Lourdes 2023

We recently returned from a five day visit to Lourdes, staying in a hotel we have used in the past but which had changed ownership since our last visit. Judging from their occupancy during the second week after Easter - ie very early in the pilgrimage season - Lourdes has bounced back reasonably well from the COVID pandemic.  The number of coaches parked also suggested healthy visitor numbers. The French version of the shrine website lists a full pilgrimage programme across the season, which is also an indication of a recovery in the fortunes of the town.  

During our five days in Lourdes, several large French pilgrimages were present. The International Mass on the Wednesday saw the underground basilica with standing room only. The celebrating bishop preached very ably on the pastoral theme of the shrine for this year: " ... that a chapel be built here ...". The video of the full celebration is on Youtube, with the homily beginning at 28:55 (only in French, but at the actual celebration itself, an English translation was shown on screens in the basilica). It was frustrating that the priests celebrating the daily Mass for English speaking pilgrims did not show any awareness of the pastoral theme.

The Eucharistic Procession is being introduced by the trumpet voluntary that I think was first used in Lourdes for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 - and it is followed by the invitation to those waiting at the altar on the prairie to kneel, if they are able, as the Eucharist is processed to the altar. The invitation is also repeated as the Eucharist arrives in the Underground Basilica for a time of silent adoration. I was reminded of an earlier post on this blog describing some of our other experiences of Eucharistic processions.

The torchlight procession on the Wednesday of our stay was as large as I have seen it on previous visits to Lourdes in July and August - though I must admit to finding the way in which the statue of Our Lady is wheeled up the ramps from the steps and into the Rosary Basilica at the end of the celebration a little comic.

On the Thursday of our stay, we walked up from Lourdes to Bartres, and sat for some time at the sheep fold. The skies alternated between A-400M military transport aircraft arriving and departing from the nearby airport and a pair of birds of prey circling - Gerard Manley Hopkins poem The Windhover came to mind as I watched the birds circle.

The Friday morning saw us pray the "high" Stations of the Cross, using the meditations of Benedict XVI for the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday 2005. The way in which individuals, small groups and family groups can be seen visiting the Stations is an impressive witness to faith.

One of the consequences of Britain's departure from the European Union is that there is a (generous) limit to the number of days that British Citizens can spend in the EU without a visa. To audit a visitor's presence in the EU, British visitors now have their passports stamped by passport controls with the date of entry and again with date of departure. So our visit to Lourdes is now recorded by stamps in our passports.

Pope Francis: The passion for evangelisation; the apostolic zeal of the believer

 Week by week, the Successor of St Peter meets with the faithful, either in St Peter's Square (summer time) or the Paul VI Audience Hall (winter time), for the General Audience. Whilst the immediate listeners of the Holy Father's catecheses on these occasions are the pilgrims gathered in person with the Pope, the catecheses are also more often than not also intended for a wider audience in the universal Church. 

Two special examples of this are the series of catecheses from St John Paul II that are now known under the title "The Theology of the Body"; and a series of catecheses begun by St John Paul II and concluded by Pope Benedict XVI on the psalms and canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer (I have them in a collection published by the Catholic Truth Society). These exemplify how the General Audience catechesis can have both its specific audience on a particular day in a particular place, and a permanent value for the wider life of the Church.

Pope Francis is currently part way through a series of catecheses on "The passion for evangelisation - the apostolic zeal of the believer". The texts are being posted each week at the website of the Holy See, in the section devoted to Audiences: Audiences 2023. At the time of posting, Pope Francis has reached the ninth catechesis in the series. I have dipped into each of them, and found in each of them something of worth: from the careful distinguishing of evangelisation from proselytism and the account of three steps (seeing, followed by movement and then towards a destination) in the calling of St Matthew in the catechesis of 11th January; through the insistence on 15th February that in evangelising there is "no staying without going and no going without staying"; to the account of witness as essential to evangelisation, drawn from St Paul VI's Evangelii Nuntiandi, in the audience of 22nd March.

