A brief thought on Charlie

Some Catholic comment has argued that, from a Catholic point of view, "on n'est pas Charlie": see here, for an example.

In quite a thoughtful way, and responding to much the same evidence base as those who have argued that they are not Charlie,  Humblepiety answered the question Je suis Charlie? in the affirmative.

This post at First Things also gives some insight into how the French themselves have reacted to the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo: My Life with Charlie Hebdo. It is also interesting to read the message to the Catholics of Paris published today by Archbishop Vingt-Trois, published here at La Croix.

At one level, the discussion can be held at the level of the legislation in force in a country. Charlie Hebdo 's cartoons are, by all accounts, quite offensive to those who practice the Catholic faith in France as much as some of them have been to Muslims. But a country where the language of religious offense has been enshrined in positive law is Pakistan .... where the blasphemy law does in effect lead to very significant religious persecution of both Muslims and those who live out other religious beliefs.

In the more secular countries of the developed world, the language is that of discrimination and protected characteristics, with actions that disadvantage someone who manifests a protected characteristic being the subject of civil or criminal sanction. There is also a category of legal provision with regard to harassment and the giving of offence. The risk with this situation is that reasonable manifestation of an opinion differing from the prevailing social consensus can be construed as harassment or offence thereby particularly restricting freedom of religious expression in (relatively speaking) secularised societies.

My own thoughts on the question have focussed on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration reads:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

The presumption of much of the discussion about Charlie Hebdo has been that the material it publishes falls under this provision of freedom of expression, understood as conveying a right to say and publish pretty much anything that one wishes - regardless. I am not sure that the specification of the right contained in the last clause of Article 19 does in fact convey such a right.

Article 12 of the Declaration reads, with italics added to indicate the element of the Article relevant to the present discussion:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

In the light of Article 18's assertion of the right to freedom of belief and practice for both individuals and communities, I would suggest that attacks upon the honour and reputation of a religious community would equate to attacks upon the honour and reputation of the individuals who are members of that community and so fall under the provision of Article 12. [This is reinforced by recalling that the immediate historical context of the UN Declaration was the events of the Second World War and the Nazi persecution of Jews and other minority communities.] Understood in this way, Article 12 provides a boundary within which the freedom of expression asserted in Article 19 should be exercised. Catholic commentators are, in effect, suggesting that the material published by Charlie Hebdo goes beyond this boundary in attacking the honour and reputation of members of religious communities.

The significance of considering the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that the rights enshrined there arise from the nature of the human person; they are, in the words of the preamble to the Declaration, "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family". The positive law of a country does not convey those rights; rather, it should protect them. In addition, the language of the Declaration is not that of a particular religious community that, when projected into positive law, undermines the freedom of others; and neither is it the language of a secularised liberalism that risks undermining genuine freedom of expression of information and ideas.

Certainly those who were killed in the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo were subject to a breach of Article 3 of the UN Declaration, which asserts the right of everyone to life, liberty and security of the person. Those who carried out the attack committed a quite heinous crime against the human persons of their victims.

But, though a certain allowance has to be made for the particular genre of journalism that comes under the heading of "satirical journalism" and that, of its nature, gives rise to some degree of offense when you are yourself its particular target (cf the reaction of Eve-Alice Roustang linked above), one can debate whether or not Charlie Hebdo is an authentic representative of the freedom of expression as articulated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Oui, on est Charlie (cf Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme Article 3), mais - peut-etre oui, peut-etre non - en meme temps, peut etre on n'est pas Charlie (cf Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme Article 12).

The Year of Consecrated Life (3): consecration as a specification of baptismal grace

Let me start this post with a couple of anecdotes. From time to time I attend Mass at St Patrick's Soho Square. On one such occasion, having been asked to do one of the readings, I noticed that those asked to do the second reading and bidding prayers were, like me, using Magnificat to aid their participation in the liturgy. From time to time, I am sure that I share the experience of others in meeting a Catholic who has a more than typical awareness of (not the same as perfection in, I hasten to add!) what is involved in living a Christian life. Enquiry not infrequently reveals that they have gained that awareness from participation in the life of one or other of the new ecclesial movements. On the one hand this suggests a certain inadequacy in parish life that is in itself unable to form such stronger Christian living; but on the other hand, rather than necessarily indicating an inadequacy, it indicates that a certain "more" is needed for a vivid living of a Christian life.

The primary consecration of the faithful, and that which is most represented by parish life in its celebration of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Holy Eucharist, is that of the sacraments of initiation. As Lumen Gentium n.10 (cf also  Apostolicam Actuositatem n.3 in particular reference to baptism and confirmation as the basis of the office of the lay person in the Church) teaches:

Christ the Lord, High Priest taken from among men, made the new people "a kingdom and priests to God the Father". The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, in order that through all those works which are those of the Christian man they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the power of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. Therefore all the disciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God, should present themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Everywhere on earth they must bear witness to Christ and give an answer to those who seek an account of that hope of eternal life which is in them.

