NOTEBOOK


Secularism’s double whammy The BBC’s great Christmas coup – persuading Pope Benedict to present “Thought for the Day” on Christmas Eve on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme – did not fill everyone with seasonal goodwill. As soon as the news broke that the Pope was to speak to the nation, phones in the Today newsroom were red hot with complaints from secular pressure groups. The result was that not one but two of the staunchest critics of religion were also given slots on the programme: both Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, and Polly Toynbee, president of the British Humanist Association, vented their animosity to the Pope. Despite his strident comments on air,


Porteous Wood admitted to the editor of The Tablet in the hospitality room afterwards that he is no Scrooge, and does in fact celebrate Christmas. He even confessed to a love of religious music, and to weeping when- ever he hears the Mozart Requiem. It emerged that he knows 100 hymns off by heart, though which ones he was not saying. “Onward Christian Soldiers”, perhaps? But “God Bless Our Pope”, probably not.


Howard’s end ANTHONY HOWARD, the respected political commentator who died a few days before Christmas at the age of 76, will not just be remembered for his political writing. The former editor of the New Statesman and the son of an Anglican clergyman wrote the official biography of Cardinal Basil Hume. The decision to choose Howard was made by a group formed by the literary executors of Cardinal Hume’s estate, which included Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. The other executors, Charles Wookey,


assistant general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, and Liam Kelly, private secretary to the Abbot of Ampleforth, who both worked with Cardinal Hume, told us in a statement: “We were initially surprised that Anthony Howard should have been interested in the project. We all felt he would not only write an accessible and lively account of the late car- dinal’s life but also that he was ideally placed to assess and convey the significance of Cardinal Hume’s leadership role in the wider social and political context.” The biography, Basil Hume: the monk cardinal, was published in 2005. At the launch party of the book, Howard was seen engrossed in conversation in the throne room of Archbishop’s House, Westminster, with his brother-in-law Alan Watkins, a fellow political commentator, and Fr Kit Cunningham. All three died last year. One of Howard’s last public outings was to our Christmas reception, where he gave


20 | THE TABLET | 1 January 2011


’Tisn’t the season … THERE HAS been little Christmas cheer for employees of the Roman Curia, according to a priest of Westminster Diocese who is working in Rome. Mgr Mark Langham, who works for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, says it has definitely not been a season to be jolly. “Decorations are forbidden in offices, and when the new pres- ident of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity [Cardinal Kurt Koch] asked meekly if there might be an office party for Christmas, he was told firmly no,” wrote Mgr Langham in the Westminster Record. He added that instead of a party there is a


“Christmas coffee”: “Which is, believe me, just as exciting as it sounds.”


Almost there FIFTEEN MONTHS on, there is still no replacement


in Westminster for Bernard


the editor of The Tablet a final political pre- diction: “The coalition Government is going to hell in a handcart.”


Sacred and profane HIS STAINED glass in Catholic cathedrals has been much admired, but the artist Patrick Reyntiens, 85, has also turned his attention to secular subjects. The old Amplefordian has recently completed stained-glass panels of the comic character Dame Edna Everage, played by comedian Barry Humphries, entitled The Triumph of Dame Edna. They are on sale as a pair for £50,000. According to Edith Reyntiens, the artist’s daughter who looks after his business affairs, he embarked on this project because he is interested in “flamboyant, iconic figures”. She added: “Everyone assumes stained glass is religious art, but it isn’t necessarily.”


Latinist strikes out IT MAY still be the Church’s official language but it appears that there are some in the Vatican who don’t know Latin as well as they should. Pope Benedict XVI’s motu pro- prio establishing the new Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation had the title Ubicumque et Semper which translates as “wherever and always”. However, Fr Reginald (Reggie) Foster, the Pope’s former Latinist for 40 years, has said it should Ubique et Semper, “everywhere and always”. “When do you ever begin a sentence with


‘wherever’? That is a relative particle,” Fr Reggie said, adding jokingly: “I was ready to hit the translators with a baseball bat.” However, it is understood that some


Latinists had raised it as a problem but were overruled by their superiors.


Longley after he left his post as an auxiliary in the diocese to become Archbishop of Birmingham. The extra workload has fallen to the three remaining auxiliaries and their archbishop, Vincent Nichols. A source said the delay in appointing a replacement for Archbishop Longley had been caused partly by the illness of the former apostolic nuncio to England and Wales, Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, and by the preparations for the papal visit. We understand that a new Westminster auxiliary will be appointed early in 2011. Speculation has revolved around a number of possible candidates, with Mgr Andrew Summersgill, a former general secretary to the bishops’ conference, chief among them. Others include Mgr John Armitage, vicar general at Brentwood Diocese, and Mgr Mark Crisp, the rector of Oscott seminary.


Tables turned TIME WAS when, with numbers of ordina- tions on the rise, dioceses in England and Wales were able to send priests to work abroad in the emerging Church in Africa and Latin America. Back in 1974, the late Archbishop Derek Worlock, then Bishop of Portsmouth, started sending priests to help the newly formed Archdiocese of Bamenda, Cameroon. However, things have changed and Bamenda Diocese, founded in 1970, is now able to send some of its priests to Portsmouth. Bishop Crispian Hollis recently visited the


country, and has written: “Archbishop Cornelius [Fontem Esua] is very aware of the relative diminishing in the number of priests that we have in Portsmouth and in a new Fidei Donum wants very much to address this question and offers us help.” Two new priests are to start their work in Portsmouth in September 2011.


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