Pro-old rite bishops named
Christopher Lamb
TRADITIONALISTS HAVE published a list of bishops in Britain whom they consider sympathetic to requests for old-rite Masses in their dioceses, writes Christopher Lamb. The nine bishops named include Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and the Archbishop Emeritus of Southwark, Kevin McDonald. Cardinal Keith O’Brien is listed as the only Scottish bishop to be “publicly supportive”. They appear in a report by the International
Una Voce Federation, a group that seeks to ensure the 1962 Missal of Pope John XXIII is celebrated in the Church. It lists those bishops it considers “reasonably accommodating” to the old Mass. Omitted from the list are four arch- bishops: Vincent Nichols (Westminster), Peter
Smith (Southwark), Patrick Kelly (Liverpool) and Mario Conti (Glasgow). The report is an assessment of the state of the old rite across the world three years after Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which encouraged wider celebration of the Extraordinary Form. The federation recently travelled to Rome and gave copies of the report to senior curial officials, and one was due to be handed into the papal apartments. In addition to Archbishops Longley and
McDonald, the bishops considered accom- modating are Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham, Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton, Bishop Michael Campbell of Lancaster, Bishop Thomas Burns of Menevia and Bishop Emeritus Brian Noble of Shrewsbury. The report says there has been a “slight improvement” in the availability of the Extraordinary Form in England and Wales, with a “small growth” in the number of Masses. But it explains that a “dearth of eager- ness” from British bishops since 1971 has meant that the situation for those attached to the old rite “has ended up being closer and closer to that known on the continent: disdain and marginalisation”.
Compulsory palliative-care bill withdrawn
A CAMPAIGNto make palliative care for the dying compulsory in Scotland has been put on hold after the Government promised to monitor its availability and effectiveness, writes Sam Adams. But Sr Rita Dawson, a hospice director who helped draw up the Palliative Care Bill, warned this week that the proposed legislation would be reintroduced if quality palliative care was not made available to all. The MSP Gil Paterson withdrew the bill
after the Scottish Government said it will adopt two of its main proposals – the intro- duction of “quality indicators” for palliative care provision and regular reporting on the issue. These will be introduced into a govern- ment initiative, “The Living and Dying Well action plan”. The agreement falls significantly short of
■ The Irish High Court is to consider an application next Wednesday to have a censored chapter of the Murphy Report published in full, writes Sarah Mac Donald. The conviction and sentencing this week of Tony Walsh, a 57-year-old former priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, for the sexual abuse of three children during the 1970s and 1980s, has, according to victims, paved the way for the publication of the
the campaigners’ key demand for statutory, universal, end-of-life care – which the scrutiny committee said would make service provision less flexible across Scotland. Sr Dawson, chief executive of the St Margaret of Scotland Hospice in Glasgow, said the bill was needed to address the current “patchy” standard of provision across the country. “We will have to see what happens. If the
Government’s action plan is enforced the way we expect it to be then good, but if it is not, then we have the option of reintroducing the bill,” she said. Meanwhile, Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow has welcomed the demise of the End of Life Assistance Bill, which was rejected by MSPs. The proposed act, introduced by Margo McDonald, was believed by the Church to open up the possibility of assisted suicide.
missing material. The Murphy report, which investigated the Irish hierarchy’s handling of allegations of child sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin, was published in November 2009, but one whole chapter and a number of references were omitted on the instruction of Mr Justice Gilligan. The judge ruled that Chapter 19, which deals with Walsh, as well as 21 other references to him, should be excised
until all pending legal proceedings relating to Walsh over the abuse of three children during his tenure as a priest in Ballyfermot in Dublin had been completed. There are no more legal proceedings pending against Walsh following Monday’s conviction. Following Walsh’s
sentencing to 16 years, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, “unreservedly apologised” to the victims.
FROM THE ARCHIVE 50 YEARS AGO
What were your first words to the Pope?” a journalist asked Dr [Geoffrey] Fisher [Archbishop of Canterbury] at the embassy press conference. “I said to him, ‘Your Holiness, we are making history.’ ” With this, hardly anybody in Rome was disposed to quarrel … One was reminded of a headmaster taking the sixth form for Greek – there was the same easy authority, the same friendly firmness, the occasional shaft of wit, the occasional recall to rele- vance; and the pressmen were as decorous as any house prefects … “Would you say that so-and-so could be read into the visit?” led off some unfortu- nate. The half-volley was treated on its merits: “Anything could be read into it: people spend their time reading into things what they want to see.”
“During your 55 minutes with the Holy
Father …” began the Daily Express corre- spondent. “Come come – the Daily Express doesn’t usually minimise things: it was an hour and five minutes!” … “Has he any comments to offer on Pope John’s person- ality?” “Certainly not – he might retaliate by offering some on mine.” This sort of thing put everybody in high good humour. … Asked about English reaction to his visit to the Pope, he said firmly that on the whole it had been excellent. There was a small extreme Protestant minority that feared he might “sell some pass”, but he invited people to look at his sermon the night before to see whether he had. The sermon was given in the Anglican church in the Via del Babuino, and cer- tainly yielded no Protestant ground in its conception of the nature of the Church. Nor could one ignore the irony of the asser- tion that “the English Church was born of a passion for freedom” – made on the very day that the feast of Ralph Sherwin and his Roman companions was being cele- brated a mile or so away. But there is no reason to be other than grateful to Dr Fisher for not obscuring these differences, and for insisting that unity of spirit and not union was his concern … More than one commentator has written in these recent days of a “new wind blowing through Christendom” … The Tablet, 10 December 1960
100 YEARS AGO
Advertisement: Eat more fish! Choice live fish. Choice packages of live fish direct from the sea to your door. Carriage paid. Cleaned and dressed for cooking. Send for trial package today. You will be delighted. Price list and full particulars post free. Satisfaction guaranteed. The Mail Fish Co., Grimsby Docks. Convent and school supplies a speciality. The Tablet, 10 December 1910
11 December 2010 | THE TABLET | 35
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