least admitthat this is an issue.

Scruton’s account of how Christianity ismeant to be related to political order isstrangely contradictory. We are told (on thestrength of “render unto Caesar …”) that Jesusaccepted Rome’s “secular rule of law, whichtolerated religions of all kinds, provided theyaccepted the supremacy of the secular author-ities in matters of civil government … He clearlyassumed that, properly formulated, the twojurisdictions need not conflict.” This ideal sep-arates Christianity from Islam, he asserts.

But the expression of this ideal is gradualand complex: Constantine and the medievalCatholic Church were struggling to expressit, in their ways. Then came the Reformation:“The separate allegiance to Caesar and to Godthat Christ made fundamental to his Churchis easier to describe than to maintain, andone way of understanding the Reformationis as a temporary coalescence of the two juris-dictions, under the growing pressure ofnational sentiment and territorial claims.”But in England’s case this coalescence was

not so temporary, of course. So he claims,with a straight face, that Christianity is definedby its separation of religion and politics, andthat the supreme expression of this is the coalescence of the two. Central to this claimis the idea that the English “coalescence” wasspecial; it produced an open, tolerant religioussettlement. The reality is more complex. Inthe seventeenth century, the strongest callsfor liberty came from opponents of theEstablished Church, who were certainly notall Puritan fanatics, as Scruton asserts. Andthen the restored Church partially accommo-dated such calls. The complexity of this crucialera is just ignored, in Scruton’s characteris-tically cavalier way.

He claims to praise the calm, practicalbroadness of the Church, its desire to accom-modate all the English, however shaky theirfaith. “Ours is a settled Church, in which doc-trinal differences have been marginalised,and custom, ceremony and unthreateningmysteries placed in the foreground.” But heis not willing to face the profound difficultythat is nowadays involved in religious open-mindedness. He wants openness to meankindly tolerating someone who has doubtsabout the Trinity, or maybe tolerating the factthat the local squire keeps a mistress. But assoon as he feels more uncomfortable, mostobviously by the questioning of the Church’steaching on the ordination of women as bishopsor the blessing of same-sex relationships, hebecomes brave enough to assert “traditionalChristian teaching”.

Scruton is predictably voluble about thesacred value of two seventeenth-century texts,the King James Bible and the 1662 PrayerBook. When the Church of England beganto sideline its traditional liturgy in the 1970s,in the quest for “relevance”, it stabbed itselfin the back, as it were. “To describe the newservices as ‘alternatives’ to Cranmer is likedescribing EastEnders as an ‘alternative’ toShakespeare, or Lady Gaga as an ‘alternative’to Bach.” More soberly, he writes: “The lan-guage of the Book of Common Prayer and theKing James Bible … forms, in my view … thereal essence of [the English Church’s] religion.”In other words, these particular expressionsof Christianity are unsurpassable, unshed-dable. The Church of England can have noauthentic life away from them. The widerimplication is that the Church of Englandcannot move on from the era of its national-cultural supremacy, can never find a new wayof being. Maybe he is right: the jury is out.By remaining Established, perhaps the Churchof England shows that it is unable to imaginea substantially new identity.

To Scruton, elegising a particular form ofnational Christianity seems to be a more sacredtask than attempting to renew Christian culture.A strange choice, from a Christian perspective.But, alas, not a par ticularly unusual one.

THEO HOBSON

ELEGY TO A NATIONALIDENTITYOur Church: a personal history ofthe Church of EnglandRoger ScrutonATLANTIC BOOKS, 199PP, £20■ Tablet bookshop price £18 Tel 01420 592974

Roger Scruton:‘He wantsopenness tomean kindlytoleratingsomeone whohas doubtsabout theTrinity, ormaybetolerating thefact that thelocal squirekeeps a mistress’

OUR REVIEWERSTheo Hobson is a writer on religious affairs.

Kathy Watson is the author of The Devil KissedHer: the story of Mary Lamb.

Sarah Hayes is an award-winning children’swriter.

David Andrew Platzer is a freelance writerliving between London and Paris.

Desmond Seward’s most recent book is The Last White Rose.


‘At the “icily grand” Lancaster House,Queen Victoria sniffily told the Duchessof Sutherland, “I come from my house toyour palace,”’ PAGE 28

Mad, bad or just sad?

Inconvenient People: lunacy, libertyand the mad-doctors in VictorianEnglandSarah WiseTHE BODLEY HEAD, 496PP, £20

■ Tablet bookshop price £18 Tel 01420 592974

After taking a well-acclaimed walkthrough a nineteenth-century London

slum in The Blackest Streets, historianSarah Wise has now turned her attention toanother Victorian phenomenon – themadhouse. Inconvenient People is a collectionof 12 stories, all true, all extraordinary, andany one of which would make excellent rawmaterial for a Wilkie Collins novel.

Take, for example, the four Nottidge sisters.They became enamoured of a charismaticpreacher and left their respectable home tolive with him in his “Abode of Love”, a high-walled mansion guarded by bloodhounds.There, they were each married to one of hisfollowers. The marriages were supposed tobe “of the spirit only”, but two of the sistersbecame pregnant. The parents abductedone daughter (Louisa) and took her to amadhouse. She successfully challenged thejudgment of insanity. As her lawyersummed it up, all she wanted was “toworship the Almighty in the way thatseemed sincere and correct to her”. If thatinvolved handing herself and her moneyover to a conman, so be it; it might be ill-advised but it wasn’t mad. On her release,Louisa returned to the “Abode of Love”,where she remained for the rest of her life.

Another story, the case of Rosina BulwerLytton, was newsworthy for years. EdwardBulwer-Lytton was a politician and novelist(the line “It was a dark and stormy night” ishis) and Rosina was the wife he had hadenough of. She took up writing, parodyingEdward’s books. A seemingly unending lineof vindictive put-downs followed. Shecalled her husband “Sir Liar” and her son “awhite-livered little reptile”. She toldEdward’s friend Charles Dickens that hewas making “an ass” of himself, and dubbedHer Majesty “the little sensual, selfishPigheaded Queen”. Rosina was waspish andoutspoken, certainly – but she did notdeserve the humiliation of being ambushedin the street and kept imprisoned forseveral months while doctors and lawyerswrangled over her mental state.

Some of the unfortunate andincarcerated were clearly experiencingsome sort of breakdown, others weredistressed, some had what we would nowterm learning difficulties, others had merelymade unconventional choices. What they

all seem to have had in common was moneyand unscrupulous relatives. It’s no wonderthat the English felt that nobody was safefrom a medical profession that could anddid imprison you on the say-so of arapacious family member. Wise makes clearthat, for the Victorians, psychiatry was ahuman-rights as well as a health issue.

Although Wise is keen to stress that menwere incarcerated under the lunacy laws asfrequently as women, women lunatics exerta particular fascination. Richard BrinsleySheridan had lampooned thispreoccupation in The Rivals (“When aheroine goes mad,” one of his characterspoints out, “she always goes into whitesatin”) and the Victorians were just ashaunted by thoughts of women withouttheir white satin. Wise writes, “Whatseemed to be under attack in … episodes ofrough handling was not just a lady’s liberty,but her right to avoid indecent andimproper circumstances.”

This is a well-researched, substantialbook, not always easy to read because the

laws werecomplex and Wisehas a tendency torender all thevarious elements– lawyers, cross-examinations,

campaigners against the law, psychiatrists,gossip from the servants, newspaperreports – in great detail. Yet although thelaws have been changed and the storiesread like episodes of Victorian Gothic, theseexperiences still feel relevant. We areshocked by the organised cruelty of theVictorian madhouse, but can we be so surethat we are always able accurately toidentify the line between the eccentric andthe mentally ill, or between the temporarilyunhappy and the clinically depressed?Kathy Watson

Butterfly effect

Flight Behaviour Barbara KingsolverFABER AND FABER, 448PP, £18.99

■ Tablet bookshop price £17.10 Tel 01420 592974

To describe this novel as a diatribe aboutglobal warming would not be quite

right, because what it’s really about is amarriage. Or is it the other way round?Barbara Kingsolver is one of a very fewcontemporary authors who succeeds inusing nature as a metaphor for humanrelationships. Even her most urban novel,The Lacuna, about the McCarthy era, has ageological anomaly at its heart.

Flight Behaviour is set in the insular,uneducated, dirt-poor community living inthe Appalachian Mountains, whereKingsolver herself now lives and farms.The marriage at the centre of her story wasmade in haste: Dellarobia was only 17when she had become pregnant, andhandsome, slow-thinking “Cub” Turnbowhad done the right thing, although theirchild was to be born dead. Now, 10 yearslater, with a small son and daughter andstill living on her husband’s family farm,Dellarobia’s existence is almost as lifelessas her stillborn baby. But there is love here,subtly conveyed against a series ofstunning backdrops, natural andman-made: an evangelical church service,a second-hand goods warehouse, a

treacherous stretch of fencing, a flood, theresurrection of a lamb.

Kingsolver keeps the reader in doubtabout the fate of the marriage until the verylast pages. There is, however, a magicalreveal in the first chapter. Bored withmarriage, with motherhood, and with hercritical mother-in-law, Dellarobia hikes upthe mountain intent on an adulterousadventure. Before she reaches the meetingplace, she has – well – a revelation: theforest is on fire, burning but notconsuming. Dellarobia is a lacklustrechurchgoer, preferring to smoke in thechurch cafe rather than listen to PastorOgle, but she knows the fire in the forest isa sign telling her to stop messing aboutwith adultery. A day later, the fire isdiscovered to have been the arrival of eightmillion monarch butterflies, which haveforsaken their Mexican over-wintering sitefor a mountain in the Appalachians.

The arrival of the butterflies is alife-changing event for the whole community.The media – brilliantly characterised –arrive to misinform the public. Pastor Ogledeclares Dellarobia a beacon of the church.The Turnbow family is split apart by alogging contract, signed by “Bear”, Cub’sfather, to clear the mountain of thebutterfly forest. Dellarobia’s life is changedby the presence of a scientific team, inparticular by its charismatic leader. Thiswarm, funny, complex novel is a powerfulappeal to all of us to think carefully abouthow we treat both the world we live in andthe people we live with. Sarah Hayes

Sarah Wise


Redemptorist Publications will endeavour to sell you the book at the priceadvertised. However, occasionally on publication the published price isaltered,in which case we will notify you prior to debiting your card.

