Colour issue

PORTSMOUTH
Feb/Mar 2013 • Vol 13-1
The Catholic Diocese
of Portsmouth magazine
The Lamb
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & oer the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb Ill tell thee,
Little Lamb Ill tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee
William Blake
Year of Faith
Gay Marriage
Care of the Dying
Marriage Encounter
CAFOD's Lenten Appeal
At the Foot of the Cross
Pope honours Navy Chaplain
... plus all our regular features
PORTSMOUTH
Jay Kettle-Williams
Feb/Mar 2013 • Vol 13-1
PEOPLE
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL …
T
he wicked stepmother, consumed with self-interest and
unjustified spite, jealously attacks those who might
otherwise befriend her.
Fairy stories, pantomime and other genres of the cautionary tale
offer a window on society. Good vies with evil as the fairy-tale
focus falls on human failings, gifts and foibles. But all comes
right in the end. The wicked are ensnared by their own vices, the
comic makes us laugh – be that at ourselves or otherwise with
good grace - the innocent succeed and beauty wins the day.
So, a lot boils down to windows and mirrors: how we see, how we
are seen and how we like to be seen.
This issue of PP coincides with the solemnity of Lent, the sacrifice
of the Messiah and his rising from the dead, this last being the
act in fulfillment of the Christian message.
But the word ‘responsibility’ in modern society is just one side of
a coin, the other being ‘entitlement’. It all depends how you spin
that coin to see what lands face up.
Surely, entitlement and responsibility should sit evenly balanced
in the hands of justice. Rather than countenancing selfish,
undemocratic demands from minorities, governments should
promote responsibility to the common good from all members of
society. Until we educate ourselves better, we'll see more and
more wicked stepmothers coming forward, like puppets
manipulated by dark forces.
So, it’s back to the mirror. Back to the window.
Lent is a time for spiritual growth, strengthening and outreach
when we look to ourselves and look out for others, when we are
encouraged to focus on our personal spiritual development and
to develop further focus on our responsibility towards others.
CONTENTS
Bishop’ Bulletin
2
Letters
4
Mary, Mother of Jesus at the
5
Foot of the Cross by Lesley King
Teens & 20s by Irina Ghiuzan
6
Quotable Quotes
7
Parson’s Pointers by John Parsons
7
Profiles
8 & 16
Behind the Scenes:
8
Role of the Papal Nuncio
Pope honours top Navy Chaplain
9
Prie-Dieu by Fr Denis Blackledge
10
Take the WWW on your
Spiritual Journey by Fr Tom Grufferty
10
Live Issues by Dominica Roberts
What’s in a Word
Movers and Shakers
Easter Poem by Edward Millichap
Flying the Flag for the Year of Faith
by Colin Parkes
Hints & Wrinkles: Copyright
Fascinating Facts & Figures
A Broader View by Lawrence Fullick
Just for Juniors
This is IT!
Crossword
News & Announcements
Cover photograph © Child with Lamb.
Acknowledgements: Candle Books for kind permission to reproduce the illustrations on p18 from
Jumbo Bible Activity Book © 2009 Lion Hudson plc. The Venerable English College for kind permission
to reproduce their pen and ink drawing of the VEC (see NEWS). Jersey Evening Post for kind
permission to use the photograph ref: AoS/Mission to Seafarers in Movers & Shakers.
Photographs ©: Abbaye Sainte Anne de Kergoan (ref: Père Xavier Perrin); Laura Bigoni (ref: Lynda
Mussell); Marguerite Boulter (ref: CWL/AoS); Catholic Communications Network/Catholic Bishops’
Conference of England and Wales (ref: Archbishop Mennini); Fr John Cooke (ref: Lourdes grotto);
Pete Hughes (ref: Fr Tansey); JLK-W (assorted shots incl. Church in Focus); Jersey Evening Post (ref:
AoS/Mission to Seafarers); John Rifkin (ref: Rabbi Mirvis); Josephine Turner (ref: Patrick Daly).
11
11
12
13
14
16
17
17
18
19
19
20
22
Marriage Encounter by
Chris and Mary Farrall
Catering for Catholic Tastes
23
Connections
23
Reviews
24
Vocation Calendar
25
Hungry for Change this Lent
26
by Lynda Mussell
Calendar
27
Abraham, our Father in Faith
28
by Fr Jeremy Corley
PP distribution schedule for 2013 (i.e. Volume 13): weeks beginning 25 Mar., 27 May, 29 Jul., 23
Sep., 25 Nov.
Copy for publication in PP should be received as far in advance as possible of the first working
day of the month of publication/distribution. Submission of copy can be no guarantee of
publication. Further details on p28. Guidelines for submission (text and images) and PP
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PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
1
BISHOP’S BULLETIN
BISHOP OF PORTSMOUTH
Rt Rev Philip A Egan BA, STL, PhD
THE CARE OF THE DYING
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, and all people of good will,
I wish to consider how we care for the dying and also to express some concerns about
the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) and its practice in our NHS hospitals and care-homes.
SPIRITUAL CARE OF THE DYING:
PRAYING FOR A HAPPY DEATH
s Catholics, we pray for a happy death, that is, a death
in a state of grace. We accept whatever death the Lord
has prepared for us. On the other hand, we ask the Lord
to protect us ‘from a sudden and unforeseen death’ because
we naturally wish to be well prepared and able sincerely to say
what St Teresa of Avila said: ‘I want to see God and, in order
to see him, I must die’. As a child, I was taught every night to
pray the following prayer, which I also commend to you:
The care of the dying is the responsibility of the whole
Christian community. Chaplains should systematically visit all
the Catholic patients in their care, not just those who 'opt in'.
To help ensure that you and I receive all this sacramental care
and spiritual support, it would be good if every Catholic
carried on their person a simple card identifying themselves
and the need in an emergency to call a priest.
‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace
with you’.
‘It is not easy to make the clinical
judgement that a patient is about to die’
A
MEDICAL CARE OF THE DYING:
THE LIVERPOOL CARE PATHWAY
n 1997, the LCP was launched as a
framework to improve the care of the
dying. It comprises procedures
intended to alleviate suffering, and to
assist the medical staff set appropriate
goals, avoid invasive treatments and
follow recognised patterns of palliative
care. In theory, all parties are involved:
medical staff, patients and relatives. In
practice, the LCP is dependent on the
skills and experience of the members of
the multidisciplinary teams applying it.
Staff must reach a judgment that the
patient is dying and once made, the
patient is put on the pathway. The
intention is to relieve symptoms. Often
clinical care is suspended, heavy sedation
and then terminal sedation administered,
patients put to sleep, and eventually lifeprolonging treatments and drips
withdrawn, even feeding and hydration.
I
2
PEOPLE
Sometimes beforehand, the elderly, the
frail or those with complications are
asked if they wish to sign a DNR or ‘Do
Not Resuscitate’ order, in case they suffer
cardiac arrest or cease breathing.
The LCP is fast becoming the NHS way of
dying, with the government offering
financial incentives for its adoption.
Already in some areas, 1 in 2 terminally ill
patients die on the pathway. Its
intentions are benign, yet as a pastor, my
own experience, together with anecdotal
evidence, suggests that what should be
supported dying becomes blurred with
assisted dying. Medical wards are often
congested and busy. It is not easy to
make the clinical judgement that a
patient is about to die – this is the nub of
the issue - although once on the
pathway, death usually occurs in an
average of 29 hours. There is no legal
requirement to obtain patient consent
and evidence suggests that relatives are
not always informed. Most controversial
of all is the withdrawal of feeding and
hydration. True, this is not needed in the
very last hours of a person’s life. But to
withdraw feeding and hydration to bring
about death, even if permitted by law for
those in a so-called persistent vegetative
state, is a heartless act of cruelty towards
the weakest and most defenceless,
effectively starving a patient to death. It
is in effect, as Blessed John Paul said,
euthanasia. In my own ministry I have
heard of patients lasting for days before
passing away, whilst stories are told of
relatives feeding fluids to patients who
later recover. All these are reasons for a
careful re-evaluation of the LCP and its
application in practice.
BISHOP’S BULLETIN
THE CARE OF
CATHOLICS WHO
ARE DYING
f you are terminally ill, consider whether it might be
practicable to die at home with dignity and comfort.
If you are asked to sign a DNR, reflect in prayer on
what might be God's will. Ask whether it is possible for
drugs to be used that do not deprive you of
consciousness and a chance to pray and to commune
with your loved ones. If you are a next of kin and you
hear people speaking about ‘quality of life,’ be on your
guard. Insist on being notified before the patient is
placed on the LCP and that you are involved in the
decisions being taken. When the medical team suggests
there is little more they can do, that is the moment, if
not done already, to call the priest to offer the
sacraments, which often have physically therapeutic
effects. It might be appropriate afterwards to ask the
medical staff for a second opinion and a re-evaluation
of treatment. Life cannot be prolonged indefinitely, but
it is morally right to prevent the withdrawal of feeding
and hydration until the very last. At the end, gathered
around the death-bed, relatives should keep vigil, like
Mary at the foot of the Cross, saying prayers from time
to time such as the Rosary and the short exclamations
from the Pastoral Care of the Sick.
I
‘Life from conception to natural
death is God’s gift’
To conclude, life from conception to natural death is
God’s gift. It is sacred. We believe this on the basis of
the natural law and the teaching of Christ. Let us turn
to the Lord Jesus, asking him to bless all our doctors,
nurses and health-care professionals and the work they
do, as they share in the Lord’s own healing ministry. Let
us pray for those who will die today, and for ourselves
too that we will receive from the compassionate Heart
of Jesus the grace of a happy death. Indeed, helped by
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may we merit to hear in that
hour those thrilling words from the Saviour: ‘Today, you
will be with me Paradise’.
The above is an abridged version of the Pastoral
Teaching Message from Bishop Philip to the priests
and people of the Diocese of Portsmouth. It was issued
on 8 December 2012, the Solemnity of the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The full, unabridged text with footnotes appears as an
online supplement to this issue.
STATEMENT ON
GAY MARRIAGE
In response to a recent TV interview with
David Cameron in which he gave his backing
to gay marriage in church and the outcome
of the so-called consultation process, Bishop
Philip Egan has issued the following
statement to the priests and people of the
Diocese and to all people of good will
avid Cameron has said that he is an enthusiastic
supporter of marriage and that he does not
want ‘gay people to be excluded from a great
institution’. Yet however well-intentioned, and despite
huge opposition from Christians, Jews and Muslims
alike, by attempting to change the natural meaning of
marriage, he seems utterly determined to undermine
one of the key foundations of our society. Such a
change is of immense significance. By this change, he
is luring the people of England away from their
common Christian values and Christian patrimony, and
forcing upon us a brave new world, artificially
engineered. To ‘extend marriage to gay people’, he
intends to impose the will of a tiny minority on the
vast majority. If the Prime Minister proceeds with these
intentions, he will pervert authentic family values, with
catastrophic consequences for the well-being and
behaviour of future generations. He will smother the
traditional Christian ethos of our society and strangle
the religious freedom of the Catholic Church in Britain
to conduct its mission. I would like to ask Mr. Cameron:
What about the rights of Christians? Will you exempt
the Church, its preachers, resources and premises, from
having to support your harmful ideology? Will Catholic
schools, societies and institutions be free (and legally
safeguarded) to teach the full truth of Christ and the
real meaning of life and love? The institution of
marriage has had its ups and downs, but will we ever
forget that it was the leader of the Conservative Party
who finally destroyed marriage as a lasting, loving and
life-giving union between a man and a woman?
