comment and debate on faith issues in scotland...disunited kingdom. i spent much of the 2014...

June 2016Issue No 260

£2.50www.openhousescotland.co.uk

Comment and debate on faith issues in Scotland

Editorial

2 OPEN HOUSE June 2016

The news that Pope Francis appears to be considering yet another study of whether the Catholic Church should have women deacons has divided opinion (see page 12). On the one hand, his suggestion that the issue should be clarified is consistent with many of the comments he has made about the need for women to play a greater role in the church (Open House April 2016). On the other hand, it raises the question of whether the church needs yet another clerical layer, and what impact this might have on the role of lay people in the church.According to canon 230 of the Code of Canon Law, lay

people can already exercise the ministry of the word, preside over liturgical prayers, confer baptism and distribute Holy Communion ‘where the needs of the Church require and ministers are not available’. We have surely reached that point in most European countries, where ordinations to the priesthood have been in steady decline since the 1960s. Archbishop Tartaglia thinks the

Archdiocese of Glasgow might have 45 diocesan priests by the year 2034 (there were 285 in 1977); Archbishop Cushley predicts 30 for St Andrews and Edinburgh. The old model of the parish is a clearly a thing of the past. Yet discussions about the future of the church are still framed in terms of the number of priests available – despite the burden this places on a dwindling number of clergy.Focussing on deacons may be a way of clinging to this

predominantly ministerial model and avoiding the obvious: that for the foreseeable future the church will be predominantly lay. Or, hopefully, it will be shaped by collaborative ministry between lay people, religious and ordained, so that all the charisms of Christ’s faithful are brought into service. Deacons, male or female, only make sense within this framework, but it will require a significant investment in the education of lay people and a change of focus within the church to make it possible.

The first day of the Battle of the Somme, which took place between July and November 1916, was the bloodiest of the First World War. It has particular resonance in Ireland. Just as the Easter Rising became constitutive of the Republic, so the Somme came to seen as the same for Northern Ireland.We now know that much of Ireland was as jingoistic

about the 1914-18 war as the rest of the UK. Leinster, Munster and Connaught competed with Ulster to fight the Huns. In Belfast, however, in 1912, a new Covenant had been signed and the Ulster Volunteer Force was raised to resist the promise of Irish Home Rule. When World War halted the constitutional home rule process, the UVF formed the core of the battalions which, on July 1, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne according to the old Julian calendar, were first over the top on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. Their cry was ‘No Surrender’. They suffered more than 5,000 casualties, fully a quarter of those who fell. Of 760 from the Shankhill, only 10% returned. They expected, when the war was over, that the Government would defend their right to remain British – if need be with the force of arms.Dublin has carefully included the Battle of the Somme in

its 1916 commemorations. Previously little recognition had been given to those from the other Provinces who fought in the Great War. However in his play, Observe the

Sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme, Frank McGuinness recognised the different meaning it has in Belfast. In 1966 the UVF was revived illegally. The Somme has come to mean a defence of what is regarded as the British way of life – be that at the expense of further integration with Europe or good relations with the South.Following the Holyrood elections there has been loose

talk about the ‘Ulsterisation’ of Scottish politics because of the emerging division between nationalists and unionists. In Northern Ireland the division is between republicans and loyalists. Neither of these names has much purchase in the current Scottish debate. The terms Catholic and Protestant remain more politicised there than here. They also live in the shadow of the gun. The loyalist DUP, unlike the unionist UUP, is in favour of ‘Brexit’.In his documentary on the Easter Rising, The Enemy

Papers, the former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo, having studied the Westminster archives, blamed the British Government for it. It should have foreseen the rebellion. There was no need for the brutality of its suppression. Portillo, with others, believes a united Ireland could have gained independence peacefully. This is a view that fails to reckon with the sons of Ulster who do not believe Britain has absolved itself of the debt owed to them.

Women deacons and the role of the laity

Observe the sons of Ulster

Politics

June 2016 OPEN HOUSE 3

Last month we invited readers to reflect on the challenges facing the new Scottish government. Here a Geordie Catholic who lives and works in Scotland asks what has become of solidarity and subsidiarity.

PAUL YOUNGER

A gift fae the giftie

Contents

A gift fae the giftie Paul Younger

Page 5 Countdown to the EU referendum Joe Fitzpatrick

Page 7 Is canon law fit for purpose? Helen Costigane

Page 10 The man with the pierced heart Jim Lawlor

Page 12 Women deacons: a feast or crumbs from the table? Anne McKay

Page 13 Tuning in to Radio Alba Gerry Fitzpatrick

Page 14 Scalan three hundred Alasdair Roberts

Page 15 Andrew Lang and the place of the Reformation in Scottish history Arthur McLay

Page 16 Notebook

Page 17 Letters

Page 18 Reviews: books, film, TV and music

Page 23 Obituary

Page 24 Moments in Time

Thank you to all those who contributed to this edition of Open House.

Open House, which was founded in Dundee in 1990, is an independent journal of comment and debate on faith issues in Scotland. It is rooted in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and committed to the dialogue which began at the Council - within the Catholic Church, in other churches, and with all those committed to issues of justice and peace.

www.openhousescotland.co.uk

Cover design by Dominic Cullen.

I came to live in Glasgow in 2012, in perfect time to witness some of the most dramatic events in recent Scottish history. As a lifelong Caledoniaphile, and the first public spokesperson for the erstwhile Campaign for a Northern (English) Assembly, I crossed the Border with great expectations. These were heightened by my heritage: the neighbourhood I come from was settled by Glasgow Irish shipyard workers in the early 1880s. I can report that, despite the passage of 135 years, the basic assumptions of life and etiquette remain essentially the same in Govan and Gateshead. This is reflected in the genuine, heartfelt feelings of solidarity which most Geordies feel towards Scotland in general and Glasgow in particular.

Of course the same feelings are extended to the cities of northern England, especially Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds – and indeed to Cardiff, Swansea, Belfast and Dublin. Fellow-feeling is particularly warm towards cities with similar histories of hardship.

Solidarity is, of course, a central theme of Catholic Social Teaching. It may be regarded as a particular expression of the Lord’s instruction that we love our neighbours as ourselves (Mk 12: 31) – particularly our less fortunate neighbours. Solidarity with the oppressed leads naturally to a desire to empower them, so that they achieve greater control over their own destiny. Scotland’s devolution settlement is the most advanced realisation of these

impulses, so it is inherently attractive to a Geordie aspirant.

Another key theme of Catholic Social Teaching is subsidiarity: the principle that ‘…matters should be dealt with at the lowest and most appropriate authority and that a central authority should perform only those tasks that cannot be carried out at a more local level …’1 This concept has been central to Catholic social thought since at least 1931, when it was enunciated robustly by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. The practice of subsidiarity has a far longer pedigree, of course, being manifest in the particularly stable federal settlements of the USA, Canada, Australia and several European countries (most admirably the German system). Had the UK had the sense to adopt such a system two generations ago, it is unlikely that we would now be living with the tensions of an evidently Disunited Kingdom.

I spent much of the 2014 independence referendum campaign enjoying the weird sensation of being a ‘swing voter’: I was torn between maintaining solidarity with my Geordie and Liverpudlian comrades and taking subsidiarity to its logical conclusion. I finally resolved the tension a fortnight before polling day, while gazing across the Sound of Raasay, feeling incalculably and delightfully remote from London. In the end, I decided just to answer in the affirmative the simple question on the ballot paper: ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ Had the question been ‘Do you believe all of the Alex in Wonderland stories about the utopia that would inevitably arise from Scottish independence?’ then I would have voted No. Although I thought it likely that a Yes victory would lead to a decade of tumult, I was in a reckless mood, savouring the mood of the moment.

It was only much later that I realised just how many former Labour voters had fully bought into the alluring utopian vision set forth by the SNP. The Labour electoral melt-down of May 2015 has continued this year. It is now clear that many Scottish people truly regard nationalism as their best hope for economic advancement. Yet I, for one, have always been deeply

suspicious of nationalism. As Orwell wrote: ‘Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception …’ Is it indeed the case that independence will usher in a golden age of equality, or is there a degree of self-deception in this? Orwell again: ‘…One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognizes the overwhelming strength of national loyalty… Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in their own countries very largely because they could grasp this fact and their opponents could not ...’

Yet the latter seems an unfair reference in Scotland today: there is certainly a ‘nationalism’ that is simply a legitimate expression of subsidiarity; of a legitimate self-respect that seeks to express itself in home rule. Gandhi espoused just such a nationalism. Yet even that great soul was unable to restrain the xenophobic tendencies that led to partition and violence. An even more salient example is offered by the fratricidal conflicts between nationalists in Ireland that inflicted deep wounds that suppurate to this day.

But surely Scotland could never experience such calamity? The more I have experienced the mood in post-referendum Scotland, the less certain I am. With the only left-wing unionist party in ruins, any notion of solidarity with Liverpudlians and Geordies already seems a distant memory. But what of subsidiarity? Perhaps my greatest surprise has been the discovery that the SNP have no interest in subsidiarity: they demand more power for Holyrood, yet have systematically stripped it away from local councils; they have created a national police force answerable directly to the Minister of Justice2 - an action with daunting parallels in 1930s Europe. A 2012 law has introduced significant restrictions on freedom of expression, which are being applied far more widely than was originally promised3, with Police Scotland recently doing the rounds of Catholic clubs and Celtic supporters clubs to warn their clientele off celebrating the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising4. Most recently the SNP government granted themselves the power to interfere in university

governing bodies, in a manner unheard of in similar countries (though common enough in Africa). This summer will see the introduction of the ‘named person’ scheme, with its own Orwellian echoes.

A few days ago I saw a social media posting that had attracted many ‘likes’: the photograph was of a muscle-man in a Saltire t-shirt and kilt with the caption: ‘My country, my flag: love it or leave it’. I was particularly chilled by the use of ‘my’ instead of ‘our’. I recalled the words of Arundhati Roy: ‘…it isn’t necessary to be “anti-national” to be deeply suspicious of all nationalism, to be anti-nationalism ... Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. When independent, thinking people begin to rally under flags, when writers, painters, musicians, film makers suspend their judgment and blindly yoke their art to the service of the “nation”, it’s time for all of us to sit up and worry ...’5 I’m not worried yet, but I am sitting up; and I am beginning to wonder what will become of solidarity and subsidiarity in the Scotland of tomorrow.

1 http://www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk/principles/glossary/#Subsidiarity2 Gallagher, T. 2016, Scotland now. A warning to the world. Scotview Publications, Edinburgh. 346pp.3 Rooney, K., 2016, ‘Let the people sing’: rebel songs, the Rising and remembrance. In Lusk, K., and Maley, W. (eds.) Scotland and the Easter Rising: Fresh Perspectives on 1916. Luath Press, Edinburgh. 168-173.4 See The Herald, 19-3, 11-4 and 12-4-2016.5 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/30/usa.iraq

Paul Younger holds the Rankine Chair of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, where he is also Professor of Energy Engineering.