THE TABLET BOOKSHOPPostage and Packing for books up to 1kg*UK £ . 5 (4 books or more: add £5)EUROPE £2. per book REST OF THE WORLD £ . per book

*P&P for oversized books will be charged at costWe accept Visa, MasterCard and SwitchCheques payable to Redemptorist PublicationsCall: 01420 592 974 Fax: 01420 888 05Email: [email protected]: The Tablet Bookshop, Alphonsus House

Chawton, Hampshire GU34 3HQ

Traveller’s tale

Patrick Leigh Fermor: an adventureArtemis CooperJOHN MURRAY, 448PP, £25

■ Tablet bookshop price £22.50 Tel 01420 592974

At the beginning of this splendidbiography, Artemis Cooper tells us that

one of the very first books Patrick LeighFermor – Paddy to his friends – ever readwas Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill, a favouriteto which Leigh Fermor yearly returned,along with another Kipling gem, Kim, untilthe end of his long life. There was a bit ofPuck in Leigh Fermor. To this was added aspice of Byron in good looks, in a sharedreputation as a hero in Greece and in bothbeing published by John Murray. Byron andLeigh Fermor also possessed a sympathy forCatholicism, without ever converting, evenif Leigh Fermor identified himself as “RC”.during the Second World War.

The war made Leigh Fermor famouswhen, while fighting with the GreekResistance, he led the kidnap of GeneralHeinrich Kreipe, the German commanderin Crete. Any other writer would havewasted little time in turning his wartimeadventures into a book, as Fitzroy Macleandid with his experiences in Yugoslavia. ButLeigh Fermor was happy to let his comrade-in-arms, William Stanley Moss, tell theirstory; as it happened, Moss’ account Ill Metby Moonlight, later filmed by Michael Powelland with Dirk Bogarde playing Leigh Fermor,only enhanced Leigh Fermor’s legend.Cooper discusses Leigh Fermor’s war indetail. This included two darker moments:Leigh Fermor’s accidental shooting dead ofa Cretan partisan and the killing, to LeighFermor’s horror, of General Kreipe’s driverby the two Greeks guarding him.

Leigh Fermor’s dilatoriness was the crossof the long-suffering John Murray, who diedwaiting for the third volume of the trilogy ofLeigh Fermor’s masterpiece portraying hiswalk in his late teens from Holland toConstantinople in the Thirties. The alwayshard-up Leigh Fermor approached hiswork as if he were a leisured gentlemanwriter, blessed with unlimited time in whichto write and rewrite, his “Penelope-ising”, ashis friend, the poet George Seferis, put it.

He was fortunate indeed in his wife, Joan,Wendy to his Peter Pan, who possessed the

Urban palaces

Great Houses of LondonJames StourtonFRANCES LINCOLN, 352PP, £40

■ Tablet bookshop price £36 Tel 01420 592974

Mgr Gilbey once called London “a place ofsecret gardens”. Here is confirmation,

and also reassurance for those who mournthe loss of so much else that was worthkeeping. A large volume more beautifulthan any coffee-table book, it has 300 finephotographs by Fritz von der Schulenburg,the greatest of architectural photographers.

A former chairman of Sotheby’s, JamesStourton is a well-known art historian (andan authority on Cisalpine Catholicism inEngland). His book is about three things:houses, architects and owners. Most of thehouses are big, terraced town houses ratherthan the stately homes in the countrysidethat usually receive all the attention.Stourton’s selection ranges from LambethPalace (with Archbishop Stephen Langton’snuminous undercroft) to the house inHolland Park created by Charles Jencks,one of the leaders of postmodernism. Theyinclude 20 St James’s Square with itsalmost intact Robert Adam interiors, thetriumphantly restored Spencer House, the

private income he lacked. Cooper, whoknew her subject as a family friend, doesn’tshirk mentioning that Joan not only lookedthe other way to her companion’s sexualinfidelities but even encouraged them.Though Joan gave up sleeping with LeighFermor fairly early in their relationship andlong before their marriage, she didn’texpect him to be celibate. One is remindedof the biographer’s own grandparents, Duffand Diana Cooper, also bound together by adeeper link than the merely physical.

Other than his army pay in wartime anda brief stint at the British Council inAthens, Leigh Fermor never earned a salaryand Cooper quotes Somerset Maugham’sdescription of him as “a middle-class gigolofor upper-class women”. Always touchyabout his speech impediment, Maughamwas miffed by Leigh Fermor’s bibulousjokes about stammerers over his dinner

table. Maugham’s fiction often celebratescheeky adventurers triumphing at theexpense of rectitude; perhaps his remarkwas as much compliment as barb. Friendsand lovers found Leigh Fermor earned hiskeep through his kindly thoughtfulness.“Most men are just take, take, take,” RickiHuston, one of Leigh Fermor’s lovers, said.“With Paddy, it’s give, give, give.” A few ofLeigh Fermor’s acquaintances found hisboisterousness, the frequent singing in ninedifferent languages, often for his supper,and the dazzling flow of erudition a littletoo much of a good thing. For the majority,however, whether aristocrats or peasants,he was always welcome. This enthrallingbiography may well convert even thosesceptical to the charm of this endearingsprite, luckier than any Jim, who succeededin his early ambition of making his life intoa novel. David Andrew Platzer

delightful villas of Regent’s Park, WilliamBurges’ Tower House in Melbury Road inKensington – “the most singular of Londonhouses” – and Debenham House inAddison Road, with its extraordinarymosaics and glazed tiles. It is surprising tolearn that so many mansions have escapeddemolition, and that more are back inprivate occupation than at any time sincethe Second World War, although usuallyadapted to other purposes.

Writing in a deceptively simple style,Stourton concentrates on architects andartists, on owners and occupants.Idiosyncratic and amusing, he makes yousee everything in a new light – “BridgewaterHouse is an enlarged version of Barry’sReform Club with knobs on.” He relateshow, at the “icily grand” Lancaster House,Queen Victoria sniffily told the Duchess ofSutherland, “I come from my house to yourpalace.” He turns his mansions into livingthings. Buildings of which I never knew aredescribed in fascinating detail, such as the“Park Lane survivor”, Dudley House,currently being restored to “domesticsplendour”; the Tudor revival Astor Houseon the Embankment; and Soho’seighteenth-century House of St Barnabas –now the headquarters of a trust for thehomeless. All are reminders that, howeverfrustrating you may at times find it, Londonis still a glorious city. Desmond Seward

Astor House, on the Embankment. Photo © Fritz von der Schulenburg


ARTSLAURA GASCOIGNE

t the launch of the Hermitage’sexhibition of MoscowConceptualist Dmitri Prigov in StPetersburg last month, the

museum’s director Mikhail Piotrovsky wasasked about future plans for the collections.“Who knows?” he replied. “Maybe in the futurewe’ll just pray in front of them without doinganything.” You wouldn’t catch a museum direc-tor in Britain talking about praying in frontof works of art, even in jest, but in Russia itseems to be a common expression becausethe next day our guide to the Ludwig Museumstopped at a Cy Twombly painting and con-fessed: “I pray in front of it.”

The fall of the Iron Curtain may haveremoved a layer from the “riddle, wrapped ina mystery, inside an enigma” that confrontedChurchill in the USSR in 1939, but Russianculture remains different from ours, and theroots of the difference – when it comes to art– lie in religion. An artistic tradition whoseprototype is the icon – an image regarded notjust as a depiction of divinity but as a doorwayto Heaven – comes with a sacred strand inits DNA. And that extends even to the sortof formal abstraction that to Western eyesseems the embodiment of rationalism, thesort developed by the revolutionary KazimirMalevich, whose Black Square assumed suchiconic status that it preceded his funeralcortège in 1935, lashed to the radiator of thepickup truck carrying his coffin.

In his book on Moscow Conceptualism, theRussian critic Boris Groys draws this distinc-tion: “In one way or another, Western art sayssomething about the world. Even when con-cerned with faith it speaks of faith as incarnatein the world … Russian art, from the age ofthe icons to our time, seeks to speak of anotherworld.” After 1932, when the Communistregime imposed incarnate secularism onRussian art in the form of Socialist Realism,the avant-garde kept harking back to Malevich,whose black square became for them whatthe ichthys symbol was for early Christians.

Going round the two new exhibitions ofRussian art at the Saatchi Gallery on London’sKing’s Road, you can follow a trail of referencesto the black square from the 1960s to the pres-ent day. But since Malevich it has acquired adarker meaning. Rather than an image of

infinity, in two installations by Dmitri Prigov– of a square window opening on to a blackwall and a square trapdoor leading up to ablack hole – it expresses a fear of extinction.It’s certainly not something to pray in frontof. The only praying being done in here is byPrigov’s janitor kneeling before a blackboardwith a drawing of a giant eye weeping tearsof blood. As a worker who spends her life onher knees, she may just be praying for permission to get off them.

Prigov’s is the only reference to prayerupstairs in “Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art1960s-80s” (until 24 February 2013), althoughthere are religious allusions in VladimirVeisberg’s metaphysical still lifes, DmitriPlavinsky’s archaising images of altar furnish-ings and Oscar Rabin’s 1964 painting RussianPop Art No. 3, of a fish and bottle on a cross.In post-Stalinist art, faith – in Christianityand in Communism – gives way to disbelief.“Is it ironic?” asked one visitor. “Eighty percent of Russian art is ironic,” his guide replied,and her calculation seems about right. Theshow is full of the sort of gallows humour andvisual puns that would appeal to an advertiserlike Saatchi, like Leonid Sokov’s giant woodenGlasses for Every Soviet Person with red star-shaped holes carved in the lenses, IlyaKabakov’s installation of Socialist Realistpaintings apparently smashed by theirdespairing author with an axe, and AlexanderKosolapov’s illuminated McLenin’s signcrowning Lenin’s iconic head with McDonald’snow more iconic golden arches.

But the mood downstairs in “Gaiety is theMost Outstanding Feature of the SovietUnion” (until 5 May 2013) is rather different.Here it’s the show’s title, taken from a 1935speech by Stalin, that’s ironic. The art of todayseems more directly confrontational, partlybecause of the predominance of large-formatphotographs. Two large galleries are givenover to the Ukrainian patriarch of social doc-umentary photography, Boris Mikhailov, andhis Case History of unsparingly graphic portraits of derelicts in his home town,Kharkov, who have fallen through the holesin the post-Soviet system. Gaiety is in shortsupply, though its memory lives on in apoignant photo of an ageing dancer doingthe splits against a wall on a street corner.

There’s not much to smile at, either, in SergeiVasiliev’s Encyclopedia of Russian CriminalTattoos, a rogue’s gallery of DIY body art ille-gally self-administered by prisoners, says thegallery guide, using melted boot heels, urineand blood. But the most compelling photo-graphs are the least gruesome: Vikenti Nilin’sNeighbours series of black and white portraitsof ordinary occupants of Soviet tower blockscasually seated on their window sills abovethe abyss. After Nilin’s cliffhangers, much ofthe painting and sculpture seemed rather flat,though there was poignancy in Dasha Fursey’stower of pickle jars, a totem for a low-wageeconomy where making preserves is a formof self-preservation.

