NOTEBOOK Open house
IT IS NO ACCIDENT that Britain’s seat of parliamentary democracy has been chosen to host a meeting in November of the cam- paigning group Women Can Be Priests. Its founder, John Wijngaards, told us that the event is being held at Westminster to stress the point that the Church should allow the issue of women’s ordination to be discussed. “The Houses of Parliament are symbolic of free speech in the country. We thought, ‘What more appropriate place to discuss this?’” said Dr Wijngaards, a Catholic priest who resigned his ministry in 1998 saying that the “last straw” was the bar against female ordination. All Catholic MPs and peers have been
invited to the meeting on 1 November, which will be addressed by Dr Wijngaards and Baroness (Helena) Kennedy QC. It is being hosted by the Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh. Bishops have been told via the bishops’ conference secretariat that they would be welcome to attend. Although the meeting is entitled “The
Case for Women Priests in the Catholic Church”, it is open to opponents of women’s ordination, said Dr Wijngaards, who added: “They would be absolutely welcome. An open discussion is the whole point of the exercise.” Further information is available from
www.womenpriests.org/meeting.asp Wit and wisdom
IF A COMEDIAN wants to be cool these days he has to be an atheist, maintained Frank Skinner during 90 minutes of conver- sation with the Archbishop of Canterbury in front of an audience at Canterbury Cathedral on Friday. But the acerbic words of the Black Country wit – who was born a Catholic, left the Church at 17 and returned in his late twenties, now describing himself as an “informed believer” (“I read The Tablet every week”) – seem to contradict his own assertion. Talking about religion and humour, Skinner
said he liked the idea that believers were funnier than atheists and suggested that the atheist evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins was not “a laugh a minute”. “Well, I’ve never heard him tell a joke,”
observed Dr Williams. “To be fair, he is still evolving,” retorted the comedian.
On the subject of homilies, Skinner was
excoriating: “I must have heard thousands of homilies. I can think of three or four that had a big effect on me. If I was doing gigs with that kind of hit rate, I wouldn’t be sitting here tonight.”
And on doubt he was profound: “I worry about when I hear religious people who have no doubt, and I worry when I hear atheists
who seem to have no doubt. I think that that is an essential part of being a human being. And when Jesus is on the Cross and says, ‘My Lord, my Lord, why have you forsaken me?’, that is the moment when he completely becomes a human being and then he can die because he’s done the full works.” To hear the conversation in full, visit
www.thetablet.co.uk German voices
THERE IS a surge in demand for Catholic speakers in the build-up to any papal visit and a German group has borrowed a British idea to provide positive comment on church affairs. As Pope Benedict completes his first state visit to Germany this weekend, a German team has been primed by Catholic Voices, whose members acted as media representatives for the Church during the papal visit to Britain last year. Voices’ coordinator Jack Valero flew to
Munich earlier this month to address a team of around 25 German Catholics at the end of a week of training and lectures by the Medienakademie für katholische Apologetik (“Media Academy for Catholic Apologetics”). His advice included tips on how to explain in a positive way the Church’s position on issues such as the sexual-abuse scandal and homosexuality. “I asked them to draw up a list of issues that had come up in Germany ahead of the Pope’s visit there so we could discuss them, and it was interesting that they were pretty much the same as those we faced in Britain last year,” he told us. “I am confident they will get their message across.”
Hero of the hour SPEAKING of papal visits, the one last year to Britain almost didn’t happen, according to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who explained that after last year’s general election, “no one
was making any political decisions” and he had to intervene. In an interview this week with The Independent, the archbishop explained that plans for the visit started to take shape only after he told the Prime Minister, David Cameron, some home truths in a telephone conversation.“I told him it will be a question of the reputation of Great Britain, having issued an invitation to the Pope and then not making it happen,” he said, adding that this led to the appointment of Lord Patten of Barnes to oversee the visit preparations. Some, however, may question this account
of events. From the start, the Church was responsible for the organisation of the religious elements of the papal visit, such as the beat- ification of John Henry Newman. According to documents from the Department of Communities and Local Government, the beatification ceremony – originally due to take place at Coventry Airport but then moved at the last minute to Cofton Park – and all the events in Birmingham would have been in “great doubt” were it not for the work of one group. Although the documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, have redacted the name of this group it is believed to be the Government Office for the West Midlands. This office is now defunct, a victim of recent government cuts.
A twitch upon the thread? IN THE PAST Jeremy Paxman has shown a certain scepticism when it comes to religious faith. He famously challenged Tony Blair on whether he prayed with George Bush and asked the Archbishop of Canterbury rather incredulously about original sin. But this has not stopped the combative
BBC Newsnight presenter taking on a role with the Catholic charity Anchor House, which works with the homeless in Newham, east London. Mr Paxman has just agreed to become the patron of the Home and Hope appeal, which is hoping to raise £9.3 million to convert its headquarters into 25 new flats. The charity was founded by the London branch of the Apostleship of the Sea in 1962. This is the second Catholic charity the BBC journalist has become involved with – he is also a patron of the Cardinal Hume Centre in Westminster. He emphasised to us, however, that his patronage of Anchor House is “not a religious thing”. “I was delighted to be asked to get involved because it’s got such a well-worked- out approach to the problem,” he said. It is understood, however, that Mr Paxman had great respect for the late Cardinal Basil Hume, who introduced him to the work of the centre that bears the name of the late Archbishop of Westminster.
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