D
In Corde Iesu,
+Philip
Bishop of Portsmouth
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
3
ON
SIGNIFICANT OMISSI
was included in the issue
I've no quarrel with what
spian [December 2012] but
commemorating Bishop Cri
cant omission. The relics of
there was, to my mind, a signifi
outh in 2009 and the
St Thérèse came to Portsm
mber 25th quoted Bishop
Catholic Herald for Septe
s: ‘Over the years of the
Crispian as saying afterward
h
our Cathedral in Portsmout
history of our diocese and
t
Bu
.
ons
asi
occ
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at events
we have witnessed many gre
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oti
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rea
and
for sheer intensity of prayer
at we have experienced
wh
ed
tch
ma
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hav
whether any
it to the Cathedral of St
during the hours of the vis
Thérèse’.
, Totland Bay (Isle of Wight), I now
Formerly of the congregation at St Saviour’s
ed land by the MP for Siem Reap
live and work in Cambodia, having been offer
Province to found a children’s project.
IA was opened. It is now home to
Two years ago HONOUR VILLAGE CAMBOD
inalized children aged from 18
48 of Cambodia’s poorest and most marg
children from local villages attend
months to 16 years. Over three hundred
g government school.
free classes five days a week after attendin
villages
I am now looking to extend work into these
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‘Poor
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to support 54 government
the
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families, who struggle from one
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raises an average family of
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extreme poverty, and a bicy
provides them with transport.
as well,
We have other visions for the near future
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villag
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in
but this is the most urgent need
have
who
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nizat
every step we liaise with orga
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and
work
of
experience in our next field
development.
√
Eddie Richer (Fr)
Bordon
INTEGRITY
TRUTH, TRANSPARENCY AND
INFALLIBILITY
The letter from Dominica Roberts (Portsmo
uth People
Vol 12-6 page 5) refers to ‘infallible declarat
ions of the
Popes’. I wonder which ‘infallible declarations
’ she has in
mind? The last five Popes, John XXIII, Paul
VI, John Paul I,
John Paul II and Benedict XVI have never
attempted to
make an ‘infallible declaration’. For the
last ‘infallible
declaration’ she would have to go back
to Pius XII in
1950. The last one before that was in 187
0. So they
are very few and far between. Many people
think that the
last one in 1950 was the last in the line,
that there will
never be another one.
√
Dr James Hough
Winchester
Dominica Roberts replies: ‘Dr Hough is of course
right: I learnt at my convent school more than
60 years ago that such ‘infallible declarations
of the Pope and Councils’ are very rare, and
indeed I remember how exciting was that of the
Assumption of Our Lady in 1950. Some theologians,
however, appear to consider that Humanae Vitae, for
example, is infallible. I do not pretend to be qualified to
have a worthwhile opinion on this. I simply repeat my
firm belief that at the very least such Papal
declarations are worthy of the highest respect, and
disobedience is foolish.’
4
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
2 June,
I will be on leave in the UK from 9 April till
our
Hon
t
abou
and would love to tell you more
and
ese
Dioc
uth
links with Portsmo
Village, in the hope of creating stronger
me.
for
the work God has provided
this UK registered charity. Our
No western person receives one penny from
se help us to reach the poorest
motto is Truth-Transparency-Integrity. Plea
families in Cambodia.
Sue Wiggins
Sue Wiggins
Honour Village
Siem Reap
Cambodia
site
[For further details visit the HVC web
rg)
dia.o
mbo
geca
villa
(www.honour
or contact Sue by email:
sue@honourvillagecambodia.org]
GE THE GULF
TRY AND BRID
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RESPECT AND OB
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The Church shou
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√
LETTERS
The Editor regrets being unable
(1) to enter into correspondence
other than through the pages of
the magazine and (2) to accept for
publication any copy, including
LETTERS, submitted other than
electronically.
AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS
Mary, Mother of Jesus at
the Foot of the Cross
Lesley King reflects on her reading of John Chapter 19:16-30
Mary’s story:
‘I was afraid when the angel came to me
saying, “Fear not” and yet I accepted my
destiny. I was so happy to do God’s will.
Everything seemed so wonderful but, in
my heart, I knew there was something
ahead; something more than a mother’s
worry.
‘The oils brought by the Wise Men which
were used to prepare for death and
burial seemed significant. When he was
only a few days old, Joseph and I carried
Jesus to the Temple and we met Simeon.
He was a very old man and I will never
forget his words,: “Thy own soul a sword
shall pierce”. It struck fear into my heart
and, today, now, I know what he meant.
‘Thy own soul a sword
shall pierce’
‘Until he began his ministry everything
seemed normal and we were happy.
There was the occasional upset; the time
we lost him and discovered him in the
Temple. When we found him, he acted
as though it was normal and I should
have known that he would be with his
Father, in his house, doing his work. I
know Joseph was hurt and I was upset. It
made me afraid all over again but other
times he was so loving and would do
anything for me. At the marriage of
Cana, when I asked him, he turned all
that water into wine when they ran out.
Everyone thought it was wonderful and
I was so proud of him. I loved him so
much.
‘Then he began preaching and curing
people. The trouble was the ordinary
people loved him and followed him
everywhere but the elders in the Church
hated him. He criticized them and broke
all their rules; they couldn’t control him.
He wouldn’t stop. They thought he was a
revolutionary but he wasn’t. He expected
a lot of people but he was always kind
and loving. He never became angry if
they couldn’t live up to his standards,
just so long as they tried. He always
forgave.
in my arms and I am cradling his head). I
kiss his face and stroke his hair. Yes, I can
bear it because somehow, I don’t know
how, I know this is not the end; this is
the beginning. I know he has not left us;
I can wait.
‘He has asked for His Father
to forgive everyone’
‘Hush! He is going to speak. He is in such
pain and it hurts to talk - it makes the
pain worse. He is hurting everywhere; I
can’t bear it. I wish I could weep but the
tears won’t come; the grief is too great.
There is just a painful lump in my chest
which is choking me. They’ve beaten him
with those wicked whips that have sharp
bones on the ends which cut into you.
They banged the nails in; they are so
long and he didn’t even moan. His arms
and legs must be screaming. I don’t want
to be here but I can’t leave him. I have to
be here for him.
‘Listen! He has asked for His Father to
forgive everyone here for doing this to
him. He has even forgiven one of the
criminals with him and told him he will
be in heaven today. How can he do that?
How can he be so strong and wonderful?
How can he think of others at a time like
this?
‘Look at the soldiers! I can’t believe it;
they are gambling for his shirt. They
don’t care. They think he is a criminal.
They think he is worthless, a nothing.
Why can’t they see him as I do, as a
person, as my son and he is hurting. It
breaks my heart.
‘Wait. He’s seen me. He has told John, his
favourite disciple, to take care of me as
though I was his mother. Even now he
thinks of me, not himself. Oh Jesus, my
Son, I love you. I cannot bear it and yet,
and yet (they have placed his dead body
Lesley King MBE, Corpus Christi
Wokingham, parishioner, is a
retired head teacher and as a past
prison chaplain for Young
Offenders prepared this Easter
reflection.
PEOPLE
5
TEENS & 20s
TEENS & 20s
oving to a different country at
a young age can pose many
challenges
of
cultural
adaptation but can also bring about a
change of values that has the potential
to reshape someone’s personality.
M
Born and raised a Catholic in a fairly
religious part of Romania, my move to
Portsmouth three years ago for pursuing
architectural studies at university
represented a sudden cut-off not just
from family and friends but also from a
community which shared very similar
values, looked at only one shepherd for
guidance and worshiped in a singular
church.
6
PEOPLE
Irina Ghiuzan recognises it’s easier to be a
Christian nowadays professing your faith than
it was 2,000 years ago
But moving to the UK meant I had to
face numerous challenges both as a
Christian and a Catholic. To see so many
people not only doubting the existence
of God but also denying or simply
ignoring his presence made me realise
that believing can be a very rare gift. At
the same time it became apparent that
faith is not something I should take for
granted but rather something I should
carefully protect and nurture. The
serious question ‘Why do I believe?’
sprang many times into my mind but by
the grace of God it gradually led me to
intensify my prayer-life and look for
answers deeper in our Catholic faith.
As I joined the Cathedral choir and later
the student’s Catholic Society I found
hope in my search for truth and
meaning while divine providence led me
to a new stage in my life as a Catholic.
Learning about the vast heritage of our
Church, which culminated with a better
understanding of the Tridentine Mass,
helped me keep the light of faith
burning in my soul. I am convinced that
faith comes not only from believing but
also from knowing. And while we
cannot know without questioning, it is
useless asking without a genuine desire
to seek the answer. Our quest for God
should be aided by a will to understand
Him, through the help of the Church’s
teachings found in the Catechism. And
only when we know our faith well can
we evangelise and have ecumenical
conversations. I believe it is this lack of
knowledge that prevents so many young
Catholics, and not only them, to
preserve and defend their faith.
‘Why do I believe?’
Our secular society needs faithful
people and Catholics to evangelise in
every aspect of daily life more than ever
if we want people to know the real
values of Christianity. And I consider
evangelisation is truly effective through
the power of example rather than
preaching.
To someone asking me if it is difficult to
be a Catholic, I answer it is far easier
than it was to be a Christian 2000 years
ago. However there is nonetheless
persecution of Catholics and Christians
even today everywhere around the
world although it has taken a new form,
and we must be prepared to defend our
faith through the knowledge of our
inheritance and the Church’s teachings
as presented in the Catechism.
Irina Ghiuzan, who recently graduated
from the University of Portsmouth in
Architecture, is currently working in
London as an architectural assistant,
aspiring to become a fully accredited
architect in the near future.
POINTERS
Quotable Quotes
'I bless all of you from my heart'
Pope Benedict tweets for the first time
‘Supporting the dignity and well-being of
disabled or older people is intrinsic to the
Church's social action mission’
Helen O'Brien, CEO of CSAN (Caritas Social
Action Network), the social action arm of
the Catholic Church in England and Wales
‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six,
result happiness. Annual income twenty
pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds
ought and six, result misery’
Wilkins Micawber in David Copperfield by
Charles Dickens
[These amounts in UK’s pre-decimal
currency equate with £20.00, £19.975, and
£20.025,]
'I don't think it's for politicians to lecture people
about morality'
Ed Miliband
‘Sometimes sexual expression can be without
the public bond of the faithfulness of marriage
and its ordering to new life. Even governments
mistakenly promote such patterns of sexual
intimacy as objectively to be approved and even
encouraged among the young’
Archbishop Vincent Nichols
'I don't understand why people who have no
faith and don't believe in Christ would want to
get hitched in church'
Adrian Smith
‘Healey's first law of politics: when you're in a
hole, stop digging’
Denis Healey
'Walk in our customers shoes every flight, every
day … I can't remember the last day at work
that we didn't have something to laugh about'
Karen Cox, Head of Ground Operations,
easyJet, talks about her operation’s mantra
‘Let me tell you something that we Israelis have
against Moses. He took us forty years through
the desert in order to bring us to the one spot
in the Middle East that has no oil!’
Golda Meir
‘When I give food to the poor they call me a
saint. When I ask why the poor have no food
they call me a communist’
Hélder Cˆmara
a
‘He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows
everything. That points clearly to a political
career’
George Bernard Shaw
Parsons Pointers
John Parsons
hen I started writing this I was struck by the
mathematical coincidence of the date 12.12.12. The
twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth
year. That will not happen again in quite that form
for another 88 years though you might argue that 2.2.22 would
fit the bill!
