Fr Christopher Jamison Young Catholics: don’t be afraid to go to Rio

CHARTERHOUSE, PAGE 20

Fr Ronald Rolheiser My delight at being declared cancer-free

THE LAST WORD, PAGE 20

Our next Blessed? Why Cardinal Manning was as holy as Newman PAGE 12

No. 6545

CatholicHerald.co.uk

February 17 2012 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Archbishop: secularists are holding back the faithful

New personal ordinariate launched in US

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

THE Archbishop of Westminster has said that secularist intolerance is preventing believers from making “some of the best contributions” to the common good in Britain.

Speaking after an official state visit to the Holy See, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said that secularists, “with a kind of stubbornness, with a dogmatism, want to isolate faith and privatise it”, adding: “It is often that kind of intolerance of the reality of faith which is holding back some of the best contributions that can be made to the common good.”

His comments followed a speech to the Vatican by Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi, who said that Britain was under threat from a rising tide of “militant secularisation”.

Baroness Warsi, who was leading an official visit to Rome, said that Britain had “got to the stage where aggressive secularism is being imposed by stealth, leaving us with the ironic situation where, to stave off intolerance against minorities, we end up being intolerant towards religion itself”.

She said that the most worrying part of “this militant secularisation” is that at “its core and in its instincts it is deeply intolerant”.

Baroness Warsi, Britain’s first Muslim female Cabinet Minister, led a ministerial delegation to the Vatican to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See.

Archbishop Nichols said that the visit marked the highest point in the modern history of diplomatic relations between Britain and the Holy See.

“

With a kind of stubbornness,

with a dogmatism, some want to isolate faith and privatise it

”

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Baroness Warsi’s comments followed a High Court ruling in favour of an atheist town councillor who found prayers before meetings offensive. Mr Justice Ouseley ruled the prayers were not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972.

Baroness Warsi said that the call for the marginalisation of religion in the public life came from “a well-intentioned liberal elite” who regarded such marginalisation as necessary for progressive equality. “But they don’t realise, as the Holy Father has argued for many years, that faith and reason go hand in hand,” she said.

She said that the marginalisation of religion also came from the “anti-religionists, the faith deniers, the people who dine out on free-flowing media and sustain a vocabulary of secularist intolerance”.

Baroness Warsi told her audience that Europe needed to become more confident in its Christianity.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark said: “Faith has a powerful and positive role to play in Britain, and people of faith need to be willing to speak clearly and calmly about their beliefs. A mature secular society needs to acknowledge the importance of faith for many of its members, and to create a true culture of dialogue in which the free and confident expression of faith is encouraged and celebrated.

“We must resist the intolerance of those who in the name of an aggressive ‘secularism’ would truly seek to ‘impose’ on others by denying any public place to faith.” Feature: Page 9 Editorial comment: Page 13

MGR JEFFREY STEENSON, was installed as ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter last Sunday at a Mass in Houston, Texas, the new ordinariate’s base.

Mgr Steenson, pictured here with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington DC, officially took charge of the world’s second personal ordinariate during the Mass.

Mgr Steenson is an Oxfordeducated Patristics scholar who was ordained a Catholic priest in 2009. Editorial Comment: Page 13

Ramsgate treasures are saved for Church

BY DAVID V BARRETT

MANY OF the ecclesiastical treasures from the former Benedictine Abbey in Ramsgate have been saved for the Church.

The items, including a monstrance, a silver chalice and various portraits, had been put up for auction by the 11 monks of Ramsgate Abbey who last year moved to a smaller new home, a former Franciscan friary in Chilworth, Surrey.

But seven items have now been withdrawn from the auction and acquired through a private treaty sale by the Archdiocese of Southwark, and will be returned to St Augustine’s church in Ramsgate, which Augustus Charles Pugin designed and built next to his own house, The Grange.

They include a beautiful monstrance of around 1850, similar to one which Pugin designed for his other famous church, St Giles’, Cheadle, and a watercolour sketch by Pugin of the interior of St Augustine’s, a preparatory study for a large drawing which he sent for display at the Royal Academy in 1849.

Other items were bought back for the church by a parishioner including images of St Augustine.

