Letters to the editor

Topic of the week

We are a small group of Catholics from a remote parish in north Norfolk. We have been meeting each week for almost five years to reflect on the scripture readings for the forthcoming Sunday, as well as sharing aspects of our lives and faith with one another. We write to express our extreme disappointment and exasperation at the authorisation by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales of the replacement of the current lectionary (in use in our churches since 1969) and the consequent prodigality and waste.

We hear that the reasoning behind this action is to “improve translation”. No translation is perfect. Nuance and emphasis will always be subtly affected when shifting from one linguistic tradition to another, whether from Aramaic, from Greek, from Latin, even from different articulations of the English language. 

We will never on this earth and in this life fully comprehend the depth and breadth of Scripture. Revelation will only be complete after Resurrection. At a time when so many are experiencing real hardship, we are baffled and angry that the CBCEW has sanctioned such waste on our behalf. The millions of pounds this has already cost and will in the future could have been so much better expended in meaningful action to spread the Gospel, such as support for catechists in parishes to encourage future vocations, or for Caritas and Cafod. 

This profligacy has been and will be funded by ordinary Catholic parishioners through their regular donations to their parish. It is shameful that they were not consulted. It also flies in the face of the concept of synodality.

Judi Agnew, Judith James, Steve James, Gerard Mildinhall, Naomi Perowne, Shaun Wills and others, Thorpe Market, Norfolk

I am an elderly priest, 86, whose one passion is to open up the Word of God. I was very distressed when we, the Church in England and Wales, were told that we were to have imposed upon us a more literal, and therefore less readable, translation of God’s Word. Contrast this with the more synodal approach of the Irish bishops, who consulted far and wide over which translation should replace the Jerusalem Bible. 

I see no reason for any such replacement, but the Revised New Jerusalem Bible was declared the better option by the Irish Church and, from what I read, by the leading scripture teachers in our own country.

The final document of the Synod on Synodality, just published, emphasises a synodal approach to all major decisions (The final document, 2 November). Given the blatant failure of our bishops over the most important matter of all – the text we use to proclaim the Word of God – will the bishops now rescind their decision to impose the ESV translation? 

Instead, will they act in a synodal way and authorise options like keeping the Jerusalem Bible or using the RNJB?

(FR) Peter Morgan Parish priest, St Anne and St Bernard, Liverpool

A womans place

The argument about the admission of women to the diaconate/priesthood is perhaps a bit premature (Letters, 2 November). Maybe we should first go deeper to investigate the underlying assumption of an unchanging patriarchy enshrined in custom and canon law. 

This would entail an examination of the distinction between laity and clergy, and the power differential based on claims to an ontological difference between the two. In the gospels Jesus tells us to call no one father or teacher except God, and the wisdom of this is sadly illustrated by our experience of the arrogance (at best) and abuse (at worst) displayed by some members of the clergy, in spite of the very many dedicated and holy priests working within the Church.

Until we can develop a concept of priesthood that accepts as a starting point the inalienable dignity of all human beings – regardless of gender, age, creed or any other marker – any talk about roles within the Church, and more specifically about women’s roles, will be so much empty theorising. 

Worse still, we will be left with the underlying unapologetic misogyny that is driving so many women from the Church. 

Andrea Kelly, London N1 

Austen Ivereigh reports from the Synod (“The Church at a turning point”, 2 November) that whilst study group five continues investigating whether women can be ordained to the diaconate, “the more important and urgent task was to empower women in the Church … not only was this the important and urgent need … this was also about women’s place generally in the Church”. 

So, I’m angry that any women’s voices about the Synod are left to half a page at the back of The Tablet on page 28 (“McAleese claims nothing has shifted”). The men, however, are privileged with pages 5-10 for their reflections. What is The Tablet demonstrating about the place of women in the church? 

Caroline Worsfold, Stockton-on-tees, co. Durham

There are two types of “difficult questions”. The first are inherently difficult; the second, such as ”should we ordain women?”, are hard only because human-made assumptions make them difficult. Recognising the difference would transform the synodal debate.

John and Margaret Crossman, Sherborne, Dorset

Now that the Synod has concluded it seems that the only noteworthy conclusion is the refusal to ordain women to any ministerial role. Meanwhile, there is an expressed desire to widen our ministry.  

May I suggest an interim solution? Why not create a number of female cardinals? After all, no ministerial ordination is necessary for this influential role.