At the time of writing, with just over five weeks left till the Referendum on June 23, the battle over the issue of Britain’s continued membership of the EU is hotting up. Yesterday Boris Johnson grabbed the Sunday newspapers’ headlines by drawing a comparison between the EU and Hitler. Although his comments gained support from such die-hard Brexiteers as Iain Duncan Smith and Norman Lamont, they were criticised by a number of respected Labour and Tory MPs, with Hillary Benn claiming that, unlike Hitler, the EU in the past 70 years had brought an end to centuries of conflict in Europe, and Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson, describing Johnson as the ‘unchallenged master of the self-inflicted wound’. With Ken Livingstone also in mind, one witty commentator remarked that references to Hitler rarely helped the arguments put forward by ex-mayors of London. And so it goes on. The heat being generated by the up-coming referendum reflects the utter seriousness of this issue because the outcome of the referendum will determine Britain’s political future – and political and economic wellbeing – for years to come. It also reflects the fact that at present the opinion polls are neck and neck. It could go either way.There can be no doubt that the

Remain campaign has the preponderance of political and economic big-hitters on its side. Former Prime Ministers such as Tony

Blair, Gordon Brown and John Major side with the present incumbent, David Cameron, in arguing to remain in the EU. They are joined by Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, who has said that leaving the EU could precipitate a recession, and by Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who has warned that a British exit from the EU could lead to a stock market crash. Carney and Lagarde were keen to point out that they were not speaking in a personal capacity but on behalf of the bodies they head up. President Obama has warned that a Britain out of the EU would lose its standing in the world and, as far as trade with the US was concerned, would be at the back of the queue. Michael Heseltine has advised us to look carefully at the foreign ‘friends’ who would support a British exit – Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin! Chris Patten has observed that, as far

as Europe is concerned, the second half of the twentieth century was much better than the first half; he and others have reminded us that the founders of the EU were motivated by the heartfelt wish to prevent further wars between Germany and France, which they considered to be pretty well inevitable unless some new political framework – one that promoted cooperation, trust and collaboration in place of competition, fear and rivalry – was created. Among those inspired by the achievement of a form of political union between France and Germany was John Hume, one of the chief architects of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, who argued that if it was possible for such traditional European foes to reach an accord it should surely not be impossible for Protestants and Catholics, unionists and nationalists, to do the same in Ulster.Personally, I suspect the motives of

some of the political leaders of the Brexit campaign. Boris Johnson, who declared his support for leaving the EU rather late in the day, clearly has ambitions to become the leader of the Tory party, and hence a likely Prime Minister. He knows that if the vote goes against continued membership of the EU, David Cameron will be forced from office, the pro-EU George Osborne, Johnson’s main rival to succeed Cameron, will also lose out and the way will be clear for him, Johnson, to assume the role of leader. It is

Politics

JOE FITZPATRICK

Countdown to the EU referendumAs the country prepares to vote on whether or not to stay in the European Union, a Scot who lives in England and spends part of the year in France considers the debate.

Among those inspired by the achievement of a form of

political union between France and Germany was John Hume, one of the chief architects of the

Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.


reported that the Tory election guru, the Australian Lynton Crosby, advised Johnson to declare for Brexit if he ever wished to lead his party.The substantive arguments put

forward by the supporters of Brexit centre largely on two issues which merge into one: control of our borders and, by this means, control and reduction of immigration into the UK. This is seen as an unalloyed blessing and clearly has a strong appeal to many in England if the headlines in such Brexit supporting newspapers as the Daily Express are anything to go by. But is it realistic? While it might sound good, it is not at all clear that Britain could simply close its borders to the great tide of immigrants currently flowing into Europe from the Middle East – just like that. There would surely be serious political and economic consequences for a stand-alone Britain that refused to take its share of immigrants. And the assumption that immigration is bad, that it results in foreigners taking jobs and houses away from people born here, is open to question. Anyone who has spent time in hospital in recent years will know that the NHS in this country would simply collapse without the support of doctors and nurses from abroad; likewise anyone who stays at hotels, visits Fitness Clubs or stops for coffee at motorway stations in England (I can’t speak for Scotland) will know how dependent on immigrant labour these service industries are. Much the same can be said for the service industries in France, Germany and much of Europe. Overall, there is a positive

correlation between immigration and

economic growth. Immigrants work hard; they have to. The rumour that they come to Britain to sponge off the welfare state is greatly exaggerated. The great majority simply want two things: a job and an education for their children. Of course, large scale immigration puts additional strain on hospitals, schools, welfare and the supply of affordable housing, but responsible papers like The Guardian and The Independent argue that the economic benefits outweigh the additional costs. Someone who is sensitive to the plight of immigrants is Pope Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, who has consistently preached the need for Europe to be generous in reaching out to the immigrants arriving from the war-torn countries of the Middle East. He speaks from experience as well as from the Christian commandment to love our neighbours as we love ourselves, and deserves to be listened to.In France and Germany, the EU is

just a massive fact of life. It is seen to have achieved its purpose of preventing further conflict between these two great European nations. Belgians are even more in love with the EU and for many months, when there was no elected Belgian government, they were quite happy to be governed directly by the EU. Belgium is a small country divided historically and rather bitterly on linguistic lines, with the Walloons to the south speaking French and the northerners speaking Flemish; when trouble breaks out between these two sections of the country, the framework of the EU prevents things getting out of hand altogether. The continental

view is that Britain has always stood somewhat aside from ‘mainland’ Europe. After all, it took some time before we entered the union; and De Gaulle saw our island as looking more to the west – to the US – than to the rest of Europe. There is a widespread view that Britain is still a bit schizoid in its political outlook, and every now and then this comes to a head – as at present. But there is a quiet belief that we shall eventually see sense and stay in the EU. Closer to home, we would do well to

think of the consequences of leaving the EU for Scotland and the UK in general. The SNP is strongly pro-EU and, should the vote to leave predominate in the June referendum, there can be no doubt that the clamour for another referendum on Scottish independence would be impossible to resist. In my opinion, this would be a political inevitability and would result in Scotland breaking politically with England; Wales would be likely to do the same for the same reason, and so would Northern Ireland. And what would happen in a Northern Ireland free from the political control exercised there in a wide variety of ways by the Westminster government? We could well be back to the violence and turmoil of the 1970s. If such a scenario appeals to you, then vote for Brexit in the forthcoming referendum. But I for one, for reasons of the heart as well as the head, will vote to remain in the EU.

Joe Fitzpatrick is a writer and retired Inspector of Schools who lives in Yorkshire.

Do you have a view on this or any other issue facing Scotland? Share your thoughts in a letter or article for the next edition, which will be in August. The copy deadline is Friday 29th July and the details of how to

get in touch are on the back page.


There is a scene from the 1970’s film, The Life of Brian, in which members of the political group, the People’s Front of Judaea, are plotting revolution against their Roman imperialist masters. One of the group, Reg, asks the question: ‘what did the Romans ever do for us?’ He expects the answer ‘nothing’ and is surprised when the group list things such as the aqueduct, roads, sanitation, irrigation, medication, education, wine, public baths, fresh water systems, keeping order, and bringing peace.In the same way, we might ask that

question about the 1983 Code of Canon Law: ‘what did canon law ever do for us?’ Furthermore, given the very negative press it has had in recent years in terms of the abuse crisis, we might ask the question whether it is still fit for purpose. There is a perception that canon law is the arteriosclerosis in the Body of Christ; the shadow side of the Good News. Yet this is not the whole story.The 1983 Code of Canon Law

governs internal church administration in relation to areas such as the administration of sacraments, temporal goods, and ministry. This revised Code, superseding its predecessor of 1917, was promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 25th January 1983, by way of an apostolic constitution, in which he says that the purpose of the Code is not to replace faith, grace, charisms or charity, but ‘looks towards the achievement of order in the ecclesial society… such that it

facilitates at the same time an orderly development in the life both of the ecclesial society and of the individual persons who belong to it’.So it has a positive aspect: the

preservation of right order; looking to the common good; and the rights of individuals.

Where does canon law come from?What is now set out in the 1983 Code is derived from a long history, and its canons have various sources: scripture, ecclesiastical assemblies, imperial edicts, Church councils, the writings of the Fathers, and papal letters. Ecumenical councils became a source of canons, the most well-known of which is that the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which enacted a series of decrees on the internal reform of the Church in addition to major doctrinal clarifications. The revised Code of 1983 reflects the

anthropology, ecclesiology and Christology articulated in the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

Rights and obligationsPerhaps one of the most interesting changes in the 1983 Code was the introduction of a list of rights (as well as obligations), not just for clergy, but for all Christ’s faithful. As well as the obvious duty to preserve communion with the Church (canon 209) and obedience to pastors when representing Christ as teachers of the faith and rulers of the Church (canon 212), there are obligations incumbent on each person to build up the Body of Christ (canon 208), lead a holy life and promote the growth and sanctification of the Church (canon 210), and strive so that the divine message may reach all and everywhere (canon 211). Duties imply rights, and the Code outlines a number of these.

The People of God, Christ’s faithful, are free to make their needs and wishes known to pastors (canon 212). They have the right to make known their views to other members of the faithful, while respecting faith and morals, pastors, the common good, and the dignity of individuals. They have the right to be assisted spiritually by pastors, using the spiritual riches of the Church, especially the Word and the Sacraments (canon 213). There is a right of association and assembly for works of charity, piety and the fostering of the Christian vocation

Canon law

HELEN COSTIGANE

Is canon law fit for purpose?Academic and canon lawyer Dr Helen Costigane prompted a lively discussion when she addressed the question of whether canon law is fit for purpose at a meeting of the Glasgow Newman circle. This is an edited version of her talk.

Dr Helen Costigane SHCJ.


(canon 215), and to promote apostolic actions under their own initiative (canon 216). There are rights to a Christian education (canon 217), freedom to choose a state of life (canon 219), to a good reputation and privacy (canon 220), and the right to defend rights before a competent ecclesiastical forum (canon 221).One of the neuralgic issues in certain

countries is canon 222 and providing for the needs of the Church. In Germany, for example, Church tax is collected by the State and distributed to various ecclesial communities. Many have taken exception to this and have tried to register their protest by trying to leave the Church, by declaring in court that they are no longer ‘Catholic’.It is worth reminding ourselves why

we contribute money to the Church. The range of material assistance is mentioned in Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas est (2005), but a further dimension is highlighted. As the Church spread throughout the world‘…the exercise of charity became established as one of her essential activities, along with the administration of the sacraments and the proclamation of the word: love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind is as essential to her as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word.1

This is a very significant statement as it puts charitable activity as a fundamental element of the Church’s life:‘For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being’.2

Canon law and change1983 seems a long way away now. Could anyone have foreseen that women might attempt to be ordained in the Catholic Church? What about those who cannot petition to have the

validity of their marriage examined because of the lack of tribunals in some parts of the world? The application of the law requires interpretation, and the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts serves primarily to do that, addressing issues such as the celebration of the sacraments by priests who have attempted marriage (1997), the admission of divorced-remarried people to holy communion (2000), and leaving the Church by an act of formal defection (2006). The law can also be amended or

changed. As there was no provision in the Code to excommunicate women who attempted to be ordained, or those ordaining them, this was remedied in 2008 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Most recently, Pope Francis made changes to Book VII of the Code on procedures, introducing a shorter form for considering marriage nullity, which can be used especially in those areas of the world where there are no marriage tribunals.

