NOTEBOOK
The draw of Bede DURHAM CATHEDRAL, home to the northern saints with its shrine to St Cuthbert and the tomb of St Bede, seemed like the perfect place for Pope Benedict XVI to drop by during his visit to the UK. Alas, despite intensive lobbying, a visit never made it on to the Pope’s itinerary.
But a group comprising individuals from Durham University and the cathedral decided that if the Pope could not come to them they would bring something of Durham to him. When the Pope was due to be in Scotland on Thursday, Dr Paul Murray, director of the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, planned to give him a specially bound reprint of the 1565 edition of St Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. Fittingly, that day is the feast of St Ninian, and without Bede’s history, little would be known of the Scottish saint. The gift should please Benedict XVI, who
praised St Bede during a general audience in St Peter’s in February last year, saying: “In Bede was one of the most illustrious figures of erudition of the High Middle Ages because he was able to make use of many precious manuscripts that his abbots, who went on frequent trips to the Continent and to Rome, were able to bring back to him.”
Clan Vatican NOTED for his stylish attire, Pope Benedict XVI will no doubt enjoy casting an eye over the brand-new tartan created in his honour to mark his visit to Scotland.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien was due to present
a scarf in St Ninian’s Day tartan to the Pope on his arrival in Scotland. The tartan, which has been produced jointly by Ingles Buchan of Glasgow and Clan Italia of Falkirk, boasts white lines on a blue field to signify Scotland, yellow for the Vatican, and red lines to reflect the colours of Cardinal Newman’s crest.
It also features green, which, according to its American designer Matthew Newsome, “represents the lichens growing on the stones of Whithorn in Galloway” where St Ninian is believed to have first introduced Christianity to Scotland more than 1,600 years ago. Each white line in the tartan contains eight threads, one for each Scottish diocese, with a total of 452 in the whole design – the same as the number of Catholic parishes.
Cardinal O’Brien said: “What could give [the
Pope] a greater Scottish welcome than a new tartan created in honour of this historic visit?”
They’re the tops THE LIST of 100 top lay Catholics, pub- lished in last week’s Tablet, has led a number of readers to suggest some names
26 | THE TABLET | 18 September 2010
Converts’ collaboration IT IS THANKS to the perseverance of an editor that Newman’s great poem, “The Dream of Gerontius”, first appeared in a Catholic journal. Frances Taylor repeatedly sought contri- butions from Newman for The Month, which she founded in 1864. The following year he sent her a manuscript of “Gerontius” which appeared in the May and June issues. Before turning to journalism, Frances
which could also have been included. One of these is Mark Hoban MP, Financial
Secretary to the Treasury. The Conservative MP was educated at St Leonard’s Catholic Comprehensive School, Durham. There were also three Scottish Catholics who had a strong claim to be part of the list: Professor John Haldane, of St Andrews University; Sir Tom Farmer, the founder of the Kwik Fit chain of garages; and John Reid, the former Home Secretary. The Top 100 might also have included Judith Kazantzis, the third daughter of Lord and Lady Longford, who is a poet and noted for work on prison reform. Alongside her, Bruce Kent, the peace activist; Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of the charity Mary’s Meals; and Professor Edward Acton, vice chancellor of the University of East Anglia, were contenders. One reader said we should have included the footballer Wayne Rooney. If it hadn’t been for recent headlines, we might have.
Cardinal sees red OUR EARS are burning with the news that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Secretary of State and now dean of the College of Cardinals, is a regular reader. According to Sir Stephen Wall, Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor’s former adviser: “Cardinal Sodano read The Tablet assiduously and would ring up if there was something that offended him and wanted the cardinal to take action.” Sir Stephen, a former diplomat, explained to the BBC Radio 4 programme The Pope’s British Divisions, “I was reminded a bit of diplomats being summoned to see General Mobutu or some other dictator to hear com- plaints about the BBC in the belief that the British Government could somehow control the BBC. Here was the belief that this was a Catholic newspaper and could be controlled by the Catholic hierarchy.” We are happy to count His Eminence as one of our loyal readers.
Taylor was, like Newman, a convert to Catholicism and had served as one of Florence Nightingale’s volunteer nurses in the Crimea. Soon after publishing Newman’s poem she handed over The Month to the English Jesuits. She later founded the Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God and sold the manuscript of “Gerontius” to the British Museum in 1891 for £30. This, together with letters sent by Newman to Frances Taylor, can be seen in St Mary’s Convent in Brentford, west London, which opens for pre-booked tours as part of the London Open House initiative this weekend. To reserve a place, call 020 8568 7305.
Indivisibly Boris
AMONG Britain’s senior politicians, the mayor of London is one of the most able to have a dialogue with Pope Benedict. Boris Johnson is a Latin scholar who has lobbied for the official language of the Holy See to be part of the school curriculum. To welcome the Pope to Britain Mr Johnson has come up with a Latin motto: “With the visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, it strikes me that were we to be looking for a motto for our capital, ‘Dei sub numine viget’ seems to hit the right note,” he wrote in The Westminster Record, the Archdiocese of Westminster’s newspaper. The motto translates as: “Under God’s power she flour- ishes.”
Boris may get a chance to discuss the
motto with the Pope: he will be in Westminster Hall when Benedict XVI addresses civil society. During his campaign to become mayor of London, Boris also showed a grasp of Catholic theology. When asked whether he had changed his personality to be elected, he replied: “I am just totally fed up with this artificial distinction … this sort of Arian controversy about the old Boris and the new. There is no distinction between the old Boris and the new Boris. They are indivisible, co-eternal … consubstantial.” Some journalists reported that he was talking about the “Aryan” race of Nazi ideology, but he was, in fact, referring to the Arian controversy of the early Church. Which was, of course, a dispute over the nature of how Christ could be both fully man and fully divine.
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