SIR – Matthew Schmitz’s cover story (February 24) is absolutely spot on. Faith cannot just be dependent on intellectual or ethical assent if it is to reach out to all people. What was lost during the “reforms” following Vatican II left many Catholics bereft, and failed to win more followers to the faith.
For a majority of people, beauty, whether in the visual arts, music or liturgy, is an essential to their lives and, without it, life can seem stripped of anything worthwhile. Someone living in poverty, working long hours in a dead-end job just to stay afloat, may have precious little access to beauty. The great Anglo-Catholic “slum priests” of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Fr Robert Dolling (builder of St Agatha’s in Portsmouth), understood this perfectly. They offered their parishioners practical help in their daily lives, and access to beauty in church buildings and worship, copying many ritual practices of the Catholic Church. This brought many hundreds, indeed thousands, of people into their churches who would otherwise have remained firmly on the outside, considering the Church to be for the respectable middle classes.
There are signs of hope, in that many dioceses now have centres where traditional practices have returned, and there is an increase in people searching out these places. The priestly congregations which are grounded in tradition and the “beauty of holiness” are attracting proportionately more vocations than the normal seminaries. However, until those in the Church’s hierarchy are willing to admit the unfortunate decisions of the past 50 years, it is difficult to see how the Church will succeed in drawing back the people who perceive themselves to be outside of “the club”.
Yours faithfully,
Sue Mawson (Mrs)
Gurnard, Isle of Wight
SIR – I really must respond to Fr Bob Eccles’s letter (February 10) regarding the issue of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.
Apart from the somewhat airy-fairy language used these days to describe the plight of souls in this difficult position, such as “accompanying people living in complex situations”, nothing much has changed since my wife and I met in 1972.
She had previously married in a civil ceremony at the age of 19. Neither she nor her husband were Catholic and the marriage broke down less than a year later, subsequently ending in divorce.
Rightly or wrongly, I fell in love with this divorcee, as she did with me. I had converted to Catholicism in 1968 at the age of 20 and knew the problems that might lay ahead for both of us.
During our courtship she started attending Mass with me on a regular basis and one day announced that she would like to become a Catholic. I was overjoyed but also overcome with anxiety as I knew a rocky road lay ahead for both of us.
My fiancée applied for an annulment via the diocesan tribunal where she met a wonderful priest who acted on her behalf. But the process was expected to take some 13 months before the tribunal would come to a decision. In the meantime, she went to several priests requesting instruction from them with a view to becoming a Catholic. However, none of them would touch her with a barge pole.
When, out of the blue, we had a chance to rent a small flat we faced a dilemma. We didn’t want to live together; we wanted to be married. But any annulment was a long way off and properties that we could afford in those days were few and far between. A work colleague of mine mentioned a priest that she knew. He went on to give my fiancée instruction in the faith, received her into the Church three days before we went through with a civil ceremony, and then gave us a church blessing and Communion.
My wife was eventually contacted by the priest at the tribunal by phone and then by telegram giving us the good news that an annulment had finally been granted.
To Fr Bob and the others who apparently “accompany people living in complex situations”, I would say just one thing. In Mass we say: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” By extending Communion to those presently excluded you are not watering down the faith; you are showing mercy to those not as fortunate as yourselves.
My wife and I will celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary this year.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Regelous
Witham, Essex
SIR – In response to the question raised by his Council of Priests asking “Whom do we obey, the bishop or the Pope?” (Week in review, February 17), Bishop Egan says “both”.
When a bishop (or cardinal) contradicts the Pope, whom do we obey?
Yours faithfully,
Fr Paul Jennings
By email
SIR – The Rev David Ackerman writes (Letter, February 17) that it would be illegal for Catholic churches to marry same-sex couples. This is, in fact, incorrect, as the text of the Act makes no reference to the Catholic Church, and as with all religious bodies it is up to the individual religion to decide its rules – except for the Church of England, which Parliament has the power to legislate for and has done so. The Catholic Church has protection under the law to discriminate based on its teachings.
Yours faithfully,
Sam Jones
London SW9
SIR – Sister Gillian Price raises an important issue in her letter (February 24) on the inspiring work of Sister Tarcisia in Papua New Guinea.
We sometimes forget that, just as in the case of the daily dispensed antibiotics, such drugs can sometimes become ineffective through constant use and new drugs need to be developed to counteract the resistance of bugs to such drugs.
All this requires extensive research and, no doubt, money, and one can only hope and pray that Western governments, including our own, will prioritise such research, especially for diseases like TB, so that many countries, especially those in the poorer parts of this world, may benefit from access to affordable drugs.
Yours faithfully,
Mervyn Maciel
Sutton, Surrey
SIR – In light of the recent papal intervention in the affairs of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (World news, February 24), should it now be renamed the Pontifical Military Order of Vatican City?
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Haydon
By email
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