We can suggest that this baptismal/confirmational consecration represents a seed that needs to grow throughout a subsequent living of the Christian life, and that it therefore requires a "more" in order to achieve its fruition. That "more" can be expressed, and is lived, in many different ways in the life of the Church; but what each of those ways has in common is that they are in some way a more specific manifesting or expressing of the consecration first received in baptism and confirmation. In the anecdote above, that particular specification of baptismal/confirmational consecration comes about through experience of the charism of an ecclesial movement. When Pope Francis, and his predecessors, speak of the need for a "personal, living relationship with Christ" they too are speaking of a greater specification of the original consecration of baptism and confirmation which do, indeed, themselves involve a relationship with Christ. Marian consecration is to be understood in this way, too, as is the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" of the Charismatic Renewal.

The consecration, as consecration, represented by the profession of the evangelical counsels is one manner, with a particular excellence, of this specific living of the consecration first received in baptism and confirmation. Speaking of religious life, Lumen Gentium n.44, says:

Indeed through Baptism a person dies to sin and is consecrated to God. However, in order that he may be capable of deriving more abundant fruit from this baptismal grace, he intends, by the profession of the evangelical counsels in the Church, to free himself from those obstacles, which might draw him away from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine worship. By his profession of the evangelical counsels, then, he is more intimately consecrated to divine service. 

It's Silly Season for Catholics who Bash Francis on Climate Change

It's Silly Season for Catholics who Bash Francis on Climate Change is a much more sensible comment on the apparently forthcoming encyclical than some that are doing the rounds. Do note that Pope Francis follows both Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II in speaking of environmental concerns.

I maintain that we look very silly in criticizing the Pope for how or what he says, when he has not said it yet. So let's just wait and see. It should at least be obvious, by now, that no good comes of letting the secular have all the lines when it comes to environmental issues. If we want a pro-life message to be part of the conversation on environmental policy, then the Pope must speak.

 

An open letter to the Bishops of England and Wales (by way of reply)

As you will be aware, Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum established that there should be two forms of celebration of the liturgy in the one Roman Rite. The one, termed the "ordinary form", is that according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI, and its two subsequent editions published by the authority of Pope John Paul II. The second, termed the "extraordinary form", is that according to the liturgical books of 1962, published at the authority of Pope John XXIII. At the time of the publication of Summorum Pontificum, and in the time immediately following, there occurred an effort from some quarters to actively promote and extend the frequency of celebrations according to the extraordinary form. At the present time, it is again being suggested that such celebrations should be actively promoted, even in places where no request or desire for such celebrations is expressed.

It is of note that, though Pope Benedict must clearly have anticipated, in writing his letter to bishops that accompanied Summorum Pontificum. that the number of celebrations in the extraordinary form would increase as a result of the motu proprio, there is nothing in that letter which advocates a promotion and extension of those celebrations to places where no manifest desire for such celebrations exists. The circumstances which the preamble to Summorum Pontificum itself, and the letter, describe are circumstances which justify a "clearer juridical regulation", to quote Pope Benedict.

The attachment to the extraordinary form is not commonly encountered in the majority of Catholic life, and is usually a manifestation of a very specific liturgical and spiritual style. It is therefore the considerations of Pope Benedict's letter that refer to the relationship of the extraordinary form to the celebration of the ordinary form that are of relevance to the majority of Catholics, rather than the wider promotion of the extraordinary form. I would suggest therefore that the Bishops Conference should give attention to:

The conditions that Pope Benedict identified as ensuring that the Missal of Paul VI is able to unite parish communities: the celebration of the ordinary form of the liturgy with reverence, that is, with a deliberately nurtured sense of the sacred rather than of the mundane and every day; and the celebration of the ordinary form in a manner faithful to its rubrics

The various aspects of mutual enrichment between the extraordinary and ordinary forms: the unification of the calendars for both forms, which will then enable the inclusion of the new saints and prefaces in the celebration of the extraordinary form and avoid the situation where on the same day very different feasts might be celebrated depending on the form used; the promotion of the use of Latin in the celebration of the ordinary form.

 It is in considerations such as these that the spiritual needs of a major part of the Catholic faithful will be met, rather than by the attempt to spread the celebration of the extraordinary form to places where there is no expressed need or desire for it. This would also be in conformity with Pope Benedict's intention, expressed in his letter to bishops, to respond to situations where there is an expressed desire for the extraordinary form and thereby arrive at "an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church".

