Catholic Universities in England - are they really Catholic?

Having had a bash at the schools last week, a subject I intend to return to, I thought I should take a look at our Universities, I think that's a plural!

St Mary's Strawberry Hill I used to know well, it was the focal point for Diocesan school sports events and many's the 100 metres I have streaked shambled over in those pre modernist years.

I knew that I would be unlikely to discover a hotbed of Catholic fervour, of religious imagery and reverence and, to my amazement.....I was right!

Am I being unfair?

Is this, in fact, a Catholic University?
It used to be a teacher training College but I guess it morphed into a Uni along with all  those excellent Ploytechnics, post 1993.

I assume it is still a Catholic institution, it does have a Chaplaincy and, on further investigation I uncover just about enough info to convict them of being so.
In June 2010 they recruited a new Principal. Philip Esler, a well respected academic hailing from, where else but Australia.

However, they rank 94 in the Times Good University Guide Tables, that places them, err, in front of......umm.....not too many others.
But they do lay claim to being  fifteenth in terms of London Universities (that must mean that they come last after all the others?).

If I was their Marketing Director, I think I might leave that statistic out of any prospectus information.
And, incidentally, the contact details for their marketing person give their designation as "Marketing Manger" (sic) - yes, we all know what they mean but for an educational organisation to get that wrong is, well, really pretty poor.

Reminds me of the ad for a college which read:

Come to St B-----'s College for a Quality Eduction

But I digress. As I stated earlier, you only know that St Mary's is Catholic when you dig a bit deeper into the various click buttons and then it's there, from time to time in the body copy.

They have the (by now) intensely boring and fatuous mission statement:

St Mary’s prepares its students for flourishing lives, successful careers and social commitment through excellent, research-enriched teaching in a strong community of mutual respect based on our Catholic ethos and identity.

Oh, No! Catholic ethos and identity - again! Meaningless gobbledygook unless backed up with real Catholic ethos and identity.

Do they have a crucifix in every classroom?
Do they stop for the Angelus at mid-day every day?
Does their teaching reflect the teachings of HMC and does a framed photograph of the Holy Father meet you in the reception area?

No? Well it ain't got no Catholic ethos and identity then.

Now, I hasten to add that I have not been able to determine whether the above statements are correct or not but I'll happily donate £50 to SPUC if someone proves me wrong.

I skimmed over the events calendar only to note that, on 14th March an American Professor, one Dr Colin Barr from Ave Maria University, Florida, gave a lecture on Cardinal Newman.

Here is an extract from the preview blurb:

Dr Barr commented, “In recent years, John Henry Newman has become an exemplar of orthodox piety, and a gay icon. His most famous book, The Idea of a University, is by common consent, one of the most influential treatises ever written on the philosophy of higher education. Yet it too suffers from anachronistic, political, and wildly conflicting interpretations.

If I was a Principal of a Catholic University I would not give the stage to someone who wished to talk about Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman as a "gay icon".

Perhaps that says it all.
There is a lot of talk about Fairtrade, Ecumenism and more but not too much on what I would wish to see from a 'Catholic' place of High Education.

More to come on other allegedly Catholic institutions during the week.

Catholic identity? It doesn't exist

Talks of attacks on Catholic identity seem to overlook one vital element - it does not exist. At least, not in any volume or force.

It takes more than an ID card to be Catholic

Catholic identity is knowledge of what is reverent and what is sacred.

It is not reverent or sacred to attend church and gossip at the top of one's voice.

It is not reverent or sacred (in a westernised world), to have no knowledge of what being a Catholic entails.

It is not reverent or sacred to miss Mass on Sunday - just because you were busy or idle.

It is not reverent or sacred (again, in a western world) to not be concerned about abortion, IVF, euthanasia, embryo experimentation.

It is not reverent or sacred to not pay due courtesy and consideration to the Body and Blood of Christ at Communion.

It is not reverent or sacred to ignore the guidance of the Holy Father.

It is not reverent or sacred to stick one's head in the sand and carry on regardless.

