Two years in Middlesbrough
Last Wednesday Bishop Drainey completed his second year as Bishop of Middlesbrough. James Preece meets him

29 January 2010

Bishop Drainey, with his Anglican opposite number Dr John Sentamu Leslie Clark/Diocese of Middlesbrough

The discovery that one has been made a bishop is a significant moment in anybody's life, but for Bishop Terence Patrick Drainey the moment was particularly memorable."

"The phone went and it was the Tablet congratulating me that I'd been made the Bishop of Middlesbrough," he recalled, "to which I howled with laughter. I said: 'If that's true there's one ingredient missing, and that's me, because nobody's told me.' "

That evening the Nuncio called but he wondered if it could be a hoax by staff at Ushaw College. "It wasn't beyond one of them at least putting on a Spanish accent and having me on." It was no hoax, and, as the Nuncio told him that he had in fact been appointed Bishop of Middlesbrough, "I leapt out of the chair".

In his ordination message Bishop Drainey said that he had gone through many emotions from "apprehension and genuine fear" to "joy, happiness and exhilaration". Two years on, are those still an everyday part of being a bishop?

"There is still more than a hint of all those things," he replied. "If you were not apprehensive about trying to fulfil the office of bishop I think you'd be a little bit foolish, because it's a major task to be asked to represent Christ to a diocese, to be a teacher, to be a shepherd. It's quite a fearful task. I certainly didn't ask for the job or angle for the job so I take it it's God's will that I'm doing this job. And if it's God's will then I have great confidence in him and trust in him."

While the role of bishop is undeniably a major task, it seems that most of the big decisions these days are made by the bishops' conference. Does he feel it causes him to defer any of his responsibility as a bishop?

"So far no. I can answer categorically no. It's not made me feel that I have to defer things to the bishops' conference. There are sometimes complex issues, for example, gene technology, and I would certainly be willing to be guided by the advice of members of the conference who have a greater expertise than I would. I don't really feel that the bishops' conference is breathing down my neck."

One of Bishop Drainey's first tasks as a bishop was to travel to Australia for World Youth Day. "I went slightly reluctantly, because I'd seen a lot of World Youth Day events on the television and it was wonderful but I thought: 'Is it all razzmatazz? Is there any substance to it?' So while I went with that attitude I was very much converted by the sincerity, commitment and awesome prayerfulness of the people gathered there."

The moment he found most memorable was the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: "Four hundred thousand young people just went down on their knees in Adoration and I'd have travelled all the way to Australia just for that one moment. Even now it fills me with emotion as I think about it. It was just so powerful."

Bishop Drainey also commented on Pope Benedict XVI's teaching style. "What he had to say wasn't watered-down porridge. It was of substance. You had to listen to understand it and the listening was palpable."

I asked him if he thought we often speak to young people at a level which is below them.

"I think it can happen but I don't think it works. If you are wanting to learn, if you are wanting to understand, then you want to hear the truth and you want to be able to talk it through. OK, sometimes you have to use language which helps people to enter in to it but in the end people want the truth and that's what we've got to offer: the truth."

Many people commented on the traditional practices at World Youth Day, such as Pope Benedict giving Communion only to people who received kneeling. I asked him if this was indication that the Pope might like to see these things more widely used.

"If you remember when he was first made Pope he used to wear the pallium in the eastern style, and all through his pontificate so far he's done all sorts of things like that which I think have been signs to say 'I am the successor of Peter and my job is to call all those who want to hear the voice of Christ in to unity and I want to open the door to all those who are knocking to come in.'

"I think this little bit of traditionalism that some people catch on to, particularly in our part of the world, is one of the signs that he's calling all people to unity."

Bishop Drainey's answer does not explain the disconnect between the things Pope Benedict is doing in Rome and the things I experience in my corner of Middlesbrough diocese where anybody who suggests kneeling for Communion is looked on as some kind of freak. I asked him if we might see any of those signs in Middlesbrough diocese.

