THEBESTFORLENT
SEAN FINNEGAN We need to feel ‘good guilt’
TERESA WHITE The gift of divine mercy
RONALD ROLHEISER Surrendering to God’s grace
SSHHOOUULLDD WWEEGGIIVVEE TTOO CCOOMMIICC RREELLIIEEFF??
News Page 3
No. 6190
www.catholicherald.co.uk
11 March 2005 - £1 (Republic of Ireland ‰1.50)
Fury over‘anti-Papist’ Tory election candidate
PLUS
ALFRED KINSEY HERO OR ZERO?
BYFREDDYGRAY
T HE C ONSERVATIVE P ARTY has selected a parliamentary candidate who believes that the European Union is a Papist plot to undermine Britain’s Protestant identity. Adrian Hilton, the new Tory candidate for Slough, believes that “a Catholic EU will inevitably result in the subjugation of Britain's Protestant ethos to Roman Catholic social, political and religious teaching”. He also claims that Catholics regard the Pope as “supreme ruler of the world”. Mr Hilton, a 41-year-old teacher adopted by the Berkshire constituency association two weeks ago, is strongly opposed to repealing the Act of Settlement, which forbids monarchs from becoming or marrying a Catholic . “Such an amendment would eventually create an exclusively Catholic royal dynasty, whose primary allegiance would be to the higher spiritual and temporal authority – the Papacy,” he wrote in The Spectator magazine in 2003. Mr Hilton has already been denounced as a “conspiracy theorist” by a spokesman for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. Austen Ivereigh, the Cardinal’s chief spokesman, compared the would-be MP’s opinions to those held by Protestant bigots and farright nationalists. “These views are bizarrely unhistorical and fundamen
tally erroneous,” he said. “His case rests on an assumption that the English nation came into being only after the Reformation,” he said. “This is entirely false. The English nation pre-dates the Reformation.” Mr Hilton’s opinions have shocked Catholic Spectator readers. Sean Armstrong, a Catholic economic consultant who has complained to Michael Howard about Mr Hilton, said: “It is not the individual particularly but the strand of opinion that he represents that I object to. “Asectarian candidate of his divisiveness is precisely what the Conservative Party
‘ACatholic European Union will inevitably result in the subjugation of Britain’s Protestant ethos to Roman Catholic social, political and religious teaching’
PAGE 12
GEORGE WEIGEL POPE CAN STEP DOWN
Adrian Hilton, prospective Tory candidate for Slough
does not need if it is to shake off its ‘nasty’ reputation. Hilton’s candidature can only strengthen such allegations and bring the party into disrepute.” Senior Catholic commentators are bemused by Mr Hilton’s assertions. They argue that, far from being a Papist plot, the EU seems to be moving away from its Catholic roots and becoming an anti-religious institution. Mr Hilton this week defended his views. “The article was published in 2003, and two years later things have been taken totally out of context, making me sound like an extremist,’ he said. “My concerns in this arti
cle were constitutional, not doctrinal. It was about an unaccountable, bureaucratic philosophy of government in the EU. “AProtestant view of history is every bit as valid as the Cardinal Archbishop’s. In this day and age, if one expresses an Islamic perspective it has to be accepted, if one expresses a Roman Catholic perspective it has to be accepted – and yet an assertion of the constitutional position of the Queen and Parliament with regards to Protestantism is greeted with derision.” Mr Hilton was selected as the Conservative candidate for Slough after the tabloid press published photographs
of his predecessor, Robert Oulds, showing off his gun collection. The new prospective candidate is single and lives in Beaconsfield, Bucks. He is the head of politics and philosophy at Slough Grammar School. His website boasts that his writings – many of them critical of the Catholic Church – “have placed me on a national speaking circuit with many high-profile engagements, including Oxford and Cambridge universities and invitations to address political ‘support clubs’”. He holds the world record for the fastest recitation of the complete works of Shakespeare. He has a degree
in theology. “My favourite drink is water,” he reveals. Mr Hilton’s supporters include Spectator editor Boris Johnson, who describes him as a “highly talented man who promises to be an exceptional spokesman for Conservative principles”. Thriller writer Frederick Forsyth says he is “very sound on all the principal attitudes that mark out a British Conservative”. Mr Hilton’s opponent in the general election will be Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart, the MP for Slough. Her majority is 12,508 votes. She was unavailable for comment. However, Labour’s deputy
campaign co-ordinator, Fraser Kemp, attacked Mr Hilton. “His offensive opinions would not matter if he were simply a private citizen,” he said. “But he is a candidate of a major political party trying to win a seat the Tories only lost in 1997.” The Catholic faithful in Slough are equally unimpressed with Mr Hilton’s articles. Monica Sidebotham, a Slough resident, was appalled at what she read. “If he wants my vote, he will have to come to my house and explain himself,” she said.
