Letters should include a genuine postal or email address, phone number and the style or title of the writer. Email: [email protected]
Due to space constraints, please keep correspondence below 250 words, longer letters may be published online
SIR – It was intriguing to read Michael Davis’s cover story “The battle over Paul VI” (January 12), in which he wrote that the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has recognised a miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI. The road is now clear for Paul’s canonisation, possibly in October. It was intriguing because it was Pope Paul VI himself who, on October 27, 1963, beatified Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Passionist apostle of ecumenism in days when ecumenists were rare.
Blessed Dominic is best remembered in England for having received John Henry Newman into the Church in 1845. At the beatification ceremony Pope Paul VI said: “Blessed Dominic’s beatification brings to light a character who has more than one claim to outstanding merit … He is worthy of remembrance as a scholastic author of sound studies in theology and philosophy. His work on papal infallibility … anticipates with the secure appraisal of scholarship the definition which was to be made many years later by the Vatican Council.”
When Blessed Dominic was beatified, two miracles were required, and a further two for canonisation. This was changed to one miracle at each stage by Pope John Paul II in 1983. Anticipating this change, the Passionist provincial in England organised a petition to the Holy Father that Blessed Dominic be canonised “without awaiting miracles other than those accepted by the Holy See at his beatification”.
He saw this as a powerful inspiration to Christian unity, Dominic’s lifelong aim. The petition was supported worldwide by two papal nuncios, six cardinals, four archbishops, 17 ordinaries, 13 auxiliary bishops, 15 other prelates, 10 MPs, 24 Passionist communities, 123 major religious superiors and independent houses, and with letters from many prominent Catholics. Unfortunately, it was presented to the wrong dicastery, where it was left to gather dust.
It is now more than 50 years since Blessed Dominic’s beatification, and devotees are wondering why canonisation is taking so long when others can be fast-tracked. There is no doubt that the joint canonisation of Blessed Dominic and Blessed John Henry Newman would have a dramatic impact on English Catholic life. Maybe Blessed Dominic himself, renowned for his frugality, summed up the situation, as he used to tell his confrère: “We must all be saints, but not canonised ones. It’s too expensive.”
Kevin Heneghan
St Helens, Lancashire
SIR – Given the rapid success of the Old Rite parishes in Preston and Warrington (also New Brighton and Reading), as noticed by Stephen Bullivant (Cover story, January 5), there is an even more obvious solution to the shortage of clergy than the one Dr Bullivant advocates. This is the re-opening of Ushaw College as a national seminary for training priests to use the traditional liturgical rites.
Ushaw still has an outstandingly beautiful un-reordered chapel, together with a fine library and plenty of accommodation. Parts of the estate could be rented to the University of Durham (as seems already to be happening) to provide funding.
There is never a shortage of priests willing to serve as academic seminary staff, and if necessary Catholic laity at the university might be paid to
provide suitable extra lecture courses. The experiment of re-opening the seminary to serve its original purpose could be tried for, say, 10 or 15 years, and if it failed then nothing much would have been lost.
Of course, to open such a seminary would mean envisaging the parallel provision of Old Rite and New Rite pastoral methods for the indefinite future. In each diocese a parish with a central tabernacle immediately fronted by a high altar up steps and behind rails, with no altar girls or lay readers or ministers of Communion, with reception of Communion kneeling in one kind on the tongue aided by a Communion plate, with clergy wearing cassocks and insisting on silence in church, and so on, might be adjacent to another parish where more relaxed rules applied. But, given that the local lay people would be free to choose the spirituality and pastoral style that suited them better, hardly anyone is likely to complain.
As the ancient liturgy, with its associated devotions, successfully guided the clergy in their cure of souls for so long, despite huge changes in historical circumstances, it could be considered the proper and timeless structure within which the Church’s work of evangelisation should take place.
On the other hand, those who prefer the modus operandi advocated by academic theorists for the last two generations might be vindicated if the traditional parishes, as well as the traditional seminary, were to fail. But in the short term, at least, the maxim “pray as you can” could be taken as sound advice. It could be left to the Holy Spirit, by directing the hearts of the faithful to choose the forms of worship they preferred, to guide the Church in her pastoral provision for the future.
Christopher Zealley
Eynsham, Oxfordshire
SIR – Thank you for acknowledging the grief and loss felt by worshippers in Aberystwyth for their unique and much-loved church (Feature, January 12). The years go by. The grief does not lessen.
Parishioners and their forebears contributed much to the building, its contents, the memories held within it, and their faith in a God who does not hear their prayers.
The town awaits a sympathetic bishop who will understand the importance of St Winifride’s to the identity of Roman Catholics in this small town, where Welsh is still spoken and read, and the words spoken in Latin are still revered.
A King
Borth, Ceredigion
SIR – Madeleine Teahan (Notebook, January 5) made some interesting points concerning pregnant and nursing mothers receiving Our Lord at Mass, undertaking devotions and frequenting the Sacrament on Confession.
I can empathise with the issue of a baby in tow at Eucharistic Adoration – I haven’t been able to square that particular circle myself. However, she may be encouraged to read that over the last 18 months, having taken due regard for his humour, I have taken my baby son with me to Confession on numerous occasions at the Brompton Oratory, Westminster Cathedral and St Mary’s, Gosport. On every occasion the priest has been more than happy with the arrangement, so much so that I no longer point out that I have a sprog with me.
Dr Martin Smith
By email
SIR – You report the suspension by the Diocese of Down and Connor of the customary handshake as a sign of peace, owing to the risk of spreading flu.
In the Rite of Peace, we express to each other our “ecclesial communion and mutual charity” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal). It seems less charitable to share our communicable diseases at the same time.
Let us hope that this pastoral charity in one diocese will prove as infectious as the virus that has occasioned it.
Andrew Todd
Worthing, West Sussex
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.