Where was canon law ‘then’?One of the most distressing phenomena in the Roman Catholic Church in the last twenty years is that of sexual offences committed against people (often, though not exclusively, very young people) by clerics and those in religious congregations. This raises the question of whether canon law was fit for purpose, now and then.The Instruction, Crimen

sollicitationis promulgated in 1922, then again in 1962 with amendments, was to be used (with necessary adjustments) for any grave sinful external obscene act attempted or committed with another man, a young person of either sex, or with an animal. Procedures were outlined when receiving denunciations, and some variations allowed, but the main thrust of these was to ensure the completeness, accuracy and validity of the denunciation – in short, the whole truth – and that secrecy was maintained. The investigation process

was to establish whether or not there was a foundation to the imputation, and what it might be, looking at things such as the previous history of the accused and the credibility of the accuser. After this preliminary investigation, the Ordinary (bishop) had a number of choices, including subjecting the accused to a penal process if certain or probable arguments existed to establish the accusation.Canonical laws and a system were in

force to deal with many of the abuse cases occurring over 30 years ago. The procedure which dealt with the crime of solicitation in the sacrament of Penance goes back as far as 1622 and was subsequently elaborated in 1866, 1890 and 1897, and updated in 1922, when the procedures were adapted to deal with the crime of clerical child sexual abuse. The bishops were informed at that time, and even though it was under pontifical secret, standard authors clearly explained the substance of the Instruction.The fact that many priests continued

in ministry indicates perhaps that the secrecy surrounding Crimen sollicitationis worked against it in that clergy (perhaps even bishops) were not entirely aware that they could use it in its broader sense of dealing with paedophilia.3 There may have been other issues why bishops did not act: to protect the institution, perceiving abuse as a moral failing rather than also as a criminal act, a misguided understanding of the place of law in the Church, and the lack of canonical structures to deal with cases. Further, there may have been an over-dependence on the therapeutic paradigm. The report from the Dublin Archdiocese of 2009 noted that ‘canon law was used selectively when dealing with offending clergy, to the benefit of the cleric and the consequent disadvantage of his victims’.

Where are we now?Steps have been taken to ensure that abuses of the past are less likely to be


perpetrated, with the Church’s procedures for recruitment and deployment of personnel becoming more transparent. However concerns have emerged as to whether, in seeking to uphold the rights of children and vulnerable adults, the protection of the rights of those working within the Church is in danger of being undermined. It is clear that the Church needs to take steps to protect those who are within its care. However, there is some question on whether some of the steps being advocated are blurring certain boundaries, and ignoring certain fundamental principles of canon law. Canon 1717 (paragraph 1) reads:

‘Whenever an ordinary has knowledge, which at least seems true, of a delict, he is carefully to enquire personally or through another suitable person about the facts, circumstances and imputability, unless such an enquiry seems entirely superfluous’.4

There are a number of key points here. The first is that any penal process is not to be undertaken lightly in view of the possible consequences for the person who is accused. The Ordinary (who may be a diocesan bishop, a vicar general or episcopal vicar, or a major superior of a clerical religious institute) may delegate the task of enquiry to a cleric or lay person. In some instances, a priest may be more effective in speaking to an accused cleric, while in other cases, people trained in dealing with children or young people may be preferable in talking to alleged victims. The knowledge gained by the

superior ‘seems true’, or ‘has at least the semblance of truth’: vague rumour alone is not enough to begin this process, though there is little indication what criteria may be employed to make a decision on the degree of knowledge required. Such an enquiry would ‘seem entirely superfluous’, perhaps because of the existing notoriety of the facts, or when the Ordinary is already in possession of evidence which can generate moral certitude, or that the

accused has already confessed voluntarily to the offence. This preliminary investigation is to consider the facts of the allegation, the circumstances, and the question of imputability.Paragraph 2 of canon 1717 reflects

canon 220 in affirming that ‘care must be taken so that the good name of anyone is not endangered from this investigation’. This requires that any investigation be carried out discreetly and with sensitivity. It also suggests that, at this point, there is a presumption of innocence in favour of the person who has been accused. However, at this stage, it is sufficient that there is a strong probability, rather than certainty, that a crime has been committed.What are the potential issues arising?

Normally when an allegation is made, the priest is immediately removed from ministry until criminal proceedings have been concluded. While this is understandable, it raises the question of to what extent he ought to have ongoing emotional and financial support from his diocese or religious congregation. It is also the case that priests may often have to fund their own legal representation. It may be argued that practices dealing with alleged abuses appear to have been borrowed from a secular context wholesale without taking into account the particular nature of priesthood, ordination and incardination, and the relationship with the bishop.The process itself may take some

time. It is not unknown for priests to be out of ministry for a year or longer, before it is established that there is no case to answer. Not only does this lead to financial problems, but can cause a great deal of emotional and psychological trauma. The maxim ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ suggests that every effort be made to bring any canonical investigation to a speedy conclusion, particularly when civil authorities have clearly established that there is no case to answer and that the allegations are unfounded.Finally, it is important in any

jurisdiction that the system the Church uses to ensure safeguarding for children and vulnerable people is fit for purpose. Sadly, this is not always the case. William Richardson observes that in Ireland ‘the arbitrary procedures endorsed by the bishops’ conference in Ireland presume allegations of sexual abuse against clerics to be true’.5 What is needed is an ongoing review to ensure that systems for dealing with these cases allow justice and equity for all involved.

Is canon law fit for purpose?The answer is yes, but we need to bear the following in mind. We need to know the law, the official text and its meaning, the meaning of the word, and what values are expressed by the rule. Strict laws are to be interpreted strictly, discretion and prudence are to be exercised, as is equity which ‘takes the form of mercy and pastoral charity, and seeks not a rigid application of the law but the true welfare of the people’.6 In the wrong hands, the Code of Canon Law can be a weapon of mass destruction; but as canon 1752 (the last one in the Code) reminds us: ‘the supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls’.

1 Paragraph 22.

2 Deus caritas est, paragraph 25.

3 See U. Lopez, ‘Casus conscientiae’, Periodica, 27, 1938, 32-34.

4 Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Translation, 1983.

5 W. Richardson, The Presumption of Innocence in Canonical Trials of Clerics Accused of Child Sexual Abuse (Leuven, Peeters, 2011), p.304.

6 James Coriden, An Introduction to Canon Law (London, Burns & Oates, 2004), p.205.

Dr Helen Costigane SHCJ is Vice Principal – Academic at Heythrop College, London.


June 3rd, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is the Jubilee of Mercy for Priests. Few religious icons have suffered as much from outré spirituality and worse art so it isn’t an immediately attractive image for the day of prayer for those in Holy Orders. We need, then, to revisit the image, making a connection between it and priesthood. I want to describe my experience of ‘pierced-ness’, first, because I don’t agree with Benedict XVI, that the crisis of priestly identity is over, second, hopefully to prompt some dialogue among us. So, what of the icon of the Sacred

Heart? Commenting on John’s gospel, Augustine was moved by the Septuagint translation, aperuit, describing the piercing of Christ – that his heart was ‘opened’. The Fathers of the Church frequently use and develop the imagery, until Bonaventure can write ‘From his wounded side flowed blood and water, the fountain of the sacramental life of the Church’ (a central prayer in the liturgy of The Solemnity). The same language appears at Vatican II, explicitly in Lumen Gentium (3).This imagery of the Sacred,

wounded, open heart of Jesus is extrapolated in two directions. First, as symbol of sacramental economy, linking the blood of his pierced heart to the Eucharist. Second, the water that flows, figure of baptism, connects to the birth of the Church itself, ‘carved from the rock of his heart’ (Justin Martyr).It was Karl Rahner, however, who

explicitly linked the imagery of the

Sacred Heart to the spirituality of the ministerial priesthood. Acknowledging that devotion to the Sacred Heart seems to be of a bygone age, Rahner suggests it has powerful contemporary resonance. He writes,

‘The priest of today must be the man with a pierced heart from which alone he draws strength for his mission … He is a man with the pierced heart because he is to lead others to the very core of their existence, to their inmost heart, because he can only do so if he has found his own heart …’

Servants of the Lord (1968)Australian Jesuit, Bishop

Greg Kelly, first dismissed Rahner’s reflection as ‘Teutonic lugubriousness’. However, Kelly now sees Rahner has revealed a rich seam for spiritual and

psychological reflection for the priest himself (essentially) and ministry (existentially). The phrase, ‘wounded healer’, is attributed to Henri Nouwen, priest and spiritual writer, but it has a longer pedigree. The centaur Chiron, wounded by Hercules’ arrow, becomes the one wounded in order to heal others on the battlefield. Carl Jung popularised the notion in the psychotherapeutic world, that the act of (any) healing, in fact heals ourselves. More immediate to our reflection is the Talmudic tractate on the Suffering Servant literature. Rabbi Yoshua asks Elijah, ‘When will the messiah come?’ – ‘Ask him yourself.’ ‘Where is he?’ asks Yoshua. ‘He is at the city gates, covered in his wounds, sitting among the poor’.The Sacred Heart is pierced,

symbolic origin of Church and Sacrament, and can readily become an image for the minister of Sacrament, servant of Church. So far, this reflection is essentialist – the wounded priest personally identifying with the wounded Jesus. However – in the language of Benedict XVI – ministry is pro-existence. We must look, then, in an existential framework, at what the pierced one is for; what this means in concrete service.What was my generation – at least

us domestically trained – prepared to serve? The emphasis was academic but unchallenging, and I recall only three lecturers. John Fitzsimmons imparted a love of scripture, respect for its complexity and imposed rigorous standards for preaching.

Year of Mercy

JIM LAWLOR

The man with the pierced heart.A parish priest offers a reflection on priesthood for the Jubilee Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis, which runs from December 2015 to November 2016. It focuses on different groups within the church in the course of the year.


Canon lawyer Clarence Gallagher SJ had, as his shibboleth, that law always served ecclesiology, not vice versa. John McKelvie, who died tragically young, brought his French education to liturgy, teaching us to follow the ‘negrics’, the spirit of the black-print, rather than an over concern with ‘rubric’, the red-print, in worship and prayer. (Sadly, now the negrics are incomprehensible!) We were to build community, through preaching the word and worthy celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. We were to be priests in relationship – not set apart. (Pastores Dabo Vobis, Pope John Paul’s Exhortation on the Life and Ministry of Priests, 43).‘Human formation’ was a second

focus. Seminary did little to form my wounded heart nor did it enable the mature, expressible self-awareness essential for someone called to be a ‘man of Communio’ (PDV 42).

We were assessed on the ability to cope with the dynamics of a semi-monastic community (like we would never live in again!) Were we punctual for liturgy and meals? Able to repeat lecture content? To manage ‘the business’ of parish and its demands? Michael Buckley SJ says these are the wrong questions.

There is a different question, one proper to the priesthood as of its very essence, if not uniquely proper to it: Is this man weak enough to be a priest? Is this man deficient enough so that he cannot ward off significant suffering from his life, so that he lives with a certain amount of failure, so that he feels what it is to be an average man? Is there any history of confusion, of

self-doubt, of interior anguish? Has he had to deal with fear, come to terms with frustrations, or accept deflated expectations?

