Mary Craig The suffering son who gave me so much PAGE 8

Christopher Howse PAGE 9

Join me on the pilgrim trail in Spain

No. 6512

CatholicHerald.co.uk

June 24 2011 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Eucharistic adoration is the key to discerning vocations, says Nuncio

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

THE APOSTOLIC NUNCIO to Great Britain has urged young Catholics wishing to discern God’s will for them to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.

The advice was given by Archbishop Antonio Mennini at the Invocation annual national vocations festival last weekend.

Speaking at the event at St Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham, on Sunday, Archbishop Mennini told the congregation: “I should like to commend to you the practice of Eucharistic Adoration which you have experienced during this weekend of discernment. Adoration draws us away from external distractions into a growing communion with Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. Encourage your friends to join in this practice.”

Quoting from Pope Benedict XVI’s address at World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, the archbishop said: “To discern God’s call we need to withdraw from external activity and to dedicate time to prayer. At the last World Youth Day Pope Benedict reminded us that: ‘Jesus is always present in our hearts, quietly waiting for us to be still with him, to hear his voice, to abide in his love. Be convinced that the Lord is waiting for you to open your hearts to him in prayer. He wants to meet you personally and to enter into a dialogue with you.’ This conviction will fill you with an urgent desire to seek periods of silence in your daily life where you have the space to be drawn into union with God in prayer.”

Archbishop Mennini was the principal celebrant at the concluding Mass at the 2011 Invocation Discernment Conference. The conference is a national festival aimed at young men and women aged 16 to 35. It is aimed at young

Archbishop Mennini speaks at the Invocation conference at Oscott College in Birmingham people who are “looking to deepen their relationship with Christ and who are searching for the knowledge and tools to develop their own personal formation, discernment and understanding of God’s will for their lives”.

Archbishop Mennini’s comments echoed the words of Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury when he preached at Invocation’s midday Mass the day before.

Bishop Davies recounted that he discerned his own vocation to the priesthood precisely by praying before the Eucharist. He said: “In the clear, gentle light of the Eucharist I dared to ask what the Lord had in mind for me and found the courage to say: ‘Yes’.”

Bishop Davies also reminded participants that Pope Benedict XVI, at the prayer vigil in Hyde Park, London, in September 2010,

Photo: mazur/catholichcurch.org.uk had offered similar advice to Catholics when he invited them to “ask our Lord what he has in mind for you” by meeting Christ “present among us in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar”.

Bishop Davies said: “I would like to say to each of you that where the Holy Eucharist is found you will also find the answer to the greatest question of your life time. It is, of course, no coincidence that Christians celebrate marriage, ordination, the promises of consecrated life not in a hired hotel or a distant holiday resort but before the altar,

the place of the Eucharist where we could say with St John: ‘This has taught us love that he gave up his life for us; and we too ought to give up our lives for our brethren’ (I Jn 3:16). For that is what every Christian vocation asks of us – that we are drawn into the dynamic of the loving sacrifice of Christ made present now for us in the Mass.”

Vocations directors from dioceses across the Catholic Church in England and Wales concelebrated the concluding Mass. Fr Stephen Langridge, speaking on behalf of diocesan vocation directors of England and Wales, welcomed Archbishop Mennini’s words.

He said: “Those of us who work closely with young people find Adoration provides them with the stillness to step back from their lives and also a focus for their prayer. This begins to create the conditions in which they can understand what it means to be a contemplative in the middle of the world. It draws them into a friendship with Christ that leads to discipleship and so prepares their hearts to respond to their vocation.”

Fr Langridge also said that the practice of Eucharistic Adoration was now increasingly promoted across dioceses for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

“There may be practical problems to be overcome but it would be great to see this develop with the presence of Adoration chapels in our major towns and cities,” he said. “Time given to the Lord in this way is never wasted. I know many young people who first felt the stirrings of a vocation during times of Adoration. I think the experience of Adoration in Hyde Park during the Holy Father’s visit has helped many people recover a sense of both the timelessness of Adoration as well as its importance.” Editorial comment: Page 13

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Senior peers accuse the BBC of campaigning for assisted suicide

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

FIVE PEERS have challenged the BBC to launch an inquiry into accusations that it is promoting euthanasia following its decision to broadcast the assisted suicide of a 71-year-old man suffering from motor-neurone disease.

In a strongly worded letter to Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC, and its director general, Mark Thompson, the peers said: “Setting aside our repugnance that the death of a patient with motor-neurone disease should be turned into a form of voyeuristic entertainment, the BBC has a duty to provide balanced debate.”

The letter was signed by Lord Alton, Lord Brennan, Baroness Campbell, Baroness Finlay and Lord Carlile.

They said: “It is not the job of the Corporation to become a lobbying organisation or a cheerleader for those who wish to change the law.” While the letter emphasises that pro-euthanasia bias is not

BBC policy, it asserts that “a network of journalists within the Corporation have clearly taken the decision that they will use their considerable power to influence public opinion and distort the debate whenever they have opportunity”. The peers conclude the letter by calling for a “full inquiry” into the alleged bias.

The programme documented fantasy author and assisted suicide campaigner Sir Terry Pratchett accompanying Peter Smedley to the Dignitas suicide centre in Switzerland.

In the letter the peers argue that the “partiality which this systematic campaign has involved breaches your own guidelines as well as those of the World Health Organisation. Whipping up more business for Dignitas (which is a commercial organisation and has been the subject of police investigations) runs the risk of encouraging depressed or sick people, who need care and support, to take their own lives.”

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Judge orders school to allow hairstyle BY RACHEL OBORDO

THE HIGH court has ruled that a London Catholic school’s ban on a boy’s cornrow hairstyle constituted indirect racial discrimination and must be changed.

An 11-year-old boy was banned from attending St Gregory’s Catholic Science College, Harrow, due to his “unconventional hairstyle”.

The boy was turned away on the first day of term when he appeared with cornrows. The judge ruled that the ban was “unlawful, indirect racial discrimination”. He said that cornrow braids should be allowed if they are “a genuine family tradition based on cultural and social reasons”.

He said the school was “not in any way racist” and had made “an honest mistake”.

Green Popemobile is under construction BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

THE POPEMOBILE is going green in an eco-friendly makeover by Mercedes-Benz.

The new vehicle will come with a rechargeable lithiumion battery that should provide enough power to keep the car running for 16 miles at cruising speeds low enough for the Pontiff to be seen by the faithful, while a petrol engine takes over at higher speeds. An allelectric car will not be possible because a battery may lack the power and speed needed to shift the five-ton vehicle in an emergency situation.

It had been hoped that the new Popemobile would be ready for Pope Benedict’s visit to Germany at the end of September but it is unlikely that the car will be ready until the end of the year.

INSIDE

Stuart Reid Where Pro Ecclesia went wrong PAGE 20

Freddy Gray Let’s welcome ‘fake Catholic’ parents PAGE 12

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