W
We use all sorts of things to remind us of people and events and
the memories of the family can be extremely important, though
it has to be said that they can also be painful. In our family there
are some very important dates over the Christmas period, my
parents were married on Christmas Eve, grandchildren were born
on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Boxing Day is not quite so
good. My brother Michael was born that day and he was only 25
when he was killed in a bombing raid on Germany. Rather
remarkably only a year or so ago we learnt of the fate of his
aircraft partly through the researches of a German archaeologist.
It was a great blessing that his daughter, born after he died, was
able to visit the crash site and talk to a man who, as a small boy
had heard the crash all those years ago.
The Feast of St Stephen, Boxing Day, is a special day for altar
servers. After all their exertions over Christmas it is a very apt day
to choose for their celebration. We are very lucky in our local
church, we have 24 servers altogether, 14 girls and 10 boys. Two
of the girls take over as M.C. when the leader is away. What a
wonderful thing it is that over the years we have welcomed
women onto the sanctuary. On St Stephen’s Day last year 10
servers were admitted to the Guild of St Stephen and one
received the Silver Medal for 10 years service
When you read this it will be February, Christmas will have come
and gone and we shall be celebrating Candlemas Day. My wife’s
mother used to say that she welcomed Candlemas Day because
that was when you could have tea by daylight. As you have your
tea by daylight you might like to reflect on the importance of
family and family events and on the meaning of significant dates
in one’s life, be they mathematical coincidences, family birthdays
or whatever. God’s grace comes to us in so many ways not least
by pondering things that happened long ago - or yesterday!
John worships at the Church of Our Lady in Fleet and is in the choir
there. He is a keen ecumenist and is a former Chairman of the Diocesan
Commission for Christian Unity. He has been a regular contributor to
Portsmouth People for some years with his column Parsons Pointers.
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
7
PROFILE
BTS
PERSONALITY PROFILE
osport-based Amanda Field runs a small
independent publishing house, Chaplin Books, and
also works as a film historian specialising in the
classic ‘studio era' of Hollywood, having taken her
Masters in Film Studies at the University of Southampton,
where she completed her doctorate in 2009. Before
embarking on her academic study, Amanda had had a long
career in corporate communications producing publications
for blue-chip organisations including editing IBM’s
fortnightly tabloid newspaper (fondly known as Pravda by its
readers), writing a customer magazine for Vodafone, and
battling with curators at The Science Museum to attempt to
produce an annual report that people without a PhD in
engineering could actually understand. For five years she was
a volunteer at Portsmouth Museum where she helped
catalogue the world's largest collection of Sherlock Holmes
Amanda Field
material, some of which helped in writing her book on the
wartime films of Sherlock Holmes, England’s Secret Weapon,
and some of which gave her expertise in esoteric matters such as how many steps there are in the
staircase at 221B Baker Street. She is currently researching boxing films of the 1930s and 1940s, for
a book to be published later this year. Having been received into the Catholic Church three years
ago, Amanda is a member of the congregation of St Mary’s in the High Street, Gosport.
G
With this issue
BEHIND THE SCENES takes a look at …
The Role of the Papal Nuncio
Nuncio means messenger and a
simple description of the role of
the Nuncio would be to say that
he enables communication
between the Holy See and the
Government of the country in
which he is stationed, and
between the Pope and the
Catholic Church in the country
in which he is stationed. The
Nuncio is, to put it simply, the
Pope’s ambassador in a
particular country.
Archbishop Antonio Mennini,
Papal Nuncio to Great Britain
A Papal Nuncio (officially known
as an Apostolic Nuncio) is a
permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a
state or international organization, having the rank of an
ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, usually with
the ecclesiastical rank of titular archbishop. A Papal Nuncio is
an ambassador like those from any other country. However,
the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations allows
the receiving state to grant seniority of precedence to the
Papal Nuncio over others of ambassadorial rank.
8
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
The Nuncio serves as the liaison between the Holy See and the
Roman Catholic diocesan episcopate in the nation or region to
which he is assigned. The national or regional episcopate is
usually supervised by a national conference of bishops, whose
presiding officer is often the highest ranking bishop or
archbishop of that nation, or is elected from the diocesean
ordinaries of the nation or region.
The diplomatic service of the Holy See is generally recognised
as the oldest in the world and the best informed.
At first, Popes sent envoys to different countries, often with a
fact-finding mission. They would go to a country and usually
return to let him know what they had found out. In the
sixteenth century this started to become more formalised;
Angelo Leonini, sent to Venice by the Pope in 1500, is
generally thought of as the first nuncio, as we understand the
term today, and St Francis Xavier, (1506-51) one of the earliest
Jesuits, was nominated by the Pope to represent him in the
East on a missionary tour to Goa and India.
The current Papal (Apostolic) Nuncio to Great Britain is
Archbishop Antonio Mennini (see Priest’s Profile, PP 11-4).
PAPAL HONOUR
FAITH IN ACTION
Nelson's Prayer
On the morning of 21 October 1805 the combined
fleets of France and Spain hove into sight, heralding
the Battle of Trafalgar.
Pope honours top Navy Chaplain
Mgr Andy McFadden RN
s a sign of his affection and
esteem for the Service community
of the Armed Forces, Pope
Benedict XVI has appointed the
Principal Chaplain of the Royal Navy a
Prelate of Honour with the title Monsignor.
Fr Andrew McFadden became the Navy’s
Principal Chaplain, Vicar General of the
Bishopric of the Forces last November and
was also appointed an Honorary Chaplain
to Her Majesty, the Queen (QHC) the
following month.
A
A low-key presentation by Bishop Richard
Moth, the Bishop of the Forces is what
Andy told a few friends he had invited. He
had not bargained for the surprise
arranged by his ecumenical colleagues with
the collusion of Bishop Richard.
Mgr Andy assembled with guests in the
historic Dockyard church of St Ann when
the Chaplain of the Fleet, the Reverend
Scott Brown QHC, who also hails from
Scotland and the new Archdeacon (elect)
of the Royal Navy, Principal Anglican
Chaplain, the Reverend Ian Wheatley QHC
announced a change of plan and that
Morning Prayer would be celebrated in
the Grand Cabin of Nelson’s Flagship,
HMS Victory. On arrival at HMS Victory,
Andy was surprised to see that the
number of guests had increased and
included Naval Secretary and Chief of
Staff of the Royal Navy, Rear Admiral
Jonathan Woodcock and Lt Cdr Rod
Strathern, the Commanding Officer of
HMS Victory.
It was in that historic cabin among
distinguished guests that Bishop Richard,
presented Andy with the parchment of
appointment from Pope Benedict at the
conclusion of Morning Prayer.
Bishop Richard said, ‘I am delighted that
Andy has been appointed Monsignor. The
bestowal of this honour speaks also of the
Holy Father’s support for Naval and
Military Chaplaincy and for the role of
the Armed Forces at the service of peace.
The surprise arranged by his ecumenical
colleagues demonstrates the esteem in
which they hold Andy. They are not just
his colleagues, but also his friends and I
was pleased to be party to the surprise.’
‘May the great God,
whom I worship,
grant to my Country
and for the benefit
of Europe in genera
l, a great and
glorious Victory:
and may no
misconduct, in any on
e, tarnish it and
may humanity after
victory be the
predominant feature in
the British Fleet.
For myself individua
lly, I commit my
life to Him who made
me and may His
blessing light upon m
y endeavours for
serving my Country fa
ithfully. To Him
I resign myself and th
e just cause which
is entrusted to me to de
fend.
Amen. Amen. Amen
.’
Mgr Andy said, ‘It is of course a great
honour by the Holy Father which I accept
on behalf of all Naval Chaplains. As for
the surprise change in arrangements
made by my fellow Chaplains, perhaps I
should not have been surprised – life as a
Service Chaplain is full of surprises!’
Andy is well known in our Portsmouth
diocese. Most Sundays he celebrates
Mass at one of our parishes and he works
with local clergy providing pastoral care
for Naval families.
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
9
PRIE-DIEU
JUST A CLICK AWAY…
THE GREAT WEEK
Reflections on Holy Week and Easter
Loving Lord,
at the start of Holy Week
we remember a triumph with a
difference.
It’s not every king that rides a
donkey.
It’s not every king that speaks of
ushering in
a kingdom of justice, love and peace.
It’s not every king whose one desire
is to ensure that each and every one
of his subjects
enjoys an equality of personal worth
and standing.
It’s not every king that can make a
success
out of apparently total failure.
It’s not every king that can go on
giving and forgiving
when the ultimate chips are down.
in your way and after your mind and
heart.
We’re nailing ourselves as living
witnesses
of your unbounded caring
compassion
and your tolerant kindliness towards
all.
Loving Lord,
carrying palms reminds us also
that those same palms will be burned
and will become next Ash
Wednesday’s ashes.
We acknowledge our glory and our
dust,
our wonder and our wounds,
our strength and our vulnerability.
We accept the fact that we bleed,
and that we can cause others to
bleed.
Loving Lord,
this is a Holy Week,
the Great Week,
Loving Lord,
a week when we reflect on the roots
each time we pray
of our being alive in your love,
‘Your Kingdom come’
we are pledging ourselves to join and when we recognize that we’re called
follow you
to holiness.
And ‘holy’ simply means ‘different’ –
we claim you as the One who makes
us different.
Just by belonging to you, Lord,
and by constantly learning your ways
we are meant to become a living
echo of you.
Loving Lord,
you are King, yet you are Servant,
you are Shepherd, yet you are Lamb.
You lead by lived example,
stooping down to wash our feet,
to take us as we come to Eucharist,
to go through hell on earth in agony
for us,
to be mocked and crowned for us,
to die a criminal’s death
just because you love every single
one of us.
a giver till it hurts,
a lover who does not count the cost.
Only then, Lord,
will this week have any practical
meaning.
Otherwise it’s just a history lesson,
when it’s meant to plunge us all
into the life-and-death struggle
of the good and evil that is right
here and now.
Loving Lord,
give us all the grace this week
to have the courage to follow you
not just through the cheers,
but also through the jeers,
so that we all come out the other
end
as a truly Eastering people.
Amen.
Loving Lord,
belonging to such a King is quite a
challenge!
This Holy Week give each of us
something of that quality of being
like you –
a man or woman for others,
a liver of the beatitudes,
© Denis Blackledge SJ
Fr Denis Blackledge SJ is Parish
Priest, Corpus Christi Boscombe,
Bournemouth.
Take The WWW On Your Spiritual Journey
Fr Tom Grufferty points to some online stepping stones for your spiritual journey
An Armenian Christian
Presbytery recently to
about Catholicism.
something to read. I
called to the
discover more
She wanted
gave her the
Catechism of the Catholic Church
thinking that this might be the last I
saw of it. To my surprise three weeks
later she returned it. I asked her if she
had finished, ‘By no means but I have
bought my own copy...’.
Her enthusiasm alerted me to look again at this rich resource
of our Faith. The Catechism is one of the reasons why we have
the Year of Faith: it was published 20 years ago, fruit of
reflection on the Second Vatican Council. I recommend you
start with the online version. If and when you fall in love with
the reading and study, buy a hard copy. Search on
www.vatican.va and click Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Of great interest for this special year is the first section of
the Catechism. There are over 200 pages on the Faith
including a thorough examination of the Articles of
the Creed. A Parish discussion group could easily
spend the whole year on this one section
10
PEOPLE
alone. There is the beautiful feature of boxed sections
summarising the readings.
