The Pope’s coming trip
to the United Kingdom
by Dr.Robert Moynihan
August 3rd, 2010
Over the next few weeks, the press will focus ever more attention on Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Great Britain (Scotland and England) from September 16 to 19.
In this regard, I feel it is important to make two points.
First, conflict.
Benedict is one of the most intelligent and eloquent and poetic defenders in the world today of a vision of human life in which there is a dimension which transcends the purely material, the purely utilitarian.
Great Britain is the home of utilitarianism, of a pragmatic, problem-solving, technological view of human affairs.
This would suggest that there could be a “clash of world views” during this visit.
And I hope it will be so.
I hope the Pope lays out, in the most intelligent, eloquent and poetic way, the case for a view of human affairs in which holiness plays a part, and not just profit; in which justice and generosity have a central space, not just a peripheral one, as if they were “secondary” to “the main business” of life, which, in the utilitarian view, is business.
So, I expect a conflict of world views, because I expect Benedict to express, eloquently, the Christian conviction that man has incalculable dignity — a dignity beyond financial calculation, a dignity which overturns all the calculations of every actuarial table humans can fashion.
Second, a surprising “cathartic moment.”
I expect this “conflict” to take Great Britain by surprise. I expect that the image of this small, white-haired man, preaching that human beings have a transcendent dignity, that they were made for love, not profit, will be so striking that some, unexpectedly, will be drawn to the message, and to the man presenting the message, in a way they do not anticipate now.
They may even find in this message something precious for their own lives, and for the life of the British nation: a call to return to ideals and beliefs that were once fervently held, and shaped the culture, customs and laws of the beautiful islands across the channel from France, but which are now increasingly being rejected.
And so I foresee a cathartic moment for Britain, when, amid all the shouting, all the vilification — and there may be a lot of this — Benedict’s words are heard, and are felt to be a reminder of what many in Britain, deep down, also believe, or wish they could believe.
And in this catharsis, true patriots, true lovers of Britain, may find that, in this little professor from Bavaria, via Rome, they hear a call to return to the beliefs and traditions and customs and laws that made England “great,” and also “merry.”
This is the background for the remarks that I have just published in the August-September “Special Issue” of Inside the Vatican previewing the Pope’s trip to Great Britain, as my editorial. Here below is that text. I would urge readers to order extra copies of this issue, especially in Great Britain, as I think it provides a balanced, comprehensive view of all the chief issues the Pope will confront during his visit.
The following is the text of the editorial of the August-September “Special Issue” of Inside the Vatican, now at the printers.
Why is Benedict XVI
going to England?
Editorial
by Robert Moynihan
August-September 2010
Benedict XVI is going to Great Britain to preach the Gospel, to call the British back to the faith which once shaped their culture, their law, their art and architecture, their hopes and aspirations — faith in Christ, and in his cross….
Many might be tempted to ask why we Christians celebrate an instrument of torture, a sign of suffering, defeat and failure. It is true that the Cross expresses all these things. And yet, because of him who was lifted up on the Cross for our salvation, it also represents the definitive triumph of God’s love over all the evil in the world… The Cross, then, is something far greater and more mysterious than it at first appears.
—Pope Benedict XVI, June 5, 2010, Cyprus
There have been many surmises about why Benedict has chosen to visit Great Britain. Some of the analysis has been informed, much uninformed, and some motivated by plain bigotry.
The media has exploited the confusion created by this mix to play its role of generating controversies, creating suspicions, finding villains, even to reporting Ian Paisley’s predictable indictment that the Pope is the Antichrist and should not be allowed to enter the country.
Benedict’s reasons for going to Great Britain are quite clear, though obscured by those unwilling to accept his word. His reasons are not only simple, but touch on the essence of his faith and the faith of the Church.
What is immediately clear is that he wishes personally to beatify the remarkable 19th century Christian scholar and convert to Catholicism, John Henry Cardinal Newman — a man he has studied and admired for nearly 60 years.
And, around that beatification, he wishes to visit his Scottish and English flocks in hopes of strengthening them in their faith.
In the eyes of some observers, the legitimacy of these pastoral purposes is compromised by Benedict’s stated concern for those “high church” Anglicans who have openly asked to be received as a body into the Catholic Church.