(DR) JACQUELINE FIELD-BIBB, LONDON N21.

Prior Park’s path 

Your report on Prior Park (“Bishop dismayed by school separating from Church”, 26 October) and the concerns raised by John Shinkwin’s letter in that edition raise important questions about how Catholic schools are to remain faithful to their mission and purpose.

Whilst I can appreciate the anger and concern raised by Dr Giles Mercer and the questions that relate to the legality of the actions taken by the trustees and the headmaster, it may perhaps be better for us to listen more carefully to the reasons why the school has felt it necessary to take this action.

All those involved in Catholic education, its inspection and its future provision should reflect and ask: does our own resistance to change, and the temptation to let our own ideas prevail over listening to the Gospel and our practice of discernment, prevent us from engaging together on a synodal path of spiritual renewal and structural reform that might better enable the Church and its schools to be more participatory and missionary, so it can walk with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ?

Raymond Friel, giving his Tablet lecture on Catholic education last month, called on the need for headteachers to be formed as “practical theologians”, as if missionaries in a brave new world. I salute Ben Horan, the headmaster of Prior Park, as he seeks to navigate his path for the benefit of his school family, and pray we have the courage and commitment and patience to walk beside him with a little more trust. 

Chris Beirne, Former CEO & headmaster (2006-2023), Beaulieu School, Jersey, channel islands

Assisted ‘suicide’

I hope I can sincerely regard myself as a committed advocate for the sanctity of life. Yet I am troubled by the tone and tactics associated with our efforts at persuading others to see the merits of this cause.

The steady decline in church attendance shows no sign of abating and the reasons given by many suggest a deepening alienation from a Church, tainted by clerical abuse, adopting a relentlessly moralising tone in the face of lived (not theoretical) issues of gender, sexuality, and now the dread of pain and the loss of personal agency as death approaches.

As those entrusted with the administration of sacramental grace and the pastoral care of souls, priests such as I would do well to consider: are we trusted by women, are we trusted by the young, are we trusted by those with a same-sex attraction, or living with a transgender “conundrum” (Jan Morris). 

And now, by deliberately raising the spectre of “suicide”, are we going to be trusted by those fearfully or anxiously approaching the end of life?

(FR) Peter C. Montgomery, Warrington, cheshire

Leading astray

I turn to your leader page eagerly every week and am invariably stimulated by its engrossing content. Recently, however, I have found myself annoyed by what seems to be a marked lack of “Catholicism” in the subject matter.

There is of course an abstract element of religion in almost any subject, but recent issues seem to smack more of The Observer than of a Catholic weekly. “Death of a pop star” (26 October) typified this for me. Perhaps the shadow of the Synod hangs over us in different ways.

John Cotman, Melton Mowbray, leicestershire

Debt to recusants

Am I the only reader who found the comments made by Professor Francis Davis (Letters 26 October) on the elevation of Father Timothy Radcliffe OP to the College of Cardinals mean-spirited? Fr Radcliffe has devoted his life to the service of God and has inspired thousands through his preaching and writing. Professor Davis makes a sarcastic reference to Radcliffe’s family as a “recusant aristocratic line”. So what? “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John: 14.2). There may even be room for university professors. 

And without the recusant Catholics of the sixteenth century we might not have a Tablet to read today.

Patrick Marnham, Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Not a fight

The headline to Elena Curti’s report (“Parishioners win fight”, 26 October) undermines the trust of the Catholic community in journalism. The Archdiocese of Liverpool entered a period of consultation which involved local meetings, individual listening opportunities, email and postal responses.

In the light of the listening a decision has been reached. It is a victory for a synodal church and for a listening archbishop. It is not a fight.

(Mgr) Philip Inch, Episcopal vicar for synodal implementation, Archdiocese of Liverpool.

In-Howse genius

The art of the put-down is in safe hands with Christopher Howse, nowhere more stinging than “…exuded dashing superiority undermined by his general ignorance” (19 October). Lucky us, genius generously shared every fortnight in The Tablet.

Judith Brown, Middlesbrough 

Last words

Seeing reference to Timothy Radcliffe’s “Seven Last Words” (Letters, 2 November) recalled a discussion I had with a Methodist minister when we were talking about the difficulty of trying to move a congregation forward. 

She said that rather too often she was met with the words, “We have always done it this way”. Those, she said, are the seven last words of a dying church.

Chris Kelly, Gatley, Greater Manchester