LETTERS
Questions of age Kudos to Robert Mickens for his interesting and insightful article “Benedict shapes the future” (30 October), especially about the Pope’s College of Cardinals.
All cardinals who reach the age of 80 are
now, without exception, no longer legally per- mitted to cast their vote for the election of a new pope, who, by contrast, can continue to reign after reaching that now canonically crit- ical age. It all seems strange and unfair: which is easier, cast a vote for the election of a pope, or be pope and lead the Universal Church? If there is wisdom in the exclusion of the cardinals over the age of 80 from a papal con- clave, the same wisdom would suggest the voluntary (automatic?) retirement of a pope when he reaches that age. If such wisdom appears questionable, let all cardinals continue to be valid papal electors as long as they live. If not, let even the pope personally resign on reaching the age of 80. Knowing in advance the exact date of the
next papal election will greatly simplify the planning ahead and the important schedul- ing problems of all cardinals, for they will no longer be surprised by a sudden illness of the Holy Father, by his unexpected death or, worse perhaps, by his possible lingering incapaci- tated for weeks and even months as pope. (Fr) Larry N. Lorenzoni SDB San Francisco, California, USA
As a senior civil servant, my fixed retirement age was 60, as it was for my wife, the head of a Catholic primary school. She was also a JP, but at the age of 70 she had to retire from the magistrate’s bench. There are no exemptions to this rule. Reading the list of new cardinals (The Church in the World, 23 October) and bearing in mind the ages of the existing prelates, I am prompted to ask this question: other than the Catholic Church, has any other large organisation in the world so many sen- ior staff who are over the age of 70, or even 80? And not a single one of them a woman. John Griffin
Leigh, Lancashire
Missal impasse Fr Alan Griffiths’ measured letter (30 October) about the Vatican’s wholesale revision of the 2008 Missal translation was welcome and reve - latory. But perhaps it needs to be made clear that Fr Griffiths is not repeating the points that I and many others have made regarding previous stages of the process, and might well not endorse them. Rather, he is recounting a new phase of the story. We have now had two sets of translation ground rules, generating two English versions of the Missal produced painstakingly by competent experts, only for the Vatican effec- tively to be producing a third version, with
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We have to get back to our roots. How would Jesus conduct the Mass? I have no doubt he wants us to speak to him in words that we are comfortable with, that truly express what we feel, not language imposed by well-meaning scholars in the words they are comfortable with. For the sake of my grandchildren, we must retain the warmth and welcome of the peo- ple’s Mass. Provide as many ways to worship as the people of God need, or it’s back to pri- vate Novenas and private Rosaries while a richly robed remote priest says Mass. Josephine Mount Canterbury, Kent
Should popes, like cardinals, be made to stand down at the age of 80?
reportedly some 10,000 changes. Moreover, from the leaks currently available (and leaks are all that we have), there appears to be no stated, or even discernible, rationale for these changes. The apparent upshot is that central authority is finally uniting local specialist opin- ion, but unfortunately against itself. This human reality is no basis for introducing a new translation that, whatever the judgement on its merits, will be disruptive for Catholic devo- tional life in the English-speaking world. The central issues here are not about translation as such, but rather about mutual trust. When authors give their texts to editors or translators, they are making an act of faith. I have no idea whether or not the published Japanese version of an article of mine is accur - ate or not; I simply have to trust Japanese speakers to make the difficult judgements necessary. The “perfect” rendition does not exist: some things can only be said in English, and some of the artistry or poetry in the orig- inal, having been lost in translation, will ideally be replaced by something different. The whole sorry history of the revised Missal translation suggests that the Vatican is uneasy with this reality. Moreover, the unease regard- ing technical issues of translation seems symbolic of wider tensions regarding the eccle- sial renewal inaugurated by Vatican II: do we seek to take all our leads from the centre, or should we be striving for a communioof trust, reciprocity and harmonious diversity, centred on Rome, yes, but not dominated by Rome? It is hard to see any good way out of the pres- ent impasse. Perhaps the least unsatisfactory option would be to call a halt, to stay with the 1973 version for the time being (which, for all its faults, is not provoking widespread dis- content on the ground), and to set up a transparent, genuinely collegial process of revi- sion, based on proper experimentation. If this draws on the best wisdom of both the 1998 and 2008 texts, some consensus might emerge towards the end of the decade. (Fr) Philip Endean SJ Campion Hall, Oxford
Gothic revival The headline “Fall of the house of Ushaw” (16 October) had extra amusement for me as, when I was once driven there by a friend with his wife and children to take a look, he remarked: “It’s just like Gormenghast!” Rosemary Hill’s biography of A.W. Pugin,
God’s Architect, has led me to appreciate his work more now, but he had some very pecu- liar notions about Roman Catholicism which he sought to realise through his architectural and interior designs. Whatever the agenda of our Victorian forebears in isolating seminarians within costly Puginesque piles, today they are inappropriate, surely, for either clerical or lay formation (Letters 16 and 23 October). Why not let them all go for luxury Gothic hotels or apartments, and focus church resources on nurturing lay, Religious and ordained min- istries in the run-of-the-mill settings Jesus favoured? Olive Powell Manchester
Ushaw is not just a seminary. It is a great cen- tre of Catholicism used by some 30,000 people in a year for studies with the St Bede’s Institute, conferences at the conference cen- tre and even for parish outings. It also has close links with Durham University. The closure of Ushaw means that there are two seminaries (Wonersh and Edmund Hall) in the deep south and one in the Midlands (Oscott) but no Catholic focus between Birmingham and the Shetlands. Michael Forrest Bridport, Dorset
Anglican second thoughts Bishop McMahon says that the numbers of Anglicans wanting to join the ordinariates are relatively low (“The journey begins”, 23 October). The reason for that may be a cause of further concern. Until recent years, the Church as I have experienced it has been deeply committed to Vatican II. It is only in the last five years that there has been any serious sug- gestion of returning in any way to the pre-Vatican II days.
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