From the editor’s desk

A year of abundant promise

Bernard Longley’s enthronement as Archbishop of Birmingham in St Chad’s Cathedral in that city on Tuesday, marks the start of a liturgical year that could prove momentous. His appointment, coming so soon after that of Archbishop Vincent Nichols to Westminster, marks the arrival at the top of what might be called the Vatican II generation – men whose formation years were entirely spent after the council. Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark is of that background too, but his ministry was dogged by ill health and sadly he had to announce his resignation last week. So this is a year not only with two new and energetic archbishops at the helm, probably soon to be followed by a third, but of a keenly anticipated papal visit – not least because Benedict XVI has proved a pope full of surprises. And it is the year of Cardinal Newman’s beatification, a ceremony likely – an almost unique honour – to be presided over by the Pope himself.

Newman famously spoke of a “second spring” for Catholic Christianity in Britain, resulting from the re-establishment in 1850 of the Catholic hierarchy for England and Wales. It would be tempting fate to apply the Second Spring description to the opportunities that the Catholic Church faces in the coming year, but there are many portents suggesting it has considerable capacity to raise its game if the spirit is willing. But of course the flesh is weak, as ever, and the history of the Church is littered with missed chances.

To avoid such mistakes will require a clear strategic sense of where the Church stands in relation to the nation. It has emerged from the ghetto, but not enough. It is no longer exclusively preoccupied with protecting Catholic interests, but has yet to see itself as a Church for the whole nation as the Church of England does. When it tries to influence public policy it often succeeds, sometimes to its own surprise, but each example seems to require a special effort rather than arising routinely out of an ongoing national ministry.

Catholics are not demanding that their bishops sit in the House of Lords, but if they did they would have daily contact with a wider policy agenda than they are used to. And they would have to acquire a more sophisticated and subtle understanding of what drives the forces of secularism in British society. It is not a monolithic enemy; it is the repository of many people’s highest ideals. This is no time for pulling up the drawbridge to defend a fortress Church, but for greater engagement in all aspects of the life of the nation, particularly with those with whom it disagrees.

Evangelisation means joining the debate on housing policy, the crisis in the economy, the war in Afghanistan and the shape of family life, all of which lend themselves to a distinctively Catholic – and at times counter-cultural – contribution. It may be objected that a penny-pinched bishops’ conference executive does not have the resources to extend its role, but The Tablet’s three series of interviews, called Faith in Action, with Catholics in key positions in public life, have shown that the Church is richly endowed with a talented laity. It has not yet discovered how to make best use of them. But there will be no Second Spring of any sort without them.