Every one of us is called to respond to three fundamental questions, posed in this way by Paul VI: “Do you believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you preach what you live?” 

Like the catecheses of St John Paul II and of Pope Benedict XVI, I think these too will have a permanent value for the life of the Church. 

The Way of the Cross at the Colosseum 2023: Voices of Peace in a World at War

 Pope Francis has, on more than one occasion, referred to a Third World War that is currently taking place in a fragmentary way. In the introductory prayer to this year's Good Friday Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, the Holy Father returned to this theme:

Tonight, the way of the cross winds its path behind you, directly from the Holy Land.  We will walk it, listening to your suffering reflected in that of our brothers and sisters who have suffered and still suffer from the lack of peace in the world, allowing ourselves to be pierced by the testimonies and reflections that reached the ears and heart also of the Pope during his visits.  They are echoes of peace that resurface in this “third world war being fought piecemeal”, cries that come from countries and areas torn apart today by violence, injustice and poverty.  All the places where conflict, hatred and persecution are endured are present in the prayer of this Good Friday.

The meditations for each of the Stations describe the experiences of suffering and migration in different parts of the world that are characterised by conflict. We might readily think of migrants seeking to cross the English Channel or the Mediterranean or of the conflict in Ukraine. But it is interesting to read these meditations and recognise that there are other places where violence occurs and has its effect on ordinary people.

Lord Jesus, at your birth the angels in heaven announced: “On earth, peace among those whom he favours” (Lk 2:14).  Now our prayers rise up to heaven to appeal for “Peace on earth,which humanity throughout the ages has so longed for” (Pacem in Terris, 1).  Let us pray, beseeching the peace that you have left us and that we are unable to keep.  Jesus, you embrace the whole world from the cross: forgive our failings, heal our hearts, grant us your peace.

Freedom of Movement: "Free to choose whether to migrate or to stay"

The website of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development of the Holy See has published an indication of the theme for the 2023 World Day of Migrants and Refugees:

The 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees will be celebrated on Sunday, 24 September 2023. The Holy Father has chosen as the title for his traditional Message, “Free to choose whether to migrate or to stay”, with the intention of fostering renewed reflection on a right that has not yet been codified at the international level: the right not to have to migrate or, in other words, the right to be able to remain in one’s own land.

The fact that many persons are forced to migrate demands a careful consideration of the causes of contemporary migration. The right to remain is older, more deeply rooted and broader than the right to migrate. It includes the possibility of sharing in the common good, the right to live in dignity and to have access to sustainable development. All of these rights should be effectively guaranteed in the nations of origin through a real exercise of shared responsibility on the part of the international community.

 The theme is more fully developed in a paper of the Dicastery from December 2022 entitled The "right" not to have to emigrate. In encouraging local Churches to work with the authorities of their countries and regions in order to alleviate the inequalities that might drive peoples to migrate, this paper notes that the decision to emigrate is not always one that is made with freedom:

While violence, conflict, and climate change contribute most significantly to involuntary migration, economic development is also a major factor. Some regions of the world are more privileged than others, and within each society, access to the common good – work, health, education, welfare – is not always guaranteed. In the absence of opportunities for personal and family fulfillment, migration sometimes emerges as the only truly possible choice.

 There are two points here that I find of interest. The first is that the inability to take a proper part in the economic and social life of a country provides a driver in favour of migration that is just as legitimate as is persecution, a driver that represents a constrained choice rather than a free choice. The right to freedom of movement within one's own country, and the right to leave from and return to that country, enshrined in Article 13 of the UN Universal Declaration, has in part an intention of enabling such migration.

The second point is that, though the intention of the theme chosen for the 2023 World Day of Migrants and Refugees is to focus on creating awareness of what needs to be done so that people have a genuinely free choice with regard to staying in their own country, it also recognises a right to choose to migrate, and a desire that the exercise of such a choice may be made with freedom rather than constraint.