How, these critics ask, will it be possible to maintain cordial relations between Rome and Canterbury if a large group of Anglicans, with the Pope’s encouragement, breaks away from the Church of England and enters the Catholic Church?
Benedict’s answer, in a sense, will be to encourage the conversion and simultaneously stress the common baptismal bond shared by all Christians. He will do this by a highly symbolic joint prayer service with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Then there are the liberal Christians, accusatory secularists and militant atheists who have depicted Benedict as visiting England and Scotland to campaign against human rights, specifically, against new British laws that reject Christian teachings on marriage and promote same-sex relationships.
These accusers are so fired up at the prospect of the Pope’s presence in Great Britain that they have openly called for his arrest and deportation as a human rights offender and a man criminally responsible for the sexual crimes of priests. (British officials have taken steps to ensure that the militant secularists do not publicly try to arrest and pillory Benedict.)
Such conflicting views of Benedict’s presence in Great Britain threaten to turn a religious pilgrimage into a political free-for-all.
Let’s state as clearly as possible what has moved Benedict to visit Scotland and England. Yes, Newman’s beatification, yes, the situation of British Catholics, yes, Anglicans longing to join the Catholic Church, yes, the hope of maintaining ties with Anglicanism.
But at the heart of Benedict’s journey is the belief that God is in charge of His world, that nothing happens without a purpose, that men can take part in God’s plan for the world.
Like his predecessors, he believes there are no accidents in history, only events we cannot fully grasp or explain convincingly, but events God will one day allow us to understand.
Over and over Joseph Ratzinger has said that divine providence rules the world.
He believes that the Gospel’s encounter with Greek thought providentially determined the way the Church developed. He holds that, though we can never predict in advance how things will turn out, things which seem to be harmful to the spread of the Gospel may eventually be seen even as a blessing.
His initial attraction to Newman may have been to Newman’s theological writing, but his strongest attachment to him is surely to the man of faith, a man who could say of himself:
I understood… that the exterior world, physical and historical, was but the manifestation to our senses of realities greater than itself. Nature was a parable, Scripture was an allegory, pagan literature, philosophy and mythology, properly understood, were but a preparation for the Gospel. The Greek poets and sages were, in a sense, prophets.
Benedict wants to be in England not because theologians are of crucial importance, but because saints are absolutely essential to the growth, purification and existence of the Church.
Benedict wants to be in England because a new paganism has triumphed in Western society, articulately in England. In many ways he is motivated by what he said in
God and the World:
Whenever a person or society refuses to take God’s business seriously, some way or the other, the fate of Gomorrah overtakes them again… Whenever any society turns away from fellowship with the living God, it cuts the root of its social cohesion. We see such retribution at work even today.
He will be in England to point out the “narrow way” that leads away from the dead end and desolation of “Gomorrah” — the “narrow way” taken by More, Fisher, Newman, and countless thousands of others.
The militant advocates of Sodom recognize the danger Benedict presents to their program, so they describe the Pope’s English visit as a mission to promote superstition and the implicit evil of traditional Christianity.
But it is something else altogether.
It is a mission to dispel superstition and lies, and to call the British back to the truth which many still recall, deep down: that men and women have an eternal destiny, that this fallen world has been redeemed, and that that redemption frees men from fear and frustration, even from their own self-loathing.
It is a message of hope, and he will preach it fearlessly, though the prophets of perdition would silence him and caricature his message as anything but what it is.
They will attempt to drown out his call, but he will issue it anyway, to all with ears to hear: that it is not too late to change course, that there is still time for a new direction, still time to embrace the path that leads not to death, but to life, and true joy.
Anglican Theologian says Pope's visit
'crucial' for relations between two Churches -
especially with anti-Popery revival
London, August 2 (AsiaNews) – Benedict XVI’s visit next September to the UK is of “crucial” importance. It is a chance to revitalize his image in the eyes of the British press, after the media storm involving the Pope has in recent months (in reality since the beginning of his pontificate), but also to bring together two cultures and two confessions - Catholic and Anglican - often in conflict.
This is the view point of John Milbank, Anglican theologian and professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics, at the University of Nottingham, interviewed by AsiaNews ahead of the next papal trip:
What does Benedict XVI’s visit mean for the UK and the Church of England?
