NOTEBOOK
Levada touches down REGULARS at the 8.30 a.m. Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Grace and St Edward in Chiswick, west London, are well used to having as celebrant Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the retired Archbishop of Westminster who now lives in the parish. But last Sunday, the Mass was concelebrated by two princes of the Church. Visiting London for the weekend was Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and former Archbishop of San Francisco. Cardinal Levada told Massgoers of Pope Benedict’s delight with his recent visit to Britain. After watching much of the TV cov- erage, the cardinal said he had complimented the Pope on his homilies and was told in reply that the congratulations were due in equal part to Britain’s Catholics. The Pope had added that he had great expectations of the long-term fruits of the visit. Then Cardinal Levada explained that his
offices at the Vatican were closed for the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls and he and Cardinal Cormac had tickets for that night’s US National Football League match at Wembley Stadium, where his home team, the San Francisco 49ers, were playing the Denver Broncos. His journey from Rome was worthwhile: the 49ers secured a 24-16 victory.
Away in a manger THE BBC produced the Liverpool Nativity two years ago – an account of the birth of Christ set in the present day. But this Christmas, viewers will be treated to a much more traditional rendering of the story. Tony Jordan, best known for his 15 years as scriptwriter of EastEnders and, more recently, the series Life on Mars, has written a four-part drama that will be shown on consecutive nights on BBC1. Shot on location in Morocco, it was described this week by a BBC spokeswoman as beautifully shot in rich colours and “looking like a Christmas card”. Jordan wrote more than 200 episodes of EastEnders and in the process killed off favourite characters including Arthur Fowler and Ethel Skinner. It’s said he carried out in- depth research for The Nativity, including history and science as well as the Gospels. We are told that his account follows tradition: his Jesus is born in a stable and laid in a manger with cattle and donkey standing by. Andrew Buchan plays Joseph while
Tatiana Maslany is Mary. Best-known of the cast is the actor who has the part of the Wise Man Balthasar. He is Peter Capaldi, famous for his role as the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in the political satire The Thick of It.
Not in our name SOMETIMES outspoken and often boasting thousands of readers, priests have a significant presence in the Catholic blogosphere. Now, one of the best-known priest bloggers,
Fr Ray Blake, has been asked to change the name of his blog by his bishop, Kieran Conry, to make it clear that it does not officially speak for the parish. Previously, Fr Blake described his blog as the “online magazine” of the parish of St Mary Magdalene, Brighton; now it is simply “Fr Ray Blake’s blog”. Bishop Conry told us that the blog reflected
Smoke without fire IT'S AS well the London Fire Brigade was not on strike a couple of weeks ago when it received an urgent call to attend Sacred Heart Church in Kilburn. Firefighters were called when black smoke was seen billowing from the sacristy at the start of Sunday evening Mass. According to one worshipper, there was no panic, and the priest, Fr Liam Griffin, appeared determined to carry on as normal. “The church gradually filled with smoke, but nothing was said, and worshippers simply moved from one side of the church to the other,” Helen Grady told us. She added that Fr Griffin was impressively calm throughout, although his homily was shorter than usual. He told the congregation that an electrical problem was to blame. This week, the police were said to be investigating the incident.
Pagan and proud AFTER YEARS in the shadows, pagans have been revelling in the media spotlight. First, the BBC decided to cover Samhain, the pagan festival that celebrates light turning into darkness during the feast of All Hallows. This provoked criticism from some, with accusations that the BBC was giving far too much attention to a minor religious tradition. Now, the Pagan Federation, which represents adherents in the UK, has decided to reinstate its National Journalist of the Year Award for objective reporting on pagan- ism. This year, the award has been given to Cole Moreton, a former news editor of the Church Times. The federation gave Moreton the award for an article in The Guardian, “Everyone's a pagan now”. “I’m not a pagan, but I do think this is a great honour,” he said.
Fr Blake’s personal opinions and not that of the parish. “I asked him to change the name and he obliged,” said the bishop. He explained that some parishioners had complained, but also that the diocese is liable if an individual is defamed in a parish blog. Fr Blake was recently threatened with
legal action by Mgr Basil Loftus, a respected priest with a column in The Catholic Times, after readers’ comments under a blog posting about the Catholic press had accused Mgr Loftus of heresy. Mgr Loftus also threatened legal action against Fr Michael Clifton – who blogged under the name “Fr Mildew” – who said that views expressed by Mgr Loftus on the Mass after the Second Vatican Council were “proximate to heresy”. Fr Clifton, a retired priest living in Kingston-
upon-Thames, Surrey, has since apologised and closed his blog.
Amplifying voices
THEY WERE formed to give Catholics a voice in the media before and during the Pope’s visit to Britain. Now, after 100 media appearances during September, Catholic Voices, a group of 20 predominantly lay people trained to communicate the Church’s position in the media, is planning for the future. Top of the list is the creation of the Catholic Voices Academy which will include Catholic journalists and PR professionals. The academy will host a series of “encounters” with critics of the Church: one of these – with the Central London Humanist Group – has already begun and there are plans for discussions with victims of clerical sex abuse. Jack Valero, co-founder of Catholic Voices, told a gathering of the Young Friends of Westminster Cathedral last week that they had been asked to advise on the creation of similar groups across the world. There are also plans to recruit more voices in the UK, with interviews taking place in February 2011 and training sessions between March and July in Manchester. Austen Ivereigh, the other founder, and Kathleen Griffin, a BBC producer who helped train members of the group, are writing a book to be published by Darton, Longman and Todd next March.
6 November 2010 | THE TABLET | 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40