Pope Francis is a gift we ought to treasure
SIR – There is an old story of a man who, during a flood, refused to leave his house because, he said, his faith would save him. A rope was thrown, a boat came, a helicopter was finally sent. He calmly rejected them all, affirming that God would not let him die. He drowned. Arriving at the gates of heaven, he furiously demanded from St Peter an explanation. St Peter answered imperturbably: “Well, we have sent a rope, boat and helicopter…”Reading your leading article of June 24 it occurred to me that we may be committing the same kind of mistake in what concerns Pope Francis. Your editorial recommends that we should pray for him instead of criticising him. I agree wholeheartedly.
As a Brazilian living in Europe, I can very well understand that the Argentine Pope’s imprecision and impulsiveness with words irritate minds more used to academic finesse. Even so, I fear that the real danger for us is failing to grasp what God is giving us. No pope is perfect. But the time we waste in accusing him is the time we lose in listening to him... and this can be a weapon for the Devil. The Pope is there because God wished him there at this time.
So let’s leave aside our perhaps proud criticism and humbly try to understand what God is telling us through His Vicar on earth, lest it may happen that St Peter will tell us one day: “Well, we sent you Pope Francis...”
Yours faithfully,
Sister Marta Braga OSB
Eichstätt, Germany
English compromise
SIR – I was interested in your article suggesting mixed messages from the Vatican regarding liturgical advice on eastward-facing celebrations of the Mass (Cover story, July 15).As a member of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, I may perhaps be permitted to give an insight from the “Anglican patrimony” which Pope Emeritus Benedict encouraged us to offer the wider Catholic Church.
The second generation of Tractarians or Anglo-Catholics (Cardinal Newman was a leader of the first generation) proclaimed their devotion to six ritual points (including eastward-celebrations of the Mass) as a mark of orthodoxy to the Catholic faith in the later 19th century.
To achieve their goals, they were prepared to endure persecution by the Church hierarchy, protests by Protestant demonstrators and even personal imprisonment by the secular authorities. Faithfulness to an eastward-facing celebration marking the testimony to liturgical orthodoxy remained true in Anglo-Catholicism until the Second Vatican Council moved the goalposts.
Interestingly, our central London flagship church, Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, invariably celebrates the Mass with an eastward-facing liturgy. More locally – for example, at our Bristol branch Ordinariate Mass – we tend to continue to observe a westward-facing celebration for aesthetic and practical purposes, since our high altar is free-standing and the sanctuary would be somewhat crowded if we opted for an eastward-celebration.
Personally, I would much prefer reverting to the ancient practice, all looking to the east – symbolising the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and worshipping Almighty God – rather than our fellow men and women in the pews. But surely we can all adopt a classically English compromise: let’s face east where possible and west where not.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Eddy
Bristol
SIR – I am a bit amused by Cardinal Sarah’s assertion that priests and congregation should face east at Mass, because God is in the east and the Redeemer comes from the east. This notion derives from the old Egyptian pagan sun cult, where the people faced east towards the rising sun to pray to their god, Ra.
Our God does not live or come from the east nor the west but is everywhere, omnipresent. He is in our midst. That is why Christ said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them.” At Mass we celebrate the Christ who is among us, who comes in our midst in the Eucharist, in his Body and Blood. Therefore the proper position is for the priest and the community to face each other and not, like the sun worshippers, to the east.
After receiving Christ, we go out to serve him, who is in our hearts, in those who are in need, the hungry, the homeless, refugees and the sick. Many churches in the cities are built in such a way that the entrance faces the road, for easy access, and the altar at the other end.
The direction of the church is therefore dictated by the direction of the road, and on which side of the road the church was built. In our church the people would have to turn their back to the altar, which is really ridiculous.
Many cathedrals, like St Hedwig’s in Berlin, have had their altars facing the people since olden times. The bishops were saying Mass facing the people before Vatican II.
Rome makes a lot of blunders. For example, the transliteration into Latinglish of the missal. In order to understand it you have to have at least A-levels and two semesters of theology, and they praise it as a beautiful, poetic translation. I and a number of my confrères refuse to use it.
The late Cardinal Franz König once said to his concelebrants when he did something which was against the rubrics but very sensible: “In Rome they have not yet understood what the liturgical reform is about.” And they still have not understood.
Yours faithfully,
Fr Wolfgang Abeler SJ
Harare, Zimbabwe
Blame Brussels
SIR – Piers Paul Read, in his defence of the European Union (Charterhouse, July 8), states that laws inimical to Christian values, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, were passed in Westminster rather than in Brussels.More than 10 years ago, on September 9, 2005, in a communiqué presented in Fatima on the anniversary of the Portuguese Association of Canon Lawyers, Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, Apostolic Nuncio in Spain, pointed out “lamentable omissions” of the European Union. These included its lack of respect for the sacred and its lack of support for marriage, the family and for the right of life from conception.
A few months later, in January 2006, the Same-Sex Marriage Bill was part of the resolution, promulgated by the European Union, to confer inherent rights of marriage to same-sex unions. This derives from the Charter of Fundamental Rights linked to the Lisbon Treaty.
Yours faithfully,
Mary Forster (Mrs)
Sutton, Surrey