But for me the most eloquent images werethe most universal: Daria Krotova’s water-colour drawings titled Heart, Organ of Love(Sometimes My Heart Turns into a Chicken).Overlaid with a thin veil of tissue that absorbspaint like surgical gauze – or a sudarium –absorbs blood, Krotova’s drawings evoke “thetransformation of the organ of feeling intoflesh”. Her incarnational method speaks ofthis world in a way that Groys might regardas more Western than Russian, and whenasked for her own distinction between thetwo cultures she reaches for a thoroughlyWestern reference. “In England you have theMonty Python song ‘Always Look on theBright Side of Life’. In Russia you look on thedark side of life, and when the sun comes outyou look on it as something mystical.”Mysticism in Russian art may not be dead;it may simply have gone behind a cloud.

BEHIND A CLOUDThe mystic impulse is woven through the history of Russian art. Even in today’s more secular and gloomier expressions, it is rarely utterly absent

A

Oskar Rabin’s Russian Pop Art No. 3. Oilon canvas, 1964. Tsukanov FamilyFoundation, London

earlier work, Festen, which culminates in therevelation of abuse within a family.

The Hunt arrives in Britain at a particularlysensitised moment following allegations ofpredatory sexual behaviour by Jimmy Savileand others, including those in the Church,placed in positions of trust with young people.The testimonies of many of these victims wereignored for decades.

By contrast, the suggestion from the littlegirl that something inappropriate may havehappened resounds through the small ruraltown where she lives. Lucas, a friend of herparents, is a quiet, modest man dealing witha marital separation that has taken his wifeand son some miles away. Played by MadsMikkelsen, in a performance that carried offthe award for best actor at Cannes this year,Lucas is a sympathetic man – humorous, gen-erous, a frequent visitor to the kind ofopen-plan casual homes so familiar to viewersof series like Borgen or The Killing. But thiscamaraderie evaporates rapidly. The samecommunity that joins together in hunting


Led down ahazardous maze:

Susse Wold as Grethequestions Klara,

played by AnnikaWedderkopp

CINEMA

Rush to judgement

The HuntDIRECTOR: THOMAS VINTERBERG

In the Danish film The Hunt there is a scenethat, while apparently simple, is excruci-

ating to watch. Nobody gets hurt and thereare no tricksy camera moves or complicatedspeeches. A child sits behind a desk in a schooloffice while two adults gently ask her ques-tions. Their manner is intended to put thechild at her ease, to help her articulate apainful truth. Instead, with well-meaningintentions, they are leading her into a hazardous maze.

There is indeed a concealed truth in thisroom but it is not the one that the head teacherand social worker suspect. And therein liesthe drama of The Hunt: an innocent man,Lucas, a teacher at thekindergarten, will bewrongly accused of sex-ual abuse. In that sense,this film is the oppositeof director ThomasVinterberg’s best-known

trips or dinners or at church coalesces againstthe suspected paedophile.

He, gentle reasonable type that he is,responds at first barely at all. He does notdignify the allegations with angry denial; heabides by the investigation. He acts as hemight to a tantrum from one of his youngcharges. Surely, reason will prevail. Vinterberghas made a film guaranteed to provoke atleast debate in the audience about the wayLucas should react. He remains courteousand forbearing while the hysteria growsaround him to the point where some viewersmay become exasperated. Are men who playby the rules of advanced society simply fallguys? His lack of protestation may even driveothers to question his innocence.

And harder still for a contemporary audi-ence to contemplate is the possibility thatchildren do not always tell the truth, or atleast that their assembly of impressions, eventsand feelings may turn out something fantas-tical. Vinterberg’s most troubling suggestionis precisely that of the interrogation scene –that adults rush to conclusions in order tospare the child distress and in so doing makea victim of her; that fear of allowing of someevil to pass unchecked makes us see it every-where and innocence – in terms of adult/childrelationships – can never be assumed.

On screen, that scene actually feels a littledidactic, as though Vinterberg is underscoringhis point – turning this Danish kindergarteninto a Salem crucible. In fact, much of thedialogue in the scene is taken from transcriptsof the questioning of a child in an actual casethat led to wrongful accusations. In makingus question the right way to deal with suchserious matters, The Hunt is a sad and shock-ing film but well worth the pursuit. Francine Stock

TELEVISION

Convertible currency

Why Poverty?: Give Us the Money BBC FOUR

When the time comes to write the historyof our times, space will have to be found

for two Irish rock stars who somehow trans-formed themselves into major players on theworld stage, negotiating with presidents andprime ministers.

Give Us the Money (25 November) told us,step by step, how Bob Geldof and Bono builttheir campaign against African poverty.Directed by Bosse Lindquist, a Swedish documentary-maker, it was a straightforward,slightly didactic account of the pair’s efforts.It benefited from interviews with the subjects,fellow campaigners, politicians, experts,observers – some hostile – and, mostpoignantly, with a man and his daughter whohad been saved from starvation.

The story of the Band Aid record and theLive Aid concerts is impressive, but the pair

were on familiar ground when they were mak-ing music and making money. Their moreextraordinary achievements came later, aftera man called Jamie Drummond approachedthem, looking for help with a campaign toslash Third World debt. That would meandealing directly with world leaders.

Geldof had an insight. “The cult of celebrity”,he reasoned, “was now a currency. You couldspend that currency.” And spend it they did,effectively buying the attention of politiciansand statesmen who, just like the fans, wantedtheir pictures taken with the stars. In all this,Bono, always smoother and more diplomatic,took the lead. He gave a pair of sunglasses tothe Pope, who gamely donned them for thecameras; he sat down with Bill Clinton andsuggested a theme for his State of the Unionaddress; he sweet-talked fiery Republicancongressmen; he gave George W. Bush anIrish Bible and talked to him about faith.

It was, noted Bono, who clearly relishes hisposition on the world stage, very hard to goback to “civilian life”. From debt, they movedon to disease control, aid spending and fairtrade, setting up a Washington lobbyingorganisation, with the help of a clutch offriendly billionaires led by Bill Gates. Then,

in 2005, they threw themselves behind MakePoverty History, putting pressure on the lead-ers of the G8, then meeting in Gleneagles.Another success: “the biggest breakthroughin one summit ever”, said the boss of Save theChildren. And on that triumph, the narrativerather fizzled out.

No good deed goes unpunished, and theprogramme found plenty of space for DambisaMoyo, the economist and critic of foreign aid,to rubbish Bono and Bob. She complainedthat their campaigns were “damaging psy-chologically” to Africa, that they underminedAfrican leadership, and that they displayedhubris. “These celebrities, if economic growthand poverty reduction are their motivation,they have failed miserably.”

But things are looking better for Africa,and for individual Africans. Geldof and Bonomay not have made it happen, but they didwhat they could, and more than anyone couldhave expected. Now they seem happy foryounger, African campaigners to make themredundant. “I hope, soon, a rock’n’roller inhis fifties will just be told to f*** off,” saidBono, and his equally foul-mouthed friendwould probably concur. John Morrish


JohnLithgow asPosket andNancyCarroll asAgathaPosket inTheMagistrate

RADIO

Satiric outriders

Mockery with MonoclesBBC RADIO 4

The Western Brothers – in fact their rela-tionship went only as far as second

cousinhood – were about the closest pre-1960sentertainment got to political satire. Evening-suited and eye-glassed, George (1895-1969)sat at the piano while Kenneth (1899-1963)lounged nonchalantly at his side. Languidprojections of the classic inter-war stereotypeof the “silly ass”, they specialised in comedysongs with an edge, often extending to outrightEstablishment lampoons.

Geoffrey Palmer, an inspired choice to frontthis engaging tribute (22 November), wasclearly enjoying himself top-hole, as the boysmight have said. You gathered that their con-stant low-level ridiculing of the BBC appealedto his sense of humour, and he had particularfun with a controversy from October 1948 inwhich the pair broadcast a skit about HughGaitskell, then Minister for Fuel and Power,getting his nephew appointed to a job at theNational Coal Board. The corporation had toissue a public apology – a rare event at thetime, Palmer deadpanned, whereas now, ofcourse …

Like many another variety-hall act, theWesterns began their careers in the 1920s,when the going was good, and ended it in the1950s when the old light-entertainment bat-talions were in sharp retreat before the

THEATRE

Return fare

The Magistrate OLIVIER, NATIONAL THEATRE, LONDON

The Mousetrap ST MARTIN’S THEATRE, LONDON

The Seagull SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE, LONDON

A ll the productions discussed this weekare revivals of very familiar plays – pre-

miered 127, 116 and 60 years ago respectively– but each comes with a novel twist. TheMagistrate, for example, is a work by ArthurWing Pinero, a sort of Victorian Ayckbourn,who wrote a number of crowd-pleasers thathave remained in the repertoire: includingTrelawney of the “Wells”, The Second MrsTanqueray and this 1895 farce, which is fre-quently seen but never before in the form thatit takes at the NT.

Here The Magistrate has been relocated tothe seasonal period, staged on a set that opensout from a giant Christmas cracker, hanging

like a nuclear missile in the middle of theOlivier stage, and with new between-scenessongs (by Richard Stilgoe and Richard Sisson)that comment comically on the action.

The plot would have pleased any farceurfrom Feydeau to Frayn. Agatha Farringdon,a widow, has married Aeneas Posket, the magistrate of the title, but, in a flash of vanity,has knocked five years off her age, a strategythat requires passing off her son, Cis, as a 14-year-old, although he is in truth on the vergeof 20 and experiencing urgent appetites fordrink and women. News that the judge is din-ing at his club with an old friend of Agatha’swho will likely ask after the 19-year-old and

so blow the charade leads to her attemptingto intercept the truth-teller at the club, causinga calamitous evening of deceit and disguisewhich leads to a final scene in which the magistrate must try a case in which he andhis loved ones were involved.

The three central performances are mag-nificently enjoyable. The American actor JohnLithgow, in the title role, performs some superbphysical shtick when the bloodied and hung -over judge seeks to readopt his dignity in thefinal act, while Joshua McGuire brilliantlydepicts the incongruity of a hormonallyengorged yob dressed up as Little LordFauntleroy. But the absolute justification forbuying a ticket is Nancy Carroll as the fibbingwidow. The way in which her social hauteuris ambushed by desperate facial and vocalspasms suggests a major comic performer(surely a future Lady Bracknell). But, thoughthe acting keeps the evening always pleasur-able, the piece finally feels too flimsy for thehuge weight of casting, staging and musicalelaboration that has been thrown at it.

