The Church’s values are not those of the Cameron government; there could be trouble ahead

PLEASE NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS AN OPINION OF Dr.ODDIE

(Please see notes at the bottom)

The recent visit of the excellent Baroness Warsi and a group of senior British government ministers to the Holy See appears to have been, generally speaking, a good thing, and it has left behind it positive feelings all round. The government representatives had a talk with Cardinal Bertone and then a meeting with the pope himself; then they issued a communiqué about their talks. These documents always make me wonder: if you really believe this one, they discussed just about every issue in world affairs in some considerable detail: that would have taken several days, if they really did. Did they really talk about all these things? Or did someone read out a statement (maybe this one) after which everyone said: “Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. That puts it all perfectly.” Here, for instance, is the section about recent developments in the Arab world, and about the Middle East in general:

With regard to the changes which have occurred in North Africa and the Middle East, the Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government stressed the importance of undertaking real reforms in the political, economic and social realms, in order better to ensure the unity and development of each nation, in responding positively to the legitimate aspirations of many people for peace and stability. In this context, reference was made to the role which Christians can play and to the importance of inter-religious dialogue. The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government expressed the hope for a resumption of negotiations in good faith between Israelis and Palestinians so as to bring about a lasting peace. They renewed their appeal for an immediate end to violence in Syria and stressed the need for co-operation to overcome the present crisis and work towards a harmonious and united coexistence.

It’s difficult to see what either the Holy See or Her Majesty’s Government might actually do about any of that, or indeed, how they could hold any other opinion about any of it than those which they expressed in such irreproachable terms. But not everything in the communiqué is expressed in terms of such bland generality: how about this, which begins in high-flown general terms, and then comes down to earth in the most intriguing way: “There was in addition a good exchange of views on a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural issues, including on developing the UK’s collaboration with the Vatican Museums.” That must, I suppose, be a reference to the loan of the Vatican Museum’s Raphael Tapestries, to coincide with the state visit of the Pope to the UK. The exhibition, in September and October 2010, displayed four of the 10 tapestries designed by Raphael for the Sistine Chapel alongside the full-size designs for them – the seven famous Raphael Cartoons, which belong to HM The Queen, but which have been in the V&A since 1865. Sure enough, the V&A’s annual statement for 2011 tells us, the “exhibition of the Tapestries was made possible by a collaboration between the V&A and the Vatican Museums”: but the communiqué talks about actually developing that collaboration: does that mean there are plans afoot for more displays at the V&A of Vatican treasures? Or maybe a loan actually TO the Vatican museum of some of our treasures; maybe the Raphael cartoons? I really would like to know.

Inevitably, where the scope of the talks (or at least the communiqué) is so vast, there are some issues which, though agreement and good will and so on are expressed, you wonder whether the two sides really have the same views on how all that would work out in practice. Towards the end, indeed, the Vatican’s side of the conversation is expressed unilaterally, and not as something on which the two sides are in fact agreed: and this leaves me feeling somewhat uneasy, for it does look as though the Church has identified issues on which it is going to be ranged against our government.

The statement slides at one point from the mode of general anodyne agreement into a definite stance, in which the Church is clearly in heel-digging mode: “appreciation was expressed for the significant contribution which the Catholic Church, and Christians in general, have made and continue to make to the good of British society”. And then: “The Holy See emphasised the need to ensure that institutions connected with the Catholic Church can act in accordance with their own principles and convictions and stressed the necessity of safeguarding the family based on marriage, religious freedom and freedom of conscience.”

What is that all about? Well, we know that our Prime Minister is all in favour of marriage: but he also believes that marriage should be open to couples of the same sex. The Church emphatically does not:

The Church’s teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose.(3) No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.

Incidentally, I bet Baroness Warsi agrees with every word of that, even if Mr Cameron doesn’t: it’s from a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith document snappily entitled “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons”; and it spells out very clearly that here is another area in which (if Cameron proceeds to embody what he believes in law) there is once more going to be conflict brewing between the Church and a British government over the issue of gay unions: the last time, we lost our adoption agencies; hence, perhaps, the Holy See’s unilateral insistence in the communiqué issued after the Warsi visit on “the need to ensure that institutions connected with the Catholic Church can act in accordance with their own principles and convictions”. This is, incidentally, a principle which, as I have recently written here, President Obama is presently trampling under foot in the US: and the Catholic Church in the West has probably to prepare itself for many such battles in the future. It could be worse, I suppose; at least, nobody is blowing up our churches or massacring our people, as they are in Nigeria and increasingly the Middle East.