In the spiritual sphere of www, it is impossible to find a better
resource than at
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/
YearofFaith/YOF-Resources.html and Online Ministries are
forever adding new material. There are rich pickings for the
Year of Faith, Vatican II, the Catechism and how to share faith.
The prize this month for the best
site goes to Douai Abbey. This site
is well organised, easy to
navigate and highly colourful.
There is a calm tranquillity which
you might well expect from a
monastery. I especially liked the
links with the impressive list of
other Benedictine monasteries
around the world. Equally
impressive is the Pastoral
Programme [see PP’s Calendar] with retreats, workshops,
lectures and courses for the Year of Faith:
www.douaiabbey.org.uk
LIVE ISSUES
ANTICHRIST
Live Issues:
The LCP:
good care or
euthanasia?
Is the Liverpool Care Pathway good care for the dying, or
disguised euthanasia? There are impeccably pro-life
doctors who disagree about this. Some are sure that
abuses are inevitable under the LCP, which should be
discontinued. Others maintain that problems are the
result of the protocol not being correctly followed.
The LCP was started as a way of transferring to ordinary
hospitals the best practice of the hospices. When
followed correctly it has given many patients a much
better death, physically, mentally and spiritually, than
they could have expected before. But nothing is immune
from careless, or possibly even deliberate, misuse. There
certainly have been some very upsetting cases of bad
decisions, sometimes made by tired or junior doctors and
nurses, perhaps insufficiently supervised.
What’s in a Word ANTICHRIST
T
he term antichrist comes from the Greek word
antichristos, which roughly means 'opponent of
Christ'. It's only found four times in the Bible, in
the letters of John (1 John 2.18, 22; 4.3; 2 John
1.7). However, the concept behind it is
understood by many to be found in other books too (e.g.
Daniel chapters 7-11; Matthew 24.15-25; 3
Thessalonians 2.3-12 and Revelation 13. 1-8). In the
letter of John, there are references to more than one
antichrist (and to an anti-Christian spirit in general). The
other references are understood by some to refer to an
individual human who will arise at a given point to
marshall the masses against Jesus.
PETRINE CROSS
However, the LCP is not at all like the Dutch euthanasia
with which it has been unfairly compared. The light
doses of sedative given to prevent agitation in the UK
are a small fraction of the deep sedation by which
patients are deliberately killed in Holland. Most patients
on the LCP die within a day and a half of a diagnosis of
imminent death. The wicked judicial killing of patients in
a so-called Persistent Vegetative State shows that it takes
far longer than that to starve and dehydrate a patient to
death.
Doctors agree that, at the very end of life, some
procedures which earlier were necessary or helpful may
become harmful or burdensome, and should be
withdrawn. Difficult though it may be for lay people to
believe, this may include artificial provision of water.
Doctors are well aware that they are not infallible, so the
LCP guidelines require frequent checking of a patient's
condition, and provision for a change of diagnosis if
appropriate.
Although some reports were wildly exaggerated, it is
clear that better care needs to be taken to prevent
abuses. It is, however, very encouraging that in spite of
the widespread advertising of euthanasia by the BBC and
others, the public reaction to the story was 'How
shocking!' rather than 'Oh, well, they were old and
useless and going to die soon anyway'.
A resource for those concerned about a patient is the
Patients First Network run by SPUC. See the website
http://www.spuc.org.uk/about/pfn/pfn or ring 020 7091
7091
In every age, people have identified specific figures as
the antichrist, depending on their particular standpoint.
This has included Caesar Nero, various Popes, Martin
Luther and Hitler. In our own time, the finger of
suspicion has been pointed at Vladimir Putin, Osama Bin
Laden and even David Hasselhoff. Popular interest in the
Antichrist was aroused by the 1974 film The Omen,
which portrayed the antichrist as a literal child of the
Devil called Damian (a concept and name not found in
the Bible).
Words, and their definition, taken from the Bible Style Guide
(Bible Society 2008) and reproduced here with the permission of
Bible Society. No part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without prior permission
from Bible Society. For permission requests, please email
permissions@biblesociety.org.uk or telephone Bible Society on
017 9341 8100. To access the Bible Style Guide please go to
http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/style-guide
Dominica Roberts is a parishioner of St Joseph and St
Margaret Clitherow in Bracknell, and active in several
pro-life groups.
PEOPLE
11
MOVERS ...
MOVERS and SHAKERS
We pick up on the enthusiasm and achievement across our diocese
68TH LOURDES MIRACLE: The unexplained cure
of Italian nun, Sister Luigina Traverso, has been
officially declared a ‘miracle’. A press statement from
the Communication Services of the Sanctuary of
Lourdes announced, ‘On the occasion of the opening of
the Year of Faith, this 11 October 2012, we have great
joy in announcing the recognition of the 68th miracle
attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes’.
WE REGRET to announce the recent death of Dick
Shenton, whose funeral took place at St Thomas’
Church (Jersey) on 11 January 2013 . Requiescat in
pace. The homily, given by Mgr Nicholas France,
appears as an online supplement to this issue.
YOU DON’T LISTEN TO ME!
Listening is such an important skill. Not
being listened to when someone needs
to talk may devalue that person and
prompt them to withdraw from
forming good relationships with others.
With this in mind, a group of 20 adults
recently completed a Listening for Life
course, run by Acorn Christian Healing
Foundation and held at St Joseph's
(Christchurch) in their splendid new
hall. The aim of such courses is to
enable delegates to become better
listeners, recognising that good
listening promotes life and health, and
makes a difference to ourselves, to
others and to our relationship with God.
All felt that in our church communities
we could bring improved listening skills
to whatever we are involved in e.g. the
parish pastoral council, bereavement
and prayer groups, Journey in Faith,
working with the homeless, other
vulnerable groups ...
The Grotto, Lourdes
AOS SUPPORT: Members of the
Portsmouth Branch of the Catholic
Women's League had been knitting hats and
collecting warm clothing since May last year
for the Apostleship of the Sea. With
members from other Sections throughout
the diocese they brought their contributions
to a recent Branch Meeting at St John's
Cathedral. Elfi Ip (Volunteer Ship Visitor with Apostleship of the Sea from St
Margaret Mary, Park Gate) came to collect the boxes. How many shoe boxes can
you fit in a car? Well quite a few more than Elfi first thought!
Over the Christmas period the Apostleship of the Sea working with the
Mission to Seafarers in Jersey visited 12 ships taking gifts to around 200
seafarers. The gifts had been donated by the residents of Jersey to thank seafarers
for their unseen work in bringing essential goods and supplies to the Island.
If you would like this course to be run in
your parish or Pastoral area, contact
Eileen Stephenson, Department for
Pastoral formation e: estephenson @
portsmouthdiocese.org.uk t: 013 2983
5583 f: 013 2983 3452
With thanks to the Living our Faith Fund
for its generous financial support of this
course run by the Acorn Christian
Healing Foundation.
12
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
In the foreground a member of Condor Shore Staff and from left to right, Brian Penaluna
- MtS Local Sec, David Capps -MtS Local Chair, Sally Penaluna, Ken Jesson, Carol Martin
all MtS Ship Visitors, Mike Cassidy AoS Ship Visitor, The Rev. Laurence Turner MtS Jersey
Chaplin, Terry Brown AoS Ship Visitor, and Peter Bewers AoS Ship Visitor
AND SHAKERS
EASTER
POEM
FR PATRICK TANSEY, Parish Priest of St Michael's in Tadley
and SS Peter and Paul in Kingsclere, recently celebrated 30 years
since his ordination to the priesthood. He was joined by members
of his family and of the parish and by Priests and Deacons from
the NW Hants Pastoral Area and beyond in a celebration at St
Michael's church. On behalf of parishioners, Helen Warner
presented him with a cheque and passed on the congratulations
and prayers of everyone.
Christ’s cries, across the centuries, sent
to wring repentance out of hearts of flint:
curtain rending;
blackness sending;
cries of love. Father, forgive them.
Man-and-God, Christ, facing death, cried out
as blood, hot from His still beating heart
dripped down the rough cross
to echo across ages.
My God, my God, why?
Prophecies whispered throughout the World
that the faithful might believe in their God and all gods are One here crowned in His Son,
who proscribed false prophets. For they know not.
Whiplash words, to crack across deaf ears,
earthquake sounds silence the shattering jeers
of worldly-wise wits,
hypocrites
who pray without prayer. Have you forsaken me?
Hell-harrowing cries from the hilltop hail,
so the scourged wielder of the cleansing flail
to the true Heaven led
His ever-hopeful dead.
And you, this day, shall be with me.
FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD: A Christmas appeal by a
Reading charity for food and toiletries met such a warm
response from two of the town’s Catholic churches that it took
five car journeys to deliver it all. The appeal went out from the
Churches in Reading Drop-in Centre (CIRDIC) to parishioners at
English Martyrs and St Joseph’s, Tilehurst. The charity offers
meals, washing facilities and other help for homeless and
disadvantaged people. ‘I can’t tell you how grateful I am to the
two communities for their generosity,’ said CIRDIC chair and
English Martyrs parishioner Angela Wills. ‘Their gifts of food
and toiletries will ensure that CIRDIC can continue to offer
support to the people in our town who need our practical help,
especially during the winter months.’
Suffer little children, lest children suffer.
When they starve, what bread will you offer?
Do to them, do to me,
only blind men will see
that they know not what they do.
Father forgive them, though they forsake me,
for my sake, forgive them and make me
the only sacrifice;
let my death suffice
although, and because, it is done.
Edward Millichap
Reading
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
13
Year of Faith
Flying the Flag for
the Year of Faith
Banners, pilgrimages – just some of the ways
our churches are marking this special year
Colin Parkes reports
as I alone in feeling both
impressed and guilty when I
read the article in the last
Portsmouth People about
how Fleet and Church Crookham are
celebrating the Year of Faith? Special
Masses, seminars, youth and prayer days,
a Passion musical, a flower festival… not
to mention their fantastic embroidered
banner of the Creed. Amazing, but what
are the rest of us doing?
W
Well, quite a lot, as it turns out. All
across the diocese, different parishes and
pastoral areas have worked out their
own take on the Year of Faith, and are
putting their ideas into action. To take
just three examples:
All 13 Catholic churches in Jersey have
put up special banners outside to
advertise the year (see picture). And
they are planning to end the year with a
big bang: a 3-week mission covering the
whole island.
‘The possibility of holding a mission
began as a tiny seed and it grew
until we all realised that it would
be a wonderful climax to the Year
of Faith,’ says Delia Hardiman, the
manager of Catholic Pastoral
Services on the island. ‘We hope it
will help new people find Faith,
and make existing parishioners
more confident in passing on their
gift to others of all ages.’
A planning committee, chaired by
Jersey’s Dean, Mgr Nicholas
France, decided to invite a large
team
from
evangelisation
specialists the Sion Community to
help with events across the island.
The aim is for the mission to end
on Sunday 6 October with an allisland Mass at Fort Regent in St
Helier where schools and choirs
including those from the Filipino,
Portuguese
and
Polish
communities will all be involved.
Banner on outside
wall of St Thomas
Church in St Helier
14
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
Further north, on the mainland,
pilgrimages are a theme.
Parishioners in Havant have
already embarked on a series of
journeys to all the churches in
the Pastoral Area. Co-ordinating
Pastor Fr Tom Grufferty explains:
Map of the 7 churches given to
pilgrims in Havant
‘The idea comes from the Book of
Revelation where John writes to the
seven Churches of Asia Minor. We have
six Churches and to make up the seventh
we asked if we could include the
Anglican Church of St Thomas Becket in
Warblington.’
