Riots and Poverty

This series of posts is based upon two premises. The first is that the motivations and circumstances of those involved in the disorder in some of the cities of England appear to be very varied; a range of factors appear to have been in play rather than a narrow set of "causes". The second is that, as Pope Benedict said in Westminster Hall, the role of religion is not to propose particular political solutions but instead to to offer a purification of reason applied in the search for objective moral principles.

There is a poverty that, rightly, the Church teaches should be eradicated. This is that un-chosen poverty that leaves the human person without dignity - without sufficient means to meet their daily needs of food, health, accomodation and participation in society. I expect that in some places poverty of this type is part of the story of the riots.

But there is also a second poverty, a chosen poverty, that the Church encourages as part of the way in which Christians respond to the challenge of living the Christian life. In its strongest manifestation this is seen in the vow of poverty typical of the life of religious orders.

Can. 573 §1. The life consecrated through the profession of the evangelical counsels is a stable form of living by which the faithful, following Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, are totally dedicated to God who is loved most of all, so that, having been dedicated by a new and special title to His honor, to the building up of the Church, and to the salvation of the world, they strive for the perfection of charity in the service of the kingdom of God and, having been made an outstanding sign in the Church, foretell the heavenly glory....

The Church encourages her members to promote the value of this chosen poverty, freely entered in to, in the life of the Church. If religious life is understood as the most radical form of living that life that should be proper to all the Christian faithful - a thought, I think, that can be found in the writing of Louis Bouyer on monastic life - then chosen poverty becomes something in which all the faithful have a stake. Different vocational contexts mean that this counsel of poverty will be lived analagously, or "according to state of life".  The fruit of this is a certain detachment from material goods, a recognition that some material goods are "surplus" and not necessary, and can be dispensed with.

Within the dynamic of theft that was part of the recent rioting in English cities, an excessive desire for possession of "status" consumer goods played a part. Clearly those who gave in to temptation, or who engineered the looting of these goods, bear a prime responsibility for their actions. But we should also recognise that many others have shared in creating a culture in society that values the possession of status consumer goods in a quite inordinate way.

A contribution that the Church can make to the debate about the riots is:

(1) to offer the example of voluntary poverty as lived by religious in our own cities, to talk about this in the media and to encourage its visibility in the life of parishes and dioceses

(2) to promote in parishes and schools the idea of a certain "detachment" from material goods

(3) to encourage the presence of religious in the deprived areas of our cities, and to encourage social action on the part of Catholics in those areas

(4) not to be shy of offering these examples, explicitly religious in their inspiration, as contributions to a common good for which others in society also work.

Evangelisation needs belief in eternity: Fr Cantalamessa's second Advent Sermon

ZENIT are carrying a report of Fr Cantalamessa's second Advent homily preached before the Holy Father and members of the Curia. The first sermon addressed the theme of scientism and science. This second addressed the theme of secularism. I will post a fuller comment when I have been able to access the full text of the sermon. Meanwhile, a couple of observations based on ZENIT's report.

Fr Cantalamessa's definition of secularism as "the reduction of the real only to the earthly dimension" gives an interesting foundation to the contemporary experience of secularism as the exclusion of religious expression and practice from public life, both social and political.

Fr Cantalamessa makes the very striking observation that "faith in eternal life is one of the conditions of the possibility of evangelization".

ZENIT's report concludes by quoting the following comment of Fr Cantalamessa on the Psalter:

In the Hebrew Psalter there is a group of Psalms called 'Psalms of the ascension,' or 'canticles of Sion.' They were the Psalms that Jewish pilgrims sang when they went out on pilgrimage toward the holy city, Jerusalem. One of them begins thus: 'I was glad when they said to me, "let us go to the house of the Lord!"' These Psalms of the ascension then became the Psalms of those that, in the Church, are journeying toward the heavenly Jerusalem; they are our Psalms.

The psalm quoted was that used at Mass on the First Sunday of Advent.

Poll

ZENIT are reporting the Tablet's reporting of a survey undertaken in the UK ahead of the visit by Pope Benedict XVI.

From a Catholic point of view, there are some encouraging aspects to the poll. The results do, for example, suggest that the vitriolic antipathy of such as the Protest the Pope coalition is not reflected among ordinary members of the population, and that the media attention it might gain is disproportionate to the level of real support that such views have.

That something like one in five of the general population as a whole look as if they will follow the Papal visit is also an encouraging statistic.

One of the most interesting results is the response to a question about the Christian culture that forms a part of the history of the United Kingdom, though it does need to be treated with some caution.  Some 76% of the general population responded to say that they thought the United Kingdom should retain its Christian culture. It is worth looking at the seventh slide of the Tablet's reporting, to see the wording of this question and the related question about the Catholic Church's strong moral views. The question is one about Christian culture, and not about Christian beliefs - so one should not draw too strong a conclusion in favour of an influence of Christian beliefs in public life from this response. The significance perhaps lies more in the defining of UK culture as Christian over and against other, possibly religious or possibly secular, cultures. But even with his caution attached to it, the response is interesting in the view of the secularisation of our culture as it is manifested in the media. But the most interesting question on this slide is that about the value of the Catholic Church's strong moral beliefs. That nearly half the general population are indicated as finding this at least a "tend to agree" suggests an acceptance of the place of the Church in public life when she teaches on moral questions, though this is clearly not to say that those "tending to agree" thereby all agree with what is taught. I think the implications of this response are interesting.

A final thought on the question about support for the Papal visit, on slide 2 of the Tablet's reporting. With nearly two thirds of the general population neither opposing nor supporting the Papal visit, one recognises that the vitriol and misrepresentation of such as Protest the Pope coalition is not shared by the people of the UK as a whole. This is encouraging. However, it also suggests that many of those 63% may feel that they do not have what one might call a "stake" in the Papal visit (only 20% or so intend following the visit via the media). From the Catholic point of view, this is less encouraging and might give us cause for thought in the coming two weeks.

PS: School term starts on Monday, but when I was at school one morning this week I had my first conversation with a colleague about the Papal visit. I am sure more conversations will follow.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

I have just returned from a visit to the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph, in Leigh- on- Sea, Essex. They have this evening celebrated a sung Mass for their patronal feast day, and to mark the 150th anniversary of the apparitions at Lourdes. The picture shows the shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in the Church. Mass was celebrated with due solemnity. I particularly enjoyed the singing of the Lourdes setting of the Ave Verum at Communion.

The parish priest has arranged a "listen again" function on the parish website. You can download Sunday homilies as podcasts. Follow the links to the "podcasts" from the homepage of the site. What would be interesting is to know how many downloads the homilies get ...