Uniquely among plays premiered in 1952,The Mousetrap is still running in its originalLondon production and marks this month’sDiamond Jubilee with celebrations at the StMartin’s Theatre and the first ever UK tour(this week, Bradford). Dropping in to theLondon show on a Tuesday matinee – 40years after I was taken by my parents, in whatwas then and is now the theatrical initiationof many children – I was impressed by theslickness of the production and the carefuljudgement from the cast of the line betweenparody and dramatic tension. The traditionalstrengths of Agatha Christie – clever puzzle,smart twists – and weaknesses – sexual andracial stereotyping – are both present but theplay exerts the deeply reassuring hold of anold movie beside the fire on a cold day. Thebiggest mystery for me was that – althoughthe play takes place in a snow-bound hotel –none of the characters is white-flecked whenthey come inside, but a cast member explainedto me afterwards that the snow machine iscurrently broken. The overall contraption,though, looks good for a long time yet.

Russell Bolam’s Southwark Playhouse pro-duction of The Seagull radically reanimatesChekhov’s play in a modern-day version written by 20-year-old dramatist Anya Reiss,whose Spur of the Moment and The Acid Testat the Royal Court marked her as a star.Certain elements of The Seagull – such as theelaborate arrangements that the charactershave to make for travel – militate againstmodernisation but Reiss has solved these byplacing Madame Arkadina’s estate on a remotepart of the Isle of Man. Mobiles and laptopsare used sparingly but Reiss’ strongest con-tribution is to turn the nineteenth-centuryconventions of Chekhov dialogue – exposition,formality, soliloquies – into the jagged, anxious, fragmentary speech forms of today.As Nina, a young woman torn caught betweenan aspiring young writer and a successful oldone, who may be equally dangerous – LilyJames confirms the stage presence and emo-tional openness she suggested in the SheffieldCrucible Othello last year. Mark Lawson

onslaught of television. Early progress wasslow, but by 1935 they were appearing at RoyalVariety performances, performing such itemsas “Keeping up the Old Traditions”, “The OldSchool Tie” and – their signature tune – “Playthe Game you Cads, Play the Game”. Therewas even a Cads’ Club, convened to raisemoney for children’s hospitals, with a mem-bership book, crest and spoof Latin motto.

Several of Palmer’s guests stressed theabsolute up-to-the-minute topicality that theWesterns’ brand of comedy required. Touringnorthern England, they were carefully to inter-sperse gags about Cabinet ministers withcarefully gleaned local references. The SecondWorld War found them on EntertainmentsNational Service Association tours, appearingin North Africa in heat so intense that themonocles fell off, and mocking Berlin Radio’schief propagandist, William Joyce (“LordHaw-Haw the Humbug of Hamburg”). TheNazis reciprocated by filing their names inthe celebrated “little black book” of subversivesripe for punishment when the invasion came.

Television did for them in the end. But ifdistance had turned some of the satire horriblyinnocuous, then their influence on such latercomedic titans as Barry Humphries (who lis-tened to them on Australian radio) and PeterCook and Dudley Moore was everywhereattested to. It was perhaps beyond GeoffreyPalmer’s remit to enquire whether guying ofthis nature doesn’t actually bolster the subjectsit seeks to embarrass rather than hasteningtheir demise: certainly it came as no surpriseto learn that the royal family booked themfor private parties. The modern equivalentwould be Stephen Fry’s fine impersonationof the Prince of Wales. D.J. Taylor


THE CHURCH IN THE

WORLD

Church backs Saudi interfaith centreChrista Pongratz-LippittIn Vienna

A MAJOR Saudi-financed centre for interfaithdialogue was opened in Vienna this week,receiving the enthusiastic endorsement of theCatholic Church, the United Nations andJewish groups.

Monday’s opening ceremony at the HofburgPalace in Vienna of the King AbdullahInternational Centre for Interfaith andIntercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) wasattended by prominent religious leaders anddiplomats from across the world includingUN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I ofConstantinople, the President of the PontificalCouncil for Inter-religious Dialogue, CardinalJean-Louis Tauran, and the Chief Rabbi ofMoscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt.

“Tonight we join forces to celebrate a neweffort for cultural exchange and global har-mony,” Ban Ki-moon said in his openingaddress. “We need to look no further thantoday’s headlines to understand why this mis-sion is so vital.” He referred to the ongoingconflict in Syria, the situation in Gaza, wherea ceasefire between Israelis and Palestiniansis holding after eight days of exchanges ofmissile fire, and that in Mali, where Islamicfundamentalists have swept through muchof the country.

Religious leaders had often bred division,Ban Ki-moon recalled. He said he was deeplygrateful to King Abdullah for the centre, andrecalled that the King had once said, “It ishigh time that we learn from the harsh lessonsof the past and concur on the ethics and ideals

in which we all believe.” “That is why I believeso deeply in this centre’s vision to generatecooperation for justice, reconciliation andpeace,” Ban Ki-moon said.

Cardinal Tauran said the eyes of world wereon the centre. “We are under observation,” hesaid. “The whole world expects honesty, visionand credibility of this initiative launched byHis Majesty King Abdullah and supportedby the governments of Austria and Spain withthe help of the Holy See, a founding observer.”

Saudi Arabia has a population of 28 million,and all its nationals are Muslim, but thereare an estimated 1.5 million Catholics in thecountry, who are expatriate workers from var-ious parts of the world, notably the Philippinesand India. The country enforces a strictIslamic code and bans non-Muslim religiouspractice. The cardinal did not dodge the issueof religious freedom in his address. The centrepresented an opportunity for open dialogue

“in particular on religious freedom in all itsaspects, for everyone, for every communityeverywhere”, he insisted. “You will understandthat the Holy See is particularly vigilantregarding the fate of Christian communitiesin countries where such freedom is not ade-quately guaranteed … It will be the task ofthe centre – when possible with the cooper-ation of other organisations … to act so thatour contemporaries are not deprived of thelight and the resources that religion offers forevery human being’s happiness.”

The only Jewish member of KAICIID’sboard of directors, Rabbi David Rosen, toldthe Austrian daily Der Standard that KingAbdullah’s plan to change the way SaudiArabia treated other religions within its ownborders had impressed him from the begin-ning. “‘Our society is very conservative andtraditional and things can’t be changedovernight. But when people see that we hereare cooperating, that can change their views’,the King told us,” Rabbi Rosen said. “I thinkthe King and the ministers close to him areabsolutely serious when they say that theywant to see Saudi Arabia change and this cen-tre can contribute to such a change.” Askedif he wasn’t sceptical about the initiative,Rabbi Rosen replied, “It is healthy to be scep-tical, but when scepticism prevents one fromseizing opportunities it becomes a handicap.”

The Austrian Government has been accusedof promoting the centre for purely commercialreasons. The Austrian Green Party, liberalMuslim and homosexual organisations heldprotests before the inauguration.

(See interview with Cardinal AngeloScola, page 14.)

King Abdullah’s backing prompts both hope and suspicion

THE NEWSaudi-backed international interfaithcentre in Vienna, named after King Abdullahand initially bankrolled by Riyadh, is an ambi-tious but ambiguous project, writes TomHeneghan. Hopes for it are high among its over-sight board of three Muslims, three Christians,a Jew, a Buddhist and a Hindu. The challengewill be to keep a clear focus amid the variedvisions invested in it.

The centre aims to involve religious leadersin contributing to solving major world prob-lems. It has identified three major fields ofaction: to improve the presentation of worldreligions in media and textbooks, to use faithnetworks to promote children’s health indeveloping countries and to have religiousleaders meet and mix at interfaith fellowships

at the Vienna centre. Support for these proj-ects is strong. What is less clear are the furtheraims each party has.

The project is part of King Abdullah’s cau-tious drive to promote religious harmony afterthe 9/11 attacks on the US and Islamist bomb-ings in Saudi Arabia in 2003. His officialsclaim success in slowly opening up SaudiArabia’s deeply conservative society. Criticsdismiss it as window dressing to ease criticismof Riyadh’s dismal record on religious rights.

Non-Muslims on the board of directorshope the centre can foster further reform inSaudi Arabia. How far and fast this can go isunclear, given hostility to change in the strictWahhabi religious establishment. Directorswill be looking for improvements in rights

for women and believers of non-Muslim faiths. The Vatican, a “founding observer” at the

centre, has long pressed Riyadh to allowchurches to be built there. The Jewish director,Israeli Rabbi David Rosen, said the centrewill bring religious authority, especially fromthe Muslim world, to bear not only on religiousconflicts but also political ones. “That includesin particular the Holy Land,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdullah al-Turki, whoseWorld Muslim League has promoted strictSaudi Wahhabi Islam abroad for decades,said at the opening ceremony that the centreshould revive a failed Muslim diplomatic driveto have the United Nations issue a worldwideban on blasphemy. This is unlikely to findsupport among other members.

Austria’s Cardinal Christoph Schönbornat the opening ceremony for the newcentre, a Baroque former palace.Photo: CNS/Reuters, Leonhard Foeger

Jonathan Luxmoore

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approvedthe candidacy of a leading Maltese Catholicfor a top post in the European Union’s gov-erning Commission, despite hostility to hisposition on homosexuality and abortion.

“This is a great victory for the ChristianDemocrats – and a slap in the face for leftistsand liberals,” said Peter Liese, a German mem-ber of the Parliament’s Committee onEnvironment and Public Health. “It’s a victoryfor free speech and defeat for all those seekingto play the role of conscience policemen.”

The MEP was reacting to last week’s voteby 386 to 281 to accept Tonio Borg, Malta’s

deputy prime minister and foreign minister,as EU Commissioner for Health andConsumer Policy. The politician’s nominationfaced strong resistance because of his oppo-sition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

However, during a mid-November hearing,Mr Borg said he would fulfil his functions “inan independent, objective and above allEuropean way”, adding that he would backsevere penalties against sexual discriminationand accept that abortion lay within the com-petence of the EU’s 27 member states.

Mr Liese said the vote confirmed that“Christian conservative values had their placein the spectrum of European opinion” andcould not be cited legally as a reason for “reject-ing professional and qualified people”.

In Strasbourg last week, the chairman ofthe Vatican’s Iustitia et Pax Council, CardinalPeter Turkson, urged greater involvement indefending religious freedom by the EuropeanParliament, which in 2004 rejected RoccoButtiglione as European Commissioner forJustice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenshipbecause of his Catholic convictions.

