LETTERS


St Paul’s: renewed mission A crucial question about St Paul’s Cathedral in London (“A place to talk”, 5 November) is whether it is a place of mission or maintenance. Churches of mission are involved in the community where they exist. They contribute positively and their absence would severely detract from that community. They live out the teachings of the Church. Churches of maintenance merely exist in physical form, going through the motions, with a fixation on ritual. They are concerned with sustaining their own fiefdoms financially. The absence of such churches would barely be noticed in the wider community. The events of recent weeks, where the cathedral author- ities have virtually turned 360 degrees from seeking legal powers to remove the protest- ers to embracing the protest and its aims, suggest it has moved from maintenance to rediscover mission. This must be welcome. However, there is


still something pro-


foundly disturbing, when one stands at the doorway of St Paul’s listening to the click click of the turnstile as people pay to enter. So maybe the question now should be: would Jesus expect to pay to enter St Paul’s? Paul Donovan London E11


Cardinal Pell and climate change It is unfortunate that Cardinal George Pell (“Cautious words in a climate of fear’’, 5 November) sees his ministry as including denial of evidence of human-induced climate change as provided by the most reputable contem- porary scientists. Australians are per capita world-class CO2 emitters especially through air miles and coal. Presumably the cardinal thinks his trip “really necessary” as if we had no indigenous neo-liberal deniers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change evidence. Unfortunately we do. Cardinal Pell notwithstanding, the scientists may be right. (Dr) Edward P. Echlin Bexhill, East Sussex


Rarely when I read an article do I want to stand and cheer in downright admiration. Yet that was exactly how I felt after reading the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney George Pell’s words on climate change. Here was a promin - ent Catholic more than willing to face up to the climate-change bully boys with measured and powerful words that resonated with me and I am sure with many others who have always harboured severe doubts about the climate change “movement’’. He reminded me so much of another


cardinal who dared challenge convention. Cardinal Newman would have been proud of him: I can offer no greater compliment. Alexander McKay Edinburgh


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After turmoil at St Paul’s - Chris Chivers on its need for a radical change of direction


Friends of the friendless How volunteers are helping sex offenders after release from prison The cardinal vs the campaigner


Cardinal George Pell lambasts the Greens over climate change - and Mary Colwell fights back PLUS DANIEL O’LEARY • TINTIN • CATHOLICS AND THE MONARCHY


For any reader confused or seduced by Cardinal Pell’s arguments, the Royal Society last year published a helpful objective guide. “Climate Change: a summary of the science” highlights the areas where the science is well established, those where there is still some debate, and those where substantial uncer- tainties remain. The overwhelming weight of disinterested science points to human activ- ity as the cause of warming over the last half century. In these circumstances, the best appli- cation of the “medieval virtue of prudence” is to note the evidence, and exercise caution in managing the risks. Mary Colwell (“Cardinal, put down your


sword”, 5 November) is also right, however, to shift the emphasis on to wider environmen- tal concerns. Has the cardinal failed to notice the degraded coral reefs, or collapsed fisheries, the drastic losses of biodiversity – let alone the ugly wars sparked by our oil dependence? So far as we know, we may already have passed the peak of the more easily available oil. It is in any case inefficient (and ungrateful) to burn up every year a gift of geological time that accreted over millions of years. So, even leav- ing aside the question of climate change, we have no choice but to switch to renewables. That switch is only to our advantage: every action we take towards reducing CO2 brings other benefits along the way. Clean technolo- gies offer fresh air, healthier cities, the opportunity to be more resilient and self- sufficient in energy or food, besides vast scope for employment in the emerging “circular” eco- nomic models that will nurture natural capital. It is a puzzle to know why Cardinal Pell only fears the costs, and doubts the rewards which are staring us in the face. John Merivale London SW19


Help for paedophile offenders Terry Philpot (“Wider circle”, 5 November) made me wonder if there were any clerical circles of support and accountability in Great Britain to help ex-offenders avoid committing


further paedophile offences. And would they have the support of the hierarchy and religious superiors as well as the Catholic community at large? It is a question I have asked myself often in the light of the clerical abuse scan- dal; can we be there as Church for those priests and Religious who have abused children? Is conversion of life under grace really possible? Do we really believe in the “transformation of persons”, as Rowan Williams describes “the heart of forgiveness”? Is there any significant help not only from contemporary psychology but also from prayer and loving community where redemption is always possible? Or do we deep down believe that nothing can be done for them within the church structures that would be effective and that their condition is intractable and nothing less than a fast- tracking out of priesthood is the answer? I wonder if we really could breathe more easily believing that they are no longer our liability even though some of them might have been with us in formation from as young as 11. (Fr) John Michael Hanvey Blackburn, Lancashire


Mission of Catholic schools Referring to Fr Ashley Beck’s suggestion that actual conversions might be one pertin - ent way of assessing the “mission and evangelisation” of Catholic schools (Letters, 22 October), John Harris asks, “Would Fr Beck apply this criterion to all missionary work, I wonder?” (Letters, 5 November). While I can- not speak for my colleague – and fellow convert –Fr Beck, that strikes me, at least, as being a not at all unreasonable suggestion. Stephen Bullivant St Mary’s University College, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, Middlesex


Translation errors Canon Alan Griffiths (Letters 5, November) was not the only one who, upon first reading the new English version of the Prayer after Communion for the First Sunday of Advent, thought that it meant the “passing things” among which we “walk” can teach us to “love the things of heaven”. On the Roman Missal, Third Edition web-


site of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the official “commentary” on this prayer presumes, as grammatical usage would indicate, that the antecedent of “them” in the fifth line is “passing things” in the pre- vious line, and not “mysteries” in the first line. The commentator than weaves an entire spir- ituality from that erroneous translation: “As we prepare to return to our daily lives, our jour- ney is described as a walk among passing things. Even passing things, however, are use- ful for divine instruction by which we learn to distinguish between passing things and what endures. Once we have learned to distinguish between them, we learn to love the things of


12 November 2011 | THE TABLET | 17


What the Arab Spring means for Christians


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