Too good not to link to.
And perhaps not unrelated: Holy Saturday and Adrienne von Speyr.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Good Friday
On Good Friday, I joined my sister and her family in Trafalgar Square for the Passion of Jesus. The square was full for the 12 noon performance, and I assume a similar attendance for the 3.15 pm performance. The play is introduced as an expression of the faith of those who produce and take part in it, and Archbishop Nichols concluded the performance by thanking them for bringing the play to Trafalgar Square. He also gave a second "thank you" to the Lord for the saving work represented in the play, before leading those gathered in the square in the Lord's Prayer. The Anglican Bishop of London was due to lead the blessing at the end of the 3.15 pm performance. It is all very moving, and a superb example of the new evangelisation in action.
I then walked up to Soho Square to take part in the Liturgy at 3 pm. Fr Sherbrooke explained when I spoke to him on the steps at the end of the liturgy that, once the restored Church had opened, he felt that it deserved beautiful music though, in his words, they "buy it in". (There was a retiring collection to help cover costs of music and flowers). The beauty of the surroundings combined with the starkness of a Church stripped of decoration made the professionally sung Passion quite stunning. Those singing clearly had a good sense, not just of the music, but of its Liturgical context and meaning, and this was discernable. The concluding words " .... and they laid him there" just seemed to drift into the following silence as an expression of the emptiness of the occasion. As someone said to me recently in a completely different context: Wow!
I then walked up to Soho Square to take part in the Liturgy at 3 pm. Fr Sherbrooke explained when I spoke to him on the steps at the end of the liturgy that, once the restored Church had opened, he felt that it deserved beautiful music though, in his words, they "buy it in". (There was a retiring collection to help cover costs of music and flowers). The beauty of the surroundings combined with the starkness of a Church stripped of decoration made the professionally sung Passion quite stunning. Those singing clearly had a good sense, not just of the music, but of its Liturgical context and meaning, and this was discernable. The concluding words " .... and they laid him there" just seemed to drift into the following silence as an expression of the emptiness of the occasion. As someone said to me recently in a completely different context: Wow!
Sarajevo: anniversary of the war
The events to mark the anniversary of the war in the Balkans, a major feature of which was the siege of Sarajevo, have a particular resonance for me. The BBC coverage is here (do watch the video clip at the top of this report) and here.
There are some very striking implications of the avenue of empty chairs adopted as the symbol of remembrance. It seems to me represent the remembrance of the people of a city, rather than of a particular nation or ethnic community. It at once represents the remembrance of the people and of each and every individual person - represented by those who stand by and cry and by those who place a flower to represent their grief for those they know who died during the siege. As the speaker in the BBC video says, everyone has their chair. It is a great tribute, I think, to the people of the city of Sarajevo that they can put together such a rich and telling symbol of their remembrance and one that so much represents the sense of the ordinary people of the city rather than of politicians.
There is also a sadness that it does not appear possible to to note that remembrance in a way that is religious.
The personal resonance comes from the family whose story is told in these two programmes from BBC Radio 4's Home Truths: Escape from Sarajevo and Escape from Sarajevo Pt 2. The BBC site does not appear to have the full programmes available to listen again. I got to know the family when Maya was in my tutor group, and when I was teaching her A-level Physics. I saw something of the difficulty of the children's relations with their parents that is related in the programmes.
The BBC reporter remembers:
One thing that teachers are able to do is to give young people chances in life that they might otherwise not have. Maya's story is the one of those that I use as an example of this.
Oddly enough, I also gained an insight into how military technology played a part in the eventual ending of the siege of Sarajevo. At the time, I had an educational link to a company called Siemens-Plessey Systems, whose factory in Ilford began life in the early days of television manufacturing, though during the time of my link it focussed on military electronics. The factory became part of BAE Systems, and has now been demolished to make way for a housing estate. In the early 1990's they worked on developing a passive acoustic artillery location system (ie a sophisticated system of microphones, weather stations and computers) as an urgent operational requirement (ie we needed it yesterday) for deployment with British forces serving around Sarajevo. When the system was deployed, British artillery were then moved to positions on Mt Ickman and returned fire at the Serbian artillery and mortar positions shelling the city.