Epiphany 2015

 

The custom of marking the entrance to our homes with the numbers/letters "20+C+M+B+15" is gaining ground in Britain, as the large numbers collecting blessed chalk at the end of Mass this morning demonstrated. It at once marks the names of the three magi, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. It can also be understood as a blessing prayed upon the house over whose door it is inscribed. But I think, too, that if gains a richness by reference to some words of the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Epiphany (Mt. 2:11):

... and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

The inscription invites us to make our homes places in which the Lord is worshipped, and reminds us as we come and go from our homes of that invitation to adore the Lord. It also extends that invitation to those who might be visitors to our homes. Last June or July, it was my postman who mentioned to me, as he delivered a parcel, that he had found out what the inscription stood for.

 

Less reverently .......

 

In the weeks leading up to 30th December, there were some 50 Paddington Bear statuettes to be found in locations around London. Though all the same shape, they were variously decorated to designs by a number of the famous and good. They accompanied the release of the film Paddington.The photo below is from Paddington Station itself.

 

And the photo below, which I titled "Bear down", was taken during a meal out just before Christmas.

Pope Francis: homily for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God

Aunty points out the teaching offered by Pope Francis in his homily at Mass on New Year's Day. The Vatican Information Service is carrying a full English text under the title Jesus cannot be understood without his Mother; the Catholic News Agency, to whom Aunty links, have a report under the title Without the Church, Jesus 'is at the mercy of our imagination,' Pope says.

Pope Francis has, I think, spoken on previous occasions of the motherhood of the Church; it is one of his favoured themes. Likewise, the idea that one cannot separate a relationship with Jesus Christ from a relationship to the Church is another of his constant themes. The two themes are brought together very beautifully in this homily. If one wishes to look for an example of a presentation of Catholic teaching in the form of beauty, Pope Francis' homily is an excellent example.

I was reminded as I read the full text of Pope Francis' homily of Pope Paul VI's decision to acclaim the Virgin Mary with the title "Mother of the Church" at the time of the Second Vatican Council. That decision was not without controversy at the time - the Council fathers had, in effect, chosen not to make use of the title - but has I, think, been borne out in the life of the Church since the Council. That Pope Francis readily refers to the title in his homily is very indicative of this.

Year for Consecrated Life (2)

A feature of the pontificates of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI were the "Years of ...".  What Lumen Gentium n.22 expresses in juridical terms, this practice of calling years to celebrate a particular aspect of Catholic life manifests in the order of pastoral care:

The pope's power of primacy over all, both pastors and faithful, remains whole and intact. In virtue of his office, that is as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme and universal power over the Church. And he is always free to exercise this power.

The practice fascinates in another way, in that it is at one and the same time an exercise of a universal pastoral office, and at the same time it remains respectful of the autonomy of the local churches as to how they might celebrate the year.  One might better characterise it as a practice of communion than as a practice of authority.

Archetypal amongst these "Years of ..." are the three years of preparation leading up to the celebration of the Year of the Jubilee of 2000, and the Jubilee Year itself. The practice of a time of Eucharistic Adoration during the vigil before the concluding Mass of the World Youth Days - now the normally expected practise - first began in Cologne during the Year of the Eucharist.

It is opportune that a religious who is the Successor of Peter should call a year dedicated to Consecrated Life. It is unfortunate that the year is likely to be largely dominated by coverage of the Synods dedicated to the family. I am writing this post in the hope that it will draw attention to an ecclesial event of at least similar importance; it is intended to be part of a series of posts.

The National Office for Vocation in the UK has a page with links to resources related to the Year of Consecrated Life. The video at this page is, I think, well worth watching. Having recently read of the work being undertaken by Catholic sisters to support victims of people trafficking I was particularly struck by Fr Timothy Radcliffe's observations about the way in which religious can have an effective Catholic outreach to areas of life that others would find very difficult to enter. I have not looked at the further videos linked on Youtube or Vimeo (they may be the same as the video here). So far as I can tell (correct me if I am wrong), there is no suggestion in these resources of the kind of "temporary commitment" suggested in a Tablet blog post and which I critiqued strongly here.

The National Office for Vocation resources related almost exclusively to consecrated life as lived within a religious order. There are a range of vocations in lay life that involve the same form of consecration - the public and permanent profession of the evangelical counsels - as religious life. One of the most interesting aspects of this is the way in which a number of the new ecclesial movements - Focolare and Communion and Liberation are two prominent examples - have, as a natural part of their growth in the life of the Church, developed a core of members who live a consecrated life in the lay state. A largely hidden form of lay consecrated life is that of the order of consecrated virgins. I hope to post on these later in my series. What strikes me about these developments is that they represent a renewal of a sense of the value of the evangelical counsels, including that of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom. A change to the discipline of priestly celibacy in the western Church would seem to go counter to this movement of the Spirit in the life of the Church.

Meanwhile: please take note that there is something else happening in the Church other than (the media version of) the Synod.