The implication of this for Governments is that they should be willing to commit resources to the integral development of people in less developed nations; and where they are not able to do this, to make provision for the consequent migration.

24 Hours for the Lord 2023: "..a festal encounter that heals the heart and leaves us with inner peace".

 This annual celebration of Eucharistic adoration and recourse to the Sacrament of Penance should be seen as one of Pope Francis' most significant innovations in the life of the Church. In Rome it is celebrated by the Holy Father in one of the parishes of Rome. In dioceses throughout the world, the pattern of 24 hours of continuous adoration and availability of Confession is followed in at least one church of the diocese. Vatican News carries a report of this year's celebration in Rome: With repentant and trusting hearts we receive the gift of God's mercy. The responsible section of the Dicastery for Evangelisation  prepared a pastoral resource for this year's celebration that is well worth a read, and in part provides a backdrop to Pope Francis homily: 24 Hours for the Lord: Pastoral Resource 17-18 March 2023. The homily is at the website of the Holy See: 24 Hours for the Lord.

In an early paragraph of his homily, Pope Francis compares the Gospel story of the Pharisee and the tax collector as the appear in the Temple to what might happen in our parishes:

People who are extremely rich in their own minds, and proud of their religious accomplishments, consider themselves better than others – how frequently does this happen in a parish: “I’m from Catholic Action; I’m going to help the priest; I do the collection... it’s all about me, me, me”; how often people believe themselves better than others; each of us, in our hearts, should reflect on whether this has ever happened – they feel satisfied that they cut a good figure. They feel comfortable, but they have no room for God because they feel no need for him. And many times “good Catholics”, those who feel upright because they go the parish, go to Mass on Sunday and boast of being righteous, say: “No, I don’t need anything, the Lord has saved me”. What has happened?  They have replaced God with their own ego, and although they recite prayers and perform works of piety, they never really engage in dialogue with the Lord.  They perform monologues in place of dialogue and prayer. Scripture tells us that only “the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds” (Sir 35:1), because only those who are poor in spirit, and conscious of their need of salvation and forgiveness, come into the presence of God; they come before him without vaunting their merits, without pretense or presumption. Because they possess nothing, they find everything, because they find the Lord.

Pope Francis contrasts how "The Pharisee stood by himself" while "The tax collector, on the other hand, stands far off":

Yet that distance, which expresses his sinfulness before the holiness of God, enables him to experience the loving and merciful embrace of the Father. God could come to him precisely because, by standing far off, he had made room for him. He doesn’t speak about himself, he addresses God and asks for forgiveness.

 Pope Francis then explains how we "stand far off" when we approach the Sacrament of Penance (my italics added):

Brothers and sisters, today let each of us make an examination of conscience, because the Pharisee and the tax collector both dwell deep within us. Let us not hide behind the hypocrisy of appearances, but entrust to the Lord’s mercy our darkness, our mistakes. Let us think about our wretchedness, our mistakes, even those that we feel unable to share because of shame, which is alright, but with God they must show themselves. When we go to confession, we stand “far off”, at the back, like the tax collector, in order to acknowledge the distance between God’s dream for our lives and the reality of who we are each day: poor sinners. At that moment, the Lord draws near to us; he bridges the distance and sets us back on our feet. At that moment, when we realize that we are naked, he clothes us with the festal garment. That is, and that must be, the meaning of the sacrament of Reconciliation: a festal encounter that heals the heart and leaves us with inner peace. Not a human tribunal to approach with dread, but a divine embrace in which to find consolation.

The value of difference

As retired member of the National Education Union, I receive their member magazine, Educate, regularly. The March/April 2023 issue contains coverage of the union's recent and, as I write, ongoing strike action in schools in England. It also has a feature article exploring the charity Lifting Limits. The head of education at the charity is a member of the National Education Union, and is cited in their magazine feature.

