SIR – In response to the cover story (May 31) entitled “What went wrong?”, in which Stephen Bullivant talks about the laity’s mass exodus after Vatican II, I simply wish to say that a lot of good things are being done in the Church. But there is one thing that hasn’t received much of our attention precisely because it is quite challenging: I sincerely believe that lay people, especially those with the gifts and the willingness, should be trained and helped to form Catholic businesses.
When you have fellow Catholics joining forces to make a living together, what you get is a wholesome, human and holy work environment. As opposed, that is, to many jobs where workers are exploited by their employers and “de-evangelised” through peer pressure.
To transmit the faith to the next generation there has to be a strong relationship between parents and children: an exploitative job drains the worker’s energy leaving him with not much left for his or her family.
To transmit the faith parents also have to give witness of it to their children; this can be very difficult when co-workers are a bad influence. People understandably spend a lot of time at work. Imagine what would happen to them if they encountered the Lord there?
Fr Juan Villagómez SOLT
Dover, New Jersey
SIR – Anthony Esolen’s article on beauty in the Church (Arts, May 31) was music to my ears. As an organist and a practising Catholic, I was very much in sympathy with his comments on the rather undignified and worldly music that is proffered in so many parishes. I hope I am not without humility when I therefore suggest that it is a shame for the Church when a musician of my own ability (graduate of the Royal College of Music and formerly on the music staff of Farm Street Church and Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge) feels reluctant to contribute musically to a local parish Sunday Mass. Professional musicians want to perform stimulating music which is worthy of their talents; they don’t want to perform banal music. Thus, most weekends, I head to Westminster Cathedral.
I have the privilege of training a boys’ voice Schola at an east London comprehensive school (yes, it’s possible) and, over seven years there, I have discerned that my 11- to 18-year-old choristers are bored with “I, the Lord of sea and sky” and its ilk. They delight in singing plainchant Sanctus settings and music in four-part harmony. They don’t like being talked (or even sung) down to. Which prompts the question: who exactly are we dishing out such trite, infantile music to?
James Devor
Hornchurch, East London
SIR – I was interested and pleased to read Colin Mawby’s defence of Westminster Cathedral Choir School and his reflections on the changes (Charterhouse, May 24).
As a regular attender at the 5.30pm Mass, I and many others love to hear the choir. At the end of a busy day they help us all to pray and reflect and are magnificent on the big occasions, of which there are many.
Without knowing much about all the politics behind the decision, I think it is very sad that the cardinal has not supported the Master of Music in this.
The choir was saved by Cardinal Hume, still much missed, and I am sure that Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, being a musician himself, would not have done anything to jeopardise a world-class choir and a jewel in the Cathedral’s crown. Perhaps it is time that Cardinal Nichols explained the reasons for his lack of support.
Valerie Hamblen
Hayes, Bromley
SIR – Although June is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Cover story, June 7), some priests and lay people who do not know much about it think the devotion is old-fashioned and irrelevant. (And some art that is associated with it is unhelpful here.)
In the writings of St Margaret Mary Alacoque and Fr John Croiset, one of her spiritual directors, we see that the devotion is principally about our love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. From the Cross, Jesus tells us that he thirsts for our love (John 19:28). He longs for our love and attention now: what could be more relevant to our life?
P Whitney
Bentley, South Yorkshire
SIR – Both my mother and her mother had a lifelong devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Indeed, my maternal grandmother died on June 27 fortified by the last Sacraments and welcoming her death in the knowledge that this was on the feast day of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.
However, the Bishops of England and Wales decided arbitrarily some years ago to remove this feast from the Calendar, and passed the responsibility for celebrating Our Lady’s feast to the Redemptorists in the UK. They were not alone as the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland did exactly the same. Indeed, the feast seems to have disappeared from liturgical calendars in Ireland, the United States and France.
I have the wonderful icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour on display in my home and try to continue the devotion I learned from my mother, but I cannot help but wonder if this is a feast which is no longer recognised by the Church or has been relegated to one of minor significance.
It is not as if there are no free dates in the liturgical calendar – a move of St Cyril of Alexandria to an uncommitted date earlier in the week would allow the restoration of the unwarranted loss of one of Our Lady’s feasts to the original date enjoyed since the 19th century, if not earlier.
Joseph Fleming
Pantymwyn, Flintshire
SIR – I can endorse the sentiments in your Letter of the Week (June 7) from Deacon Kevin O’Connor. A regular church-going friend of mine, coming to the same conclusion as the deacon – that the clergy avoid at all costs contentious teachings and doctrines – was driven to put his concerns in writing to his parish priest. He listed the failures of the clergy to deal with the multitude of day-to-day dilemmas facing the laity, citing genetic engineering, same-sex marriage and gender reassignment as some of his examples.
His overall point – that in a fast-changing world the Church, when referring to and applying the Gospels or readings, must constantly revisit the latter to remind and interpret them for the laity – has gone unanswered six months later. Even a basic question such as “What is the Church’s present position on the existence of heaven, hell and purgatory?” has elicited no response.
Little wonder that, metaphorically, for every convert that comes through the front door, 10 churchgoers leave by the back door never to return (Cover story, May 31).
Michael Kelly
Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire
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