Well, not yet.

I

William Oddie

Dr William Oddie is a leading English Catholic writer and broadcaster. He edited The Catholic Herald from 1998 to 2004 and is the author of The Roman Option and Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy.

Bishop: the world is ignoring the massacre of my people

A Sudanese bishop has said the world has forgotten people in his diocese, where thousands have sought shelter from a government bombing campaign and aid agencies cannot gain access.

Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid, Sudan, said “there is an ongoing forgotten massacre on the Nuba Mountains” where “people are dying of starvation and bombings”.

Bishop Gassis’s diocese straddles a border area of Sudan and South Sudan. For months, the Sudanese government has been fighting the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North in the South Kordofan state.

Bishop Gassis told Fides, the Vatican missionary news agency, in February that “even the Church has had its victims”.

He told Fides that none of the priests, religious or medical personnel had abandoned the people, despite the constant bombardment and seeing the “mangled bodies of civilians, especially children”.

Sudan has allowed only a limited amount of aid into the area, and on February 14 the UN Security Council, expressing “deep and growing alarm with the rising levels of malnutrition and food insecurity”, called on the government to let it send aid workers to South Kordofan and other states along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

Bishop Gassis expressed concern over increasing tensions between the neighbouring countries. He said South Sudan did not want war, but Sudanese President Omar Bashir “tries to solve problems with new wars”.

Sudan accuses South Sudan of backing the SPLM-North in its efforts to overthrow the Sudanese government.

Bishop Gassis also noted that South Sudan has closed off its oil supplies to the North. South Sudan produces 350,000 barrels of oil per day, but the only pipeline to market runs through Sudan. The two countries sent representatives to Ethiopia to negotiate the oil situation.

Vatican to issue recommendations for celebrating Year of Faith

In an effort to help Catholics have a better and correct understanding of their faith and become authentic witnesses to Christ, the Vatican is issuing a list of pastoral recommendations for celebrating the Year of Faith.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will release a “note” on Saturday outlining the aims of the special year and ways bishops, dioceses, parishes and communities can promote “the truth of the faith,” the congregation said in a written statement.

It also announced that within the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation a secretariat would be set up to suggest and coordinate different initiatives. The new department will be responsible for launching a special website for sharing useful information on the Year of Faith.

Pope Benedict XVI wanted the Year of Faith, which runs from October 11 this year to November 24 2013, to help the Church focus its attention on “Jesus Christ and the beauty of having faith in him”, it said.

“The Church is well aware of the problems facing the faith” and recognises that without a revitalisation of faith rooted in a personal encounter with Jesus, “then all other reforms will remain ineffective,” it said, citing the Pope’s address to the Roman Curia last month.

The year is meant to “contribute to a renewed conversion to the Lord Jesus and to the rediscovery of faith, so that the members of the Church will be credible and joy-filled witnesses to the risen Lord, capable of leading those many people who are seeking it to the door of faith,” the statement said.

Critical to renewing one’s faith and being a credible witness is having a firm and correct understanding of Church teaching, it said.

Because the year’s start, October 11, coincides with the anniversaries of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, it would be an auspicious occasion to make the work of the council and the catechism “more widely and deeply known”, it said.

The congregation said the Pope “has worked decisively for a correct understanding of the council, rejecting as erroneous the so-called ‘hermeneutics of discontinuity and rupture’ and promoting what he himself has termed the ‘hermeneutic of reform,’ of renewal in continuity” with the Church and tradition.

The catechism “is an integral part of that ‘renewal in continuity’” by embracing the old and traditional while expressing it “in a new way, in order to respond to the questions of our times,” it said.

The note will offer pastoral recommendations aimed at aiding “both the encounter with Christ through authentic witnesses to faith, and the ever-greater understanding of its contents”, it said.

Among the initiatives will be various ecumenical events at the Vatican aimed at restoring unity among all Christians, including “a solemn ecumenical celebration in which all of the baptised will reaffirm their faith in Christ,” it said.

Some recommendations for bishops, dioceses and parishes include ensuring there be better quality catechetical materials that conform to Church teaching, promoting Catholic principles and the significance of Vatican II in the mass media and art, hosting events that bring artists, academics and others together to renew dialogue between faith and reason, offering penitential celebrations and putting a focus on liturgy, especially the Eucharist, it said.