There is an aspect of the work of Lifting Limits in schools that emerges from the feature that is quite commendable. This is their work around recognising and challenging roles that are often stereotypically described as being "for boys" or "for girls". This can relate to the sports in which children are expected to participate, to the examples of scientists who feature in the curriculum, to subject choices at A-level and to career choices as they leave school. In all of these areas, and more, there is no reason why children should not be equally encouraged in their choices independently of their sex as male or female. 

However, I do think there is a danger in assuming that role stereotypes based on sex are always going to be harmful. There will be boys and girls whose aspirations match to such stereotypes, and who are quite comfortable with those aspirations. Asking them to question their aspirations, on the grounds that they are stereotypical, is not going to do them any favours. A number of the examples of practice described in the feature in Educate usefully include the contributions of women as well as men; but this is only of value if it offers boys and girls more freedom around their aspirations and is not used to create an ideological opposition to aspirations that follow stereotypes. It should act as an enabler to all aspirations, both those that go against a stereotype and those that go along with it.

The feature refers to another aspect of Lifting Limits work. Citing an example from one primary school:

The school is also teaching children about the use of pronouns and the fact that not everyone identifies as the gender registered at their birth. One year 3 child has a parent who is transgender. "For Fathers' Day they wanted to draw a dress on their card, and they put the transgender flag inside it. It has been easily accepted by all of their peers".

Lifting Limits is keen to break the habit in some schools of labelling children by gender and highlight the things children have in common with one another instead.

"Having school structures and routines that highlight gender is saying, girls and boys are different,", says Kirsty [head of education at Lifiting Limits], adding that this can encourage unhealthy relationships between children.

Certainly it is unhealthy to have a school environment that deliberately plays boys off against girls. But avoiding that is not the same as adopting a reluctance to speak of a difference between boys and girls. This  contrasts sharply with what Pope Francis had to say about gender in a recent interview, where he emphasised the value of such difference: Pope Francis: I dream of a more pastoral, a more open Church:

Pope Francis then stated that he is not writing a new encyclical. In response to a question about whether he has been asked to write a document on the subject of gender, the Pope replied in the negative. On this topic, he reiterated that he “always makes a distinction between pastoral work with people of different sexual orientation” on the one hand, “and gender ideology. They are two different things," he said. "Gender ideology, at this time, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonisations. It goes beyond the sexual sphere. Why is it dangerous? Because it dilutes differences, and the richness of men and women and of all humanity is the tension of differences. It is growing through the tension of differences. The gender question dilutes differences and makes the world equal, all level, all the same. And this goes against the human vocation.”

Politics, ideology and sex education

Teacher unions in England are reported as being concerned that a review of Sex and Relationships Education in schools, recently requested by Rishi Sunak, is politically motivated.

This stance is itself hardly politically neutral. The teacher unions long standing support for the Sex Education Forum is ideologically motivated, and represents support for what Pope Francis would term "the ideological colonisation of the family". It is the outcome of the influence of that organisation on education policy that may now be challenged by the review.

One Conservative MP articulated the concerns that have led to the review in terms that might reflect genuine concerns of parents over what is being taught in schools:

Posing a question to Sunak during prime minister’s questions, [MP Miriam] Cates said: “Graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and 72 genders. This is what passes for relationships and sex education in British schools.

“Across the country, children are being subjected to lessons that are age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate, often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents.

“This is not a victory for equality – it is a catastrophe for childhood.”

It is to be hoped that genuine parental concerns are not going to be overshadowed in the public debate by a conservative ideology - it is sometimes very difficult to separate a Conservative MP's appeals to a particular political/ideological electoral constituency from a genuine concern about the issue itself (though I do not make this remark of Miriam Cates, quoted above). 

The idea that teaching about 72 genders is in any way genuinely education in sex and relationships defies simple common sense....