But rather more important was the quality of the information about firing positions gained by the system. International forces were able to say with absolute certainty, not just where shells landed, but where they had been fired from. And it was the political pressure resulting from this, as much as the military response, that eventually eased the shelling of Sarajevo.
There are some very striking implications of the avenue of empty chairs adopted as the symbol of remembrance. It seems to me represent the remembrance of the people of a city, rather than of a particular nation or ethnic community. It at once represents the remembrance of the people and of each and every individual person - represented by those who stand by and cry and by those who place a flower to represent their grief for those they know who died during the siege. As the speaker in the BBC video says, everyone has their chair. It is a great tribute, I think, to the people of the city of Sarajevo that they can put together such a rich and telling symbol of their remembrance and one that so much represents the sense of the ordinary people of the city rather than of politicians.
There is also a sadness that it does not appear possible to to note that remembrance in a way that is religious.
The personal resonance comes from the family whose story is told in these two programmes from BBC Radio 4's Home Truths: Escape from Sarajevo and Escape from Sarajevo Pt 2. The BBC site does not appear to have the full programmes available to listen again. I got to know the family when Maya was in my tutor group, and when I was teaching her A-level Physics. I saw something of the difficulty of the children's relations with their parents that is related in the programmes.
The BBC reporter remembers:
There is a moment that returns to me again and again. An old man emerges from a wood and makes his way towards where I am standing. The lovely green valley has tipped into autumnal browns and it is a cold, damp morning.I have an identical memory, that also has lasted the 15 years or so since, of the time when I eventually asked Maya whether or not she had a religious belief of her own. Her answer was: "I am a Martian". I have regretted asking the question ever since. I was struck at the time by how the manipulation of peoples sensibilities by the political situation, by the warfare and by the media appeared to have made religious belief impossible for a generation. This family desperately resisted any attempts to take sides in the conflict engulfing their city and, if my memory is correct, it was the two girls who insisted that they take part in the peace rally in April 1992 referred to in the first Home Truths programme.
The old man is one of 40,000 people driven from their homes in the central Bosnian town of Jajce, and they have been walking for two days to reach safety....
I asked the man how old he was. He said he was 80. May I ask you, I said, are you a Muslim or a Croat? And the answer he gave me still shames me as it echoes down the decades in my head. I am, he said, a musician.
One thing that teachers are able to do is to give young people chances in life that they might otherwise not have. Maya's story is the one of those that I use as an example of this.
Oddly enough, I also gained an insight into how military technology played a part in the eventual ending of the siege of Sarajevo. At the time, I had an educational link to a company called Siemens-Plessey Systems, whose factory in Ilford began life in the early days of television manufacturing, though during the time of my link it focussed on military electronics. The factory became part of BAE Systems, and has now been demolished to make way for a housing estate. In the early 1990's they worked on developing a passive acoustic artillery location system (ie a sophisticated system of microphones, weather stations and computers) as an urgent operational requirement (ie we needed it yesterday) for deployment with British forces serving around Sarajevo. When the system was deployed, British artillery were then moved to positions on Mt Ickman and returned fire at the Serbian artillery and mortar positions shelling the city.
But rather more important was the quality of the information about firing positions gained by the system. International forces were able to say with absolute certainty, not just where shells landed, but where they had been fired from. And it was the political pressure resulting from this, as much as the military response, that eventually eased the shelling of Sarajevo.
Liturgical blooper kills Pope and Bishop at Mass
I heard this at the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, before it was repeated correctly:
Remember also, Lord, your servants Benedict our Pope and Thomas our Bishop, who have gone before us with the sign of faith, and rest in the sleep of peace.I checked news.va when I got home, just to make sure ....
Small print
By the time this post appears, we might have learnt the answer.
