Topic of the Week

Margaret Hebblethwaite, in her superb article about Walsingham (“Truly our sister”, 21 September), kindly quotes me. May I reinforce what she says about breaking free from the idea that Mary is “docile, meek and mild”? 

Looking for the Magnificat in Walsingham she found but one painting of the Visitation, behind a candlestick on Ninian Comper’s fine reredos in the Anglican Holy House. But above the altar and in the Slipper Chapel the Magnificat is inescapable. The image of Our Lady of Walsingham is not the lowly maid of Nazareth, but a powerful woman.

The Walsingham ballad calls her an empress, and the iconography follows the fifth-century mosaic in St Mary Major’s where she is a Byzantine empress, the mightiest woman in the kingdom. Medieval devotions used in Walsingham also reflect this in the Salve Regina and the prayer of St Bernard, for example.

Mary (and we) are badly served by translations of the Magnificat. Elderly Anglicans and young cathedral-goers will remember singing at Evensong: “My soul doth magnify the Lord … for he that is mighty hath magnified me.” It is one of Luke’s parallelisms. Mary has magnified God and God has consequently magnified her.

As Adrian Graffy has pointed out, translations derived from the RSV have had rough handling, with some Evangelical Christians accusing translators of being proponents of social justice and communism.

The Catholic version of the ESV has happily restored “My soul magnifies the Lord”. But not Luke’s couplet. That remains, “He who is mighty has done great things for me”, for magnifying Mary would be a step too far, unfortunately.

Mary brings the Old Testament prophets’ calls for justice and reversal into the New, and this is part of the catechesis at Walsingham. As Margaret says: “It would be marvellous if those who are more inspired by a prophetic woman than by a submissive one could find Walsingham.”

As well, we might add, as those described by Pope Benedict XVI as “religious tourists”, perhaps walking the new camino routes. 

To meet this kind of need, the Catholic shrine did in fact employ an evangelist for a time, as Rome requests shrines do, but as Margaret recognises, resources are limited and the number of those coming could not justify it. With the help of Margaret and others, they may come in greater numbers – and then I’m sure that with ecumenical endeavour, Walsingham will be ready to meet them.

(Fr) Michael Rear

Walsingham, Norfolk

Prior Park change

l You report on Prior Park College distancing itself from the Catholic Church (“Catholic school sidelines Catholicism”, 19 October).

The college asserts on its website that: “This is not a decision which was reached in weeks or months, it has been considered and debated extensively over half a decade.” This is not true. During my 12 years as a trustee, the board never once discussed cutting ties with the Catholic Church. 

A proposal to change the faith description to “Christian school in the Catholic tradition”, with no mention of dissociating the college from the Catholic Church, was debated and rejected in 2022. 

It can only be concluded that the decision is a response to the 2024 “Requires Improvement” Catholic schools inspection report, which has provided an opportunity for those in leadership and governance who wanted to drive their own agenda towards separation from the Catholic Church.

John Shinkwin

Trustee of Prior Park Schools (2011–23), Chair (2021-23)

Reading, Berkshire

How to die well

l I read with interest your editorial and article on assisted dying (“A life or death question”, 12 October). Catholics have a fundamental responsibility to be guided by the Mosaic law, “Thou shalt not kill”. And sadly, as we have already experienced in the abortion debate, if we disobey the Maker’s instructions, there are unforeseen and untoward consequences.

I propose that when an individual is given a life-limiting diagnosis, everyone is supported in their dying process with optimised care that focuses on quality of life, symptom control, and patient choice in terms of place of care and place of death, within the context of family and those who are important. This is palliative care. It enables individuals to die well. There is no need or justification to terminate a life.

We are all created in the image of a loving God who will support us in our dying and would not condone the hastening of our demise, which is His alone to determine.

Tina Quinn

PALLIATIVE CARE NURSE, Lyndhurst, Hampshire

l The current situation is a stark lack of hospice beds and palliative care services due to shortage of funding. The Catholic Church, together with other faith groups, should start a project to build and create new hospices and palliative services in the UK.

Siobhan Bryant

Twickenham, Middlesex

l The “Brompton Cocktail” (Letters, 19 October) was a mixture of an opioid (morphine or diamorphine) with cocaine and gin, whisky or other alcohol. Its exact formulation varied.

Research nearly 50 years ago showed that both cocaine and alcohol were prone to cause sedation, confusion and hallucinations. What was required for pain relief was just the opioid. As a result, the Brompton Cocktail has not been used in palliative care for decades.