Have your say on the week’sbig issues on The Tablet blog atwww.thetablet.co.uk

Health brieffor Catholiccommissioner

POPE BENEDICT XVI has urged theChurch’s cardinals, including six mennewly elevated to the post, to shunworldly power and focus solely on buildingChrist’s kingdom of truth, writes RobertMickens. “Jesus clearly had no politicalambitions,” the Pope said last Sunday as theChurch around the world celebratedthe Solemnity of Christ the King. “To bedisciples of Jesus, then, means not lettingourselves be allured by the worldly logic ofpower, but bringing into the world the lightof truth and God’s love.”

Concelebrating in St Peter’s Basilica werethe new cardinals who received their redhats there a day earlier. All but US CardinalJames Harvey were from the global south.The Pope told the new cardinals onSaturday they were now “even more closelyand intimately linked to the See of Peter” byan oath of fidelity of “profound spiritualand ecclesial significance”. Referring to thegeographic mix of the new cardinals, PopeBenedict stressed the Church’s “catholic”or universal mission.


EUROPEAN UNION

THE COMMISSION representing Catholicbishops from the European Union, Comece,has warned European governments they mustmanage their austerity programmes morefairly, and do more to promote long-termnon-consumerist priorities, writes JonathanLuxmoore.

“The Comece bishops are aware the reformsundertaken in many Eurozone states shouldbe considered a way for Europe to maintainits role in the twenty-first century,” theCommission communique said. “[But] sac-rifices imposed by governments on theirpopulations must not go against social justice.So we call on all citizens to stay united andin solidarity as they face the current crisis.”

The communique, issued after Comece’sBrussels autumn plenary, said a new start

had to be made to ensure European citizenswere won over to the European Union’s rolein fostering peace, happiness and prosperityworldwide. It added that the commission’sbishops wished to “send a strong signal ofEuropean solidarity” by stepping up theChurch’s aid for poorer regions in partnershipwith its Caritas organisation.

In its communique, Comece said it wouldpromote a special Prayer for Europe initiativefor Christians in all countries, and do moreto encourage the consciousness of belongingto one Church in Europe.

It added that it planned to improve its ownworking methods under its newly appointedBritish General Secretary, Fr Patrick Daly, a61-year-old priest from Birmingham, whoreplaces the Polish Mgr Piotr Mazurkiewicz.

■ SLOVAKIA: Slovakia’sCatholic Church hascondemned a “disgraceful”order by the European Union’sgoverning commission that thecountry must remove aChristian cross from euro coinscommemorating its nationalpatrons, Sts Cyril andMethodius, writes JonathanLuxmoore.

“Are we really living in a stateof law, or in a totalitarian systemwhere they dictate which

symbols are acceptable?” saidMgr Jozef Kovacik, spokesmanfor the Bratislava-based bishops’conference. “In 1988 [the yearbefore Communist rule ended],faithful Slovaks risked their livesby proclaiming the good worksand teachings of these twosaints. This ruling shows a lack ofrespect for Europe’s Christiantradition.”

The priest was reacting to theEU commission’s statement thatthe €2 coins, minted for the

1,150th anniversary of thesaints’ mission to GreaterMoravia, violated Europe’s“religious neutrality” and couldnot carry a cross because theywere legal tender in othercountries too.

The ruling was condemnedby the leading German MEP,Martin Kastler, as “a newexample of anti-Christianobstructiveness from Brussels”.

The Vatican’s euro coins carrya variety of religious symbols.

ROME

Pope tells newcardinals to shunworldly power

THE CHURCH’s new liturgical year will beushered in this evening at the Vatican withPope Benedict XVI presiding at theFirst Vespers of Advent with some 3,000students from Rome’s pontifical, state and private universities, writes Robert Mickens.

The evening prayer in St Peter’sBasilica will be only the first of severalpublic ceremonies and liturgies for thePope in the little more than three weeksleading up to Christmas.

During this evening’s liturgy, studentsfrom the University of Rome will consignan icon of Mary, Sedes Sapientiae, to theirpeers from Brazil in preparation for nextsummer’s World Youth Day in Rio deJaneiro.

Pope Benedict will make his annual visitto Piazza di Spagna next Saturday for theSolemnity of the Immaculate Conception, apublic holiday in Italy. He is expected togive an address focusing on the needs of theCity of Rome and then place a floral tributeat a towering statue of the Virgin Mary.

Vespers with studentsbegins Advent

Bishops urge fairer austerity priorities


BRAZIL EGYPT

Michael Gunn

EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS have joined massprotests against the Islamist President’sassumption of sweeping new powers, amidfears it could be a step towards imposing strictreligious rule. Last Thursday’s decree by theMuslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursiplaced him above judicial oversight, allowinghim to issue “any decision or measure to pro-tect the revolution”.

Mr Mursi said the move was needed tobreak a constitutional deadlock. But criticscontend that his powers now exceed thoseheld by deposed president Hosni Mubarakand, already fearful of creeping Islamisation,are sceptical of his pledge to surrender thepowers when a constitution is ready.

Presidential adviser Samir Marcos, a CopticChristian, resigned his post shortly after theannouncement, saying Mr Mursi’s move was“crippling to [Egypt’s] democratic transition”.

Imad Gad, a Christian former MP and polit-ical analyst, went further in claiming that

Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval History and Head of

the School of History, Queen Mary University of London

to New York City on 27 November 2012 for her

St. Robert Southwell, S.J. Lecture

For more information,

visit www.fordham.edu/southwell

or e-mail [email protected].

Mursi’s dictatorial powersalarm Coptic Christians

acceptance of Mr Mursi’s initiative wouldmean “Egypt will resemble Iran”.

Tens of thousands took to the streets ofEgypt’s major cities in protest, mainly onFriday and Tuesday. Prominent Coptic activistgroups were among them but so, too, werepreviously quiescent Christians prompted todemonstrate for the first time.

Mr Mursi’s move came just days after hewas congratulated by the US for brokering aGaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Thetiming reignited claims made in the summerby some prominent Christians of an allegedlong-standing deal with Washington whereinthe Brotherhood would restrain Hamas inthe Gaza Strip but be given a free hand topursue its own domestic agenda.■ SUDAN: A Sudanese Catholic Church inthe Nuba Mountains is the latest Christiancentre to be hit in the intensifying bombingcampaign of the Sudan Air Force in SouthKordofan state, writes Fredrick Nzwili.

Soviet-era Antonov planes are droppingbombs in towns across the state, hitting vil-lages, farms, markets, schools and churchcentres. On 21 November, a bomb landed inthe Heiban Catholic Church compounddestroying part of the church building.

(See Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, page 6.)

Royal Commissiontops agenda

AUSTRALIA’S BISHOPS approached theirbiannual meeting in Sydney this week, readyto discuss the challenges represented by therecently announced Royal Commission intochild sexual abuse in religious and other insti-tutions, writes Mark Brolly.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbanewrote to his clergy: “In my nearly 40 years asa priest, nothing approaches the sexual abusecrisis as a blow to clergy morale. All of us havebeen left shamed, bewildered, angry and dis-couraged. Every time there is a lull in thestorm, when we seem to be finding a way for-ward, something blows up to make the stormrage more fiercely than before. That is whatis happening now with the announcement ofthe Royal Commission.”

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, thePresident of the bishops’ conference, con-firmed that Towards Healing and theMelbourne Response, the Church’s two sexualabuse protocols, would be on the agenda.

Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide wrotethat the reality of child abuse “is by far thegreatest crisis we have faced as a Church”.

Top appointment atpontifical universitychallenged by staff

STUDENTS AND staff at the Pontifical CatholicUniversity of São Paulo (PUC-SP) have been onstrike since 13 November, in a dispute with theGrand Chancellor of the University, CardinalOdilo Scherer, over the appointment of a newrector, writes Francis McDonagh.

Cardinal Scherer, the Archbishop of São Paulo,departed from precedent and appointed asrector – a post roughly equivalent to vice chancellor - the third-placed candidate onthe list of three presented after an election bystaff and students. The university’s first choicewas a previous rector, law professor Dirceu deMello, but the archbishop chose ProfessorAna-Maria Cintra, from the department ofPortuguese. By custom, the archbishop selectsthe first name on the list. The archbishop is beingaccused of violating university autonomy.

Cardinal Scherer has given no reason for hisdecision, but it is being suggested that he wishesto bring the PUC more closely into line with theVatican’s guidelines for Catholic universities: thecardinal has previously removed former priestsfrom posts in the university.

AUSTRALIA


Most news reports on last weekend’sconsistory put forth the fancifulidea that Pope Benedict XVI, by

creating six non-European cardinals, hassignificantly reset the geographical balanceof the college that will elect his successor.

That is simply not true. Only the Asiansmade a net gain of electors (up two) and arenow even with Africans with 11 each. Europe– with 62 electors (28 from Italy alone) –continues its lopsided domination over thecollege, while Latin America will remaineven with 20 electors after next week whenone of its current members reaches 80.

North America’s 14 voting cardinals (11from the US) and Oceania’s lone voter(Australia’s Cardinal George Pell) round outthe 119 electors. So geographically, nothinghas really changed. And there were few signsat last Saturday’s consistory ceremony andthe following day’s Mass – both held in StPeter’s Basilica – that the non-Europeancultures represented by the new cardinalshave a place in Rome. Gregorian chant andprayers exclusively in Latin were the orderand Pope Benedict gave both his homiliesin Italian. This was despite the fact thatEnglish is the major language used by fourof the cardinals, while French and Spanishare the languages of the other two.

But even more curious about lastweekend’s red-hat festivities was that thePope did not convene the entire College ofCardinals for a pre-consistory summit. Hehas done this the other four times he’screated new cardinals in order to sound outhis “senate” about urgent pastoral mattersfacing the Universal Church. It’s not as ifthere is any lack of issues that needdiscussing at present. Perhaps he’ll resumethe practice at the next consistory, whichcould come at the end of the Year of Faith.

Fifty years ago at the Venerable EnglishCollege (VEC) here in Rome, thebishops of England and Wales took the

decision to establish the Catholic Agencyfor Oversees Development, better knownsimply as Cafod. So it was fitting that theagency’s current staff and some of its majorbenefactors should come back to the VECto celebrate Cafod’s fiftieth anniversary.

The event took place on 21 November,beginning with a Mass in the college’schapel. Bishop John Arnold, auxiliary inWestminster and Cafod’s chairman,presided at the liturgy. Afterwards theBritish Ambassador to the Holy See, NigelBaker, and VEC rector, Mgr NicholasHudson, hosted a pre-dinner reception.

