An atheist’s warning about secularisation
Religion is not about to die, said Jonathan Sacks in Standpoint magazine. “But the secular West is in real trouble.” Without religion, society falls apart. Rabbi Sacks quoted the atheist historian Will Durant: “What happens at a certain point in history is that the intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and, after some hesitation, the moral code allied with it. Literature and philosophy become anti-clerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason and falls to a paralysing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea.
“Conduct deprived of its religious support deteriorates into epicurean chaos and life itself shorn of consoling faith becomes a burden alike to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. In the end, a society and its religion tend to fall together like body and soul in a harmonious death.”
The battle over a cathedral restoration
The New York Times reported on a contested restoration of Chartres Cathedral that removed centuries of grime from its interior – and turned its famous Black Madonna white. Benjamin Ramm described it as the “most substantial renovation since Chartres was rebuilt between 1194 and 1225”. Its intention, he wrote, was to recreate what the cathedral would have originally looked like – a “radiant vision, as close to heaven on earth as a pilgrim might come”. But visitors are sharply divided over the result. Architecture critic Martin Filler called it a “scandalous desecration”.
Its defenders say the accretion of grime hid “decaying whitewash” and layers of paint. Its shiny new look may seem garish, Ramm wrote, “but they were aspects of the medieval cathedral”. Modern visitors “do not have medieval eyes, and we cannot see the world as pilgrims of that era did,” he wrote.
Academic tributes to a sacked philosopher
An eminent philosopher and friend of St John Paul II, Professor Josef Seifert, has recently come under pressure after he wrote an article suggesting that Amoris Laetitia could potentially threaten “the entire moral doctrine of the Catholic Church”. In response, the Archbishop of Granada has reportedly removed Seifert from his chair at the International Academy of Philosophy.
At onepeterfive.com. several academics paid tribute to Seifert. Claudio Pierantoni, professor at the University of Chile, said it was “hideous” that an outstanding philosopher like Seifert had been dismissed.
Luke Gormally, a former member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said Seifert was “one of the few characters I would call ‘noble’. He has been extraordinarily dedicated in his devotion to the truth, both the truth … And he has combined this devotion with frankness, courtesy and charity in his dealings with others.”
Theologian John Lamont wondered if Seifert might be able to take action in canon law or civil law against his dismissal.
✣Meanwhile…
✣ Two acclaimed Welsh actors are to play Pope Francis and Benedict XVI in a forthcoming Netflix feature film.
Game of Thrones star Jonathan Pryce will take on the role of Francis while Anthony Hopkins is in talks to play Benedict XVI.
Pryce’s Game of Thrones character – a sackcloth-wearing religious leader called the High Sparrow – drew comparisons to Pope Francis. Pryce looked so similar to the Pope that one site suggested that Francis had been “sneaking off from the Vatican” to star in the series. Pryce told Vulture.com that he doesn’t see the resemblance himself, but that when Pope Francis was elected both his children texted him saying: “Daddy, are you the new Pope?”
The new film, entitled The Pope, will be directed by Fernando Meirelles, whose credits include City of God. It revisits the dramatic weeks following Benedict XVI’s resignation.
✣ About 30 Vatican employee have formed an athletics team, the Athletica Vaticana, known as “the Pope’s runners”. Vatican official Fr Melchor Sanchez de Toca y Alameda told L’Osservatore Romano: “We won’t be participating at the Olympics.” But they will try to exhibit “the real values of sport” and show friendship to those in need.
✣The week in quotations
We cannot govern the nation by killing Cardinal Tagle Pastoral letter
I saw him the day before he died. He was humble, peaceful and trustful Cardinal Nichols on Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor The Times
Pope Francis thanked him for his friendship Bishop Mark O’Toole on the Pope’s last phone call to the cardinal Homily
They have all arrived for the passing of the Pope in the Batmobile… er, Popemobile TV reporter Castalia Pascual Panama channel TVN
✣Statistic of the week
31 The number of years since a pope last visited Colombia Source: Vatican.va
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