Last week was one of the strangest in Rome in recent memory. It began with the news that four cardinals had asked Pope Francis to answer five yes-or-no questions – known in Latin as dubia – about Amoris Laetitia, his exhortation on the family. They had submitted the queries in September, but decided to make them public now because they had received no reply. Then the Pope suddenly cancelled a meeting with the world’s cardinals scheduled for the end of the week. The Vatican offered no explanation, prompting speculation that the four cardinals were planning to raise the dubia at the gathering.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the four, gave an interview suggesting that the cardinals might issue a “formal act of correction” if they received no reply. The Pope responded with an interview of his own, in which he chided critics of the apostolic exhortation for thinking that everything is “black and white”. In a bizarre turn, a papal adviser was accused of comparing, on Twitter, the four cardinals to a sinister Lord of the Rings character.
The week ended with the creation of 17 new cardinals. “The virus of polarisation and animosity permeates our way of thinking, feeling and acting,” the Holy Father said at the ceremony. “We are not immune from this and we need to take care lest such attitudes find a place in our hearts, because this would be contrary to the richness and universality of the Church, which is tangibly evident in the College of Cardinals.”
How do things stand after this tumultuous week? With a clear awareness that there are profound divisions at the highest levels of the Church. The immediate object of these disagreements is Amoris Laetitia, but they run much deeper – back to the Second Vatican Council, if not earlier. Lest we despair, we should remember that not all ecclesiastical conflict is harmful. Controversy is sometimes a sign that the Church is alive and well. The Apostles, after all, engaged in ferocious disputes. That didn’t prevent them from taking the Gospel to the four corners of the earth. Polarisation is not always bad: think of the analogy of a battery, which requires two poles to work. Sometimes tensions can be creative.
But Pope Francis is right to say that certain forms of polarisation are destructive. This is especially so when the divisions centre on the papacy. The current standoff over the dubia is unhealthy. Contrasting interpretations of Amoris Laetitia cannot be resolved through newspaper interviews. Only a prayerful, face-to-face gathering of the main parties is likely to offer a way forward.
As this drama unfolds in Rome, we are not mere spectators. We have a responsibility to pray daily for unity. We should also consciously avoid being too preoccupied by our divisions. Our suffering world expects us to be united in proclaiming the Gospel and performing works of mercy. We have no right to let it down.
Next month, on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, first commissioned for the Marian Year of 1954 by Cardinal Bourne, will be enthroned in the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs at Westminster Cathedral. In this way the cathedral will have a special place dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham, calling to mind that Walsingham is England’s Nazareth, home of the Holy House, and that England was once, and could be again, Mary’s Dowry.
The cathedral, easily the most impressive and noticeable Catholic building in this land, is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, though it is not often known under this title. It attracts thousands of visitors every year. Many of these are Mass-goers, and some are people seeking the Sacrament of Reconciliation, for which there is always a long queue. Many are tourists, drawn by the intricate and fascinating architecture of this strange Neo-Byzantine masterpiece; and still others are the idle and the curious who drift in off Victoria Street.
All who enter the cathedral, though some may not know it, enter a sacred space, a timeless interior that is distinct from the everyday world outside. To cross the threshold of the cathedral, or any church, should be to experience a change in one’s mode of existence. The people who enter are on an existential journey from being part of a crowd to being members of a congregation – though this transformation may take a lifetime.
It is God who calls people to form part of the Mystical Body of His Son, the Church. The building mediates this mystery, and the presence of the cathedral in the heart of Victoria is a reminder of the divine vocation of humanity. The presence of Mary, Our Lady of Walsingham, in the cathedral will remind us of God’s particular call to the people of this country to be the Dowry of Mary, to find in every house and home the presence of God – that which makes holy the Holy House of Nazareth.
May the new shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham be a spur to faith, and may she draw many of her children to follow Her Son.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.