Studies have shown that an opioid whose dose is adjusted according to the responses of the particular patient and their pain can provide comfort without shortening life – whatever the difficulty some people (including some doctors) have in believing it. 

(Dr) Nigel Sykes FRCP

Retired consultant in palliative medicine,

Beckenham, Kent

l Proponents of the assisted dying bill are vocal in emphasising the safeguards that would be in place under a new law. But there is one person missing from the proposed “safeguards” – the priest or chaplain.

All too often there are unresolved spiritual issues which require sensitive pastoral counselling. The dying patient can be given solace to face their suffering in the comfort of a loving God who is close to them, and so giving them hope at a time when their life might be considered untenable.

Ben Bano

Chair, National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum

Deal, Kent

Abuse out loud

l I read your article on abuse within the Church with interest (“An ecclesial trauma”, 12 October). The idea of “finding ways – as a synodal Church – of maintaining the health of the ecclesial body in the face of the trauma brought about by the crisis” chimes with my own experience.

In our Diocese of Argyll and the Isles, we held a LOUDfence event in Oban in July. The overwhelming response from people, many of whom were tourists from around the world, was gratitude that we were speaking about it. 

We called out abuse wherever it occurs – in churches, schools, families and sports clubs. We spoke up for victims/survivors of abuse everywhere and said how wrong it was. Our message was received very positively and many people stopped to discuss the problems in their various countries.

In the last few years, while doing safeguarding training with groups of volunteers, I always began by acknowledging that there may be victim/survivors in this room and that, as Catholics, we are all survivors of the abuse within the Church. People understood this and appreciated it being brought into the open.

I think that the more upfront, open and honest we can be about the failure of our Church in the sexual abuse crisis, the more people will retain their faith in God and the Eucharist while continuing to ask pertinent questions of our leaders.

Liz Chaplin

Diocesan safeguarding adviser, Argyll and the Isles

Oban, Argyll

New cardinals

l While I’m pleased that the Radcliffe family has been able to add another prelate’s title to their recusant aristocratic line (“The listening cardinal”, 19 October), Pope Francis’s recent appointments beyond little England are what truly matters.

Klaus Krämer’s elevation at Rottenberg-Stuttgart is electrifying. With deep experience of the global Church, his 1.4 million Catholics will have much to teach. Similarly, the award at a very young age to Côte d’Ivoire’s Ignace Bessi Dogbo of a red cardinal’s hat reminds us of the future. There are, after all, as many Catholics in the Democratic Republic of Congo as there are people in Britain.

Over the next 24 months it looks already as though Zambia’s bishops may become crucial brokers of democracy. This is the heavy lifting of Christianity today.

So, all honour to Cardinal Radcliffe – but greater honour still to those who’ll lead over the coming decade, complex as it will be.

(Prof.) Francis Davis

Southampton

US election

l Professor Walker (“Between a rock and a hard place”, 19 October) maintains that, as a Catholic, her vote in the US presidential election should further the dignity of the human person and advance the common good – and refuses to vote for either candidate.

She justifiably rejects Donald Trump for his lies, hatred, and lack of respect for democracy and the rule of law; while admitting that, despite her position on abortion, she regards Kamala Harris as a competent candidate for the presidency.

Given that abortion is by no means the most dangerous affront to human dignity and the common good at stake in the election, and that Harris’s victory is not a certainty, I do not understand why a professor of political science should deny her that fraction of support that might help secure her election.

James Bryant

Southampton

Unscripted defence

l It was disturbing to read the letter from Father Joe McVeigh (5 October) criticising Bishop Cullinan for hosting Catholic Unscripted, which Fr McVeigh describes as a right-wing weird group hostile to Pope Francis.

I would describe Katherine Bennett, Gavin Ashenden and Mark Lambert, who present Catholic Unscripted, as traditional Catholics who believe in the teaching on the Mass and the Real Presence. I wouldn’t say that makes them weird. They speak out against abortion, assisted dying and trans treatments. Is that right-wing now?

Patricia Buss Godfrey

Chislehurst, Kent

Liberation author

l I’m delighted Liz Dodd has discovered liberation theology (“I was the same age as this protester …”, 12 October), and especially Juan Luis Segundo, the Uruguayan Jesuit theologian, probably liberation theology’s most prolific author. My main sadness is that Segundo’s works remain comparatively unknown and are difficult to track down.

I very much look forward to Liz’s Dodd’s forthcoming book in the hope that Juan Luis will become more widely known by a new generation.

Roger Riddell

Tingewick,

Buckinghamshire