Seminarians in jackets and ties servedwine and prosecco, while other serverscarried around trays of nibbles. SeveralVatican officials were on hand, as wererepresentatives of Caritas Internationalis (the

confederation to which Cafod belongs) anda number of British priests and Religiouswho are living and working in Rome.

Ambassador Baker told the gathering hewas “proud that the British Governmentcontinues to work closely with Cafod andother Catholic agencies”. He saidGovernment and charities could togetherhelp find “the solutions to poverty, hungerand injustice”. Cafod’s director, Chris Bain,offered words of thanks to the benefactorsand supporters and showed a presentationto mark the fiftieth anniversary.

In an article published on the same day inL’Osservatore Romano, he noted thatduring its existence Cafod had “often takentake the lead in coordinating majoremergency responses of behalf of theCaritas network”.

Earlier that day he was able to presentPope Benedict with a book on Cafod’s workjust after the Wednesday general audience.

Bernini’s world-famous colonnades,which surround St Peter’s Square,have been undergoing a scrubbing

over the past few years. It’s been a huge task,given the 284 columns and 92 pillars thatsupport porches displaying some 140 statuesand six large papal coats of arms. Although thecolonnades on the left side of the squarehave already been completed, the overallrefurbishment work is behind schedule. Begunin 2009, it was supposed to be finished in mid2013. And that includes cleaning up thesquare’s two monumental fountains, its hugeobelisk and a series of nineteenth-centurylamp posts. The Vatican now says the workwill not be completed until 2015. It alsosays it needs more money to complete the job.

A number of public and private donorshave chipped in towards the estimated €14million (£11m) cleaning costs so far, butthey’ve been inhibited by the economiccrisis. So officials at the Governorate ofVatican City State have come up with anidea for making up the shortfall. Just liketheir predecessors did while trying to financethe construction of St Peter’s Basilica, they’relooking for money from the Catholic faithful– or even the unfaithful, for that matter.

This time they’re offering individuals thechance to donate by buying a special set ofpostage stamps. For €20 (£16) one can buytwo €10 (£8) Vatican stamps affixed toan ornate certificate written in Latin.Buyers have the option of having their nameinscribed on the parchment, too. TheVatican’s numismatic office has designatedsome 150,000 for sale and if they are allbought, some €3m (£2.4m) will be raisedfor the colonnades cleaning project.

You must admit, it’s a much better ideathan trying to sell indulgences.

Robert Mickens

Letter from Rome

Nigerian terrorist attack deploredSpeaking from Rome, Nigeria’s new car-dinal deplored the failure to deal withcountry’s security situation following lastSunday’s attack on St Andrew MilitaryProtestant church in northern Kadunastate that left 11 people dead. CardinalJohn Onaiyekan of Abuja said it was par-ticularly alarming that the attack tookplace “within one of the highest militaryestablishments in Nigeria”. The Islamicfundamentalist Boko Haram terroristorganisation is waging an ongoing cam-paign of murdering Christians.

API spreads its wingsThe Austrian Priests’ Initiative (API) isplanning an international meeting ofreform movements for 2013 as more ini-tiatives come to share API concerns, itshead, Mgr Helmut Schüller, told theAustrian daily Der Standard. “2013 willbe the year we go international,” he said,adding that the API had not taken backits calls for “disobedience” and for theordin ation of women and married men.

Outrage over Congo violenceAfrican Catholic church leaders meetingin Kinshasa have called on the interna-tional community to help end conflict ineastern DR Congo. Presidents of bishops’conferences and national Caritas organ-isations from 34 countries in Africa signeda statement expressing outrage at violencewhich saw the city of Goma fall toRwandan-backed rebels on 20 November.

Polish priest jailedA Catholic priest from Poland’s Salesianorder has been jailed for eight years forembezzling £100 million in unsecuredbank loans using fake documents. Thecourt said Fr Ryszard Matkowski, directorof the order’s youth foundation, hadbelonged to an “organised criminal group”engaged in “high-value extortion”.

14 die in Caritas workshopFourteen people were killed and eightinjured last weekend in a fire at a workshopfor disabled people in Germany run by theCatholic Caritas charity. The cause of thefire in the Black Forest town of Titisee-Neustadt was initially unclear.

Catholics campaign for abortionThe Catholics for the Right to Decide(CDD) pro-choice campaigning groupspent US$13m (£8m) in Latin Americabetween 2002 and 2010. CDD has anannual budget of US$3m (£1.8m) fromdonations by organisations such as theFord, Hewlett and Playboy Foundations,according to ACI Prensa news agency.

IN BRIEF

For daily news updates visitwww.thetablet.co.uk


NEWSFROM BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Go-ahead for first Catholic universities since Reformation Christopher Lamb

THE GOVERNMENT hasannounced that two Catholic colleges are to be awarded full university status. Leeds TrinityUniversity College and NewmanUniversity College, Birminghamwill become the first Catholic universities since the Reformation.

In June, the Governmentreduced the number of studentsneeded for an institution tobecome a university from 4,000to 1,000. The Department forBusiness, Innovation and Skillshas now recommended to thePrivy Council that 10 colleges begranted the new status – thebiggest batch since 1992.

But St Mary’s University College– which applied to become a uni-versity along with Leeds Trinityand Newman - was not among thelist of new universities.

St Mary’s, in Twickenham,south-west London, is the largestand oldest of the Catholic highereducation institutes and hadexpected to be awarded universitystatus. But it has experienced dif-ficulties in recent months. Thisweek, 82 per cent of the localexecu tive of the University CollegeUnion (UCU) passed a motion of

no confidence in the principal,Professor Philip Esler.

Both Newman and LeedsTrinity (previously Leeds Trinityand All Saints) started as teachertraining colleges in the 1960s andboth have degree-awarding powers.

A joint statement issued by thetwo colleges said that beingawarded full university status wasparticularly important in light ofthe recent marketisation of highereducation in the UK and will be avaluable asset as both institutionslook to develop international links.

Catholic higher-education institutions, like many other uni-versities, have struggled to attractstudents due to the recent increasein fees. The difficulties at St Mary’sbegan in August when the QualityAssurance Agency (QAA), the bodyresponsible for ensuring standardsin higher education, reported con-cerns about the way the college rana course in clinical hypnosis. In astatement, the college said theGovernment had postponed con-sideration of its application tobecome a university until the newyear as a result of the QAA inves-tigation. This was done so that an“action plan” dealing with the concerns of the QAA investigationcould be implemented.

“St Mary’s has been proud toaward its own degrees since 2006and we look forward to 2013, whenwe anticipate being granted fulluniversity status,” it added.

A number of students and seniorstaff at St Mary’s have expressedconcern about the planned moveto merge the school of theology,philosophy and history and theschool of culture, communicationand creative arts. Dr AnthonyTowey, the head of the school oftheology, philosophy and history,who opposed the move, was sus-pended and later made redundant.

Professor Esler and two col-leagues also pursued a legal actionagainst Josephine Siedlecka, theeditor of Independent CatholicNews, to try to force her to revealthe source of an anonymous letterpublished on her website whichthey alleged defamed them.

The motion of no confidence inProfessor Esler was passed by theUCU which claimed that the reputation of St Mary’s is beingdamaged.

Bishop Malcolm McMahon, thechairman of the CatholicEducation Service (CES), said: “Weare very concerned that the greatwork which St Mary’s has done inthe past continues to be done.”

Cable criticises Gove’s backing of church school

BUSINESS SECRETARY VinceCable has attacked the EducationSecretary, Michael Gove, for sup-porting plans to allow two newCatholic schools to reserve almostall its places for those baptised inthe faith, writes Liz Dodd.

Mr Cable complained that MrGove’s intervention in a judicialreview concerning the establish-ment of Catholic primary andsecondary schools in Richmond,south-west London, is in violationof the 2010 coalition agreementbetween the Liberal Democratsand the Conservatives.

Local campaigners, backed bythe British Humanist Association,

asked for a judicial review into thedecision to allow the schools to bevoluntary-aided, giving them theright to offer 90 per cent of placesto Catholics if oversubscribed. Theyargued that under the EducationAct 2011, councils wanting tolaunch a new school must first seekto set up an academy. New acad-emies affiliated to a particular faithmust offer half of all places topupils of another or no faith if theyare oversubscribed.

Mr Gove intervened on behalfof the Catholic Church andRichmond Council to insist thatit is within the law for the newschools to be voluntary-aided. Mr

Justice Sales agreed and rejectedthe campaigners’ application.

The planned schools are in MrCable’s Twickenham constituencyand, in a letter to Liberal DemocratEducation Minister David Laws,he complained that Mr Gove, aConservative, had violated thecoalition agreement and asked MrLaws to intervene.

Mr Cable told The Guardian onWednesday that, as a local MP, hesupported the campaigners’ effortsto make the new schools “moreinclusive”.

In a statement, the Archdioceseof Westminster said it had proposed

MORE PEOPLE born after1970 believe in life after deaththan in God, according to newresearch, writes Sam Adams.

Nearly half of respondents toa survey carried out earlier thisyear by the University ofLondon’s Institute of Educationsaid they believe there is“definitely” or “probably” lifeafter death, compared to just 31per cent who said they believein God. Researchers obtainedthe results by questioningmembers of the British CohortStudy, which monitors the livesof 9,000 people born inEngland, Scotland and Wales inone particular week in April 1970.

The findings also showed that12 per cent found themselvesbelieving in God “some of thetime” and another 14 per centsaid they believe in a “higherpower”. The latest survey is thefirst to make a distinctionbetween religious upbringing,affiliation, practice and belief.

Analysis of the initial 2,200responses showed that 32 percent of interviewees were notbrought up in any religion, whilethe same proportion said theywere raised in the Church ofEngland and 10 per cent werebrought up as Catholics.However, when asked if theystill belong to a particularreligion, only 21 per cent saidthey were members of theChurch of England and 7 percent said they were Catholic.

Meanwhile, new research byacademics at Oxford Universityhas found that Christianity isnot being taught with sufficientacademic rigour in schools.

Religious education classeson Christianity can be “toostereotypical” and lacking in“intellectual development”, saidDr Nigel Fancourt.

The researchers also foundthat some teachers are nervousabout tackling Christianity “incase it is considered evangelising”.

Belief in the afterlife morecommon thanfaith in God

(Continued on page 38.)

Have your say on the week’sbig issues on The Tablet blog atwww.thetablet.co.uk

Christopher Lamb

MONEY SAVED from cutting aid to India willbe redirected to poorer countries, theInternational Development Secretary hassaid.

In an interview with The Tablet JustineGreening explained: “We will complete theshort-term projects which are already underway in India but we will make no new financialaid grants. This means spending £200 millionless before 2015, which will give more flexibility to add to our programmes in lower-income countries.”