Editorial Comment:Page 11
PAGE 4
JOHN GILLUM We need a fixed date for Easter
PAGE 10
IINNDDEEXX
Home news 1-3 Foreign news 4-5 Catholic Life 6
Features 7-9 Comment 10-11 Charterhouse 16
Pilgrimage & Beyond Tailor– made Pilgrimages for groups and individuals
S ICILY : A C ULTURAL AND S PIRITUAL I NTERLUDE
21 - 28 April 2005
£699
152-156 Kentish Town Road, London, NW1 9QB
e-mail:info@paxtravel.co.uk www.paxtravel.co.uk
Tel: 020 7485 3003
New role raises profile of papabileRatzinger
BYCHRISTINAFARRELL
C ARDINAL J OSEPH Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will write the meditations for the Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum on Good Friday. The service is one of the highlights of the Church’s liturgical year and, yet again, raises the public profile of the cardinal, who is now being spoken of openly as a possible successor to John Paul. It is considered an honour to be asked to write the Good Friday meditations and is a measure of the cardinal’s standing with the Pope. Cardinal Ratzinger is an accomplished writer and theologian and is the most important member of the Pope’s inner circle of senior prelates. He is trusted by John Paul and for over 20 years has led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, defending the Church against dissent. He is also president of the International Theological Commission and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Once a professor of fundamental and dogmatic theology, he continues to write extensively on spiritual
Cardinal Ratzinger
issues. He has spoken in the past of his close collaboration with John Paul. “He confirms and leads me in my way,” he said. Writing in TheSpectator magazine this month the Catholic writer and author Piers Paul Read makes the case for a Ratzinger pontificate. “Cardinal Ratzinger is the liberals’ bête noire – the bad cop to Pope John Paul II’s good cop,” he writes. “The son of a Bavarian police chief, a liberal theologian during Vatican II and later Archbishop of Munich, he is poacher turned gamekeeper. It was he who ruled that the impossibility of ordaining women was an infallible teaching, and that the Church of England was not a Church ‘in the proper sense’. “He also roundly condemned the rejection of Rocco Buttiglione as a commissioner by the European Parliament as the perse
cution of a Catholic for his beliefs.” It was previously thought that the cardinal’s age – he is now 77 – would work against his candidacy for Pope. But as Piers Paul Read suggests, Joseph Ratzinger’s “courageous promotion of orthodox Catholic teaching” has earned him the respect of his fellow cardinals – a votewinner in a future conclave. The much-loved Pope John XXIII was the same age when he was elected. “He is patently holy, highly intelligent and sees clearly what is at stake,” says Mr Read. “The Ratzinger solution is definitely on.” The Vatican has not indicated whether or not the Pope will be able to attend the Holy Week services. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement on Monday that this will not be considered until after John Paul’s return to the Vatican from the Gemelli hospital where he is convalescing following a tracheotomy. Last year the papal vicar for Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, led the Way of the Cross while the Pope watched from a hillside terrace. In 2004 Fr Andre Louf, a Trappist hermit and former abbot, was chosen to write the meditations; in 2003 the readings were taken from a book written by John Paul II when he was a cardinal.
Vatican Notebook:Page 4
US editor quits after ‘disgusting’ attack on sick Pope
BYSIMONCALDWELL
T HEEDITOR of an American newspaper has quit just a week after publishing an article mocking the Pope’s illness. The article that appeared in the fortnightly New York Press was called “52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope” and was described by one politician, Senator Chuck Schumer, as “the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in 30 years of public life”. Arranged in bullet-points, the list includes vile fantasies of the Pope’s dying moments and descriptions of what might happen to his body after death. Virtually none is fit to be reproduced in a Catholic newspaper. On Monday, Jeff Koyen announced his resignation as editor. “This morning, I was told to accept a two-week unpaid suspension. During that time, I was to ‘think about what this paper should be,’” he wrote. “We are iconoclastic, occasionally obnoxious but always intelligent. If you see through the nasty Pope jokes, for instance, you will see a wellreasoned political argument. I did my best to show this battle to be one of free expression.” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the article as “disgusting”.
Editorial Comment:Page 11
Please help these priests of tomorrow
Volodymyr and Roman are among 160 seminarians in Lviv, Ukraine, who study in a cold former communist camp. With your help, they will soon be moving to a new seminary nearby. This year, ACN is promising to help 16,000 seminarians world-wide. Please help warm the hearts of these young men as they offer their lives to God - and be assured of their prayers.
Aid to the Church in Need 1 Times Square, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1LF Tel: 020 8642 8668 www.acnuk.org Registered Charity No 1097984
Rev/Sr/Mr/Mrs/Miss......................................................... Address: .............................................................................. ........................................ Postcode ...................................
I enclose £.............. £100 £50 £25 Other... to help seminarians. I enclose a cheque
toAid to the Church in Need OR please debit my
Visa/Mastercard/Switch/Maestro/ American
Express:
____________ ____ ___ Valid from Date: ....../...... Expiry Date: ....../......
Issue No ....... (Switch) Signature: ................................
I do not require an acknowledgement.
pt/ch