The Sacred Heart, The Fathers, Rahner, Buckley; we might sum up. Has this man encountered the wounded-ness of his own heart; is he realistic about the reality of his weakness? In Hebrews, it is in this deficiency, this lack, that the efficacy of the priesthood of the heart of Christ lies. A priest is not above his people but is to be covered in his wounds, sitting among theirs.This weakness cannot be confused

with personal sin; personal sin is often how we mask our weakness. It is rather the existential reality of one who is nonetheless called, in the words of Pope Francis’ motto, miserando atque eligendo (‘lowly yet chosen’). How is this pierced-ness encountered? My experience of priesthood, existentially, is much blessed, filled with people and opportunities, so my cup runneth over. Essentially, within, it has been an experience of tension such as is described in Lacordaire’s, Life of a Priest; ‘To belong to every family yet be part of none’, a phrase that resonated in me since first I read it. To be a man of communion but alone, in celibate isolation, in the

presbytery, no family of one’s own but drawn intimately into the lives and families of others. I have always longed to be a

person of prayer – ever-attractive and ever-elusive. This too becomes a tensive space; between prayerful essence longing to integrate with existence and ministry. Michel Quoist, a secular parish priest, wrote prayers capturing the tensions of

our wounded service. Before you, Lord describes the desire to be contemplative. ‘To be here before you Lord, that’s all – to shut the eyes of my body, the eyes of my soul. To feel, see, hear nothing.’ Yet, he goes on, we are never alone – people come into our hearts, settle down and worry us. We allow it, that they be refreshed; we carry them to the Lord to be fed.Prayer on a Sunday Night describes

the crowded Sunday Church, now empty and silent; the people gone to enjoy the evening as the priest walks home, alone. Ours is a kenotic prayer, of a pierced heart, drained of energy, spent; like Christ’s heart. Quoist uses the striking word engloutir, being devoured by people’s hunger – like the Eucharist itself. Engloutir also means ‘overwhelmed’, ‘engulfed’. Fewer of us, increasing demands, battered by scandals, feeling leaderless – it is easy to feel engloutir. But overwhelmed, too, by the affirmation of people, fellow wounded pilgrims. Engulfed, too, by the ultimate love of the One pierced for us, that we might be healed.The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a

potent symbol for us in this Year of Mercy. To know that my heart, like the Sacred Heart, is pierced and beset by weakness, is not an academic property but the rudiment of freedom. From that space, not readily understood by institutions, is born a merciful ministry, for one, also wounded, who longs to heal.

Lord, tonight, while all is still and I feel sharply the sting of solitude,While people devour my soul and I feel incapable of satisfying their hunger, While the world presses on my shoulders with all its weight of misery and sin, I repeat to you my ‘yes’ -slowly, clearly, humbly, Alone, Lord, before you, In the peace of the evening.(Michel Quoist, Prayer on a Sunday Night)

Fr Jim Lawlor is a priest of the Archdiocese of Glasgow.

Were we punctual for liturgy and meals?

Able to repeat lecture content? To manage ‘the business’ of

parish and its demands?

Michel Quoist, a secular parish priest, wrote prayers

capturing the tensions of our wounded service.


We may be coming to the end of the search for viri probati. After millennia of proven service to the church it is possible that women could enter Holy Orders albeit at the lower end. Then again, the Church of England ordained female deacons and today has women bishops. Could this come to pass in the Catholic Church? There are those who hope so…. and there are those who hope never! Remember the unexpected battering

Tony Blair took when he met the Women’s Institute? On 12th May, a brave Pope Francis faced 900 Women Religious leaders, representing half a million Religious in 80 countries throughout the world. Audaciously asked about setting up a commission to study the possibility of women deacons, a cautious Pontiff unexpectedly replied: ‘I accept. It would be useful for the Church to clarify this question’.I say ‘unexpectedly’ because in

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis John Paul II had taught that the church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this was to be definitively held by all the Church faithful. That seemed to put paid to the matter. However, as he was not pronouncing ex cathedra, discussion on women’s ordination to the priesthood continued – mainly underground. But would there be a problem with

women accessing the diaconate, specifically the permanent diaconate, rediscovered in modern times? The encyclopaedic 2002 Report From the Diakonia of Church to the Diakonia of the Apostles charts the evolution of the sacrament with several references to women.

The problem arises from the situating of the diaconate within sacred orders. Canon 1024 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law affirms that ‘only a baptized man can validly receive sacred ordination’. However, the living out of ministry has been varied and fluid throughout the ages and this flexibility presents opportunities for Religious working in developing countries. Currently, the permanent diaconate flourishes in the industrialised west but has never really taken root in the wider world.What has tradition to say on the

matter? Exegetes debate whether the early church ever had women deacons. The NIV translation of Romans 16:1 has Paul say ‘I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae’ while other translations call Phoebe a deaconess or simply a servant. All agree that she was recommended to the Church in Rome and entrusted with carrying Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Additionally, 1 Timothy 3:11 lists the attributes of the wives of deacons but is not clear on whether these women could be deacons themselves.Priscilla, Junia, Tryphena and

Lydia are other women who had standing in their local churches. These deaconesses – as distinct from deacons – were servants in the generic sense, ministering to women and providing support and hospitality. In 325AD The Council of Nicaea declared that deaconesses could not be ordained. But deaconess is not what the International Union of Superiors General had in mind when Pope Francis was quizzed in Rome.It would be the task of the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set up either an independent Commission or refer the matter for study to the International Theological Commission. The Commission would report back, possibly after several years, with a papal decision to follow. Should the Commission eventually decide in women’s favour, the matter is not necessarily settled. Remember, Paul VI reneged on the recommendations of the Commission set up to investigate contraception resulting in Human Vitae.Is there a down side to opening

the diaconate to women and would they signal the demise of the pastoral assistant? Anything that builds up the Church is to be welcomed and it would be ground-breaking to hear a woman give the homily and break open the Scriptures. I should not want the ministry to become the preserve of women Religious to the exclusion of lay women in general, and religious orders already have their particular charisms. Here at home, it is somewhat ironic that parishes are being closed or amalgamated owing to a lack of priests when the kaleyards could be full of labourers!Let us be careful what we wish for

– or pray for. There is ambiguity in the Pontiff’s reply to the Superiors General. ‘It would be useful for the Church to clarify this question’ could mean let us settle this pesky matter once and for all – ex cathedra.

Anne McKay is a retired principal teacher of Religious Education.

Women in the church

ANN MCKAY

Women deacons: a feast or crumbs from the table?A former teacher of religious education asks whether Pope Francis’ recent comment about clarifying the issue of women deacons in the Catholic Church would be helpful.


‘If the mountain won’t come to you, you must go to the mountain’. This Turkish proverb appears in many guises, not least in the Essays of Francis Bacon, 1625, and it surely is relevant today. If there are fewer people at Mass or other services then we should try to share our prayer, and the wisdom and beauty of scripture, by any other means available.

Television and radio, and the other organs of the mass media, have their own methods of getting and keeping attention, and, just as legitimately, so do we, so does the Church. I remember attending a gathering at one of the main TV stations some years ago, and feeling miffed when one of the speakers intimated that religion was ‘OK for entertainment and scandal, but not for much else’. In response I indicated that if there was no place for what religion has to offer in the major communication organisations, then we would have to provide a forum ourselves. And since the technology nowadays is both more advanced and more user-friendly, we would undoubtedly do so.

The internet based Radio Alba (radioalba.org Christian) exists because there are enough people interested in making it work. It is supported by the Archdiocese of Glasgow Music Committee, Glasgow Churches Together and by ACTS – the national ecumenical body known as Action of Churches Together in Scotland. You can access it at:

radioalba.org christianglasgowchurchestogetherstmungomusic.orgarchdioceseofglasgowOur basic daily schedule provides

a 30 minute programme of morning prayer, a schools morning prayer, a reflection on the Sunday readings, and a prayer for the sick or for peace. At 12 noon, there is an input from the Scottish Catholic Observer and a short service for the bereaved. In the evening we have evening prayer, a 30 minute magazine and a night prayer.

The St Mungo Singers and cantors provide music for morning and evening prayer and Compline, and children

from lots of schools give us the content of the schools morning prayer, while the instrumental music comes from many local sources.

Archbishop Tartaglia, Rev Tom Pollock, the Moderator of Glasgow Presbytery, Bishop Gregor Duncan and other leaders of Glasgow churches give us greetings and messages for the great feasts, while Dr Laurence Whitley, Fr David Wallace, Fr Jim Lawlor, and many others give a variety of reflections on spiritual topics – not least the Year of Mercy.

Canon Bob Hill gives a regular weekly commentary on the Sunday readings, and Dr Noel Donnelly provides short, eloquent commentaries on the psalms.

One of our aims has been to promote knowledge among the churches of the immense amount of good work being done by people of faith. We know our failings, so often highlighted in the media, but are less familiar with the good. So, we welcome articles and reflections from SCIAF and Mary’s Meals, Open House, Life and Work, the Diocese of Aberdeen’s Light of the North, Vocation Justice, Don Bosco, the Far East and many more of the mission magazines.

We are glad to welcome Archbishop Emeritus Mario Conti who will shortly give us excerpts from his book, and only last week Stanbrook Abbey showed interest in giving us material. Sister Isabel Smyth is working with us on interfaith material and we have already ‘podcasted’ our first shared interfaith service.

It would be good if parishes would put the link on their websites :

<script src=‘https://embed.radio.co/player/d86e675.js’></script>

We welcome contributions and ideas – so please be encouraged to use radioalba as an available resource. Listen to it, tell other people about it, and if you think you can use it – give us your material.

Below is a sample of the current weekly schedule:The schedule for the week 29th May, the week of Corpus Christi

08.00: Morning prayer for this week led by Jean Swinbank.

08.15: Morning prayers for young people led by Kyle, with music by Catriona Glen and Donald McInnes.Canon Bob Hill gives a reflection on the readings for Corpus Christi Sunday, and Sister Isabel Smyth leads us in prayers for mercy, along with a representative of the Muslim community. This 30 minute programme is repeated every half hour until 12 noon.

12.00: from the Scottish Catholic Observer: news read by Liz Leydon. Our Lady of Fatima celebrations at Carfin; St Mirin’s Chaplaincy opens for students at the University of the West of Scotland; St Margaret’s Pilgrimage to Dunfermline on June 12th. A Pro-life event ‘the March for Life’ – coinciding with an announcement from the Royal College of Mid-wives supporting abortion until ‘end of term.’

12.15: a short service reflecting on God’s goodness seen in the lives of our deceased relatives and friends and on the promise and hope of eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus.

Afternoon: archive music for the moment.

18.00: news from the Scottish Catholic Observer as above.Evening Hour: 8 – 9 pm and repeated 9-10 pm.

20.00: Evening prayer is led by Jean Swinbank; it includes Psalm 115 and ‘I bow my knees’. (A musical version of Ephesians 3: 14-19).