There has been criticism of the Governmentgiving aid to India, given the rapid growth inthe latter’s economy. Ms Greening, who was

appointed Secretary of State for InternationalDevelopment (DFID) in September, defendedthe planned cut by saying that the IndianGovernment had spent £50 billion on healthand education programmes last year.

Since taking over DFID, Ms Greening hascarried out an audit of the department andhas introduced new financial controls. Shesaid that Cafod’s funding from DFID, whichis 15 per cent of the charity’s income, couldnot be guaranteed. But she stressed that theCatholic aid agency is a “valuable partner”and expected to work with it in the long-termfuture.

Ms Greening played tribute to Cafod andthe Church for their work with the world’spoorest, and described the sum of £9.4mraised by Cafod’s Lent Appeal as “incredible”(the Government matched the figure, bringingthe total to more than £18m).

“The Catholic Church not only gives humanitarian help in times of disaster butalso provides services such as health and education in some of the most troubled partsof the world,” Ms Greening said.

(See full interview on pages 4-5.)


Tablet BindersOrder from: The Tablet, 1 King Street Cloisters,

Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY. Please enclose remittance with order £7.00 each

(three required for one year).P&P for each: UK £1.24, Europe £4.42 and ROW £7.77

Formation ConsultationServices

We provide unique, fl exible and holistic sabbatical programming

within a small nurturing community atmosphere.

Programs are tailored specifi cally to each participant’s needs.

On our website, a helpful selection of articles on formation are available. FCS offers a free email newsletter

with a focus on human formation. It is available every other month. Past

newsletters are on our website.

Tel: USA 1-508-234-6540Email: [email protected]

Web: www.fcs-bilotta.com

SABBATICALSCHARITY

www.anchorhouseuk.org PH 0207 476 6062

Support the HOMELESS and DONATE to an award winning CATHOLIC CHARITY

HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION

PEACEFUL, private accommodation for holiday, retreat, or rest for Priests and Religious in lovely Windsor country. Cottages for 1-6 people, every convenience. Near Heathrow and Henley. Apply: St John’s Convent, Kiln Green, Reading RG10 9XP. Tel: 0118 940 2964.

LONDON: B&BCentrally located in comfortable family homes. Direct transport to attractions,

airports. TV in rooms. Double £54 per night. Single £42 per night.

Reductions for children.Tel: 020 7385 4904

www.thewaytostay.co.uk

BED & BREAKFAST

PERSONAL

IF PARAGRAPH 2358of the Catholic Catechism applies to you

and you are a Catholic priest, deacon, or a male religious, you may wish to join

our confi dential spiritual support and social group by writing to Box 3436.

EDINBURGH: B & B, GILLIS CENTRE

Central location, peaceful grounds.B & B en-suite,

continental breakfast.Bookings: 0131 623 8933 or email

[email protected]: www.gilliscentre.org.uk 100 Strathearn Road, EH9 1BB

Registered Charity No. SC008540

PILGRIMAGES

The Holy Land for everyone in ministry.

All participants are invited to share their Faith story. Tuesday 15–24 Oct

2013. Half Board. £1195 including fl ights & accommodation.

Fr. Tom Grufferty, 023 9248 4520 [email protected]

SANTIAGO PILGRIM WAYApril & September 2013

Le Puy to Conques7 days – 15kms per day

led by veteran pilgrim-priestMichael Paterson.

www.joiningthedots.org.uke-mail: [email protected]

Celebrate Christ’s Birthwithout killing His creatures

Choose Vegetarian

www.christianvegetarian.co.uk01983 840 895

■The Bishop of Shrewsbury haswarned that the Christianfoundations of British societyare facing unprecedentedchallenge, writes Sam Adams.

Bishop Mark Davies alsolamented the fact that, despite a

majority of people callingthemselves Christian, fewattend church or “share a livingfaith”.

In a pastoral letter to be readout in churches across thediocese tomorrow, the First

Sunday of Advent, he said: “Wesee the Christian foundations ofour society being challenged asnever before, whether onquestions concerning thesanctity of human life or thevery identity of marriage.”

Aid cut fromIndia to helppoorer states

IN BRIEF

Concern about anti-Catholic crimesA majority of religious hate crimesrecorded in Scotland were againstCatholics, according to new governmentfigures. Of the 876 cases in 2011-12 – anincrease of 26 per cent – 60 per centrelated to Catholics. The Archbishop ofGlasgow, Philip Tartaglia, said he was sad-dened by the findings.

New bishop announcedPope Benedict XVI has appointed CanonWilliam Crean as the new Bishop ofCloyne. The bishop-elect pledged to workfor healing and “new hope” for victims ofabuse and their families. A judicial inquirypublished last July found that the diocesehad mishandled allegations of clericalabuse and criticised the former bishop,John Magee, a private secretary to threepopes.

Midnight Mass schedule BBC1 will televise Midnight Mass fromSt Anne’s Cathedral, Leeds. As Leeds iswithout a bishop, Mgr Philip Moger, thedean, will celebrate. On Christmas Day,Mass from the Metropolitan Cathedralof Christ the King in Liverpool, celebratedby Archbishop Patrick Kelly, will be onBBC Radio 4.

50 YEARS AGO

In this country for the past three years wehave had the Family Fast Day, organisedby the National Board of Catholic Womenand held every year on the Ember Fridayin Lent. Now it has been decided to estab-lish a fund on a wider basis, which willoperate the whole year round and whichis designed to help projects for the reliefof urgent material and social needs in various parts of the world. It is to be calledthe Catholic Fund for OverseasDevelopment, and its establishment hasnow been given the formal approval of theEnglish and Welsh hierarchies. BishopGrant, auxiliary of Northampton, has beenappointed chairman of the fund, and thevice chairman and administrator is to beSir Hugh Ellis-Rees, the former UnitedKingdom Ambassador to OEEC [theOrganisation for European Economic Co-operation]. Assisting them will be acommittee made up of representatives fromthe seven Catholic organisations affiliatedto the UK Committee of the Freedom fromHunger Campaign … The last thing thatis desired in the establishment of this newfund is any reduction in Catholic supportfor local efforts associated with the Freedomfrom Hunger campaign. The idea is toenable Catholics to support special Catholicinitiatives in countries where such help isneeded, and thus to extend the scope ofthe assistance they have been giving overthe last three years.

The Tablet, 1 December 1962

100 YEARS AGO

The National Commission on De -population in France … was opened onSaturday by M. Klotz, Minister of Finance.He called attention to the gravity of the situation, and mentioned that in 1910 theexcess of births over deaths in France wasonly 71,418, while in Germany it was879,113, in Austria-Hungary 573,520, inGreat Britain 413,779, and in Italy 451,771.Indeed, in the years 1906 and 1911, thenumber of deaths in France, although gradually diminishing, had exceeded thenumber of births …

M. Klotz evidently believes that moneyis at the bottom of the evil, and that moneyis the only remedy. He explained that thecommission would also examine the pos-sibility of ameliorating the financial positionof the parents of large families. There weredifficulties in the way of a reduction of tax-ation in the case of such parents … but hethought that the Government … couldfavour the parents of large families inappointments to petty public offices, andcould help the children by giving thempreference in the allocation of school bursaries.

The Tablet, 30 November 1912

FROM THE ARCHIVE


a voluntary-aided secondary school in responseto demand from the Catholic community.

“Three hundred Catholic children leave ourprimary schools in Richmond each year andare finding it increasingly difficult to find aplace in a Catholic secondary school in neigh-bouring boroughs. For that reason, the newschool will give priority to Catholics if the 150places are oversubscribed.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic EducationService’s (CES) 2012 census of Catholicschools showed a continuing increase in thenumber of vacancies for Catholic headteachers and a small decline in the

percentage of Catholic pupils and teachers. The census also showed that Catholic

schools educate more children from ethnicminorities than the national average and morepupils from deprived areas. At the same timethey consistently outperform other schools,particularly in the primary sector.

Bishop Malcolm McMahon, chairman ofthe CES, said: “I think we should be very proudof the fact that we are drawing children fromvery diverse backgrounds. It is the traditionalwork of the Church to educate and to servethe poor, and that’s what we’ve always done.”

(To see the statistics in full, visitwww.thetablet.co.uk)

Nichols highlights plightof elderly and disabled CHURCH WORKERS have a vital role to playin highlighting the shortcomings in howBritain cares for older and disabled people,the Archbishop of Westminster told a parlia-mentary reception on Wednesday, writesElena Curti.

Speaking at the event organised by theCatholic Social Action Network (CSAN),Archbishop Vincent Nichols said that carefor the elderly and disabled was a fundamentaltest of any civilised society.

“I applaud the efforts under way from manyquarters to address shortcomings in the caresystem, and encourage all those involved inthis urgent and vital process,” he said.

Welcoming the archbishop’s remarks,Simon Gillespie, chairman of the Care andSupport Alliance, said: “As our society agesand people live longer with long-term con-ditions, more and more older and disabledpeople, and carers supporting them, aren’tgetting the support they need. We need allparts of society and all political parties to

come together and take urgent action to tacklewhat is becoming one of the biggest publicpolicy challenges of our generation.”

The chief executive of CSAN, Helen O’Brien,pledged to continue to campaign for the dis-abled and older people.

“As the Care and Support Bill proceedsthrough Parliament, we are committed toworking with parliamentarians, NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and other faithgroups to ensure that those who do not cur-rently receive the support they require, arenot left to suffer in silence,” she said.■ The Archbishop of Westminster said thelegacy of the 85 Martyrs of England and Walesbeatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987 is stillwith us today. He made his remarks onTuesday at a Mass at Westminster Cathedralto celebrate the 25th anniversary of the martyrs’ beatification. He said England is still“blessed with the example and fruit” of the“loving cooperation” between priests and laypeople.

THE NEW Bishop of Chichester has said thatthe majority of traditional Anglo-Catholicswill fight to stay in the Church of England,writes Christopher Lamb.

Bishop Martin Warner, an Anglo-Catholicwhose new diocese has a strong connectionwith that tradition, said that he did not foreseelarge departures to the Roman CatholicChurch on the horizon.

The bishop, who was enthroned last Sunday,added that while individuals would becomeCatholics he was unsure whether they wouldjoin the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady ofWalsingham, the structure set up by PopeBenedict XVI for Anglicans wishing tobecome Catholics while retaining aspects oftheir identity.

“I think the desire is to find a way to stayand those [Anglo-Catholics] that were contentto move have generally done so,” he told The

Tablet. “More will [become Catholics],whether they will move into the ordinariateor not I don’t know. But Anglo-Catholics atthe moment are desirous of finding a way tostay.”

