Alpha’s Roman embrace

Alpha’s Roman embrace

For a long time dismissed by Catholics as a supper club for creepy Barbour-clad fundamentalists, Alpha is now well on the way to being embraced by the global Church. It was no accident, as Andrew Atherstone explains. Its presiding genius, Anglican vicar Nicky Gumbel, needed to work with the Catholic Church if he was to achieve his ambitious goals, and through years of patient advocacy and the careful nuancing of the theology of its materials, to an astonishing extent Alpha has succeeded in overcoming Roman resistance. Also in the magazine this week, after years of discussions, hundreds of thousands of submissions, two major assemblies, dozens of motions, amendments and votes, and a near walk-out, the plenary council process has ended with the Church in Australia pointing in a very different direction. Christopher Lamb was in Sydney to witness the local church embarking on a new era. And in the second of two reflections for a time when the world is riven by conflict, hurt and anguish, Timothy Radcliffe invites us to let go of the burden of the past and to rejoice in forgiveness. 

In our two leading articles this week, we warn of the dangers of a UK withdrawal from the European Court of Human Rights – an essential safeguard at a time when we have a government that has shown a willingness to cut corners when constitutional conventions stand in its way – and we weigh the details of a more grievous threat to US democracy that is emerging and which could conclude in “the ultimate American nightmare”. 

There are seven pages of news stories from our correspondents in Britain, Ireland and across the world in the print edition this week as usual, and updates and new stories are added to our website several times a day. Back from his adventures down under, Christopher Lamb reports that Pope Francis has taken another step in his efforts to clean up Vatican finances by placing all the Church’s investments under the control of a special committee that will ensure strict protocols in line with Catholic teaching are followed. James Roberts previews the Pope’s penitential visit to Canada, honouring the promise he made earlier this year that he would apologise in person for the part played by the Catholic Church in the suffering visited on Indigenous and First Nation children and their families through the residential school system. Jonathan Luxmoore and Christa Pongratz-Lippitt report that the leader of Ukraine’s Latin-rite Catholics has warned that it would be a “disaster” if Pope Francis was to visit Moscow before coming to Kyiv: “We must devote ourselves to the victim first and only then to the perpetrator”. Michael Sean Winters writes that a prominent US Archbishop, Joseph Naumann of Kansas, has criticised Pope Francis, who does not share his view that Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should be denied communion. Patrick Hudson reports that Pope John Paul I, who served just 33 days as pontiff, is to be beatified on 4 September. Christopher Lamb reflects in View from Rome that Pope Francis’ appointment of three women to the dicastery responsible for advising him on who should be made a bishop is “a potential game changer”. 

Ruth Gledhill writes that the bishops of England and Wales acknowledged the “devastating impact of clerical sexual abuse on survivors and within the wider Church” in their reflection on the document that synthesises the results of the synodal conversations that took place in parishes earlier this year; they also confirmed that “the voices of those who feel marginalised or unwelcome because of their marital situation, sexual orientation or gender identity” have been heard and will not be forgotten. An independent report into the handling of the case of Joseph Quigley, an abuser priest, paints a picture of the archdiocese of Birmingham as more interested in the abuser than in his victims. Ruth Gledhill reports that Richard Scorer, a lawyer who has acted for several survivors of abuse, has described the report as “utterly damning” and argues that safeguarding systems in the archdiocese were “shambolic and wholly inadequate”. As Catherine Pepinster writes in a feature article this week, the report will make uncomfortable reading for the present Archbishop, Bernard Longley – who tells The Tablet that the culture today is very different to that in the past – and for his predecessor, Vincent Nichols, now the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Ruth Gledhill reports that Cardinal Nichols, a leading campaigner against human slavery, has saluted the courage of Sir Mo Farah, who has revealed that he was trafficked into the UK as a child. The sharp decline in the numbers of priests in Ireland means that lay people will increasingly be leading prayers at funerals and preparing children for the sacraments in the diocese of Limerick, according to Bishop Brendan Leahy, writes Sarah Mac Donald. 

Last night our summer webinar series introducing some of the main traditions of Christian spirituality reached its third round with Alban McCoy reflecting on what his experience as a Franciscan has taught him about holiness. In weeks to come, Mark Barrett, Susan Francois and Imelda Poole will be talking about the spirituality of the Benedictines, the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace and of Mary Ward. To book tickets for any of these events, click here.

Of Pius XII’s wartime record, recollections, as they say, differ, but David Kertzer is the critic with the greatest mastery of the archival records, and his assessment of the pope’s silence in his latest book, reviewed by Hilmar Pabel, as a “moral failure” is difficult to contest. Elsewhere in Books, Madoc Cairns marvels at the complexity of The Elizabethan Mind by Helen Hackett, a study of early modern ideas about the interior life; Marcus Tanner delights in three howls from the heart from William Leith, Charlotte Raven and Julie Myerson; Hilary Davies relishes the salty spirituality of fellow poet John F. Deane’s latest collection, Naming of the Bones; and Morag MacInnes enjoys our novel of the week, Sadie Jones’ gently satirical take on middle-class townies’ floundering attempts to live the Good Life, Amy and Lan.  

In Arts, Laura Gascoigne is fascinated by an exhibition of work by artists with a history of mental illness, including Charlotte Wahl Johnson, the late mother of Boris, who had a “caricaturist’s eye for summarising a physical presence combined with a painter’s psychological depth”. Isabelle Grey is disappointed by the “frustratingly glossy veneer” of the coming-of-age melodrama set among the wilderness of North Carolina, Where The Crawdads Sing. Arts editor Joanna Moorhead was at a joyful and reverential First Night of the Proms. And it’s Mark Lawson’s turn to give his verdict on the production of The Seagull starring Emilia Clarke that has sharply divided critics: “refreshing and revelatory” – at least for audiences who are not new to Chekhov. 

Christopher Howse suggests you sell your car and buy a handwritten letter by the “sometimes mad but ultimately loveable” poet Christopher Smart. £8,500, but it's one of only 16 in his hand to survive. “I haven’t made the effort myself”, Howse admits. “What would I do with it?” In Letters there are memories of the Biafran civil war, sharp exchanges about the synodal process, and prayers for a new prime minister who will have kindness and integrity. The new PM won’t, though, be Penny Mordaunt, whose Irish Catholic ancestry we sketch in Word from the Cloisters. The feast of St Martha next week now includes the commemoration of her siblings, Mary and Lazarus. What sort of a stab at it did Lazarus make, Paul Jarvis wonders in his poem, after Jesus gave him a “second gift of life”? Adrian Chiles remembers the time a teacher asked him if he minded playing football against a girl – “Come on, sir, just blow your whistle and let’s crack on” – and, finally, Jonathan Tulloch hears the oystercatchers’ piping “kleep, kleep” as they fly overhead lugging worms back to their chicks. 

I hope you enjoy this week’s Tablet.

Brendan

Brendan Walsh
Editor of The Tablet