‘Pilgrim Passports’
This former Catholic church has special
resonance because it’s next to
Warblington Castle, where the Catholic
Martyr Blessed Margaret Pole was
arrested in 1538.
Year of Faith
‘We have already had two pilgrimages,’
says Fr Tom. ‘About 80 people either
drove or walked to the new Church in
Waterlooville. We opened the door of
the Church, in line with the theme of
opening the door to faith suggested by
Pope Benedict, and everybody walked
into the place of worship.
‘The second pilgrimage was at Leigh
Park, where well over 100 pilgrims
came. Again the Liturgy was inspiring
mainly due to the witness of two young
people who told the gathered
community why they believed in God
and why they went to Mass.
‘Every Pilgrim is given a passport with a
map of the seven Churches of Asia and
the dates of all the pilgrimages. People
love having their Passport endorsed
with the Parish stamp at each Church.’
All the churches in Reading have got
together to write a history of the
Catholic Faith in their communities.
The book is designed as a series of
walks, with stops at significant points.
These include the place where the last
Abbot of Reading, Blessed Hugh
Faringdon, was executed, and the site
of the building where priests fleeing
the French Revolution helped to reestablish the Catholic Church in the
area more than 250 years later.
The Church of the Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle in Waterlooville
Four thousand copies are being printed,
and the idea is to use them for
pilgrimage walks, especially for young
people learning about the roots of their
Faith, and the many Catholics in the
town who have recently arrived from
overseas.
A pilgrimage helps us to be aware of
our heritage,’ says Fr John O’Shea, priest
at St James’s Church on the site of the
former Abbey. ‘It’s good to remember
the people who have gone before us,
and sustained our community over the
years, sometimes against great odds.’
There are nearly nine months to go
until the end of the Year of Faith on the
Feast of Christ the King. Still plenty of
time for your church to be planning
something special, if it isn’t already.
St James, patron of pilgrims and the
oldest Catholic church in Reading
Let Portsmouth People know what
your church is doing for the Year of
Faith. Ed.
PEOPLE
15
PROFILE
H&W
PRIEST'S PROFILE
ather
Xavier
Perrin, who has
been appointed
to
succeed
Father Finbar Kealy as
Prior Administrator of
Quarr Abbey, is due
to take up his new
appointment
in
May.
In his monastery, he has held the
offices of guest master (19901993), novice master (1993-2010)
and choir master (1996-2013) and
subprior from 1991 to 2002 when
he was appointed prior. He has also
been organist all through his
monastic life.
F
Father Xavier has written
extensively on the history of his
monastery and of the Solesmes
Congregation, to which both Quarr
and Kergonan belong. He has also
written on spirituality, and on
Gregorian chant.
Dom Xavier was
born in Tours on 27
July 1958. He studied
French Literature at Rennes
and History of Art at the Sorbonne
before entering the Abbey of St Anne,
Kergonan, Brittany in 1980.
He made his final vows in Brittany in
1985 and was ordained priest in 1989.
Meanwhile he had completed his
ecclesiastical studies at the Abbey of
Solesmes. He also studied Theology
at Fribourg and Munich.
The first of Father Xavier’s visits to
Quarr was as representative of his
community at the funeral of Abbot
Leo Avery in 1996.
Fr Xavier Perrin
PP’s readers were introduced to life at Quarr Abbey
(www.quarrabbey.co.uk) by Fr Luke Bell on page 26, issue 11-6. Ed.
Hints &
Wrinkles
Copyright
Occasionally originators are happy to waive copyright. They
may wish to do so for a fee, or in return for an agreed
acknowledgement or on an unidentified basis e.g. in support
of a worthy cause. In any such case, the agreement should be
confirmed in a defensible manner. Failing that, have recourse
to the old adage:
‘Originate … Don’t duplicate!’
The OED defines copyright as ‘The exclusive right given by law
for a certain term of years to an author, composer etc. (or his
assignee) to print, publish, and sell copies of his original work’.
The current UK act governing copyright is the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 by which it is an offence to copy,
rent, lend or issue copies, perform, broadcast or show in public
or adapt any work for which you do not have the copyright.
The following identifies a few examples of copyright coverage:
➢ For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works (e.g.
photographs) copyright runs for 70 years following the
author’s death
➢ For sound recordings, broadcasts and cable programmes
copyright runs for 50 years following creation or initial
release
➢ For films copyright runs for 70 years following the death of
the main director, author or composer
➢ For typographical arrangements of published editions (e.g.
magazines, periodicals etc.) copyright runs for 25 years
following publication.
16
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
Attention is also drawn to PASSING OFF, a form of tort or civil
wrong similarly culpable in law. PASSING OFF involves misrepresenting products and services to make them appear to be
coming from someone else. PASSING OFF, for instance, could
even involve replication of website design (content and/or
functionality) for services, products or activities similar or
even alien to those promoted by the original.
Further reference:
The UK Copyright Service (www.copyrightservice.co.uk) is one
of a number of organisation publishing information. The
UKCS offers a number of fact sheets, the most popular being
‘P-01 UK copyright law’, ‘P-03 Using copyright notices’, ‘P-27
Using the work of others’ and ‘P-05 Copyright infringement’
available in a free-to-reproduce PDF format for educational
establishments, libraries, advice centres and other noncommercial organisations.
Caveat: The above information on UK copyright law is neither
definitive nor complete and does not constitute legal advice. Ed.
BROADER VIEW
Fascinating Facts
and Figures
One million migrants from East Europe
now live in Britain.
Transparency International's 2012
Corruption Perceptions Index gathered
views on 176 countries worldwide.
Greece is perceived to have the most
corrupt public sector of all 27 EU
countries. Worldwide, Denmark, Finland
and New Zealand were seen as the least
corrupt nations, while Afghanistan,
North Korea and Somalia were perceived
to be the most corrupt. The UK ranked
17th in the world, Greece 94th, Italy
72nd, and EU-newcomer Romania 66th.
British children are less likely to live with
both parents than in any other major
Western nation. Only in Latvia, Estonia
and Belgium out of 30 Western
European nations surveyed by the OECD
are the latest children statistics (2007)
worse.
60% of the nation's employed work in
companies of fewer than 10 employees.
More than one in ten of shop premises in
the UK stand empty.
The average British family now needs
£24,801.51 every year to cover essential
expenditure such as mortgage or rental
payments, utilities, insurance, food,
petrol, mobile phone and landline costs,
and clothing.
It costs only 33p to bring this copy of PP
to you i.e. just £2, the cost of four 2nd
class stamps, for a year's 6 issues.
Recent research by the education firm
Pearson shows that the UK's education
system is ranked 6th in the world after
Finland, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan
and Singapore, and ahead of (in
descending order) Holland, New Zealand,
Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, Denmark,
Australia, Poland, Germany, Belgium,
USA, Hungary, Slovakia and Russia.
Ofsted recently declared that 2m
children in Britain are not receiving an
adequate education.
In 2001 72% of the nation's population
was self-proclaimed Christian. That
percentage had dropped to 59% by 2011
(Latest figures available).
A Broader View
Lawrence Fullick looks at the wider world
As the New Year begins there is a sense of a
lack of change in the world – the problems
of 2012 continue in 2013. For many people
their own economic circumstances continue
to be their main concern. For those in
government the allocation of time and
effort between many different problems is a
difficult task.
The great task for foreign affairs specialists
continues to be to try to resolve the troubles
of the Middle East. A Vatican statement
welcomed the United Nations’ decision to
admit the Palestinian Authority as a nonmember observer state. Britain abstained
from the vote despite a letter on behalf of
the Catholic and Anglican Churches
regretting the decision. The Catholic Bishop
of Clifton, Declan Lang, and the Anglican
Bishop of Exeter, Michael Langrish, wrote
‘this conflict has gone on too long… All
parties must refocus on respecting the
sanctity of the human person, and the
inalienable rights that flow from that if
peace is ever to be possible’.
‘Catholics and other Christians
are continuing to lobby against
religious discrimination’
Concentrating on the Israel–Palestine
conflict must not blind us to the other
problems of the region: Syria, Iran and
Yemen for a start.
Catholics and other Christians are
continuing to lobby in international fora
against religious discrimination. The Vatican
‘Foreign Minister’, Archbishop Dominique
Mamberti, told an OSCE meeting in Dublin
that ‘in some countries intolerant and even
discriminatory laws... still exist against the
Catholic Church and other Christian
communities’. An EU study proposed
amending the Employment Equality
Directive to include a right to take time off
work for prayers; an EU official said the
climate no longer favoured such changes.
The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo
Scola, denounced Italian moves towards the
French model of laicism.
Anti-Christian activity continues in Pakistan.
The family of a Pakistani woman sentenced
to death in 2010 for alleged remarks about
Muhammad have asked Spain to give her
asylum; international pressure is leading
towards her release but the government is
refusing to give her and her family
passports. A Swedish female charity worker
aged 72 has been shot in the major city of
Lahore.
‘Father Patrick Daly will become
General Secretary of COMECE’
Catholic bishops in Europe have been
discussing social issues. A meeting in Rome
of specialists in the care of migrants
discussed approaches to evangelisation
among that group; a meeting in Brussels of
Christian church representatives with
European Commission advisers considered
how to build a European model of the social
market economy. In a session on youth
unemployment the Youth Trust based in
Birmingham described its campaign as ‘One
in a Million’.
One England-based Catholic priest is about
to move to Brussels: Father Patrick Daly,
currently a parish priest in Wolverhampton,
will become General Secretary of COMECE,
the bishops’ EU liaison office (Commissio
Episcopatuum Communitatis Europaeae). Fr
Daly was born in Dublin and worked as an
interpreter in the European Commission
before being ordained priest. Among other
priestly duties he assisted Archbishop
Maurice Couve de Murville and our own
former Bishop Crispian Hollis in work with
COMECE and the Bishops’ Conference
European Affairs Committee. We wish him
well in his new role.
No mention so far of President Obama but
by the time you read this what will have
happened to the fiscal cliff?
Fr Patrick Daly whose c.v.
appears as an online
supplement to this issue
Lawrence Fullick, a parishioner in Bournemouth, is treasurer of the Wyndham Place
Charlemagne Trust, a charity which promotes discussion of international issues
among people of all faiths or none.
PEOPLE
17
JFJ
‘Whatever you are, be a good one'
Abraham Lincoln
Just for Juniors
Charlie wonders if you can juggle the
letters in GET GREASE and make
something you might like to sink your
teeth into after Lent (6.3). And now
for Charlie’s chuckle:
'I go to a school sponsored by IKEA. We start
every day with self-assembly'
Soldiers guarded Jesus’ tomb. This is a Roman soldier.
Can you complete the other two outlines?
Read about it in Matthew 27:62-66.
CROSSWORD >
Mark poses another crossword for PP’s
young wordsmiths: ‘See how many clues
you can solve and then turn to page 21 to
see how well you’ve done.’
ACROSS
3 There are 4
7 Garden where Jesus was betrayed by Judas
10 Bishop's headgear
11 Number of disciples
12 Beast of burden
14 Friday's food
15 Noise made by a lamb
16 What lots of Easter eggs are made of
21 The beloved disciple
22 Rising from the dead
24 Number of Christ's wounds
26 Sunday before Easter
27 Our bishop's surname
28 Days Jesus spent in the desert
29 Expression of agreement
DOWN
1
Number of commandments
2 Period before Easter
4 Disciple who denied Jesus three times
5 Baby sheep
6 He was excused execution
8 Jesus' mother
9 Saviour
13 Number of testaments in The Bible
16 Wood-worker
17 Where Jesus died
18 What the Easter bunnies bring
19 Number of Judas' pieces of silver
20 Number of times the cock crowed
23 A score
25 Letters on the cross
Pilate washed his hands to show that he didn’t want to
take the blame for having Jesus put to death.
