Robert Burns once wrote of the gift of seeing “oursels as ithers see us”. Perspective is indeed a wonderful thing and it was something that British Catholics benefitted from recently with the visit of Bishop Robert Barron from the US to the UK.
The visit had been a long time in the planning. Twice delayed on account of Covid and national mourning following the Queen’s death, Bishop Barron finally arrived in February for his week-long trip. As his plane touched down at Heathrow, a colleague simply messaged to say “the eagle has landed”.
The theme of the week was “Sharing the Church’s Story”. Bishop Barron has an obvious talent for preaching and communicating all that the Church has to offer. His Word on Fire Ministries has a following in just about every corner of the English speaking world, including in the UK. In his interview with the Catholic Herald, he put his success down to communicating the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith.
But as I waited outside Parliament to greet him on a cold Monday morning, I found myself wondering what insights this Chicago-born Prelate could offer when it came to sharing the Church’s story in this country. Our politics is different in so many ways to the United States, despite sharing many of the same challenges.
I also wondered how our civic and religious leaders would react to the preaching of an American Bishop, even one with three million followers on Facebook. It can be difficult for our own Bishops to get a hearing in the public sphere these days, never mind one from another country.
Any doubts I had were set aside when I heard Bishop Barron deliver his speech in parliament that Monday evening, organised by Catholic Voices and the Catholic Union. In a place where there is usually so much noise and business, you could have heard a pin drop as the Bishop delivered line after line of inspiring reflections.
Using the beatitudes as the basis for his comments, he spoke of the need for Christian virtues in public life and society. Turning the other cheek, he said, was not a message for Christians to be passive but to stand their ground using non-violent means, including in the public sphere.
Standing at the back of a packed room overlooking the River Thames, I turned to my colleague and said “the eagle has taken off”. For those of us there that night it felt as though we had been part of something very special. Parliamentarians, from the oldest peer to the newest MP, from different parties and parts of the country, were all captivated.
Bishop Barron’s appeal to the universal and timeless virtues of our faith had impressed the audience, but what inspired them were his reflections on the great Catholic heritage of our country. It had taken an American Bishop to remind us of the incredible story of the Church in this land.
I had been with Bishop Barron earlier in the day as he visited Westminster Hall. Parliament’s oldest building has witnessed some of the most significant moments in our history, not least the trial of Saint Thomas More in 1535, and more recently the visit from the late Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
I watched as the Bishop bent down to read the small brass plaque chiselled into one of the giant flagstones on the floor of the Hall, marking where those who condemned More for treason had assembled. It was clearly a special moment for the Bishop who had grown up watching A Man for All Seasons; a film he still watches at least once a year.
The previous day he had visited Tyburn Convent near Marble Arch where so many Catholic martyrs were put to death, following in the footsteps of Saint Thomas More for being true to their conscience and their faith. The next day he was due to visit the Tower of London, where many of those martyrs, including More, spent their final days in this life.
Bishop Barron reflected on these visits during his speech in Parliament. Looking around the room at the 100 people who had assembled to hear him speak, he said how inspiring it was that 2,000 years later the Church was still here, still proclaiming the word of God, in spite of the all the trials (literally) and tribulations along the way.
In his short week in London, Bishop Barron had managed to see more of our Catholic heritage than many of our own people do in a lifetime. Surely Westminster Hall, Tyburn Convent, and the Tower of London should be compulsory visits for pupils at our Catholic schools. It seems that visitors to our country value these places more than we do at present.
Elsewhere in his talk, Bishop Barron spoke about how our flag bears the sign of the Church’s story in this country over the centuries with not just one, but three crosses emblazoned it; the crosses of St George, St Andrew, and St Patrick now forming that familiar image of the Union flag.
He marvelled at how the cross, the Roman symbol of terror and oppression that had been used to put to death a young Jewish Rabbi 2,000 years ago, was now a symbol of hope that flies from the top of public buildings across the land. The Christian heritage of our country had been flying above our heads, but perhaps we had forgotten or were too afraid to look up.
Following a gathering of over 1,300 people for a conference in London at the end of Bishop Barron’s visit, the eagle returned to his native America. He leaves behind a Church that is hopefully more confident at sharing our story at the local and national level. Groups like Catholic Voices and the Catholic Union are on hand to help as this work continues.
Bishop Barron has reminded us of the strong Christian foundation we have in this country, with figures like Saint Thomas More to inspire us. The Church’s story in this country is far from over. We will go on proclaiming the word of God “till a’ the seas gang dry, and the rocks melt wi’ the sun” as Burns described the end of time.
James Somerville-Meikle is Deputy Director of the Catholic Union of Great Britain
(Photograph: CNS)
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