And it is not reverent or sacred to be woolly and indecisive about one's faith.

How far the faithful of the church have drifted.
What they do today would have been a cause for scandal 50 years ago.

That, in itself should be a cause for reflection.

Catholic identity? It's obvious!

The answer is plain and simple and it relies wholly on just how Christ like we are. That is our identity and it should shine out like a beacon in the dark.
I know people like that; some are priests, some are nurses and some are just everyday folk who have worked hard to assume the mantle.
It has an interior aspect (as The Catholic Whistle) has pointed out but it must also have an exterior one. The result of private meditation must be an aura of sanctity just as  good works must also produce the same.
Saying one's rosary beads on the plane or train is not the Catholic identity but it does contribute towards creating it. Spending one's spare time helping the destitute and homeless is not the Catholic identity but it does form it.
Of course, it is God's Grace that comes as a result of prayer and charitable works that moulds our identity. It is Grace that makes us more like Christ but we can also work to draw ourselves closer to being Christ like (as opposed to the priestly calling to be 'other Christs).

Catholic identity shines through here

What steps can we take to build our identity, other than prayer and meditation and the avoidance of sin?

Here are a few thoughts......

* Maintain a reverent silence at Mass and at all times when in church
* Be prepared to condemn without being       
                                                         judgemental
* State the Catholic case in your social and work environments (when it's called for)
* Advocate support for the Holy Father amongst your Catholic peers
* Avoid the bitterness of Catholic 'politics'
* Teach your faith but do not preach it
* Be justifiably angry when faced with wrongdoing but leave the overturning of tables to
   the Lord
* Seek out the company of like minded people
* Draw up a mental checklist of your attributes and then decide if you like what you see
* Take all necessary steps to increase your reverence and devotional outlook. 
   By that I mean only receiving Holy Communion by mouth, kneeling and from a priest
   if humanly possible and by genuflecting when crossing the path of the tabernacle
* Seeing the face of Christ in those around us whom we have difficulty in loving

Oh......and by not holding hands at the Our Father!

Jim Caveziel, Catholic actor who played Christ in The Passion of the Christ and who refuses to undertake any risque scenes in the films he stars in. He carries the 'CI'

St Maximilian Kolbe SJ., gave up his life to save a Jewish prisoner. It is not just the act that yields a Catholic identity, you can see goodness in his face

Does Don Camillo have the Catholic identity?

Don Camillo - as played by Fernandel

OK, I know he is a fictional character and he has been around for 60 or so years now but, for me, Giovanni Guareschi's small town Italian Priest with hands like joints of meat and a massive overdose of charity and a touch of peasant guile does symbolise much that I, if not admire, certainly can empathise with. He is so very human and comes with all the frailities associated with that label. He is quick to anger but, equally quick to forgive. He defends his faith in a muscular fashion and, maybe we could do with a bit more of that today. I remember a well known Catholic priest of the 60s whose parish was in Tiger Bay, Cardiff. A rough and violent neck of the woods if ever there was one. One of his docker parishioners constantly beat up his long suffering wife. Father H received a report of an exceptionally bad beating (up to then he had admonished and remonstrated with the man) and decided that enough was enough. He went round to the house, took off his jacket and gave the man a thorough thrashing. He never laid a hand on his wife after that. I like direct and effective action. I even think that, on that occasion, it was a Christ like thing to do. Don Camillo would have done that and then he would have sought the company of the crucified Christ in his church and confessed to a sin of anger. "Did you cause him permanent harm Don Camillo?" The Lord would say.
"No, Lord, I just duffed him up a bit". "Well, then you have done my work for me, thank you Don Camillo".
If you have never read the Don Camillo series I recommend that you do so. Every story has a moral and every story portrays good versus bad - not evil, just bad. And maybe that is part of our identity also.

Good usually triumphs in the Don Camillo stories - but not always!

Do these accounts reveal something of a Catholic identity?