The congregation said it wanted to promote the recommendations because the office’s “specific functions include not only safeguarding sound doctrine and correcting errors but also, and foremost, promoting the truth of the faith.”

The congregation’s note, drafted on the orders of Pope Benedict, was written in consultation with other Vatican offices and with the help of the Year of Faith preparatory committee. The committee, which operates under the auspices of the doctrinal congregation, includes US Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops

Full text: Joint communiqué by the British Government and the Holy See

On 14-15 February 2012 the Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, hosted talks between the Holy See and a British Government Ministerial delegation led by the Rt Hon Baroness Warsi. The visit of the delegation to Rome follows the successful visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010, and marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See, which took place the year of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Britain, the first by a reigning Pontiff.

The delegation also met the Secretary of State His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and was received by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government agreed on the urgent need for action to strengthen the universal commitment to religious freedom as a fundamental human right, and to its practical application with a view to promoting respect for all religions in all countries. The Holy See and the British government look forward to working together to combat intolerance and discrimination based on religion, wherever it is manifest.

The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government reaffirmed the need to promote integral and sustainable global development, based on the centrality of the human person and grounded in the principle of the inherent human dignity and worth of each person. Much progress has been made over the last decade in improving health and well-being for many people. However, there are still significant gaps and challenges in the long and complex path towards ensuring integral human development for everybody. Too many people are still hungry, too many people do not have access to education and to decent work, too many women die in childbirth. In view of these challenges we recognise a shared obligation to achieve a fair international financial and trade framework. And we will strive for a better future for all humanity, taking into particular account care for the poorest people in the world.

Looking ahead to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro in June this year and to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change implementation process, we share the conviction that in order to take forward a human-centred and sustainable global development, there is a need to continue to strengthen the integration of its interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars: the economic, the social and the environmental, as well as the connection between combating poverty and tackling climate change.

The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government share a commitment to work at the United Nations and other fora to strengthen the international focus on conflict prevention, disarmament, arms control and non proliferation, aimed at protecting human life and building a world more respectful of human dignity. As part of this effort, we look forward to positive outcomes in July to the final negotiations to agree upon a robust Arms Trade Treaty with a wide scope, and to the 2nd Review Conference of the UN Programme on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.

With regard to the changes which have occurred in North Africa and the Middle East, the Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government stressed the importance of undertaking real reforms in the political, economic and social realms, in order better to ensure the unity and development of each nation, in responding positively to the legitimate aspirations of many people for peace and stability. In this context, reference was made to the role which Christians can play and to the importance of interreligious dialogue. The Holy See and Her Majesty’s Government expressed the hope for a resumption of negotiations in good faith between Israelis and Palestinians so as to bring about a lasting peace. They renewed their appeal for an immediate end to violence in Syria and stressed the need for co-operation to overcome the present crisis and work towards a harmonious and united coexistence.

As the London Conference on Somalia approaches, the Holy See and the British Government encourage the international community to support a coherent strategy on Somalia in order to end the crisis there, placing as a priority the protection and welfare of the people of the Horn of Africa.

Her Majesty’s Government welcomed His Holiness Pope Benedict’s support for the ongoing process of reconciliation in Northern Ireland, the establishment of stable, inclusive political institutions, and efforts to build a peaceful, stable and prosperous future for all parts of the community. Her Majesty’s Government and the Holy See agreed that the use of violence for political ends is deplorable, and must be set aside in favour of constructive dialogue for the well-being of the whole community.

As the United Kingdom prepares to host the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, both sides look forward to a year characterised by the spirit of the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Truce: at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

There was in addition a good exchange of views on a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural issues, including on developing the UK’s collaboration with the Vatican Museums. Both sides recognised in particular the role of faith and education in the development of a culture of social responsibility and the underpinning of a healthy society. In this context, appreciation was expressed for the significant contribution which the Catholic Church, and Christians in general, have made and continue to make to the good of British society. The Holy See emphasised the need to ensure that institutions connected with the Catholic Church can act in accordance with their own principles and convictions and stressed the necessity of safeguarding the family based on marriage, religious freedom and freedom of conscience. Both sides look forward to further strengthening their relationship by working together through their respective networks and global partnerships, including the Commonwealth of Nations, to promote the common good.