20.26: Magazine: Alastair Dutton of SCIAF gives an account of the work of SCIAF and Caritas Nepal in post-earthquake Nepal. Ron Ferguson, from the Church of Scotland’s Life and Work, reflects on our need for dreamers and all kinds of artists as well as for those who do things, make things work and repair them – ‘the Makars and the makers’. Stephen Eric Smyth reads his poem on ‘Elijah.’

20.50: Night Prayer led by Joe Docherty

Monsignor Gerry Fitzpatrick is a priest of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and Archdiocesan Director of Music.

Communication

GERRY FITZPATRICK

Tuning in to Radioalba.org Christian


Three hundred years ago a seminary was opened in the Braes of Glenlivet. This year’s Scalan Mass, the annual pilgrimage Mass which takes place at 4pm on the first Sunday in July, is special. Car-loads from all over Scotland will stop at a respectful distance from the old college. Pot-holes encourage drivers to finish their journey on grass but, to make an Open House point, former editor Ian Willock always walked the last mile in the spirit of pilgrimage.That spirit honours the many boys

who learned Latin and habits of piety before being ordained in one of the Scots colleges abroad. How many? More than a hundred, as the Benedictine Odo Blundell had it, now corrected by John Watts to something like 63. There were enough priests for the North-east Lowlands in the eighteenth century and beyond. (North-west Highlands is another story). John Watts’ Scalan: The Forbidden College, 1716-1799 marked two hundred years since a larger college was opened at Aquhorthies near Inverurie. Blairs followed in the year of Catholic Emancipation.Hard times and harsh winters

are part of the story, but all three successive buildings were superior to the black houses of the district. A letter has recently come to hand, part of a collection purchased by a library in California. It records punitive action after Culloden in May 1746: ‘I burnt the Popish Academy at

Scala, four Mess houses & two priests houses. . . The Bishop of Scala is lately dead & the luxurious priests quitted their paradice that morning I march’d there, they will have but bad querters at their return’.A desolate period followed until

the building we see today was raised in shaped stone and mortar by the rector John Geddes. Towards the end of his life he was carried out of it half-paralysed. He was coadjutor to Bishop George Hay whose consecration took place in the upstairs

chapel. These friends with contrasting personalities saved the Scots Mission from collapse. Every summer the bishops met in Scalan with senior clergy. James Gordon, appointed by Rome as Scotland’s second vicar apostolic in partibus infidelium, was the seminary’s founder. Relying on an interpreter for lack of Gaelic, he made visitations of ‘farr west’ which started at Scalan with goat’s milk. He was the so-called Bishop of Scala who died during the ’Forty-five.John Geddes went to Spain before

becoming a bishop. With great patience he saved the moribund Scots college at Madrid and started afresh as rector at Vallidolid. Father Michael Briody’s recent book (Open House March 2016) makes all clear. Geddes gained access to important Jesuit documents about the Madrid institution, and one senses relief about that behind a talk which he gave in the new one. Its most striking passage has been restored to prominence in the current issue of Scalan News:

‘The time by the goodness of God will come, when the Catholic religion will again flourish in Scotland; and then, when posterity shall enquire, with a laudable curiosity, by what means any sparks of the true faith were preserved in these dismal times of darkness and error, Scalan and the other colleges will be mentioned with veneration, and all that can be recorded concerning them will be recorded with care’.

If that sounds narrow for our own times it should be recalled that Geddes made Catholicism accepted in Edinburgh society. Robert Burns rated him ‘the first [or finest] cleric character I ever saw. . .’On Sunday 3rd July this year, the

principal celebrant and preacher at the Scalan Mass is to be Archbishop Leo Cushley. The anniversary will be marked by a plaque honouring three priests who founded the Scalan Association in the post-war years and started the process of rescuing a

crumbling edifice – Peter Bonnyman, David McRoberts and Alexander MacWilliam. Also named will be Bill and Jane McEwan who represented local efforts at restoration when membership was opened to lay people, not all of them Catholic. John Watts expects to be there with a new book Scalan: Leaves from the Master’s Day Book - fiction based on fact like A Cairn of Small Stones, which featured the first Highland seminary in Morar. Blairs Museum is putting on an exhibition, and Ian Forbes, the man in charge, will be bringing Bishop Hay’s chalice to Glenlivet.I visited Blairs recently after a fine

article by Ian about a stained-glass window behind the altar in the Aberdeen diocesan magazine Light of the North. The benefactor was John Gordon Smith, son of the man who pioneered distilling on a large scale when legal changes turned his neighbours into smugglers. He went about with pistols at his belt. John was a lay boarder who went on to develop distilling technology. Today every bottle of Glenlivet has the names of father and son – ‘George and J. G. Smith’.I left Blairs feeling inspired. Ian

Forbes, himself a former student and teacher, is a highly effective custodian. He is hopeful that the museum’s remarkable range of artefacts will remain in the former college building beside the exquisite chapel, within a few miles of the Blairs library and archives, now on loan to Aberdeen University’s Special Collections. All of that sheds a ‘light in the north’ on Church history for visitors and researchers. Blairs stands for this year’s celebration of past times at Scalan. Together they offer encouragement for the future.

Alasdair Roberts is a retired lecturer at Aberdeen University’s School of Education.

Church history

ALASDAIR ROBERTS

Scalan three hundred


Dr MacDonald explored the evolution of the interpretation of Scottish history, particularly the Reformation, through an exposition of the character and works of Andrew Lang. He is known to many as a collector of folk and fairy tales. It is perhaps regrettable that the latter has overshadowed his diverse contribution to other disciplines: poetry, biography, fiction, leisure, sport, psychical research, anthropology, and translation were all part of his prodigious activity. In the present context, emphasis was given to his historical endeavours.

Lang (a grandson on his mother’s side of the controversial Patrick Sellar, ‘factor’ to the Duke of Sutherland) was born in Selkirk in 1844 and fulfilled his early academic promise with a first in Classics from Balliol College Oxford. However, he cast university life aside to become a professional writer. The diversity of his oeuvre made him vulnerable to the label of dilettante. Nonetheless, between 1892 and his death in 1912 he was responsible for a substantial number of works of relevance to history ranging from fiction, through introductions and notes to Scott’s historical novels, to formal historical studies including a four volume History of Scotland and John Knox and the Reformation. The latter endeavours could prove provocative as illustrated from comments on Lang made by T D Wanless (Scots born, but spending the major part of his working life as a newspaper owner and politician in Ballarat, Australia) who described him as ….‘unfair’, ‘spiteful’, ‘narrow-minded’, ‘hysterical’ and ‘anti-Scottish’. Lang was nonetheless robust in his responses ‘I have no sympathy

with the suppression of truth’, and he spoke of the ‘ecclesiastical despotism’ of the reformers’ and ‘the intolerance of Scottish fanaticism’.

Dr MacDonald drew attention to the fact that, in Lang’s era, Scottish history, as a specific area of university study, was only introduced into the Scottish arts curriculum in 1894. Even by 1914 there were only 20 established posts in History in Scotland, with only seven doctorates produced between 1908 and 1919. She observed, moreover, that it was important to recognise that Lang operated outwith the conventional university framework and was consequently viewed with suspicion by the establishment. From the academic point of view, Scottish history, until the late 19th century, was a part of British/English history and reflected the establishment, political and religious. It only gained individual recognition slowly (as evidenced by the figures above) and was certainly not a matter for the wider public.

Lang, however, had quite a different perspective. In ‘History as she ought to be wrote’ published in Blackwood’s Magazine, he wrote :‘...the new schools of historians despise literature and insist on producing what they call ‘science’. Thus, though in our universities historical study is infinitely more popular than ever it was; though our young men pore over charters, and our young women (according to Mr Frederic Harrison) peruse medieval washing bills, none the less we have scarcely a historian whom the public reads. In truth, history is in a parlous case, and the interesting thing is that historians love to have it so...’

‘A historian, it seems, must divest himself of humanity, and of human

interests, while he narrates the actions of human beings... In fact, as far as I can understand our authors the public has no business with history. History is to be written by specialists for specialists.

Scotland has now, at last, Chairs of History in the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and, I believe, at Aberdeen. There is even a kind of Stool of History, a fearfully under-endowed Stool, in that centre of history, St Andrews. Let us hope that the learned Professors do not adopt the opinion that history is not literature, do not over-estimate tithes of mint and cumin, but teach their pupils that history is a human, and should be a delightful study by men and women of what our ancestors did and endured for causes now religious, now romantic, but always deserving to be recorded not only with accuracy but with charm’.

This approach alone could be considered provocative enough at the time, but one can see that his alternative readings of the Reformation would be unlikely to receive a warm welcome. Consider for example an extract from the fourth volume of his History of Scotland.‘Throughout the one hundred and thirty years that followed the Reformation, the history of Scotland seems mainly concerned with religious issues. There is the long war for ‘spiritual independence’ which involves the right of the Kirk to coerce the State for secular freedom, a battle in the course of which the Kirk is often coerced. This contest so completely fills the historic field that we scarcely notice things done in a corner – the attempts to found Scottish industries,

Review of Newman talk

ARTHUR McLAY

Andrew Lang and the place of the Reformation in Scottish historyThe secretary of the Glasgow Newman circle reports on a talk given by Dr Catriona MacDonald on the contribution of a controversial figure to the study of Scottish history.


General Assembly 2016On Saturday 22 May, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland opened its six-day annual meeting in New College, Edinburgh. The retiring Moderator, Dr Angus Morrison (a Gaelic speaker who, among many other concerns, focused on the use of Gaelic in church and other contexts during his Moderatorial year), passed the baton to Rev Dr Russell Barr, minister of Cramond Church in Edinburgh. However, the Gaelic touch was not lost: Tuesday’s worship featured readings in Gaelic by schoolchildren.

Dr Barr is a founder of Fresh Start, a charity which helps with ‘start up’ packages for homeless people moving into their own place, and he hopes to highlight issues around homelessness while in office.

General Assembly usually produces some surprises in addition to the advertised events and debates, and this year’s was no exception. We will report on them in the next edition. For some years now, an online webcast has opened up its public proceedings to people around Scotland and the world (though they haven’t yet produced an equivalent of ‘catch-up TV’ to watch the debates you missed).

Two ways in which younger people can contribute to the Church’s debates and vision are through the National Youth Assembly, which has its own Moderator, Hannah Mary Goodlad; and through the voices of the youth delegates to the General Assembly. In the August issue of Open House we hope to include a contribution from a youth delegate.

Cardinal Bo in GlasgowCardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar was given a warm welcome at a civic reception in Glasgow’s City Chambers last month when he shared a platform with representatives of Scotland’s many faith communities. They spoke of the journey they had made together since interfaith dialogue formally began in the 1970s. Provost Sadie Docherty stressed the multicultural nature of Glasgow,

where 140 languages are spoken in the city’s schools.