MASS IN THE TIME OF PERSECUTION

"When a priest comes to their houses they first salute him as a stranger unknown to them, and then they take him to an inner chamber where an oratory is set up, when all fall on their knees and beg his blessing. If he says he must go tomorrow as he normally does, for it is dangerous to stay longer, they all prepare for Confession that evening. The next morning they hear Mass and receive Holy Communion; then, after preaching, and giving his blessing a second time, the priest departs, conducted by one of the young gentlemen (that is, of the Catholic Association).

No one is to be found to complain of the length of the services. If the Mass does not last nearly an hour many are discontented. If six, eight or more Masses are said in the same place, and in the same day (as often happens when there is a meeting of priests), the same congregation will assist at all. When they can get priests they Confess every week. Quarrels are scarce known amongst them. Disputes are almost always left to the arbitration of the priest. They do not willingly intermarry with heretics, nor will they pray with them, nor do they like having any dealing with them."

This is from an account of recusant life in the 16th century. How has our character changed from period to period? Not too much between the 16th and 19th centuries, I guess. Catholics in Great Britain were thin on the ground during this time and the new dawn of emancipation had not yet arrived. Priests were addressed as "Mr" and, by the early 19th century we had withdrawn behind closed doors.

This is how Cardinal Newman described us:

"No longer the Catholic Church in the country - nay, no longer, I may say, a Catholic comunity, but a few adherents of the old religion, moving silently and sorrowfully about, as memorials of what had been. 'The Roman Catholics' - not a sect, not even an interest, as men conceived of it; not a body, however small, representative of the great communion abroad - but merely a handful of individuals, who might be counted like the pebbles and detritus of the great deluge, and who, forsooth, merely happened to retain a creed which, in its day indeed, was the profession of a Church. Here, a set of poor Irishmen, coming and going at harvest time, or a colony of them lodged in a miserable quarter of the vast metropolis. There, perhaps an elderly person seen walking in the streets, grave and solitary and strange, though noble in bearing, and said to be of good family, and a 'Roman Catholic'. An old-fashioned house of gloomy appearance, closed in with high walls, with an iron gate and yews, and the report attaching to it that 'Roman Catholics' lived there; but who were they or what they did, or what was meant by calling them Roman Catholics, no one could tell - though it had an unpleasant sound, and told of form and superstition......." 



'Roman Catholics live here'



                                                         



An identity existed then but not one to be particularly proud of although, it was born out of isolation and rampant discrimination.
With emancipation and the Irish Famine came a new flush of growth to build on a small but sound base that owed its existence to the French Revolution and the re-establishment of French religious houses and pastors in Great Britain. A new fervour began and with it a slight imbalance crept in; rural Catholics expecting a priest to arrive to hear Confessions and say Mass would begin to prepare themselves days if not weeks in advance and there were the extremes of fasting and only occasional reception of the Eucharist. Lenten fasts and abstinences invariably meant no meat throughout the whole of that period. This did bring a sort of rigorous reverence with it and, perhaps had much to commend it. But it would have been better had it been tempered a little.

And then along came the 20th century and things did not change too much until after the Great War. My father joined up under age along with so many other young men and was assigned to the East Surrey Regiment - known colloquially as 'The Bermondsey Boys.'

At night they were billeted in Nissan huts, about 60 men to each hut. Each night he would (at the tender age of 17), kneel by his bunk and say his evening prayers - to a chorus of jeers, whistles and catcalls. I could not have done that at 17, I'm not even sure I could do it now. Character forming stuff and definitely a large slice of Catholic identity.

After the War, the rot appears to have set in and a very marked decline in all things Catholic began to take place.

Not all of it was bad, I relish the story of my two oldest brothers doing incendiary bomb watch duty on the school roof at night; accompanied by Sister John, one of the last great nuns, may God have mercy on her soul. She taught my brothers to dance on the school roof at night in the time of the Blitz - never making contact - all dancing was done "air" fashion so all the proprieties were observed - that was part of the Catholic identity,  humour, common sense, love for one's fellow man, as well as reverence and respect, all component parts that help to build and form and give us the desire to aspire ever higher.
After the Second World War, our identity (or character if you prefer) fragmented considerably. The break up of the family unit, a loss of community as men and women moved around the country and overseas to work, divorce and, more recently, the paedophile scandals - all contributed to us being rather less than forthcoming in stating our beliefs. Catholics began to lower their profile, keeping quiet at dinner party abortion debates, afraid to condemn homosexuality. Keen to be accepted as equals in society rather than outcasts.
And now....maybe the beginnings of a sense of something lost. That all is not quite right with the world. That we need to do a little soul gazing and determine exactly what kind of animal we are.

