Dear Reader,
In last week’s News Briefings, we reported on the Jesuit online Lent course, run by the Ignatian Spirituality Centre in Glasgow, that will be taking place again this year. And in this week’s briefings, coming in the print edition on Saturday, we report on Cafod’s Lent challenge, Walk Against Hunger. Normally, Lent feels a big fail for me. The only time since childhood that I’ve actually managed to give up chocolate, for example, was a couple of years ago, in the aftermath of a critical illness, when it would not have taken very much fat to finish me off. Even “just one chocolate” could have been one too many, while also not nearly enough. But walking and meditating for Lent? Now that is something this flawed human might be able to do. So I’ve signed up for the Cafod challenge and made the JustGiving page. And before going the first kilometre, I’ve made a “Team Tablet” in the hope that some of you might walk with me on this journey. While walking, I’m going to attempt the Jesuit Lent meditations. I’ll keep you updated on the occasional blog, and would also consider contributions that help promote Cafod’s goal. I will try and be mindful throughout the 40 days and beyond that this 200k challenge is to help “stamp out hunger, one step at a time” for the 200 million children and countless adults in the world whose lives are at risk from lack of food.
1. Our webinar last week on the synodal pathway and what it means for Catholic women was exceptionally well-attended, and we are delighted to have a short extract up on YouTube (please like and subscribe!) featuring Tina Beattie as well as to offer a podcast featuring the other speakers also, Penelope Middelboe, Daisy Srblin and Dr Alana Harris. More about this event can be found in the report by Sarah Mac Donald and on our Synod Watch page. We are delighted to welcome the Conference of Religious who are joining Jesuits in Britain as sponsors for the next webinar. Frank Callus, chair of A Call to Action, has written a post today about the challenges facing the synodal process in a post-Covid world. Thank you to Root and Branch, Hinsley Hall and the Jesuits again for sponsoring the last webinar.
2. Pope Francis is concerned about rising tensions on the Ukraine-Russia border and has declared Wednesday 26 January a day of prayer for peace in the country. By Cindy Wooden, CNS. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has been implicated in misconduct in a report on historic abuse within the Munich Archdiocese published on 20 January. The report by a Munich law firm alleges that he responded with inaction to the abuse of minors when he was Archbishop of Munich from 1977-1982. By Madoc Cairns.
3. Four martyrs were beatified in El Salvador at the weekend, one of them a teenage boy. Nelson Rutilio Lemus was killed alongside Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande and Manuel Solorzano in March 1977, with the fourth martyr, a Franciscan priest, dying in 1980, another victim of the conflict in El Salvador during the 1970s and 80s, writes Rhina Guidos of CNS. In a feature article, Martin Maier writes on the context to the beatifications, and the time of transformation they herald in the Latin American Church. Read the homily by Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez here, translated for The Tablet by Francis McDonagh. Ellen Teague reports on the Jesuit Mass of thanksgiving for the beatifications at the Sacred Heart Church in Lauriston, Edinburgh.
4. The Vatican has denied that it wants to dilute the sovereign status of the Order of Malta, Catholicism’s oldest military order and a sovereign entity enjoying diplomatic relations with over 100 states. In response to concerns raised by the Order’s leader, Albrecht von Boeselager, the Pope’s delegate to the group has insisted that the sovereignty of the international association will be preserved. Christopher Lamb has the full story.
5. Responding to critics of Vatican restrictions on the use of the pre-1962 Missal, Archbishop Roche has said that the Church’s prayer should not be a battlefield, and that most bishops see the importance of Traditionis Custodes. Cindy Wooden, CNS, reports. Meanwhile, the Latin Mass Society regrets that the annual confirmations that have taken place for nearly 20 years at St James’ Spanish Place have been cancelled.
Magnus MacFarlane Barrow from Oban in Argyll is extending the remit of his Mary’s Meals charity to feed starving children in Yemen.
6. Mary’s Meals is now operating in Yemen, where thousands of children are at risk of malnutrition and starvation. The Scottish-based charity was founded in a shed in 2002. Its founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, explained that the prospect of a mid-day meal also enables education by attracting children to school who might have stayed away. The charity’s Double The Love campaign means that every donation will be matched by an equivalent amount, up to £1.6 million.
7. Has truth taken a backseat in our culture as well as our politics? Christian MP and former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron thinks so, in his latest Tablet blog The duty we all have to stand up against falsehood on parties in no.10 and dishonesty generally. In our other blogs Rob Esdaile draws on his experience as a parish priest to ask: does ecumenism have a future? Christopher Lamb, reading the latest smoke signals from the curia, says the answer is yes. In his View from Rome he writes about synodality in relation to Christian unity – and describes how the Church has inched closer to a recognition of the fruits of Anglican ministry for decades. Read it alongside Nicholas Sagovsky’s audit of ecumenical progress from the magazine. As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity comes to an end, Christopher Lamb also asks whether the ecumenical journey could include a change in the Catholic Church’s position on Anglican orders.
8. When Winston Churchill died 57 years ago this week, his Catholic cousin Shane Leslie wrote about their boyhood in an article published in the Tablet on 30 January 1965, open to subscribers: Winston’s Early Years: A Cousin’s Memories.
9. Luke’s Gospel for the Third Sunday of the Year is beautiful – and challenging. Fr Alban McCoy’s sermon draws our attention to a central theme of this Gospel: sympathy for the outsider. Luke challenges us to overturn the habit we all have of judging others by their status, achievements, by “who they are”. It is God’s view that matters, not ours. When we exclude others, we exclude God, and that is madness.
10. And a special mention this week for Patrick Hudson, our 2022 Newman intern, who filed his first story this week, on a new exhibition of sacred iconography at the London Jesuit Centre. Patrick is joining us with two history degrees and stints as a barman and teacher under his belt. You’ll be reading much more by him over the next year.
(This newsletter was compiled with the help of Stephanie Bennett, editorial administrator of The Pastoral Review, and Madoc Cairns.)
Ruth Gledhill