Reflecting on the situation in Myanmar, Cardinal Bo said: ‘Hope has no expiry date.’ He listed the many challenges facing his country today, including poverty, terrorism and the impact of being the world’s second biggest producer of opium, but said ‘our journey has not ended’. He described Myanmar’s recent experience as one of ‘perpetual conflict’, and suggested that when the British abandoned Burma to ill-prepared independence in 1948, they paved the way for long-running civil war. Cardinal Bo said that Myanmar’s embryonic government would have to establish human rights for all ethnicities and all religions, in order to ensure peace and prosperity. Quoting Aung San Suu Kyi, he challenged the people of Scotland to ‘use your liberty to promote ours’. Faith community leaders responded by sharing their experience of cross-religious initiatives in Glasgow, including a new school with a joint Jewish and Catholic campus, the production of interfaith resources, and examples of the common concern for justice which is at the heart of interfaith dialogue.

The event was organised by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Aid to the Church in Need, Missio Scotland, and SCIAF.

For information about interfaith events and resources in Scotland, go to www.interfaithscotland.org

Dom’s artMany Open House readers enjoy the photographs Dominic Cullen contributes to the magazine, which often appear on the front page.

Dominic, who is a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and a member of Glasgow Print Studio, has just launched a website where his paintings and prints are for sale. They range from landscapes of the north east and Orkney to cityscapes of Glasgow, screen prints, monoprints and cards.

Take a look at some of Dom’s work at www.cullenartworks.co.uk

NOTEBOOKand to find some outlet for Scottish products. Yet through the hundred and thirty years of secular and religious war many douce Scots, merchants and burgesses, must have been tempted to invoke a plague upon “both your houses”, the preachers and the persecutors’.

Recognising the critical role of religion in Scotland’s history he took his controversial approach still further in a series of six lectures at Glasgow University in 1911 entitled The Making of Scotland Presbyterian. The reaction can be gauged from a later observation by Professor Browning that ‘they were remarkable for the large number of clergymen who crowded to hear the first lecture and the small number thereafter’. Again, selected extracts can give a flavour of what was likely to provoke.

He said the Reformation was necessary but spoke of the ‘unfortunate retention by the reformers of the worst “rags of Rome”’; of their ‘intolerance and demand for clerical domination’; claims of the ‘right to persecute Catholics’ and of the ‘intolerance of the new preachers’.

He spoke of ‘… Education despoiled; the poor oppressed. ... Ruin of Mary by English intrigues. ... Sufferings of Mary madden her, and drive her to her doom. ... Her fall, the tragedy of a soul.’

‘... Attempts in the Covenant to legalise Revolt. ...fatal defects of the Covenant. ... ‘

Throughout, however, Lang was committed to historical method so that analysis and conclusions could be justified. Thus, in an article for the Scottish Historical Review in 1904/5 he could observe:

‘My conclusion is that, as a party pamphleteer, in 1559, Knox exceeded the limits of honest journalism... In his History, as far as I can discover, he deliberately concealed the truth on several essential points, and sometimes accused the Regent of perfidy when she was not guilty… It must be observed that I am not denying the right of the Protestants to rise in arms, to ally themselves with a foreign power, and to change the dynasty, if they could. I am only asking whether Knox’s account of the events is honest, candid and veracious.’

Dr MacDonald clearly demonstrated that Lang was an important forerunner of modern historical study which reaches out to a general audience and that he played a vital role in making the Reformation amenable to critical study.

Dr Catriona MacDonald is Reader in Late Modern Scottish History at the University of Glasgow.


Open House takes a break in July and the next edition will be published in August.The copy deadline for letters and articles is Friday 29th July. Please send contributions by post to the editor

at the address on page 24 or email [email protected]

Consulting the laityIn his recent letter to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Pope Francis launches yet another stinging attack on clericalism, which he describes as ‘one of the greatest deformations’; he goes on to remind bishops that the Spirit is not ‘the property of the hierarchy’ but has been poured out on all the baptised. He writes, ‘It is illogical, and even impossible, to think that we pastors should have the monopoly on solutions for the many challenges that modern life presents to us. On the contrary, we must remain on the side of our people’, describing the laity as the ‘protagonists of the Church and the world’ whom the clergy are there to serve.

Pope Francis has been true to these ideas himself, as witness the consultation of the laity prior to the Rome Synods on the Family: the example he set as Bishop of Rome is one he wants other bishops throughout the world to follow. This is the kind of Church he has modelled and envisages for the future. So we ought to get used to this and expect the baptised laity to be consulted on the big issues that confront our Church today. Issues such as the closure of churches and the amalgamation of parishes. Some lay people have suggested overcoming this problem by allowing lay folk to run liturgical services for themselves in the absence of a priest, others have proposed solving the problem by the ordination of married men. Some have even suggested that, in this year of mercy, services of general absolution be held in every diocese. I look forward to being consulted regularly on these and other pressing issues.

Eileen Fitzpatrick West Yorkshire

Housing accessThe Chancellor says one result of exiting the EU would be that house prices would fall. A former Cabinet colleague says that would be a good thing. So what do the rest of us know? We know that the media regards rising house prices as a barometer of a successful economy; that the cost of both buying and renting is consuming an ever greater part of people’s income; that housing benefit increasingly goes to private landlords; that planning permission can instantly increase land value tenfold.

We should be grateful to Steven Tolson (Open House May) for starting a debate about housing and land issues in Scotland. Holyrood hasn’t done any better than Westminster in providing affordable housing. This was one of the reasons that SNP proposals on land reform were the only ones at this year’s annual conference to be sent back for further work.

As Tolson says it is the state that grants planning permission, thus enhancing the value of land. But it does not take any profit from this. Nor does it use this power to influence the market at local level. We have not seen evictions at the American level as shown in 99 Homes. But we know that the present generation, earning vastly more than their grandparents, can’t get a foot on the housing ladder without putting at risk all their other reasonable aspirations. We should not allow politicians to sit back and gaze at this as if it were some religious mystery.

Norman BarryFilm reviewer, Open House

Better informedHow well do we know our religion and our beliefs?

I came to this question when speaking with Jehovah Witnesses, and in reading their publication, Awake. No arguments, simply enquiring discussions. Yes, I was a Roman Catholic, which introduced simply polite questioning. Confession? I was not always well informed.

As I pass them by around the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh, going to and from the libraries, I have got to know some of them quite well. Never any undiplomatic hassle.

So I decided to pass my experience on to Open House readers for comment. No conversions either way, but at least an incentive to make me better informed about my Catholicism.

Tom W Reilly Edinburgh

Devious typoIn the May edition of Open House, Dan Gunn’s excellent review of the biography of James VI and I carried what I can only assume was a devious typo. Eluding your normally eagle-eyed editorial team, the jewel in the Tudor crown of palaces, Hampton Court, appeared to be confused with Scotland’s national football stadium. (shum mishtake shurely!)

If it was the first time such a venue was substituted for the other I sincerely hope it won’t be the last. Personally, I always blame the keyboard.

Lynn Jolly Arts Editor (or maybe not)

The Editor of Open House email : [email protected]

All correspondence, including email, must give full postal address and telephone number.

LETTERS


The Book of the People: How to Read the BibleA.N. Wilson

(Atlantic Books, 2015) £9.98.

A.N. Wilson is a prolific, award-winning contemporary writer, the author of more than forty books, consisting of novels and non-fiction works in almost equal measure. I have read four of his books, sadly none of the fiction, but books entitled God’s Funeral: A Biography of Faith and Doubt in Western Civilization; Eminent Victorians, Tolstoy and now this one on the bible. The titles suggest the range of his interests, and he has also produced a stream of articles for a variety of English newspapers and magazines. The blurb rightly describes him as holding ‘a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism.’ He read Theology at Oxford and since then he has travelled full circle, at one time siding with his friend and vehement anti-God polemicist, Christopher Hitchens, and writing a short work called Against Religion, but now, it would appear, arriving roughly at where he took off, with this profound meditation on the bible and how to read it. The reader will learn a good deal about Wilson and the journey he has travelled along with the reasoning that has propelled him along the way; there is a good deal of gossip but alongside this a good deal of sound scholarship. The reader will learn some basic facts about the bible and Hebrew history, the kind of literary work the bible is, and the role it has played in our own day with the Civil Rights movement in the US, the overthrow of Soviet power in Russia and Poland, and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa. As Wilson remarks, the Hebrew word for God is a verb – a doing word. The bible does things to people, it makes history. To read the bible is to have a personal encounter.

Apart from his studies at Oxford, Wilson’s thinking on the bible has been deeply influenced by conversations he has conducted over the years with an American woman, referred to simply as

L, who had for a long time been gathering material for a book she wished to write on the bible. That never came to anything, so Wilson has written his own version which is influenced by these conversations with L, the letters she sent him and some writings she left behind when she died. (In the interests of retaining a certain anonymity Wilson uses a lot of initials, for example when referring to his wife or daughter; even Christopher Hitchens is referred to simply as H and my deduction that H is, in fact, Hitchens is based on guesswork guided by the information about H which Wilson provides). Wilson once wrote a book attempting to uncover or re-construct the ‘Historical Jesus’ and this was followed by making a film for TV with the title ‘Jesus before Christ’. He now acknowledges that this was a mistaken endeavour, as L had warned him at the time, since it is impossible to get behind the words and stories of the gospels to establish what exactly Jesus did or said at a particular place or time. The gospels were not written in the spirit of modern historical recording of events; if that is what we are looking for we will be disappointed. Wilson tells how Thomas Jefferson started the trend of attempts at finding the true, historical Jesus with his book on The Philosophy of Jesus: as the title suggests, this presented Jesus as a great moral teacher but cut out any reference to him as divine or as a worker of miracles. As later writers have noted, Jefferson’s Jesus bore a strong resemblance to Thomas Jefferson! The gospels are what theologians call ‘confessional writings’ – they are written by people of faith with the intention of winning converts to their faith. This is not to say that they are not rooted in historical facts; they are, but the facts are loaded with meaning.

The fact that it is not possible to separate the ‘Jesus of history’ from ‘the Christ of faith’ leads Richard Dawkins to comment, ‘The only difference between The Da Vinci Code and the gospels is that the gospels are ancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction’. Wilson’s response is the best put-down of Dawkins I have ever read. He points out that The Da Vinci Code is based on ‘crackpot theories’ concerning secret codes etc. whereas the gospels are not ‘fiction’ in that sense. The gospels’ authors did not write stories they knew to be untrue but used a variety of devices, continuous with those used in the Old Testament, to convey deep theological

and spiritual truths, truths that have inspired some of the most heroic lives, the most stupendous buildings and most glorious works of music and art in the world’s history. He adds, ‘until there is an oratorio of The Da Vinci Code to match Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion, or a Dan Brown Memorial Building to match Canterbury Cathedral, we can continue to go to church without much fear that we are merely believing “fiction”’. Wilson’s book is his reaction and response to the facile reading of the bible engaged in by fundamentalists – both religious and atheistic.

Wilson is particularly eloquent on the role the bible played in bringing an end to racial discrimination in the US. He refers to the fact that the black slaves in America had for generations identified with the slavery of the ancient Hebrews in Egypt and, like them, they looked forward to their own exodus and liberation. Martin Luther King, a considerable scripture scholar in his own right, tapped into this historical identification in his great speeches, so that his audience knew what he was referring to when he said such things as ‘I might not see the promised land’. He comments, ‘King had at his disposal a shared rhetoric, one to which millions of people, steeped in the Book, could respond. The words, when he quoted them, resonated because he was applying them in the way they had always been applied in times when the Spirit gave life’. King’s speeches echoed the rhythms and cadences of black gospel singing as, first, they quietly introduced the theme, then, by means of repetition, interjections and inversion, gradually built up to a glorious and moving climax.