Re-creating the Catholic identity - if we know what that is

George Weigel wrote a learned post recently about the Catholic identity but it was done with a heavy bias on academia and I believe that 'identity' or, at least, a Catholic 'identity' is something much more than that. But what precisely?

Notre Dame University had it once but not any longer

It is always tempting to look back on one's own experiences in the formative years and then stake a claim for it being a typical, good, Catholic upbringing. It was; I was blessed to be born into a strong Catholic family with 6 siblings. We were in a parish that had good priests and a varied spiritual and social calendar. We lived in a Catholic world and, in reality, those who were non Catholics might just as well not have existed. In  a parish of c. 2000 folk, only one couple were divorced. All other marriages had the appearance of being intensely Catholic. But that is history, not really identity although it may have a part to play in creating a foundation for identity.

No doubting his identity but appearance is only part of it

In today's world one can look at the Jews and see that they have a relatively clear identity, if somewhat stereotypical. Walk around Finchley or Mill Hill and you see family units walking around, or climbing into the Merc if it is not a Saturday. Father will wear a skullcap, mother will look, well, sort of Jewish mama looking if you know what I mean. They go to synagogue and to Jewish sabbath schools and shop in 
                    Waitrose.
Not so very different from their Catholic counterparts of the 50s and 60s but it was the Co-op in those days. Now we have lost something. And I'm not entirely sure what that something is.
Please do not misunderstand me, identity is something much deeper than appearances or habit; it has an almost indefinable air about it but we had something approaching it when we abstained from meat on Fridays. To decline the sausage and mash in the office cantina invariably provoked a remark, not an unkind one but, often, gently poking fun at the fact that someone would hold back from eating meat on just one day of the week. The openings it created were legion and it became a sort of game to opt for the fish and await the comments and then follow through with the killer punchline: "We do it as an act of penance and as a reminder that Christ died on the cross for us on a Friday".
Ker-booom! Game set and match to the Papists. They struggled to pick themselves up off the floor after that one!
Perhaps that has some kernel of truth about it; it was an act that required a public proclamation of one's beliefs. We don't do that today, we don't have the opportunity to do it when we don't give anything up, we don't put in a plea for time off to attend Mass on a holy day of obligation, we don't have to abstain. The end result is that we don't hold our hands up to be counted as Catholics. We don't defend the Pope, we don't walk away when a pornographic mag is passed around the office, we don't decry IVF, abortion, euthanasia - or, at least, not enough.

So perhaps we do need some outward signs that will give us the prop we need to proclaim our faith. How about these?

1. Say grace before meals in public
2. Recite the rosary (avec beads) on the metro, bus or plane
3. Cross ourselves when passing a church
4. Adorn our homes with crucifix and holy water stoup
5. Start speaking up for the faith
6. Be intolerant of moral decay (homosexuality, abortion, adultery, tax fraud, 
    pornography and so on)
7. Fulfil Sunday and Holy Day obligations if at all possible
8. Proclaim our faith publicly (writing to your MP on an issue etc)
9. Demand more from our Bishops - they need to know that there is a thirst for a deeper
    profile to our faith. We need to invite them to step up to the mark and lead the anti
    abortion rally or whatever
10. Support our priests and encourage those of them who are less adequate to become
    more so

Will all of those things help to re-create our identity? I'm still not sure. I think that much more may be needed before people will be able to nudge their colleague in the lift and whisper: "She/he's a Catholic you know".
Maybe Blessed Sacrament processions through the city streets should be added to the list....any other notions?