Listen to the Cardinal's full interview with Christopher Lamb on our podcast.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols says the Church will emerge stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic by giving Catholics time to dig deeper into their personal faith alongside a renewed appreciation of the sacraments.
Speaking to The Tablet, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster urged believers to use the lockdown period to develop their prayer life and that this “testing time” was a moment for society to sift the essential from the peripheral.
“In a strange way we will be a stronger Church for this experience,” the cardinal explained.
“If you think about the millions of people around the world who are for long periods deprived of sacraments – it might be because of violence it might be because of persecution it might be because of the remoteness of where they live – they live a Eucharistic fast; a sacramental fast.
"When the sacraments become available to them it’s such a joy and I think we will experience that when we can gather again. There will be a joy in being visibly again the body of Christ.”
He added: “What unites a parish is never that everybody knows each other and that they all agree and that they are all content together what unites a parish is the mystery of Christ and now we have to learn that in a new way.”
The cardinal said the Church was “digging deeper into our traditions” by finding ways to keep the flame of faith alive in households and families: this includes an “active spiritual communion” and a personal act of contrition for the forgiveness of sins. He added that it was “amazing how positively people are responding” to online Masses and live-streamed liturgies.
“When I was young priest there was a chap in the sixth form college where I went to work and he said ‘don’t you worry father, the faith is in good hands: it’s in the hands of the laity’, and that was a lesson that I learned as a young priest,” Cardinal Nichols explained. “There is a treasure and depth of faith that is born of living the faith and not just its ministry. We will rely on that and we always have done.”
The cardinal is offering ways to read the crisis through the lens of the Easter story and has published a new book, “The Glory of the Cross: A journey through Holy Week and Easter”, written before the crisis.
“The death of Christ shows us even the harshest realities of our human experience are broken open,” he said.
“We can know in this [holy] week that the cross of Christ triumphs and that every sign of goodness that we see, all those countless acts of kindness, that huge surge of volunteering that we’ve seen in this country remind us that deep inside the person is something that yearns for that victory of Christ - to be able to put things right.”
He said the pandemic is helping society to see “what is really essential and what is peripheral” adding how it had “demonstrated that there is a depth of collective will in the people of this country to work together,” along with “a sifting of what makes for a good society as we face the future when this pandemic is over.”
But the cardinal said it was “tragic” that so many people were dying alone of coronavirus explaining this was the "sharpest point" in how people had been distanced from the sacraments. He said the Church hoped to double the number of chaplains in hospitals, working in agreement with the health authorities while he was trying to make sure a priest could be present to pray with a family when they bury or cremate their loved ones.
During the discussion, Cardinal Nichols reflected on the importance of keeping a routine during lockdown; of finding time for silence and for prayer. He recommended Christian Art today as a devotional resource.
“The traditional definition of prayer is raising the mind and heart to God. Cardinal [Basil] Hume in his wisdom always said that’s a mistake: it should say 'trying' to raise the mind and heart to God - that’s the first step. The second step is to allow some words to form and shape that space where we try to raise our minds and hearts to God,” he explained.
“Find the way that suits you and stick to it and be faithful to the time that you allocate…it doesn’t matter which way it is but if you find something that sustains you then stick to that and don’t go around the whole shop.”
Finally, the cardinal said Covid-19 showed a new partnership between faith and science saying it is "foolish" for religious groups to ignore the science of the virus. Faith with science, he added, "deepens the human spirit."
In the Easter edition of The Tablet, Cardinal Nichols will be offering a reflection on a painting he finds most helpful at a time of crisis.
Loading ...