Wilson complements his wide-ranging scholarship by bringing a novelist’s imagination and insight to his understanding of the bible. He is sensitive to the bible as a literary work, seeing the Book of Job as a work of Shakespearean or Sophoclean genius and commenting perceptively on the Psalms. His mixing of gossip, anecdote and sound scholarship makes for a good read. He concludes with an account of Sir Walter Scott on his death bed asking his son-in-law to read to him. The son-in-law, Lockhart, knew that Sir Walter had written a great many books and had also built up a magnificent library, and so he asked – from which book? He replied, ‘Need you ask – there is but one’.

Joe Fitzpatrick

BOOKS


The Bonniest CompanieKathleen Jamie

Picador, 2015.

For about thirty years I have kept a poem folded up in whatever purse I’m using at the time. It has survived numerous transfers and journeys and is creased from those many times when, having forgotten it was there, I’ve taken it out, unfolded it, read again its lucid, simple language, and found myself smiling, exactly as I did when it was first given to me. It is Kathleen Jamie’s ‘The Way We Live’ and I strongly (strongly!) recommend you look it up on your smartphone.

When the deserving and noble Jackie Kay was appointed Makar earlier this year few could have demurred. One hopes, however, that at least some consideration was given to Kathleen who has been producing work of quality since her philosophy student days at Edinburgh University in the 1970s. Indeed it is her words that adorn the monument at Bannockburn, erected in the year of both the independence referendum and the 700th anniversary of a much bloodier resistance.

She wrote persuasively in the same year for the New Statesman about the struggles of an artist with an innate egalitarian instinct who saw independence as something quite distinct from ‘nationalism’. Such nuanced thinking gave voice to the feelings of at least one of her admirers and is indicative of her ability to embrace passionate cultural identity, love of land and country, and inclusive universalism. Her latest volume of poems was born of the same instinct and also took root in the events of 2014. By her own account she decided in the referendum year, as part of her own process of discernment and decision-making, to write a poem a week. The result is The Bonniest Companie.

This is a collection which spans, as

does all of her work, the personal and the political; takes a forensic look at the most contemporary issues and provides lyrical hymns to the past; roots itself in the local and celebrates the global. Here there are poems evoking the clouded memories of childhood in a way that forces very grown-up contemplation. I’m unashamed to say that I’ve read ‘The Stair’ several times for the emotional associations it elicits of running into my granny’s house as she ran into hers:

Nana will you not be there

in the room and kitchen?

Here’s my fingernail, scratching a

peephole to keek through.

It’s the childlike question and the word ‘keek’ that catches you. And she does it again in ‘The Piper’ and ‘World Tree’, meshing the language and phrases of Scottish childhoods with the adult English we acquire, read and, for the most part, speak. The poems too are meshed, forming an intricate netting of these personal evocations with the wonders of nature in the form of bird flight (the ‘migratory’ poems a metaphor for the shifting world), and the immediate little local matter of a nation’s political identity. These themes: social, political and personal, are consistent with her previous volumes of poetry and her collections of essays, ‘Findings’ and ‘Sightlines’, but here they tell the story of the biggest year in recent Scottish collective life and, correspondingly, in that aspect of our individual ones. Each poem is its own work but taken together they form a journal of musings, speculations, hopes, fears, possibilities, and, most compellingly, an understanding of who I/we want to be.

In this month another kind of referendum will bring us to the polls but it is also one in which instincts as well as rational judgements are appealed to. The questions of who we are, where we’ve come from and who we want to be are at least as pertinent now as they were two years ago, though their current frame of reference may feel more alien. For a sense of what to aspire to, as well as a programme for simply ‘managing’ ourselves, politics of all shades has arguably lost some of its mojo.

Jamie recognises

What little I know

of the way of the world

- scarce anything.

and celebrates the mysteries of her own ‘back green’ (that Scots again) in ‘The Garden’, thus flirting with the engagement and disengagement of the modern citizen. Yet she also gives us some of the best words with which to navigate these endless, often circular, arguments. Reminding us that while the commentators and economists give us our homework to do, it’s always worth hearing a poet. The words on the Bannockburn monument sought to inspire a country deciding its future and contemplating its history. They continue to offer insight at a time when some baser, uglier instincts may be finding voice. They are the words of Kathleen Jamie:

‘Come all ye’ the country says.

You win me, who take me most to heart.

Lynn Jolly

POETRY

ReviewersNorman Barry is the pen name of the well known and long time film reviewer for Open House.

Joe Fitzpatrick is a writer and theologian and a retired inspector of schools.

Lynn Jolly is the arts editor of Open House and works with people with learning difficulties in the prison system.

Paul Matheson is an equality and diversity officer with the police.

Rev Dr Norman Shanks is a retired Church of Scotland minister and former leader of the Iona Community.


FILMSFilms from Chile

THE CLUBDirected by Pablo Larraín.

Writers: Guillermo Calderón, Pablo Larraín, Daniel Villalobos.

Stars: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers.

THE 33Directed by Patricia Riggen;

Based on a book by Héctor Tobar.

Stars: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche.

The Club is a group of four priests who have been removed from ministry for interfering with boys. They are looked after by Sister Monica who ensures they say their prayers and observe curfew. They have a pet greyhound which they race to make some money for themselves. This way of life is disturbed one day when the Vicar General delivers a new resident. Suddenly a man appears outside shouting that he has been abused by him. The new member shoots himself.

Fr Garcia, who is also a psychologist, is sent to find out what is going on. He is shocked by their comfortable lifestyle and wants to shut the place down. He tells them they are criminals who should be in jail, including one who has dementia and is incontinent. There is no place in Fr Garcia’s church for people like them.

The film takes the view that celibate clergy are incomplete beings. That is why they abuse minors. It makes two more contentious points. One is that the priests appear aware of their actions and are willing to do penance. They don’t see what going to jail would achieve. The other is the contribution made by the mental health of the offenders. The members of The Club are fantasists who drink. There is the suggestion they are repressed homosexuals.

The value of incarceration is being increasingly questioned. But sex offenders continue to be sent to prison. Some are older men who have not offended for many years. Previously, loss of reputation and income would have been taken into account. Now victim impact is seen as paramount. The question arises as to the importance to the victims of imprisonment for the offenders. Is financial compensation an alternative?Does the Church have a part to play

in the rehabilitation of such

offenders? The effect of abuse on the victims is given dramatic effect in The Club by the central role given to the accuser who has provoked the suicide of the new member. He is given the best room in the house. This is to the evident discomfort of the members. Now they will know at first hand the consequences of their behaviour. Whether this comes under the heading of compensation or not raises an interesting question.

The Club begins with a quotation from the first chapter of Genesis where God separates the light and the darkness. The 33 ends with a message in chalk written on the wall by the last miner to leave the cave where he and his companions had been entombed for 69 days: God saved us.

Everyone knows the incredible story of survival in 2010 by 33 Chilean miners. Not all will be aware that they were trapped for two months more than 2,000 feet below the surface under solid rock at 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Even after food and water was piped down to them nobody had any idea how they might be got out. The Chilean Government eventually had to spend millions as several drills were wrecked before a successful effort assisted by NASA.

The 33 was filmed not far from the event. The dialogue is in English. Josh Brolin plays the part of the foreman and Juliet Binoche one of those waiting at the top. Despite claims about the state of the mine before the accident occurred it is revealed that after the event no mine owner was convicted and, despite their horrendous ordeal, no miner was compensated. This state of affairs will ring a bell with many families in Scotland. It is only 60 years since the last major mine disaster here. Following the outcome of Hillsborough the miners at Orgreave still await vindication after their treatment at the hands of the South Yorkshire police.

Norman Barry


TELEVISIONFrom Dixon of Dock Green to Line of Duty.

When television arrived in our home in the mid-1950s my principal interest was in sporting events; and of course there were many fewer channel options than are available now, even to those of us who do not have access to Sky, BT, Netflix and the like. Among the other programmes we regularly enjoyed, every Saturday evening I seem to recall, was the popular Dixon of Dock Green, which ran on BBC for over 20 years with the central character, played by Jack Warner, described, accurately according to my recollection, by Wikipedia as ‘a mature and sympathetic police constable…. the embodiment of a typical ‘bobby’. [The series was] set in a London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding and contrasted sharply with later programmes such as Z-Cars, which reflected a more aggressive policing culture’. I enjoyed Z-cars immensely too, and also, around that time, within the same sort of crime genre, Perry Mason (with Raymond Burr) and Maigret (with Rupert Davies).

Over the years, for one reason and another, my television-watching has been more sporadic and less regular. I have been aware of surprising people who confessed to being hooked on Taggart and The Bill in the same sort of way one discovers closet aficionados of EastEnders, Neighbours and The Archers. Googling ‘crime series on British TV’ produces a staggering catalogue of over 200 programmes, added to which US series like NYPD Blue, The Wire, and CSI also had a wide and faithful following. It is only in the last few years, however, that I have picked up my interest in crime drama again in the realisation that there is much more available than I can possibly keep up with – even with i-player and recording episodes I miss.

And I’m confining myself to British crime drama, and so excluding spy series (like, among others I have

enjoyed, the much-missed Spooks, Homeland, The Night Manager – wonderful!, and the hard-to-categorise Undercover), as well as some fine ‘Scandinavian noir’ – e.g.The Killing and The Bridge. Among my own favourites these past two or three years have been Broadchurch (with the excellent David Tennant and Olivia Colman), Luther (although it has latterly suffered through the absence of the chilling Alice Morgan owing to Ruth Wilson’s acting commitments), Endeavour (prequel to Morse and even more compelling), and, above all, the much-acclaimed Happy Valley and Line of Duty.

Why are these programmes, often requiring considerable suspension of disbelief and involving significant violence, so compelling? Is it sheer escapism? Certainly the standard of writing and the quality of production and acting tend to be outstanding, and the plots often complex and consistently skilfully wrought. Sometimes it is a relatively straightforward matter of ‘whodunnit’; more often there are several interwoven strands, with false trails, frequent surprise twists, and a degree of dramatic irony involved – so that the viewer may be a step or two ahead of the main protagonists. (Interestingly there was a shift halfway through the recent series of Line of Duty, where the long-concealed villain was revealed and the interest shifted to when and how he would be caught.)

This is certainly a different kind of programme from the standard game shows and so-called ‘reality TV’, but increasingly there is a strong sense of ‘earthy realism’. While some of the stories and situations may strain credulity to the limit, the main characters are no stereotyped or idealised cardboard cut-outs. Particularly where it is a serial, with a continuing plot, rather than a series, with a different story each time, there is an opportunity for the scriptwriter to develop situations that have depth and complexity (much more than a simple black-and-white triumph of good over evil) and to depict characters with a rounded humanity, flaws and foibles alongside problem-solving skills – although sometimes perceptions can be confused by actors turning up in

different contexts: for example, in watching Sarah Lancashire as the central police sergeant in Happy Valley, can we get out of our minds entirely her role in Last Tango in Halifax? Or when we watched Unforgotten, could we help remembering that the always impressive Nicola Walker was, more or less simultaneously, appearing in another crime drama River as well as Last Tango in Halifax? Or, perhaps most confusingly of all, there was Mr Molesley, valet/footman turned teacher, paragon of restraint and virtue in Downton Abbey, appearing in Happy Valley as a detective who goes off the rails.