"Why not? I hope that Middlesbrough diocese would reflect the Holy Father's desire to open the door to anybody who wishes to be part of the Catholic Church under the Petrine ministry."

It is one thing to say that he would like to see these things in Middlesbrough diocese, but Pope Benedict is personally taking the lead himself. I asked if we might see any of these traditional practices from Terence Patrick Drainey.

"I don't know. Terence Patrick Drainey is part of the English Church and this is coming back to your question about the bishops' conference now, I suppose. There will be a way when we introduce the Roman Missal that will be applied to the English Church and Terence Patrick Drainey will go according to the norms that the English Church applies, the norms of the Roman Missal."

We move on to the topic of vocations. Bishop Drainey has previously described a culture in Middlesbrough diocese which "is not favourable to vocations". These were strong words and I wondered what he meant.

"One of the things I have found distressing is that there are few Catholic families who will encourage their sons and daughters to think about priesthood and religious life. They are people who support the Church. They are people who worship weekly at Mass. But the thought that their son should be a priest, or their daughter should dedicate her life to religious life, is something that they just would not contemplate.

"I felt an unrealistic expectation that priests were somehow coming from somewhere else, the other parishes were providing the priests or whatever, and I wanted people to understand: our future lies in priests coming from our own families, from our own parishes. You know the old cliché - and I've said it many times and I'll keep on saying it - your priest, your bishop, was somebody's son. Your son could be somebody's priest. I know it's a cliché but it's a fact and we've got to get that into our heads and into our hearts."

I asked if he had any good advice for parents. "That if you really want to bring your children up in the faith, it has to be based on a loving relationship between the parents themselves. A genuine loving relationship, the real gift of self to one another, because children pick up on that right from the very word go, they pick up on that love that the mother and father have for one another and will be able to then see it reflected or come to perfection in the life of God as you begin to explain what that relationship with God means."

A matter of concern for many parents at the moment are the Government's plans on sex education. "When I was a chaplain in high school you would be talking about marriage and about what right relationships are and I think the Catholic Church in all sorts of ways has been a bit ahead of the game and to a certain extent the Government is just catching up.

"But just giving biological information is not going to be particularly of great help to our young people and it's certainly not going to solve the problem that the Government thinks that this campaign is going to solve because until we help our young people to understand what genuine sexuality is about, what genuine relationships are about, and also recognise that there is such a thing as abstinence too, that there is such a thing as No, you're not going to get very far."

One of the things I personally missed out on in my youth was contact with Latin. I described the time I was in Rome and Pope Benedict lead the Lord's Prayer in Latin, leaving me standing like a lemon.

"Shame on you," Bishop Drainey interjected. I explained that most young people in Middlesbrough diocese don't know the Our Father in Latin. "Well," he replied. "I think that's very sad if that's the case. It's part of our heritage and I feel very strongly about that." So should there be more Latin prayers in our Sunday liturgy?

"I think we should not exclude them. I did a youth Mass last week and while it was to a modern tune but it was the Agnus Dei that was being sung and on several occasions when they've done that I then say Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi. It's part and parcel of being a Latin Rite Catholic to at least know the Our Father or to be able to sing the Creed and the basic things."

I told Bishop Drainey that in my experience in many places there is what I would call an irrational hatred and fear of Latin. He said: "Gregorian Chant is, from a very personal point of view, the most beautiful marriage of words and music I've come across. When you hear chant sung, the words and the music just become one, beautiful."

Gregorian chant is just one of many things that he told me he wants to see. But I am yet to see him really take a lead in making these happen and I am left wondering if bishops really have any power at all. Have I just interviewed a spokesman, a figure to be wheeled out at diocesan events whose personal views are of little consequence because his leadership role has been usurped by committees and priests who just do their own thing? A week may be a long time in politics, but two years is not a very long time in the Church and Bishop Drainey's work as the Bishop of Middlesbrough has only just begun.

James Preece blogs at www.lovingit.co.uk