The Archdiocese of Southwark took back responsibility for the Grade 1 listed church from the monks in 2010, and has begun a major programme of repair with grant support from English Heritage.

The monks at the Benedictine Farnborough Abbey have acquired two items including a rare silver recusant chalice dating from 1633, when Catholic worship was banned following the Reformation. The chalice, engraved with scenes from the Passion of Christ, was given to the monks at Ramsgate in the 19th century by a member of the Hales family, who were recusants.

The Abbot of Farnborough said:“All sacred vessels are important. The recusant chalice communicates with a particular eloquence the hardships suffered by Catholics in what are described in the inscription on the chalice as ‘cruel times’. We are relieved that this chalice will remain in appropriate hands.” Editorial Comment: Page 13

Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat Franciscan Retreat

In the Holy Valley of Rieti, Lazio, Italy, where St. Francis spent most of his life.

13-22 September 2012

Staying with the Franciscan Sisters at their lovely retreat-house overlooking Lake Salto, Borgo San Pietro. And visiting: Assisi, Rieti, Greccio, La Foresta,

Poggio Bustone and Fonte Colombo

We welcome back as our retreat giver Fr. Peter Hall, OFM of the Franciscan International

Study Centre, Canterbury and National Assistant of the Secular Franciscan Order.

£1,450 Full board and ensuite All travel included, all excursions, all entrance charges.

No single room supplements

Details from Retreats Beyond Dover: retreats@dircon.co.uk www.retreats.dircon.co.uk

Telephone : 020 7379 7273

Benedict XVI and Dr Rowan Williams to pray in Rome church BY ED WEST

POPE BENEDICT XVI and the Archbishop of Canterbury will pray together at the church of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome next month.

Dr Rowan Williams will have an audience with the Holy Father during a visit to the Vatican and the two men will pray at the Benedictine church which faces the Palatine, the hill that was home to the rulers of ancient Rome.

The Anglican Primate last visited Rome in October for the World Day of Peace in Assisi, and before that the two met during Benedict XVI’s visit to England in September of 2010. During that trip the Pope co-celebrated an ecumenical service at Westminster Abbey with the archbishop. The Holy Father emphasised his role as universal pastor of Christ’s flock, while Dr Williams spoke fondly of the Catholic Church. At the end of evening prayer they visited the Shrine of St

Edward the Confessor together to pray for the two communions and the nation and for the gift of Christian unity.

In their previous meetings the leaders have discussed ways to promote dialogue between the two communions in order to find a common ground, despite numerous points of disagreement, and Anglican irritation at the Pope’s creation of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The church of San Gregorio al Celio was originally the family villa of Pope St Gregory the Great, who turned it into a monastery before becoming pope in 590. It was St Gregory who sent St Augustine of Canterbury to convert the English in 597.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has chosen a Catholic author from the Carmelite nuns, Sister Ruth Burrows to write the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book for 2012.

Priest: I wear my collar when I surf BY DAVID V BARRETT

A VOCATIONS director in America has spoken about his former life as a surfer and drug user.

Fr Donald Calloway of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception in Steubenville, Ohio, was a heavy drug user at 14, at 15 was involved in organised crime and by 21 had spent time in prison. Now he speaks in jails and rehabilitation centres.

Fr Calloway, who wrote about his conversion in No Turning Back, is known as the Surfer Priest. He said: “My dad was in the navy, so I was always near water and I grew up surfing. Now I travel the world and get to surf all over, and I sometimes wear my Roman collar when I surf.”

Bayern Munich seek the Pope’s support BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

POPE BENEDICT XVI may be offered a lifetime honorary membership of the German football club Bayern Munich.

Club president Uli Hoeness has confirmed that Bayern Munich are willing to offer the Pope honorary membership of the famous club which is located 70 miles from Benedict XVI’s birthplace.

Mr Hoeness said: “If he gives us the word, we will go to him and bring him an honorary membership.”

If Pope Benedict were to be awarded the honour he would be following in the footsteps of his predecessor Blessed Pope John Paul II. John Paul II was an honorary member of Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04, two other German football clubs.

INSIDE

Dr Paolo Di Lazzaro The Turin Shroud still baffles scientists PAGE 7

Daniel Kalder The world’s toughest monks (and nuns) PAGE 8

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