NOTEBOOK
Might they be mitred? WITH THE majority of Scotland’s bishops heading for retirement in the next few years, thoughts are turning to their likely successors. But out of a quartet of front-runners, three have had long spells away from Scotland and two are still out of the country. Mgr Patrick Burke, for instance, has been at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome for more than five years. Aged 45, he was born in Zimbabwe and per- sonally knows Pope Benedict, the two having met when the priest was at the Teutonic College in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh in 1991, and used to edit the Catholic magazine, Faith. He is understood to have been involved with the establishment of the new ordinariate for Anglicans in England and Wales.
Another leading contender, Fr Joseph
Chalmers, 58, from Glasgow, was Prior General of the Carmelite Order and based in Rome for 12 years. He is also a former provincial of the British Carmelites, has written several books on spirituality and currently lives at Aylesford Priory, Kent. Meanwhile Mgr Peter Magee is back in Scotland after spending 16 years in the Holy See’s diplomatic service including spells in Cuba and the United States. He was recently appointed as the chief official of the Scottish National Tribunal, which hears and judges all canonical cases in Scotland. Finally Fr William McFadden, the former
rector of Scotus College, the now closed seminary near Glasgow, is tipped for promo- tion. He is believed to have links with the Pontifical Council for New Evangelisation.
Kwik saviour A FORTNIGHT AGO we reported that the founder of the Kwik Save supermarket chain, Albert Gubay, plans to leave the bulk of his £1-billion fortune to the Catholic Church. But we can now reveal that the Church has already benefited from the generosity of this 82-year-old philanthropist. For example, the Archdiocese of Liverpool has received £4 million from housing devel- opment at the now closed seminary of St Joseph’s College, Upholland, which Mr Gubay now owns. He has also funded a new presbytery for St Anthony’s Church, Onchan, Isle of Man (where he lives), help to fix the roof of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, and a plane for the Archbishop of Liverpool and his staff to fly to Lourdes every year. Next week Mr Gubay will be conferred with the award of Knight Commander with Star of the Order of St Gregory the Great at St Anthony’s by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.
delegation of monks from Monte Cassino. Archbishop Nichols is to welcome Italian migrants and the Polish community in recog- nition of the many Polish soldiers who fell in battle liberating the Abbey of Monte Cassino from Nazi occupiers in 1944. The torch is due to arrive at St Benedict’s tomb on 20 March, the eve of the passing of the saint. En route it will be received and blessed by Pope Benedict in Rome.
Badgered by badgers FIRST IT was gravediggers, now badgers have disturbed the final resting place of Blessed John Henry Newman. Newman’s grave was exhumed in 2008 in what proved to be a fruitless search for relics – his body had completely decomposed. But tunnelling by badgers has long been a problem at the Birmingham Oratory Fathers’ cemetery at Rednal in the garden of their country retreat in the Lickey Hills. The community had the site levelled and
re-turfed before Blessed John Henry’s beat- ification last September. But the badgers have returned and once again the cemetery is a sea of churned-up mud. It seems there is nothing the Fathers can do about the creatures. Under the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act anyone killing, injuring or interfering with a badger faces up to six months in jail.
Torch of peace
WESTMINSTER ABBEY was originally a Benedictine monastery and next month it will host a unique ceremony in honour of the order’s founder. The lighting of St Benedict’s torch at the
abbey will be a first for Britain and the first time it has happened in a non-Catholic church. The ceremony takes place each year in a major city, the torch being the main feature of an annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of St Benedict at Monte Cassino, the monastery founded by the saint in Italy. The pilgrimage is led by the Monte Cassino monks, and their leader, Abbot Pietro Vittorelli, will attend the ceremony on 2 March along with the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Dr John Hall. The torch will be transferred to Westminster Cathedral the next day where Archbishop Vincent Nichols will celebrate Mass in the presence of all the abbots of Benedictine monasteries in the United Kingdom and a
Doing God differently SINCE Thomas More was forced by his con- science to choose between Church and State, the interplay between government and religion has been one that has engrossed academics, practitioners of the dark arts of politics, journalists and clerics. It was also one on which Pope Benedict commented during his visit to Britain last year, when he gave a speech on the role of religion in public life in Westminster Hall – the place where Thomas More was put on trial for treason in 1535. Now two key players in the visit, Dame
Helen Ghosh and Gordon Brown, have also spoken on the issue. Catholic Dame Helen, who was the lead civil servant on the visit and is now permanent secretary at the Home Office, talked at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, last week, on civil servants “doing God” (adapting Alastair Campbell’s famous phrase about Tony Blair not having a place for religion at Number 10). Dame Helen’s talk on how civil servants may understand religion’s role in civil society was timely, given that Prime Minister David Cameron has indicated a rethink on multiculturalism, with special reference to Islam. Her lecture was just a few days before one
by Gordon Brown, who as Premier invited the Pope to Britain. On Wednesday, as The Tablet went to press, he was due to speak at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury on “Faith in Politics?” at Lambeth Palace.
Clarification IN THE article last week headlined “Battle for the Vaughan”, we said that parents and supporters of the school sang the hymn “Secret Sacrament Divine” during a prayer vigil. We meant to say that they sang “Sweet Sacrament Divine”.
It has also been pointed out that the quote
attributed to Anna Brown, of the Vaughan Parents Action Group, which stated, “Of course, I’m obedient to the bishop, but when it comes to faith and morals, parents are the prime educators of their children”, should have read: “Of course when it comes to faith and morals I am obedient to the bishop, but when it comes to the education of my children, parents are the primary and prin- cipal educators.”
19 February 2011 | THE TABLET | 17
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