Ordinary Eve
“Full in the panting heart of Rome,
Beneath the apostle’s crowning dome
From pilgrims’ lips that kiss the ground,
God bless our Pope, the great, the good.”
Nicholas Wiseman
Holy Smoke! For all you Batman and Robin fans, you now know from whence that favourite line of Robin’s hails - the smoke that emerges from the Vatican when the Cardinal's have chosen a new Pope. And in recent weeks it has been very difficult for anyone to see through the smoke created by the media's attention on the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II and the election of the new Pope Benedict XIV.
Yet, for all that I have only one real grievance about the whole affair and it only partly stems from the involvement of the media.
I was less than enthused by the rather superficial taint that Pope John Paul’s funeral took on - in its associations and organisation.
Rescheduling your wedding?
Firstly, Prince Charles had to reschedule his wedding to accommodate his attendance at the funeral.
Well, very noble, but I thought Prince Charles was the son of the Church of England’s representative head – so where does the sudden allegiance to the Catholic Church come from? I think it would have been hypocritical of England to accuse the Prince of insensitivity had he chosen to adhere to the original date cast for his wedding. Yet this is the stance that the media were edging towards.
Secondly, all that excessive mourning attire by Cherie Blair made her turnout more apt for a fashion parade than for a funeral. Again, media pressues to look glamorous appear to be outweighing her sorrow at losing the head of our faith. But at least she is Catholic.
Making up with dictators?
And what about Robert Mugabe’s presence at the funeral? If his acts of human rights violation in Zimbabwe don’t fly in the face of the beliefs and foundation of the Catholic Church, then I don’t know what does. Yet he was invited to attend, thus adding insult to the multiple injuries that his government has inflicted on his own people.
Perhaps the most important message to be read from the English Crown’s arrangements is that the Monarchy would be in favour of all Christian faiths coming under the remit of the Pope as Protector of Christian Faiths and thereby casting Henry VIII and his evil acts against Catholicism under the soil where they truly belong. Then it would be perfectly acceptable for the Royal Family to marry Catholics and become Catholic!
And if the Monarchy were to disappear down the line (heaven forbid) what would become of the already dwindling Church of England and who would be its Protector?
Please don’t misinterpret my feelings. I understand that anybody who wishes to mourn a person has a right to do so irrespective of faith if they believe in the good of that person, but we are talking about the head of the Catholic Church here so to invite nominally important people to the late Pope’s funeral willy-nilly strikes me as totally superficial.
Rock on
After all, what does the Papacy stand for? All this media hype using words such as conservative, traditionalist or Modernist is so unhelpful. Let’s be clear: there is one thing the Pope needs to represent and that is Peter’s rock. That is why Rome and St Peter’s Church is such an important home for the Holy See. So when you hear people crying out for the Church to change with social trends, just remember that that will be (to use the rock analogy) the landslide and deconstruction of the Catholic Church. The Pope’s duty is precisely to remain steadfast in his adherence to basic Catholic teaching on human rights, morality,peace and charity. They are fundamentals that do not and must not change irrespective of the increasingly outspoken nature of the public at large.
Daddy dear
My father who, he will be pleased to hear, does indeed influence me, would go further. As an advocate of pre- Vatican II and the Latin Mass, he particularly sees the importance of principles and steadfastness of Faith. For him the Latin Mass was the pivotal, unifying measure for the Catholic Church. In all countries across the globe, all Catholics would be following the Mass in precisely the same form. On the principle of this facet of his faith, I can sympathise. However, it is more important to me that Catholics are unified in their belief than in how they perform it at Mass.
And unity in beliefs is so important at the family level too, as parents will inevitably want to pass on their beliefs to their children. I have heard recently that religion can actually be passed through the genes – I think it would be more accurate to describe it as aptitude for religion. It does seem sweet when Clarissa, aged 3, points to a church and asks “Mummy, is that where Jesus died?”
The answer is always “yes”. Christ died unnumbered deaths to save us all from the sin of submission to social influence.