A spokesman for the ordinariate said thatwhile it was never right to become a Catholic“on the basis of malcontent” with the Churchof England, women bishops would “practicallyremove” chances of full communion betweenthe Churches.

The bishop said that unless Anglo-Catholicswere expelled from the Church of England“they will continue to look for a way of livingwithin this Church”.

Last week proposals to pass legislationpaving the way for the first women bishopsfailed to acquire the necessary majority at theChurch of England’s General Synod.

(See Mark Chapman, page 19.)

Most Anglo-Catholics to remain Anglican

(Continued from page 36.)

Please tick if you would like to be contacted by The Tablet by email and/or telephone and/or by carefully selected companies by email and/or telephone. Tick if you do not wish to receive details by post of products and services from The Tablet.

Please send a six-month gift subscription of The Tablet to:

Gift 1: Six-month introductory subscription (25 issues)

Name:

Address:

Postcode: Country:

Please indicate your choice of free gift: A B C

Fires of Faith The Lion’s World: In the Grip of Light

Please ensure your order reaches us before 11 December to guarantee the Christmas issue is sent. Orders received after this date will be sent the next available issue.

My name:

Address:

Postcode: Country:

Email: Tel:

Sterling cheque drawn on a UK bank and payable to The Tablet for £ __________

(For payment in US$, Euros or AUS$ a banker’s draft is required)

Please debit my card for £ ____________ Visa Mastercard Amex Switch

Card No:

Expiry date: Start date:

Issue no: Signature:

Order by phone:Call +44 (0)1795 414855

Quoting ref: 3836

Send your payment to: Offer 3836, The Tablet, PO Box 326 Sittingbourne Kent ME9 8FA UK (free postage in UK)

Order by email:[email protected]

Quoting ref: 3836

Order online:http://thetablet.subscribeonline.co.uk/

TABP/3836

Gift 2: A second separate six-month gift subscription (25 issues)

Name:

Address:

Postcode: Country:

3836

Plus you’ll receive a free gift when you take out a gift subscription or two free gifts if you give two gift subscriptions. You’ll also receive free the CD My Kind of Carol (worth £9.95) and a free Parker Jotter pen (worth £8). Choose your gift from one of the following:

Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary TudorEamon DuffyA controversial reassessment of the reign of Mary Tudor by the renowned Reformation historian Eamon Duffy. RRP £12.99

The Lion’s World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia`Rowan WilliamsA compelling account by the retiring Archbishop of Canterbury of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novels, exploring their moral and spiritual wisdom. RRP £8.99

In the Grip of Light: The Dark and Bright Journey of Christian ContemplationPaul Murray OPThe wisdom and lived experience of those men and women who have known the presence of God fi rst hand. RRP £10.99

Christmas Gift Subscription Rates – 25 issues

£45.50 UK£62.50 (€72) Ireland & Europe£48 (US$77.50) US & Canada£55.50 (US$101) Airmail Worldwide

Do you know a friend, relative, colleague or parish priest who would enjoy reading The Tablet? Or what about a treat for yourself?

Give a gift subscription to The Tablet this Christmas and you know that you will be giving something really worthwhile – six months of stimulating and entertaining reading.

You will also benefi t from our special Christmas discount, which represents a saving of up to 33% off the cover price.

Save up to

33%off the

cover price

Subscription includes

online version and access to

archives

Parker Jotter pen (worth £8). Choose your gift

Give

Christmasthis

THE

TABLET

xmas2012_Advertupdateddh.indd 1 28/11/2012 11:08


Volume 266 No. 8975 ISSN: 0039 8837

Independently audited certified averagecirculation per issue of THE TABLET forissues distri buted between 1 January and

30 June 2012 is 19,779.

TABLETwww.thetablet.co.uk

THE

Published weekly except Christmas. PeriodicalsPostage Paid at Rahway, NJ, and at additional mailing offices.U.S. Postmaster: Send airspeed addresscorrections to The Tablet, c/o Air Business Limited, 4 The Merlin Centre, Acrewood Way, St Albans, Herts AL4 0JY, UK.Annual subscription rate US$179.© The Tablet Publishing Company Limited 2012The Tablet is printed by Headley Brothers Ltd,The Invicta Press, Lower Queens Road, Ashford,Kent TN24 8HH, for the proprietors The TabletPublishing Company Limited, 1 King Street Cloisters,Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY 1 December 2012

1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GYTel: +44 (0)20 8748 8484Fax: +44 (0)20 8748 1550EDITORIALEmail: [email protected]: Catherine PepinsterEditorial Consultant: Clifford LongleyDeputy Editor: Elena CurtiAssistant Editor (Foreign News):James RobertsProduction Editor: David HardingChief Sub-editor: Polly ChiapettaAssistant Editor (Home News):Christopher LambNews Reporters: Sam Adams, Liz DoddRome Correspondent: Robert MickensArts Editor: Brendan McCarthyLiterary Editor: Brendan WalshReligious Books Editor: Alban McCoyParish Practice: Diana KleinOnline Editor: Abigail FrymannCOMMERCIAL, MARKETING& ADVERTISINGPublisher: Ignatius KusiakMarketing Manager: Ian FarrarEmail: [email protected]: +44 (0)20 8222 7358■ Display advertising and insertsMarcela AhmetiEmail: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7880 6207■ Classified: +44 (0)20 7880 6207Mary O’BrienEmail: [email protected]: +44 (0)20 7880 6427 SUBSCRIPTIONSTel: +44 (0)1795 414855Fax: +44 (0)1795 414555Email: [email protected] Adshead CBE, KSG, Chairman; Robin Baird-Smith, Tina Beattie, Mike Craven,Julian Filochowski CMG, OBE, Cathy Galvin,Ignatius Kusiak, Keith Leslie,Dermot McCarthy, Susan Penswick,Catherine Pepinster, Paul Vallely CMG.CALENDARSunday 2 December:First Sunday of Advent (Year C)Monday 3 December:St Francis Xavier, PriestTuesday 4 December:Advent feria or St John Damascene,Priest & Doctor Wednesday 5 December:Advent feriaThursday 6 December:Advent feria or St Nicholas, BishopFriday 7 December:St Ambrose, Bishop & DoctorSaturday 8 December:Immaculate Conception of theBlessed Virgin MarySunday 9 December:Second Sunday of Advent

48

9 770039 883196

■ For the Extraordinary Form calendar go towww.lms.org.uk and look under Find a Mass

WITH EVERY trudgingstep across the fields aboveour village, I felt morelike Noah. To the right,waters were rising where

the winter wheat had been; to the left, theploughed field, too sodden in September to besown, was a delta of brown rivulets. In the dis-tance, the sea seemed to be creeping over theVale of York.

In fact, it was just the kind of weather thatthe pair of willow saplings I’d brought out toplant were made for. How fitting that this year’sNational Tree Planting Week coincides withthe most widespread floods in memory becauseit is trees that are our best flood defence. Beforemodern land exiled our floodplain willows,

Glimpses of Edenalders and the majestic black poplars, they werethe barriers soaking up excess water and slow-ing the flood’s flow. Cutting them all down hasbeen like driving without a safety belt. The widerchallenges and opportunities of climate changecan, of course, no longer be avoided; but thetime has also come for the more specific chal-lenge of localised flooding.

We could start by having fewer cars and morecarrs – a carr being the now largely obsoleteterm for marshy land where flood waters arecaptured, stored and slowly turned into trees.It began to rain again, as I prepared the groundfor my saplings. Red with life, the young wil-lows slipped into the sodden earth like a pairof ducklings.

Jonathan Tulloch

ROSE PRINCE

THE ETHICAL KITCHEN

Nuts for nutrition

THE WORD “super” used to be a campexpression of “very good” – “I say, that’s a jollysuper idea.” But used as a prefix today “super”lends a much greater emphasis.

Attached to food, “super” activates thecynic in me. “Superfoods” – and there are manypromoted as such – are the supposed elixirsof life. Trade associations representing thegrowers of blackcurrants and pomegranates;makers of fish oil supplements or manufac-turers of yoghurts containing “good bacteria”have us believe the nutrients in these foodscan restore everything from hair loss tolibido, or may prevent cancer, acne and evenmake your children intelligent.

Yet the foods that do the most good are noneof these. The real superfoods are humblewholefoods – complex carbohydrates likebeans, pulses, legumes, grains and nuts. Theyserve a dual purpose if eaten in place of refinedcarbohydrates of helping the overweight to shedpounds and skinny people to gain them. Putsimply the body burns wholefoods slowly, keep-ing energy levels high while reaping therewards of their many nutrients. They also tendto be cheap.

Peanuts, a legume, are typical of realsuperfoods. It is recommended that those try-ing to lose weight benefit from eating peanutsregularly, while they are also used in a gen-uine, life-giving food for malnourished peoplein the developing world. That is whyPlumpy’nut, a compound liquid food inventedby the French manufacturer Nutriset, featuresin Cafod’s 2012 Advent Appeal. Not only hasit been proved to help dangerously underfedchildren gain weight swiftly and safely, it comesready made and does not, like so many com-pound foods, need to be mixed with clean water– something that is scarce in famine areas. Asa result, famine relief agencies have found that

considerably fewer staff are needed to treatgreat numbers of people, allowing them tospread their efforts wider and more effectively.This does make one pause before reaching forthat expensively packaged “superfood”.

Gado gado is a satisfying way to enjoy theunassuming peanut. The recipe for the dress-ing, sambal kacang, is from Sri Owen’sIndonesian Food (Pavilion Books).

Gado-gadoServes 4

Make a big heap of steamed vegetables:spring greens, broccoli, green beans, carrots,cauliflower; add lettuce, boiled potato in itsskin, hard-boiled egg, cucumber and choppedshallots fried until crisp.

For the sauce:115ml groundnut oil225g unsalted peanuts2 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed4 shallots½ tsp chilli powder½ tsp brown sugar1 tablespoon soy sauce450ml waterJuice of half a lemon

Heat the oil in a pan and stir fry the peanuts.Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon, cooland grind to a rough powder. Fry the garlicand shallots in 1 tablespoon of the leftover oil,add the chilli, sugar, soy and then the groundpeanuts and the water. Simmer for 8-10 min-utes then add the lemon juice. Serve cool, overthe vegetables.

To learn more about Cafod’s Advent 2012appeal visit www.cafod.org.uk/Give/Advent-2012-Appeal

7801 the aids issue the tablet 1 december

Documents

vatican ii

david cameron

david harewood

south sudan

special edition

lords resistancearmy

nostra aetate

justine greening