But it would be interesting to know exactly what these paragraphs of the BBC News report refer to. I heard it first, exactly as posted in the website, on Radio 4 Thursday morning, though I then heard the word "too" as the word "two".
But it would be interesting to know exactly what these paragraphs of the BBC News report refer to. I heard it first, exactly as posted in the website, on Radio 4 Thursday morning, though I then heard the word "too" as the word "two".
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley ordered the CQC checks after concerns were raised about consent forms being pre-signed.The Channel 4 News report, which suggests that the CQC was itself one of the organisations whose concerns led to the visits to abortion providers, can be found here.
The inspectors visited nearly 300 abortion providers in England over three days in March, and found about 50 were not complying with laws or regulations.
Several doctors were referred to the General Medical Council, and police have been investigating too, to establish whether criminal offences have been committed.
Abortion: re-opening a conversation on the level of culture..
The events surrounding the 40 Days for Life vigil in Bedford Square, London, gained much attention in the general media and on Catholic blogs.
Speaking on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 30th March, in the morning of the time of prayer led by Bishop Hopes and accompanied by a noisy counter-protest, a spokeswoman for 40 Days for Life, Sarah Denorwel, used the phrase "re-opening this conversation on the level of culture" to describe the nature of what the vigil is about. [The programme is available to listen again on the BBC i-player. I think it is going to remain available, but let me know if this link does not work: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01dvwqm. The package on the 40 Days for Life vigil is at the beginning of the programme.] Fr Stephen Wang has a good account of participation in the vigil at Bedford Square here.
Amidst all the other descriptors that have been applied to the 40 Days for Life vigil in recent weeks, and by some degree of implication to similar vigils that are held at other abortion facilities, this seems to be the one that best captures what they are about.
They certainly are vigils of prayer and, within my own experience which I have no reason to believe is not the common experience, entirely peaceful. In so far as they also represent a public statement that there is another way than abortion, they also represent a witness to others about that alternative. They do therefore, in a constrained and restricted way, share something of the phenomenon of a demonstration. As we have seen in Bedford Square, the vigils have a cultural and political consequence, though one should say that that consequence is not of their essence.
Seen as a "re-opening of this conversation on the level of culture" the religious nature of the vigil is interesting, too. The Catholic Church is perfectly entitled to engage with the culture of the society in which it lives, whether that engagement is undertaken by the lay faithful or by priests and religious. These vigils, in which all states of life in the Church - lay, priestly, religious - are represented, show in quite a particular way this engagement of the Church on the level of culture. They are interesting from an ecclesial point of view as an exemplification of the relative competencies of different states of life in the mission of the Church, as well as being interesting from a cultural and political point of view.
But the vigils also have what one might term a personal dimension. This refers to the people - those who work for the abortion facility, those who attend for abortion, those who take part in the vigil of prayer, those who act as pavement counsellors. For each, though perhaps in different ways and for different reasons, the vigil offers a degree of challenge. But it is precisely these people, most directly affected by abortion, who are the bearers of its culture. The "conversation on the level of culture" is also a "conversation on the level of the persons involved" and, as Sarah Denorwel suggested during her contribution to Woman's Hour, the prayer vigils can, away from the media attention, provide a space within which such a conversation takes place.
Speaking on Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 30th March, in the morning of the time of prayer led by Bishop Hopes and accompanied by a noisy counter-protest, a spokeswoman for 40 Days for Life, Sarah Denorwel, used the phrase "re-opening this conversation on the level of culture" to describe the nature of what the vigil is about. [The programme is available to listen again on the BBC i-player. I think it is going to remain available, but let me know if this link does not work: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01dvwqm. The package on the 40 Days for Life vigil is at the beginning of the programme.] Fr Stephen Wang has a good account of participation in the vigil at Bedford Square here.
Amidst all the other descriptors that have been applied to the 40 Days for Life vigil in recent weeks, and by some degree of implication to similar vigils that are held at other abortion facilities, this seems to be the one that best captures what they are about.