The visit is of crucial importance because Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular are under increasing attack in the United Kingdom.
One would have thought that ‘anti Popery’ was dead and yet it has recently revived. At the same time Catholics play a very important role in British cultural and political life. They and all other Christians in this country need the encouragement that the Pope can give them.
In addition I believe that this visit is a chance for Pope Benedict to correct the mistaken impressions of him that are often given in the British media. He can show that he is a person of great all-round vision whose thinking about society, economics and human relationships is often far more insightful than that of the general run of secular culture.
October marks one year from Anglicanorum Coetibus: how important is the meeting between the Primate Rowan Williams and the Pope?
I think it is important that the two leaders take the opportunity to show that their agreements are far more profound than their differences. For they espouse a similar sort of theology: rooted in the legacy of Augustine and the recovery of authentic Patristic and High Medieval tradition.
Their approaches to the political and economic sphere are also highly compatible, with both of them stressing the importance of Civil Society as against either the State or the Market and both following Bruni and Zamagni in advocating a ‘civil economy’.
In your estimation, how many bishops and faithful of the Church of England have taken up the opportunity offered by Anglicanorum coetibus?
Extremely few and I don’t think that many will follow in the UK, though more may in the USA. However, I still think that the AC will be of great importance in the future.
First because it involves a new recognition by the Papacy of the validity of the Anglican tradition, beginning to equate it more with Eastern Orthodoxy; secondly because it can create a fluidity between the two communions that will help to lead to full intercommunion in the future.
The debates about the role of women, married clergy and the norms for homosexuals are discussions that are now common to all the episcopally-ordered churches and in a globalised era it will prove anachronistic to think that they can be confined within any one single communion.
The Pope will beatify the Cardinal Newman in Birmingham. Do you think it will bring Rome and Canterbury closer or, on the contrary, fuel controversy?
I think that this is a wholly positive development and will be welcomed by Anglicans. Apart from a few evangelical extremists, who dislike Newman’s theology anyway, Anglicans by no means feel that Newman ‘betrayed’ them by becoming a Catholic.
On the contrary, they are very proud of Newman’s double contribution to both modern Anglicanism and to modern Catholicism. Newman is a sign of unity: he belongs to both Churches and I am sure that our prayers to God through him will aid us in the cause of Church unity, as in the revival of a Christian Britain.
Just over a week ago, the Synod of the Church of England ended in York. Lots of English newspapers talked about the “defeat” of the Primate concerning the ordination of women bishops. Do you agree that it was a “defeat”?
No, that is a big exaggeration. Unfortunately, the two Archbishops of York and Canterbury tried to push through a minor amendment that was probably unnecessary, but was intended to safeguard the interests of those who cannot accept the advent of women bishops.
Although this was defeated, most people involved agree that these interests will be in any case adequately safeguarded under the arrangements now agreed upon. I think that Rowan Williams now also accepts that. His standing has not been in any way seriously damaged by this matter of detail.
Clearly women bishops seem to be controversial from an ecumenical point of view, but I do not think that this will prove the case in the long term. One irony is that Anglican liturgy, involving ordained women, is in many ways far more conservative and numinous in character than much modern Catholic liturgy, in which the lay involvement of both men and women seems rather random and ill thought-through.
I support the efforts of Pope Benedict to give back a place to the Latin Mass, just as I believe that Anglicans must conserve the dignity of their worship at its best.
When I posted yesterday about the official merchandise now on sale for the Pope's visit, I thought I had been caught napping and failed to catch the development on the site until then. Only to find out later that apparently I caught it just in time because it is all the news right now. (It took me some time to put the post together as I tried to fit a representative sampling of the items into one neat frame.) The BBC was first out with it, but the Daily Telegraph report is the most interesting:
Pope visit merchandise includes
'metal' T-shirt and baseball cap
by Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
August 3, 2010
Official merchandise for the Pope’s forthcoming visit to Britain has gone on sale, including some items that wouldn’t look out of place at a rock concert.
www.papalvisitstore.com
The online store is offering a baseball cap, a jacket and a range of T-shirts bearing Benedict XVI’s image and the motto of the historic trip – Heart speaks unto heart.
One of the shirts, costing £20, can be customised to include the name of the pilgrim’s local church.