Can you find all six bowls hidden in this picture
Look up the story of Jesus before Pilate in Matthew 27:11-26.
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
Publication policy: To protect all parties concerned, PP does not publish the names as well as the photographs of minors,
nor does PP enter into direct communication with minors. Minors are designated as ‘persons under 18 years of age’. Ed.
18
PEOPLE
CROSSWORD
WOW!
Words of Wisdom for those
keen and ardent ‘wordsters’ among PP‘s readers.
This is IT!
PP looks at soft and hardware
GOOGLE EARTH
GE7 can now be
www.google.com/earth
downloaded
to
your
pc:
EDIT A .PDF
Type on PDF is a useful app for completing a .pdf form or
posting glosses on a PDF file. There's the basic freebie and
two chargeable versions. Both cheap as chips!
LET’S SAVE SOME MONEY
Any chance to save cash, especially in difficult times,
shouldn’t be scoffed at. Check out any number of topics
incl. energy deals, loans, cashback etc. at www.letssavesomemoney.com
REGISTER TO RECEIVE PP ONLINE
Wherever you are in the world, providing you have Internet
access, you can register to receive Portsmouth People
regularly
and
for
free
online
at
www.PortsmouthPeople.org.uk where all previous issues in
magazine format, standard (full colour) and greyscales (for
those faced with colour distinction issues), are archived and
downloadable.
DROPBOX LINKS
Dropbox users can now create links for files and folders, so
giving access to Tom, Dick and Harriet. Click the share link
on www.dropbox.com/links/features
DIRECTGOV REPLACED
HMG has released Gov.uk taking the previous site one step
further: better organised and keener focus. For advice and
information on a host of topics ranging from starting a
business, claiming benefits to learning to drive etc.:
www.gov.uk
SLASH YOUR GROCERY BILL
For many ways of cutting your weekly food bill:
www.mysupermarket.co.uk
‘APPY APPS
Two useful iPhone and iPad apps for those looking for text
editing are (1) KWrite text editor and translator from
Knowtilus @ £0.69 for v2.3 and (2) Cool Writer the
‘awesome writing and note taking app with a variety of
great features’ from Cool Rabbit Studio @ for £1.99 for
v3.5.
RN MUSEUM
Portsmouth-based National Museum of the Royal Navy
(NMRN) offers a canny insight into naval history, offering
facilities like the ability to track a WW2 Atlantic convoy:
www.nmrn.org.uk
PLAY CATCH-UP
There are many ways now to play catch-up TV online. Oric is
a useful tool which helps ensure you don’t miss your
favourites: www.oric.com
Contributions to this column warmly invited. Ed.
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
DOWN
5
9
11
13
1
Of/Pertaining to Easter
2
He has a gate named after him
3
Ideal pen to write a swan-song?
4
Your retort when someone
14
16
18
23
24
25
27
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
The place of the skull
Lenten lily
Christ's putative father
Seal or document with a seal,
not at all bovine
Sounds like many but we take
one at a time
Foreknowledge, foresight
Angry emblem of Christianity?
Evil intent
Act of raising from the dead
The groom's partner
The one good day in Easter week
Suspension of activity
Epyptian Christian
Not quite the baker's dozen
The colour that rushes grow O!
Symbol of new birth
A pile of olives?
Type of spear
Opposite of borrowed
Crossover point on any ship
sneezes (5.3)
6
Protective headgear
7
Beast of burden
8
You can forget this. Just keep
the wheat
10 Having unlimited, total
knowledge
12 He was a brigand
15 Method of execution
17 To whip or to lash
19 Protecting, defending
20 Origin of the words 'tsar'
and 'kaiser'
21 A chain is as strong as its
weakest one
22 The flame gets on its wick
26 To bring back to life
28 Groing without food or drink
29 The plant in your hand
32 Type of church we carry in
our heads
Turn to page 21 for the solutions
The Editor apologises for not yet having mastered his software in
order to produce a symmetrical crossword!
PEOPLE
19
NEWS ...
JESUS CHRIST holds pole position as the world's most influential figure
according to researchers at U.S. University MIT who recently used data from
online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rank famous figures from the past according to
their global reach. Jesus was ranked number one, Chinese philosopher Confucius
number two, and Sir Isaac Newton number three.
MAYFAIR MAN BEHIND THE MESSIAH, philanthropist Charles Jennens,
who has been largely uncredited for his support of George Frideric’s Handel’s
oratorio Messiah, is featured in an exhibition running at The Handel House
Museum in London’s Mayfair until 13 April. Admission £6.
Why not advertise in Portsmouth People or suggest to others how they
might reach one fifth of a million Catholics across our diocese?
For full details contact The Editor (see p28)
POPE BENEDICT XVI at a recent service in the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica
appointed six cardinals from non-European countries to be cardinals.
The cardinals, the closest aides of the Pope, come from the Philippines, India,
Lebanon, Nigeria, Colombia and the US. Being younger than 80, all are likely to
be eligible, come the time, to vote for Pope Benedict’s successor. Three are from
countries with large Muslim populations: India, Lebanon and Nigeria.
ELEVEN ANGLICAN NUNS FROM WANTAGE were received into the
Catholic Church in January. The sisters from the Community of St Mary the Virgin
are joining the Ordinariate, established by Pope Benedict to enable groups of
Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, while retaining
elements of their heritage. The group, which includes the Superior of the
Community Mother Winsome, will be known as Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and will continue with their work of prayer and contemplation.
Rabbi Mirvis and his wife Valerie
EPHRAIM MIRVIS, current rabbi at Finchley (N. London), is to become the
next chief rabbi of the UK and Commonwealth. The 55-year-old former chief
rabbi of Ireland, will succeed Lord Jonathan Sacks when he steps down later this
year, having held the post since 1991. The chief rabbi is traditionally seen as the
figurehead of British Jews, although only officially representative of the United
Synagogue, the biggest wing of orthodox Judaism in the UK.
HART IN HAMPSHIRE has been named the UK's most desirable place to live for
quality of life for the second year running. The study by the Halifax bank took
into account factors such as jobs, housing, health, life expectancy, crime, weather,
traffic and house prices.
20 PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
CONGRATULATIONS to our diocesan
Safeguarding
Commission on its
programme of mandatory training for all
those working with children and
vulnerable adults. Indicators of possible
abuse are explored in a safe and effective
way so that our volunteers leave the
sessions equipped with the skills needed to
ensure that, if concerned, they know how
to proceed. The training is on-going and
open to all in the diocese regardless of
whether engaged in official safeguarding
roles or not. For further details: the
safeguarding page on the diocesan
website
(http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/)
or from your local safeguarding
representative.
If there are not enough copies of
Portsmouth People to go round in
your locality, do please alert The
Editor.
See p28 for contact
details.
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR
MY
FUNERAL MASS: Auxiliary Bishop of
Birmingham and lead Bishop to the
Pastoral Care Project Bishop David
McGough, recently launched the
Instructions for my Funeral Mass document.
Produced by the Pastoral Care Project, it
covers key questions such as which hymns
and readings, whether to be cremated or
buried and preferred funeral directors. It is
specifically designed for those living alone
or in care settings. It has been approved for
national use by the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of England and Wales. For
further information: www.pastoralcareproject.org.uk e info@pastoralcareproject.org.uk t: 016 7543 4035.
CSAN + CAFOD: The Catholic
Agency
for
Overseas
Development (CAFOD) and Caritas
Social Action Network (CSAN) have
announced that, wef February 2013,
CSAN’s offices will be based in CAFOD’s
headquarters at Romero House. This is in
recognition that CAFOD’s work internationally and CSAN’s work in England and
Wales are complementary parts of the
Church’s mission to address poverty
wherever it exists. CAFOD and CSAN are
both agencies of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of England and Wales: CAFOD
is the official Catholic aid agency for
England and Wales (www.cafod.org.uk)
and CSAN is the social action arm of the
Catholic Church in England and Wales
(www.csan.org.uk).
AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
GUIDELINES for the increasing number of interreligious
marriages have been launched by the Christian-Muslim
forum. When Two Faiths Meet. Marriage, Family and Pastoral
Care – Ethical Principles is available free online at
http://www.christianmuslimforum.org/index.php/resources
Al Pastoral Areas are asked to ensure that all
schools, hospitals, hospices etc. in their respective
localities receive Portsmouth People.
YEAR OF FAITH: The
dedicated web section on the
Bishops' Conference website is
substantial and now includes an
integrated diary featuring
events and initiatives in dioceses
across England and Wales, a new
Evangelisation Synod section,
bespoke
diocesan
pages,
resources, prayers, music and
more (www.yearoffaith.org.uk).
Daily 'faith tweets' are also
being provided throughout the Year. Follow @YoFtweets and
visit www.catholicnews.org.uk/year-of-faith-tweets.
NEWS IN BRIEF (STOP PRESS)
• Vacancy for Pastoral Assistant in Southampton.
See inside front cover.
• Thank you to all those who took the time and trouble to
respond to the Readership Questionnaire. Full details in
our next issue.
• Yvonne Archer, bishop’s secretary since 1981, whose
health has not been good over the last few months,
has now retired, having brought forward her plans for
retirement.
We wish Yvonne and husband Jim all the best.
WHY NOT ADVERTISE IN PP? Competitive rates,
concessions, 15,000 print run, targeted and free distribution
(hard copy) across the whole diocese and archived online.
For further details: Editor@PortsmouthPeople.org.uk
CROSSWORD :
Solutions to the CROSSWORD challenge
on page 18
WOW!
Solutions to our freeform crossword on page 19
THE VENERABLE ENGLISH COLLEGE in Rome (the
Venerabile) concluded its year of celebrations for the 650th
anniversary of its foundation with an Audience with His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on 3 December 2012. Two days
previously, on 1 December, the College received the visit of
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
representing Queen Elizabeth II at the College Feastday,
Martyrs’ Day as it is known, when the Venerabile remembers
the forty-four students of the College who laid down their
lives for the Catholic Faith between 1581-1678. It was in 1362
that an English & Welsh Hospice was founded on the site
occupied by today’s Venerabile. The foundation 650 years ago
makes this the oldest English institution outside England. In
1579, the house became a seminary for training Catholic
priests; and so it has remained up to the present time.
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
21
MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER
MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER
Chris and Mary Farrall from Chandlers Ford introduce
readers to Worldwide Marriage Encounter
When we first heard about these
weekends about 25 years ago, our first
reaction was to be a little suspicious. We
saw our marriage as a private matter
and we were unsure how attending an
event with other couples present would
be anything other than a social
experience. However the message we
heard was that ordinary marriages like
ours could be made better, so we
became curious enough to book onto a
weekend, which took place at Park Place
Pastoral Centre in 1988.
A
s National Marriage Week (714 February) approaches, we
would like to ask married
couples two questions:
1. Is your Marriage important
to you?
2. Would you like more romance,
joy and growth in
your Marriage?
If the answer to either or both of these
is YES, you could gain a lot from going
on a Marriage Encounter Weekend.
Worldwide Marriage Encounter,
an organisation in the Catholic
Church, promotes marriage,
primarily through providing
enrichment weekends for
married couples and weekends
devoted to engaged couples
preparing for marriage.