They certainly are vigils of prayer and, within my own experience which I have no reason to believe is not the common experience, entirely peaceful. In so far as they also represent a public statement that there is another way than abortion, they also represent a witness to others about that alternative. They do therefore, in a constrained and restricted way, share something of the phenomenon of a demonstration. As we have seen in Bedford Square, the vigils have a cultural and political consequence, though one should say that that consequence is not of their essence.
Seen as a "re-opening of this conversation on the level of culture" the religious nature of the vigil is interesting, too. The Catholic Church is perfectly entitled to engage with the culture of the society in which it lives, whether that engagement is undertaken by the lay faithful or by priests and religious. These vigils, in which all states of life in the Church - lay, priestly, religious - are represented, show in quite a particular way this engagement of the Church on the level of culture. They are interesting from an ecclesial point of view as an exemplification of the relative competencies of different states of life in the mission of the Church, as well as being interesting from a cultural and political point of view.
But the vigils also have what one might term a personal dimension. This refers to the people - those who work for the abortion facility, those who attend for abortion, those who take part in the vigil of prayer, those who act as pavement counsellors. For each, though perhaps in different ways and for different reasons, the vigil offers a degree of challenge. But it is precisely these people, most directly affected by abortion, who are the bearers of its culture. The "conversation on the level of culture" is also a "conversation on the level of the persons involved" and, as Sarah Denorwel suggested during her contribution to Woman's Hour, the prayer vigils can, away from the media attention, provide a space within which such a conversation takes place.
Benedict XVI in Cuba
One of the things that I missed during my absence was Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Mexico and Cuba. With a hat-tip to Auntie Joanna, I have retrospectively been very struck by Pope Benedict's homily during Mass celebrated in Havana. There appears to be a wonderful resonance, for a different generation and in a different part of the world, with the visits of Pope John Paul II to Poland. The political implication of an essentially religious message are quite apparent. As Auntie Joanna suggested, and as was no doubt true of Pope John Paul II's message in Poland, the relevance reaches beyond the borders of Cuba to a country such as the United Kingdom. Here, it is well to read the following words spoken in Cuba alongside those spoken in Westminster Hall in September 2010.
The truth is a desire of the human person, the search for which always supposes the exercise of authentic freedom. Many, without a doubt, would prefer to take the easy way out, trying to avoid this task. Some, like Pontius Pilate, ironically question the possibility of even knowing what truth is (cf. Jn 18:38), claiming is incapable of knowing it or denying that there exists a truth valid for all. This attitude, as in the case of scepticism and relativism, changes hearts, making them cold, wavering, distant from others and closed. There are too many who, like the Roman governor, wash their hands and let the water of history drain away without taking a stand.
....Anyone who acts irrationally cannot become a disciple of Jesus. Faith and reason are necessary and complementary in the pursuit of truth. God created man with an innate vocation to the truth and he gave him reason for this purpose. Certainly, it is not irrationality but rather the yearning for truth which the Christian faith promotes. Each man and woman has to seek the truth and to choose it when he or she finds it, even at the risk of embracing sacrifices.
Furthermore, the truth which stands above humanity is an unavoidable condition for attaining freedom, since in it we discover the foundation of an ethics on which all can converge and which contains clear and precise indications concerning life and death, duties and rights, marriage, family and society, in short, regarding the inviolable dignity of the human person. This ethical patrimony can bring together different cultures, peoples and religions, authorities and citizens, citizens among themselves, and believers in Christ and non-believers.
Christianity, in highlighting those values which sustain ethics, does not impose, but rather proposes Christ’s invitation to know the truth which sets us free. The believer is called to offer that truth to his contemporaries, as did the Lord, even before the ominous shadow of rejection and the Cross. The personal encounter with the one who is Truth in person compels us to share this treasure with others, especially by our witness....
The right to freedom of religion, both in its private and in its public dimension, manifests the unity of the human person, who is at once a citizen and a believer. It also legitimizes the fact that believers have a contribution to make to the building up of society.
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