Also on sale are a flag and an £8 electronic flashing candle, which can be waved during the open-air events just as music fans hold cigarette lighters aloft at festivals.
It comes after the 83 year-old Pope himself was pictured wearing a white baseball cap at his summer residence.
The similarity between the religious souvenirs and the memorabilia sold by touring rock bands was noted by some commentators on the internet.
The plate, second from left, is not in the Official Store catalog (but the image would look good on a white version of the 'heavy metal' T-shirt!); and the second baseball cap design is nifty, but I have this thing against black for papal -related gear
Sophia Deboick, a researcher at the University of Liverpool, wrote on Twitter about one item, a black T-shirt showing three pictures of the Pope inside a circular design: “I can't believe how metal this T-shirt is!
“You really would have to look twice to realise it isn't some metal band. I like it!”
She added that a T-shirt to commemorate the highlight of the pontiff’s visit in September, the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, had a “homemade-chic look”.
The online store for the first-ever state papal visit to Britain, which coincides with London Fashion Week, is also selling a £30 blue bracelet featuring “bling” Swarovski crystals.
[I don't see this item anywhere on the site!]
More traditional items include bookmarks, fridge magnets, keyrings, mugs, plates and a glossy programme.
For the particularly devout there are candles, rosary beads and crosses.
The Roman Catholic hierarchies of England and Wales, and Scotland, will be hoping that sales help cover their costs associated with the visit, likely to be more than £7million.
But there is also a brisk trade in unofficial merchandise, with a website called Catholics With Attitude selling hooded tops bearing slogans such as “Vatican All Stars”, “Team Benedict” and “Top of the Popes”.
Check them out:
www.catholicswithattitude.net/
And a site called Zazzle
www.zazzle.co.uk/pope+benedict+gifts
that still has items from the US visit, some of which are 'timeless':
The National Secular Society, which is planning public protests during the visit, is selling T-shirts bearing the message “Pope Nope”.
Zazzle also deals the 'PopeNope' materials, unfortunately, but perhaps we should be glad the seculars are too lazy to come up with anything more 'original' than this (extreme left sticker), which a shortsighted person like me would easily read HOPE instead of NOPE, and which I've crudely tried to transform to a HOPE sight instead. (I don't have a good graphics program - but you get the idea...)
On another negative note, the BBC has officially announced its intended negative programming in advance of the Pope's visit. YUKKKKK already...
BBC to mark Pope's UK visit with
documentary on clerical abuse scandals
Film to search for 'the real Joseph Ratzinger' [their idea of 'the real Ratzinger', that is!]
while other shows will focus on John Henry Newman and the Vatican
August 3, 2010
The BBC is to air a documentary about the Catholic clerical abuse scandals next month as part of a season of
factual programmes [That's what they call biased/tendentious programs now?] to coincide with the first papal visit to the UK for 28 years.
Dowd travels to Pope Benedict XVI's homeland of Bavaria and the programme includes a rare interview with his brother, Georg Ratzinger, who reveals how he has been affected by the abuse scandals.
The hour-long BBC2 documentary also looks at how the Catholic church has tried to "fashion a positive message about Pope Benedict
by training up an army of young religious spin doctors called Catholic Voices".
[When it's the BBC dishing out the dirt, it calls its work 'factual programmes'. When British Catholics write positive things - which are well-supported by facts, not spin - about the Pope and the Church, they are 'spin doctors'.]
Ann Widdecombe will also explore the life of the 19th century cardinal, John Henry Newman, in New
man: The Reluctant Saint.
Newman is being beatified – one step below becoming a saint – in a ceremony that will be the climax of the Pope's visit to Britain in September. [COLORE=#1216FF
[Who knows what they will say in the Newman film about the future saint's sexuality! They will most likely feature the gay leader who made such a nasty fuss about it when Newman's grave was opened last autumn.]]
BBC4 also looks into the workings of the Vatican itself in
Vatican: The Hidden World. The hour-long documentary includes a look at the curators who tend the Vatican's treasures and relics such as the bones of St Peter.
[How might they work in something negative into this? The double-entendre title of the film is a clue - as much as saying that the Vatican is far from transparent! The same thing must be said for the title Benedict XVI: The trials of a Pope - I bet they do not mean so much the tests of character that he has been made to go through, but the fact that the BBC, in league with other Pope detractors, are placing him on trial with their selectively biased presentation of fact.