Thus I wonder (and interestingly one of Paul Mason’s economic columns in The Guardian began to explore this theme) whether the popularity of current crime drama lies to a large extent in how the police are portrayed. Attitudes to authority in society generally tend to be less deferential than was the case in the Dixon of Dock Green era. I was well into my teens, perhaps even twenties, before I realised that the police were not necessarily models of rectitude and probity, and since, among other things, Stephen Lawrence, Rotherham and Hillsborough, we cannot but be aware that police operations may go awry and the individuals concerned are subject to the same pressures and temptations and possessed of the same frailties as the rest of us. So there is a sense in which we can both enjoy the story and identify and sympathise with the characters: it is perhaps taking this a step too far to suggest that there is any comparison with the catharsis classically experienced by an audience watching Greek tragedy, but I sense that there is something going on that is much more complex than simple entertainment. And invariably it is not only the characterisation but also the context that is realistic – not only because much of the filming takes place in the streets and buildings of the city rather than in studio-sets, but also because the course of the story is convincing and its background, most recently child-abuse in Line of Duty, often disturbingly topical.

Norman Shanks


MUSICArvo Pärt, William Byrd: ‘The Deer’s Cry’Performed by The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers (Coro COR16140.

www.thesixteen.com)

Every year from April to October the choral music ensemble The Sixteen goes on a Choral Pilgrimage around the cathedrals and churches of the United Kingdom, performing sacred polyphonic music with their characteristic richness of sound and technical mastery. Each year they tour a concert with a particular theme. This year, for their 16th Choral Pilgrimage, The Sixteen’s programme contrasts the music of two Christian composers who lived in a time of religious intolerance, and whose music offers spiritual consolation in the face of persecution. Their works complement each other beautifully. William Byrd and Arvo Pärt were born four centuries apart at the opposite ends of Europe. At a time when the UK is debating its role in Europe and discussing how to deal with disagreement and diversity, it is salutary to listen to the music of men who experienced the persecution of their religious faith by the in-or-out totalitarian ideologies of their time.

William Byrd (1539-1623) worked as a composer in the court of Elizabeth I, the Queen of a Reformation England in which Protestant worship was a mandatory requirement of all its citizens. Byrd, whose job was to compose music for the new Church of England, remained a covert Roman Catholic, attended Mass in secret, and was repeatedly fined for non-attendance at Anglican worship. His music is full of references and signposts to his abiding devotion to the Old Faith. This Choral Pilgrimage programme presents six of Byrd’s works from his Cantiones Sacrae, Latin motets that identified him as a Catholic in a country whose state religion was Protestant. Byrd’s emotive

and powerful eight-voice motet of Psalm 119 Ad Dominum cum tribularer is as relevant to post-war Soviet Estonia as it is to Elizabethan England: ‘Long has my soul dwelt among them. With those who hate peace, I was a peacemaker. I spoke of peace, and they called out for war’.Byrd’s serene Diliges Dominum sets

to music Jesus’s words from Matthew 22: 35-40: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’. This motet has a Psalm-like effect. It exhorts the listener to endure the time of trial by placing trust in God’s higher purpose, loving one’s neighbour, and continuing to look for God’s will at work in the universe.Arvo Pärt (born 1935) grew up in

Russian-controlled communist Estonia, and he struggled with feelings of political, aesthetic and spiritual alienation. This culminated in a period of artistic and personal crisis that saw him abandon the dissonant modernism of his early musical compositions. During an eight-year period of transformative creative retreat, Pärt studied Gregorian chant and European renaissance polyphony, and he spiritually explored the Russian Orthodox faith. He emerged from his retreat with a compositional style of music for which he is now famous: the so-called ‘tintinnabuli’ music of the ‘little bells’. The three compositions by Arvo Pärt on this disc exhibit his distinctive blending of ancient and modern. Pärt once said that what he wants his music to express is ‘love for every note’, and in so doing, to use music as the vehicle of

spiritual affirmation.Pärt’s setting of The Woman with the

Alabaster Box is like a tiny cameo oratorio that goes straight to the heart of Communism’s materialistic critique of Christianity: ‘They had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.’ Pärt uses ethereal harmonies and ‘tintinnabulation’ to great effect in his sonorous, surprising, reverberant musical portrait of Jesus and the words that Jesus spoke.

Pärt’s setting of Saint Patrick’s incantation The Deer’s Cry (‘Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left…’) begins with an incremental simplicity, a gradual elaboration and interweaving of words and voices, building to an epiphany, a crescendo of spiritual intensity that spills into the music with the words ‘Christ in the heart of every man’. And in the moment of that musical epiphany, we share Saint Patrick’s and Arvo Pärt’s vision of a universe in which every atom carries the signature of God.

For both Byrd and Pärt it must at times have seemed as if the hostile powers they faced were insuperable, and it would have been easy to succumb to despair. And yet their deep faith has borne fruit. The celebration of mystery and the contemplation of the spiritual have returned to the lands of the Eastern Bloc and the former Soviet Union. And here in Britain, the descendents of the Protestant Reformation have turned their backs on iconoclasm. Stained-glass windows have reappeared in churches seized in the sixteenth century from the Roman Catholic Church. Long-vanished Lady Chapels are mourned or resurrected. And the cautious removal of puritan whitewash has revealed renaissance visions of wonder.

The Choral Pilgrimage 2016 programme of Arvo Pärt and William Byrd will visit Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh on 18 June 2016.

Paul Matheson


OBITUARY Remembering Daniel Berrigan SJMay 9, 1921 - April 30, 2016.

A former publisher of Open House and former secretary of the Catholic Renewal Movement in Scotland recalls Daniel Berrigan’s visit to Glasgow in 1974.

Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit priest, writer and peace activist, who led opposition to the Vietnam War, died in a Jesuit community on 30th April 2016 aged 94. His protests helped shaped opposition to the Vietnam War. He was a loyal member of the Jesuits till the end of his life.

He became a household name in the US in the 1960s because he was imprisoned for burning call-up papers in a protest against the war in Vietnam. Dan Berrigan and his younger brother Philip were leaders of the radical anti-war movement in the 1960s. They entered a draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, on 17th May1968, with seven other activists, took out call-up papers for young men about to be called up for Vietnam, and burned them outside the Draft Board offices.

The Catonsville Nine, as they came to be known, were convicted of destroying US property and interfering with the laws of Call-Up for soldiers. The Berrigans were sentenced to imprisonment of over two years along with the rest of the protestors. Berrigan wrote about the courtroom experience in 1970 in a one-act play, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine which became a film.

Long after Catonsville, the brothers continued to be active in the peace movement and began the Plowshares Movement, an anti-nuclear weapons campaign in 1980. Both were arrested in 1980 after entering a General Electric nuclear missile facility in Pennsylvania where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones.

Daniel Berrigan came to Glasgow in 1974 in response to an invitation from the Catholic Renewal Movement. It was formed in Glasgow as a response to the Second Vatican Council, just as Catholics

in Dundee area founded Open House. In Glasgow it was agreed to arrange for leading scholars to come to Scotland to discuss what was to be done in the light of Vatican II. The Renewal Movement was not happy with the thoughts about the post Vatican II Church coming from the Scottish Bishops.

From 4th December 1968 until October 1976, international speakers who addressed meetings in Glasgow included Norman St John Stevas; Professor Bernard Haring, who addressed three meetings over three years; Professor Louis Bouyer; Professor Ian Donald; David Steel MP; Professor Hans Kung, who also came over three years; John L McKenzie SJ; Professor Karl Rahner SJ; Bishop Butler; Professor Edward Schillebeeckx; Professor Enda McDonagh, who addressed three meetings; Professor Willy Barclay; and Professor Gregory Baum. The Renewal Movement arranged from Glasgow for all of the above speakers to lecture in other cities in UK.

Dan Berrigan came to Glasgow on 17th February 1974 at the invitation of the Renewal Movement and addressed a packed audience in the McLellan Galleries on ‘Christians, War and the

State’. He answered questions from a panel consisting of Rev J Balls, Convener of the Church and Nation Committee of the Church of Scotland, Alastair Warren, Editor of the Glasgow Herald, and Robert Kernohan, Conservative Politician and Editor of Life and Work. This was followed by questions from the audience.

Berrigan’s lecture was a detailed account of his reasons for breaking the laws of USA in burning call-up papers. He also described his work in other countries to promote peace. He pointed out that there was no word in the New Testament for ‘pacifist ‘. Later in the week he appeared on STV to defend his views. The full meeting was recorded by the BBC and later broadcast on Radio Scotland. The Committee of Renewal Movement

who were involved in running the Berrigan meeting in Glasgow in February 1974 included Dr Tom Taylor, Jenny Brown Wormwold, Bernard Aspinwall, Irene Armstrong and Yvonne O’Brien.Recordings of Daniel Berrigan in Glasgow can be obtained from [email protected]

James Armstrong

Daniel Berrigan in Glasgow 1974 with James Armstrong.


Moments in timeThis is my first Contemplative Walk, whereby a small group walk in silence and alone for an hour or so, then

meet afterwards for coffee to discuss how God may have revealed Himself to us. We are walking along part of the West Highland Way, along the banks of the Allander Water, just over the boundary into Stirlingshire. It is a glorious Spring day with sunshine and a few white clouds floating in the blue sky. A garden warbler is singing from some trees, hidden from view, as we set out. The path winds past some woods, gleaming with the fresh leaves of the beech trees. In contrast, the ash trees are only just coming into leaf, the last of the trees to gain their foliage.We pass a small marsh with the

cheerful yellow clumps of marsh marigolds. A grassy hill comes into view, covered with scattered birches; a buzzard is circling over the summit. On our left, a dark fir plantation borders the path, then some more colourful oak trees, with bluebells in flower underneath. We cross the Allander on a stone bridge, the clear waters glistening in the sun.

Now there is a long water-filled ditch alongside the track, suddenly I see a movement, then another; these are sticklebacks darting to and fro, sometimes hiding in the mud. The countryside opens out with

views ahead to the Campsie Fells and the distinctive shape of Dumgoyne. On our left are the eastern flanks of the Kilpatrick Hills, which stretch to the Clyde and are generally unfrequented. In contrast, the West Highland Way is a busy place, with cyclists, runners, dog-walkers and long distance walkers setting off on their trek to Fort William, nearly a hundred miles away. All are enjoying the beautiful Spring weather but it is the West Highland Way walkers who strike me most with their eager sense of anticipation on the first day of their adventure. We turn back when we reach the

still waters of Craigallion Loch, cradled by low, wooded hills. Then we hear the call of that most amazing the bird, the cuckoo; far more often heard than seen, which one of our group later described as reminding her of God’s call to us.

Tim RheadTim Rhead is a pastoral assistant in the Episcopal Church.

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