22
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
‘Like most married
couples we have
had our ups and downs’
Like most married couples we have had
our ups and downs. We have had happy
and memorable times - like the births of
our three children - and when we have
celebrated special anniversaries and
family occasions. We have had our
successes and failures, happy times and
problem spells, but we always thought
that we coped fairly well and reckoned
we had a reasonable marriage.
In reality, we had started to take a lot
for granted, including each other, and
to look for compromise and comfort.
We got along well, but deep down we
both had begun to wonder why
marriage was not living up to our
expectations. When we recall our early
days together, just before and after we
got married, we can remember clearly
how everything we did was for each
other and there was real excitement in
our lives. These are some of the feelings
we recaptured during our Marriage
Encounter Weekend.
Perhaps you are wondering how the
process works. Well, the weekend is
presented by two married couples and a
priest, who give a series of presentations
on various aspects of marriage and
relationship. The couples attending are
then given time privately to reflect on
each presentation.
Weekends are designed to counteract
the pressures that couples experience in
today's world, where life can be
dominated by work or the lack of it,
household tasks or raising a family.
These pressures can leave couples tired
and with little quality time for each
other. The excitement and romance of
early marriage might begin to fade.
‘We had started to take
a lot for granted,
including each other’
Our weekend helped us to rediscover
each other, to reassess what we were
both giving to and getting from our
relationship. It helped us to look at what
we meant to each other and why we
wanted to be together. It helped us to
gain a greater understanding of each
other and of the sacrament of
matrimony.
Marriage Encounter Weekends are
held roughly 7 times a year, from
Friday evenings through to Sunday
afternoon, during which time
couples are encouraged to direct
attention towards each other,
privately
and
without
any
distractions. There are no discussion
groups.
The next weekend in the Portsmouth
Diocese is at Wokefield Park (nr
Reading) 21-23 June 2013. For
further details: http://wwme.org.uk
CONNECTIONS
READERS' OFFER
COMMEMORATIVE
POSTCARD SETS
Catering for catholic tastes …
PP brings the world’s cuisine to your table
celebrating our
Cathedral and in
honour of Bishop Crispian
Cranaghan: Scottish trifle
This is definitely one to enjoy before Lent
begins, or to save for Easter. The alcohol
makes it unsuitable for children, but it is
easy to make double or more for a party.
Each set contains 8
high-quality assorted
postcards as shown
Melt 2 1/2 oz. (70 gm.) butter, 2 oz. (60 gm.) golden caster sugar, and
2 tablespoonfuls of honey. Stir in 4 oz. (120 gm.) jumbo porridge
oats, 1 1/2 oz.(45 gm) plain flour, and 2 oz.(60 gm.) of roughly
chopped hazelnuts. Spread on a baking sheet and cook for twenty
minutes at Mark 4 (180 C) until crisp. You may want to turn its sides
to middle after 15 minutes or give it five minutes longer. When it is
cool, crumble it into pieces and store (for up to a week or so) in an
airtight container.
Beat together half a pint (425 ml.) double cream, 5 oz.(125 gm.)
mascarpone, 2 1/2 oz(70 gm.) icing sugar and 4 tablespoonfuls (or
more) of whisky, until thick. You can do this a day ahead and keep it,
covered, in the fridge.
Mix a pound of raspberries - frozen or fresh - with a tablespoon or
so of icing sugar.
Make three layers - raspberries, cream, oats - in a large glass dish.
Romanian Connections
With this issue of Portsmouth
People we offer a ‘community
communications checklist’ for
Romanian nationals and for
others in our diocese with
Internet access who are interested
in Romania:
Country Profile (BBC):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
world-europe-17776265
Tourism and travel information:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/romania
Travel Guide:
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/romania
Tourist Office:
http://www.romaniatourism.com/contact-us.html
Travel advice:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/
travel-advice-by-country/europe/romania
Internet Radio Stations:
http://www.live-radio.net/european.shtml
Further details:
http://www.travelnotes.org/Europe/romania.htm
(Similar 'Community Connections' compilations are
welcome for other nationalities. Ed.)
Please complete
and return the
tear-off form with
your payment
!
Please send me …......….. sets of
commemorative postcards
at £2.50 per set (incl. p&p)
I enclose a cheque
made payable to
PRCDTR General Fund for
£ ................................................................
Name (pl. print): ........................................................................................................
Address (pl. print): ....................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
Completed forms and payment to be sent to:
Portsmouth People, Department for Pastoral Formation, Park Place
Pastoral Centre, Winchester Road, Wickham, Hampshire PO17 5HA
These commemorative postcard sets are also
on sale at the Discovery Centre, St John’s
Cathedral, Bishop Crispian Way, Portsmouth,
Hampshire PO1 3HG
All proceeds to diocesan funds.
PEOPLE
23
REVIEWS
REVIEWS
KICKING THE BLACK MAMBA
Life, Alcohol and Death
Robert Anthony Welch
DLT, paperback, 199 pages, 2012, £12.99
his is as raw and honest a book
as you will ever read. A father
bares his soul as he speaks with
anguished tenderness of his 26year-old son, Egan, sick to death with
the demon drink. Welch has the story so etched in his mind
and heart that we are presented with what seems like a
photographic memory of moments of joy and terror that led
to the drowning of his son.
T
The black mamba is a killer snake – try to kick it and you are
dead. And it is a perfect image, used by Egan himself, to
describe the effects of just one drink on an individual who is
dogged by the sickness that is alcoholism.
God’s Passion –
Praying with Mark
Terry Hinks
DLT pbk, pp134, 2011,
£9.99
God’s Embrace –
Praying with Luke
Terry Hinks
DLT pbk, pp144, 2012,
£9.99
24 PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
Welch writes with
Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis)
a fierce beauty of
language – as a
former Professor of English, and Dean of Arts at the University
of Ulster. What appears at first as tragedy and sheer disaster
is turned into hope of fresh new life: it is the Easter Triduum
writ large, and the ‘immortal diamond’ of Hopkins’ famous
poem shines through.
It is a perfect book for Lent and Easter, as it encapsulates both
those key Christian events. It is as though Welch is the Father,
watching his son, Jesus, die.
E
ither of these books is a
profoundly simple and
simply profound way of
praying the Gospels. The
author, a United Reformed
Church minister, will add Matthew
and John within the next couple of
years, so as to cover all the four
evangelists.
The books provide the reader – or,
better, pray-er! – with ways into
prayer using the Gospels, as well as a
suggested structured way of daily
praying. Each volume contains forty
passages from each gospel, which
cover all chapters. The author is
deeply pastoral, and writes with
immediacy, sensitivity and sound
spiritual common sense.
Every
suggested passage begins with
scripture, followed by a reflection,
then finally a personal, down-toearth, now-centred prayer.
© Denis Blackledge SJ
What’s good for this time of year is
that there are forty passages in each
book, which means that you, the
reader/pray-er, can get well
acquainted with either Luke or Mark
during this Lenten season of spiritual
refreshment and enlightenment.
Hinks has done us all a sound
ecumenical service, as the books may
be used individually or in small
groups, by anyone with a desire to
know and love Jesus better.
© Denis Blackledge SJ
REVIEWS
VOCATION CALENDAR
Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity
can still make Surprising Emotional Sense
Francis Spufford, Faber and Faber, hardback, 224 pages, 2012, £12.99
T
his is a stunning book, one of
the few Christian works to
have received much attention
from the secular press in recent
years (although not nearly
enough!). It is very well written and
almost painfully honest and personal. Every page is full of
insights, but there is also plenty to disagree with. I was myself
put off it at first by reading an extract where the author seems
to argue for religion by describing his reaction to listening to
Mozart at a difficult time in his life. In fact what he has to say
even about this is much more subtle than at first appears, since
his real point is that the composer has apprehended a real
truth about the ultimate nature of the universe and has
succeeded in conveying it through the music. However I am
sure that Spufford’s assertions about the possibility of proving
the existence of God are too tentative in reaction to presentday (but peculiarly British) hostility. He is right that we come
to faith through experience, but, as his subtitle suggests, he
focuses too much on personal emotion and not enough on the
fact that through Jesus we come to know God (and it is
knowledge).
Come Follow Me A Group for Discerning Young Catholics
Calendar 2012/13
Nevertheless he is excellent on almost everything else. He has
a great conviction of the reality of original sin as a universal
human truth, and he is also able to talk about suffering and
the ways it makes us question God in such an honest way that
it paradoxically strengthens faith far more than simplistic
solutions to the problem do. Indeed, this is true of the whole
book. In conceding what is wrong with Christian complacencies he provides a devastating critique of the one-sidedness
of Richard Dawkins and his allies. At the same he also helps
those wishing to know what faith is all about, those struggling
with faith, and those who may live in denial through their own
complacencies, whether they consist of fundamentalism or of
what Vatican 2 calls ‘triumphalism’ (the
idea that the Church can do no wrong
and has already said the last word on
everything).
© Tom Woodman
St Joseph’s Presbytery, 171a St Michael’s Road, Basingstoke, RG22 6TY
Tel: 01256 323595
Email: vocations@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk Website: www.comefollowme.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 246871
Date
Venue
Mass
Speaker
Theme
Friday 8th February
St Joseph’s, Basingstoke
7:30pm Mass followed by food & drink
Mystery Guest
Mystery Topic
Friday 8th March
St Joseph’s, Basingstoke
7:30pm Mass followed by food & drink
Sr Hyacinthe (Dominican) Obedience
Friday 12th April
St Joseph’s, Basingstoke
7:30pm Mass followed by food & drink
Fr Mark Hogan
The Universal Call to
Holiness
Friday 10th May
St Joseph’s, Basingstoke
7:30pm Mass followed by food & drink
Angie & Jamie Carroll
Theology of the Body
Friday 14th June
St Joseph’s, Basingstoke
7:30pm Mass followed by food & drink
Fr Paul King
The Holy Spirit in
Discernment
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
25
CAFOD
Hungry for
Change this Lent
CAFOD Portsmouth Diocesan Manager, Lynda Mussell,
reflects on the call to deepen our relationship with God
by sharing with others this Lent
Ever since the Bishops of England and
Wales commissioned CAFOD to challenge
the scandal of global poverty on behalf of
the Catholic community, supporters from
our diocese have helped bring the Gospel
to life throughout the world.
Last year’s Lenten appeal together with
Matched Funding from the UK
Government, raised an amazing £18.6m
(£144,964 from parishes in the Portsmouth
diocese alone). Thanks to your exceptional
support, tens of thousands more families
in the developing world can now benefit
from clean water, safe sanitation and
improved healthcare. But we know there
is no room for complacency. The needs of
those living in extreme poverty require us
in new ways.
Hunger is the world’s biggest health risk,
killing more people annually than the
combined effect of diseases such as AIDS,
malaria and tuberculosis. Currently, 870
million people go to bed hungry every
night, (equivalent to the combined
populations of the US, Canada, EU and
Australia) even though there is enough
food in the world to feed everyone.
‘870 million people go to
bed hungry every night’
This Lent, CAFOD is focussing on the story
of 3-year-old Tabita from Partuk, a rural
village of Kenya. Drought hit the
community where Tabita’s family lives
three years ago. All their livestock – apart
from two cows and a goat – died as a
result. The whole family became
emaciated and Tabita herself suffered
from malnutrition.
What kept Tabita alive was the nutritious
milk of their one remaining goat – a dairy
goat providing by CAFOD supporters.
Dairy goats are hardier and produce more
milk that the local breed of goat and now
that Tabita and her family are stronger,
they can plant crops and grow food to
feed themselves, today and in the future.
