The Queen and Prince Philip are often photographed attending Sunday worship, which is always encouraging to other Christians. But surely it’s a little disappointing that Philip didn’t do the Christian thing and immediately apologise for the way in which his road accident had resulted in broken bones for another driver.
Emma Fairweather suffered a broken wrist, and her arm is currently in plaster, as a consequence of the Duke of Edinburgh’s collision last week in Norfolk – when his Land Rover hit the Kia in which she was travelling, along with another woman and a baby. Both women were hurt, though the infant escaped unharmed. Ms Fairweather complained that she received no personal apology from Prince Philip, and, for some time after, no direct contact with the Royal Household.
The Royal Household, for its part, claimed it had made every attempt to contact Ms Fairweather. It seems that the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Mary Morrison, sent a message saying: “The Queen has asked me to telephone to pass on her warmest good wishes following the accident.” But Ms Fairweather felt a direct apology from the Duke should have been forthcoming.
Much of the focus has been on the issue of whether any 97-year-old should be driving in the first place. (The Duke was subsequently photographed behind the wheel of another car, and without a seat belt.) That’s a health and safety issue – not a moral one – and simple enough to resolve: ageing drivers should be judged on their capacities, not just on their age.
But Ms Fairweather is entitled to feel aggrieved that no direct apology, or expression of remorse, came from Philip, who said that dazzle from the sun was at fault for the collision.
When the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, published a prayer invoking a post-accident blessing on the Duke – and added, as an afterthought, a reference to others involved – it caused a ripple of offence on social media.
There are, sometimes, legal restraints on issuing an apology following a mishap. Apologising can imply an admission of guilt or liability, which lawyers will usually advise their clients against. But even so, a note expressing regret would have been the Christian thing to do – and graceful, too. Ms Fairweather said she’d have liked a bunch of flowers from the royals. Why not? It would have been the kind thing to do.
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“There is no new thing under the sun,” says the Book of Ecclesiastes – a quotation which often came to my mother’s lips in her later life. I now find myself uttering the same sentiment.
The men’s razor company Gillette has been the subject of controversy for an advertising campaign which has the prime purpose of selling more shaving kit, with the secondary motive, it seems, of urging men to behave respectfully towards women.
The advert urges men “to hold each other to a higher standard and to step up when they see fellow men acting inappropriately towards women”. Gillette’s campaign, entitled “The best men can be” has been hailed as the latest, “woke” thinking following the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
Ecclesiastes strikes again! Newest idea? In essence, it’s a reiteration of the traditions of Christian chivalry, which the historian of morals WEH Lecky traces back to the 12th century and the influence of St Bernard of Clairvaux. Brutish man, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, should practise respect for women, was its message.
In the 16th century, respect for women was recommended by the Italian courtier, Baldassare Castiglione (the 490th anniversary of whose death falls on February 2 this year). A popularised version of Castiglione’s rules was later taught in Christian Brothers’ schools, as I have previously noted.
Catholics and other Christians shouldn’t reject Gillette’s message: we should own it.
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While the Brexit debate was raging at Westminster, what was making headlines in France? The worrying fall, for the fourth year running, in the birth rate.
In France, 758,000 babies were born in the year 2018; that’s 12,000 fewer than the previous year. France hit a birth rate high in 2010, since when the graph has been ever downwards. Fewer births, an older population and deserted villages and countryside loom: there is no future for any kind of Europe if fertility there continues its relentless decline.
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