I'm sorry to assume the BBC will be negatively biased, but their history shows they can't be otherwise. They will most likely repeat the clearly erroneous premises of their 2006 documentary - which they never bothered to correct, despite their utter distortion of Crimen sollecitationis to say it ordered bishops to cover up for offending priests).]
The BBC commissioning editor religion and head of religion and ethics, Aaqil Ahmed, said:
Benedict: Trials of a Pope and
Newman: The Reluctant Saint are both
fascinating and thought-provoking documentaries which will provide a unique insight and background to the papal visit."
[Fascinating? Perhaps it will be to people who want to 'confirm' their darkest biases against the Pope, but thought-provoking? More likely rage- and retch-provoking to Catholics who love and admire their Pope.]
The BBC also said it will give "full coverage" to the papal visit in "news and events programmes and current affairs across radio and TV", details of which are still being finalised.
[One has to wonder what sort of commentary their anchors and newswriters will have! Full coverage perhaps, but don't expect objectivity! More likely, they will use the events simply as a convenient platform to vent all their negative ideas by way of commentary.]
A situationer in the Guardian on preparations for the visit leads off with a pop culture note announced earlier.
Platinum-selling clergy trio
to perform in Hyde Park before
prayer vigil with the Pope
by Riazat Butt
Aug. 2, 2010
The Priests, a trio of clerics from Northern Ireland, are to headline a key event during Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK, performing in front of 80,000 people in Hyde Park, London.
The platinum-selling trio – brothers Eugene and Martin O'Hagan and their friend, David Delargy – have previously sung at the Vatican and gone head-to-head with Pope Benedict, a Classical Brit award nominee, in the album charts twice before.
[An anomalous out-of-place nomination, since the Pope's participation in the nominated album was liturgical, not a performance!]
The Pope will be in the UK from 16 September, spending two days in London. Other artists lined up for his visit include Susan Boyle, who will perform in the mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who will compere the London event. The venues are together expected to attract up to 300,000 people.
There are six million Catholics in England, Scotland and Wales and about 1.2 million attend mass every week. Papal appearances often have an element of showbusiness to them. In 2008 the US Conference of Catholic Bishops arranged performances by American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and jazz singer Harry Connick Jr, while
the weekly Vatican audiences can resemble a variety show with their brass bands, pianists, jugglers and choristers. [The 'performances' at Vatican audiences are primarily an expression of Catholic pride and national identity. And Catholic artists consider it a privilege and an honor to perform at a papal event.]
Those unable to go to the performances during the papal visit will be able to watch online streaming of the events. People going to the parks face
a "pay to pray" levy – £25 for the beatification of Cardinal Henry Newman in Birmingham, £10 for the vigil in Hyde Park, and £20 for the mass in Glasgow.
[I continue to believe that no Catholic, given the chance to attend a papal event, would resist or hesitate to pay the fee which in this case specifically helps the Church in the UK defray costs for a once-in-a-lifetime occasion!]
The money will finance transport costs and "pilgrim" packs of commemorative items. Passes to see the Pope are only available through churches, which will decide whether they allocate on a lottery or first come, first served, basis.
A church spokesman said: "There will clearly be more demand than supply. The Pope wants to keep things simple. There is an acceptance of a limited timescale and there was never going to be the possibility for all Catholics to see him."
Organisers insist that nobody should feel compelled to part with more money. But one parish website says money will also be collected at the time of allocation.
A Vatican spokesman said it was rare for anyone to have to pay to see Benedict. The Rev Federico Lombardi said that during the 2008 papal visit to the US tickets were free. Father Joseph Evans, writing in the Catholic Herald, said clergy were in an awkward position last May, after appealing to congregations to contribute to the costs of the visit while knowing that few among them would get to see the Pope.
[Even that should not be cause for awkwardness. The faithful know that unless they live in the cities where the papal events will take place, they must go out of their way literally to 'see' him in person if they wish to do so. Otherwise, they know they can follow teh events on TV.]
Most of the £5m so far raised through private and parish collections will pay for staging the public gatherings.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/08/2010 15:23]