This Lent Fast Day (22 February 2013)
we’re asking the Catholic community to be
hungry for change – to pray, fast and give
alms to support people like Tabita.
Together, our donations, voices and
actions make a bigger difference: not only
to the lives of the poorest who struggle to
feed themselves right now, but also in
challenging the global systems that keep
families trapped in poverty.
The way that our food is grown, sold and
shared out – whether through local or
global food systems – isn’t working for
millions of people. This is why CAFOD is
also running the Hungry for Change
campaign and asking supporters to send a
message to David Cameron, calling for
power to be shared between rich and poor
so that everyone has enough to eat.
So, this Lent please help others by:
Supporting Lent Fast Day and promoting it
in your parish – either by giving a short
talk or handing out the special envelopes
or holding a frugal lunch in church or at
home (cafod.org.uk/fastday).
Setting up a daily reminder to yourself to
use our Lenten calendar online which
offers food for reflection and includes a
simple daily action (cafod.org.uk/pray).
Signing up online to support our
Hungry
for
Change
campaign
(cafod.org.uk/hungry) or giving out
action cards to others and displaying
your messages of solidarity in church.
And do let us know what you’re doing.
We always love to hear from supporters
and we feature as many diocesan
activities as we can on our blog
cafodportsmouth.wordpress.com
Contact us on 01252 329385 or
portsmouth@cafod.org.uk
1
4
2
26 PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
3
CAFOD
CALENDAR
CALENDAR OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS
For further information please contact the parties identified
5
6
Photographs © CAFOD/Annie Bungeroth: (1) David, Rose and Tabita,
(Partuk, Kenya); (2) Rose's daughter Tabita, 3yrs, drinking goat's milk
(Partuk, Kenya); (3) Tabita and friends eating maize for lunch (Partuk,
Kenya); (4) Makuu in the school vegetable garden, a project funded
by CAFOD which aims to bring nutrition to pupils through vegetables
and to teach them how to grow crops (Diocese of Kitui, Kenya); (5)
Emily Mbithuka, with ingredients, tomatoes and greens, for the staple
meal of sukuma wiki (Diocese of Kitui, Kenya)
February
Sat 02 Lent in the Year of Luke, St. Swithun Wells School, Chandlers Ford
t: 01329 835583 e: estephenson@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Mon 04 Preparing for the Rite of Election, Cathedral Discovery Centre, Portsmouth
t: 01329 835583 e: lmerriman@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Mon 04 Silent Retreat, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ
-08
t: 011 8971 5333 e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
Wed 06 Preparing for the Rite of Election, St Joseph, Reading
t: 01329 835583 e: lmerriman@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Thu 07 Preparing for the Rite of Election, St. Edward the Confessor, Chandlers Ford
t: 01329 835583 e: lmerriman@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Thu 07 Start of National Marriage Week
Tue 12 Shrove Tuesday
Thu 14 St Valentine’s Day
Mon 11 Preparing for the Rite of Election, Our Lady Help of Christians, Farnborough
t: 01329 835583 e: lmerriman@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Tue 12 Preparing for the Rite of Election,
Immaculate Conception & St Joseph, Christchurch
t: 01329 835583 e: lmerriman@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Fri 15 Gather! An evening for young people (14+) to gather and celebrate the Year of Faith.
St. Joseph, Tilehurst, Reading, t: 013 2983 5583 e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Sat 16 Rite of Election, St. John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth
t: 01329 835583 e: lmerriman@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Wed 20 Being Catholic in a Secular Culture. Speaker Bishop Philip Egan
St. Joseph, Tilehurst, Reading t: 01329 835583
e: estephenson@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Fri 22 CAFOD Lent Fast Day
Wed 27 Introduction to Scripture (see i/s front cover).
t: 023 8069 2416 e: bob.birtles@gmail.com
Thu 28 YOUcat. Exploring Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church Christ the King, Reading
t: 013 2983 5583 e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Mon 18 IGR Quo vadis? Christopher Greener OSB & Gervase Holdaway OSB. Douai Abbey,
- 22
Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ t: 011 8971 5333
e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
Fri 22 Retreat: Managing Conflict, Fodhla McGrane, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton,
- 24
Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ t: 011 8971 5333
e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
March
Fri 01 St David’s Day
Tue 05 YOUcat. Exploring Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church Immaculate Conception
& St. Joseph, Christchurch t: 013 2983 5583 e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Wed 06 YOUcat. Exploring Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church Christ the King & St.
Coleman, Southampton t: 013 2983 5583 e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Thu 07 Being Catholic in a Secular Culture. Speaker Bishop Philip Egan,
Immaculate Conception & St. Joseph, Christchurch t: 01329 835583
e: estephenson@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Sun 10 Mothering Sunday
Sun 17 St Patrick’s Day
Tue 19 Being Catholic in a Secular Culture. Speaker Bishop Philip Egan,
Cathedral Discovery Centre, Portsmouth t: 01329 835583
e: estephenson@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Wed 20 Introduction to Scripture (see i/s front cover).
t: 023 8069 2416 e: bob.birtles@gmail.com
Fri 22 Gather! An evening for young people (14+) to gather and celebrate the Year of Faith.
Immaculate Conception & St. Joseph, Christchurch
t: 013 2983 5583 e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Sun 24 Palm Sunday
Mon 25 Annunciation
Thu 28 Maundy Thursday
Thu 28 Easter Triduum Retreat, Abbot Geoffrey Scott, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton,
- 31
Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ t: 011 8971 5333 e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
Fri 29 Good Friday
Sun 31 Easter Sunday and start of British Summertime
Tue 26 Chrism Mass, St John’s Cathedral
Thur 28 Easter Triduum Retreat, Abbot Geoffrey Scott OSB, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton,
- 31
Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ t: 011 8971 5333 e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
April
Fri 19 Gather! An evening for young people (14+) to gather and celebrate the Year of Faith.
St. Bede’s, Basingstoke t: 013 2983 5583 e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Sun 21 Queen’s Birthday. London Marathon
Tue 23 St George’s Day
May
Wed 01 Healing Workshop 1, Nicholas Broadbridge OSB & Benjamin Standish OSB,
Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ t: 011 8971 5333
e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
Fri 03 Lectio Divina Retreat, Gervase Holdaway OSB, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton,
- 06
Reading, Berkshire RG7 5TQ t: 011 8971 5333 e: Douaiabbey@aol.com
Thu 09 Ascension Day
Fri 17 Gather! An evening for young people (14+) to gather and celebrate the Year of Faith.
Immaculate Conception, Portswood t: 013 2983 5583
e: dhill@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Sun 19 Whit Sunday
The Editor welcomes entries for inclusion in the Calendar of Forthcoming Events
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
27
TRUST IN GOD
ABRAHAM, OUR FATHER IN FAITH
by Father Jeremy Corley
uring this Year of Faith,
Abraham is a potent
symbol of our faith journey, especially
during the season of Lent.
D
As we begin our Lenten journey, we can
recall God’s command to Abraham to
leave his original homeland, where all his
relatives lived, and then journey to the
land that God would give him. It must
have been hard for him to leave the
comfort of his familiar surroundings, but
somehow, when he heard God’s call, he
set off. Yet many years passed when
Abraham was wandering with his wife
Sarah, while they were childless.
Abraham’s trust in God is evident in the
first reading for the Second Sunday of
Lent (24 February). One night the
childless Abraham was told to go outside
and look at the stars in the night sky.
Then God promised that despite his old
age Abraham would have as many
descendants as the stars. What is
surprising is Abraham’s faith: he believed
in God’s promise, and that was enough
to put him in the right with God.
At this point Abraham was not asked by
God
to
fulfil
many
detailed
commandments. Instead, God wanted to
strike up a friendship with him, and
Abraham responded. He had first
believed in God’s promise of a new
homeland, and now he believed in God’s
promise of descendants. Blessed is he
who has not seen and yet believed.
To seal the friendship, God made a
solemn agreement with Abraham. In a
normal covenant made by ancient
herdsmen in the Middle East, animals
would be cut in half, and then the two
parties would walk together between
the cut animal pieces. The total
commitment of the friendship would be
symbolized by this action, since both
parties would be saying: ‘May God cut
me into pieces if I break this solemn
agreement.’
‘Blessed is he who has not seen
and yet believed’
But now in this covenant between
Abraham and God, Abraham is
completely asleep. It is only God who
walks between the animal pieces. In
other words, God is making a solemn
promise with himself to befriend
Abraham and his descendants.
Later, at the Easter Vigil (30 March), we
hear of the final test of Abraham’s faith.
Just as Abraham was once told to set out
for a land God would show him, so now
he is told to go to a mountain that God
would indicate to him. Whereas
previously he was childless, now he is the
father of a beloved son, and he is told:
‘Take your son, your only child Isaac,
whom you love.’
Despite Abraham’s great love for his son,
very strangely he is commanded to offer
him up as a sacrifice. This is shocking to
us. Although other ancient peoples (like
the Phoenicians) practised childsacrifice, this looks like a vestige of
Portsmouth People is the diocesan publication for the Catholic Diocese of
Portsmouth. It is distributed free of charge to parishes and other groups in the
Diocese which covers Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Isles and parts
of Berkshire, Dorset and Oxfordshire. The Portsmouth Roman Catholic
Diocesan Trust is a registered charity (number 246871) with its address at
Diocesan Office, St Edmund House, Bishop Crispian Way, Portsmouth PO1 3QA
www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
Editor:
Dr Jeremy L Kettle-Williams
Department for Pastoral Formation, Park Place Pastoral Centre,
Winchester Road, WICKHAM, Hampshire PO17 5HA
editor@portsmouthpeople.org.uk
t: +44(0)23 9283 3121
f: +44(0)23 9287 2172
www.portsmouthpeople.org.uk
Advisory panel: Fr Denis Blackledge, Barry Hudd, Paul Inwood, Nicky Stevens
28 PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
primitive religion in the Book of Genesis.
But perhaps ultimately this story teaches
precisely that God does not want childsacrifice.
Abraham has such faith in God that he is
willing to lose even his beloved son,
given by God, if this same God
mysteriously demands it. Yet at the last
moment, the sacrifice is stopped. The
angel of the Lord says: ‘Do not harm the
boy, for now I know that you fear God.
You have not refused me your son, your
only son.’ Abraham’s beloved son is a gift
from God, but when challenged
Abraham acknowledges the sovereign
will of the Divine Giver.
‘By believing, we become
Abraham’s descendants in faith’
At the Easter Vigil we hear this story as a
kind of parable. We are reminded that
God did not withhold his own beloved
son, but allowed him to be sacrificed to
save us all. Jesus’ death seals the new
covenant, and his resurrection opens up
for us the way to eternal life. By
believing, we become Abraham’s
descendants in faith.
So as we enter Lent during this Year of
Faith, we can be encouraged by the
example of Abraham, our father in faith.
God may call us to a journey that is long
and difficult, but if he is with us, as he
was with Abraham, we need not be
fearful.
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month. Material for publication should be submitted to The Editor in electronic
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CHURCH
FOCUS
With this issue we look at the
Church of Corpus Christi
The next issue of
PORTSMOUTH PEOPLE
will be distributed at the
end of March 2013
When you have finished reading this magazine,
please pass it to a friend or dispose of it
responsibly for re-cycling
PP is a free publication. Donations welcome
Catholic Church of Corpus Christi
Gladys Avenue
North End
Portsmouth
Hampshire PO2 9AZ
t: 023 9266 0927