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PHOTO: RAVI PINISETTI, UNSPLASH Pastoral Review Editorial Office Anthony Towey (Editor) St. Mary’s University, Waldegrave Rd, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, TW1 4SX, UK. Stephanie Bennett (Editorial Administrator) Tel: +44(0)20 8240 4019 bennetts@stmarys.ac.uk Natalie K. Watson (Publishing Editor) Tel: +44(0)77 6674 4011 pastoralreview9@gmail.com Amanda Davison-Young (Chief Executive Officer) Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 adyoung@thetablet.co.uk Ian Farrar (Marketing Manager) Tel: +44(0)20 8222 7358 ifarrar@thetablet.co.uk Malgorzata Chylinska (Design and Production) mchylinska@thetablet.co.uk To Subscribe or to manage your subscription Tel: +44(0)1858 438736 thetablet@subscription.co.uk One year: £27 (UK), £35 (Airmail) To Advertise Lisa Ottway (advertising manager) Tel: +44(0)1293 312259 lisa@ottwaymediasolutions.com Head Office 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London, W6 0GY, UK Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 publisher@thetablet.co.uk Editorial Board Ashley Beck, Maureen Glackin, David Jones, John Lydon, Káren North, Gerald O’Collins SJ, Thomas O’Loughlin, Paul Rowan, Lynne Scholefield, Anthony Towey, Peter Tyler, Clare Watkins, Natalie K. Watson, Anthony Wilcox. © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited ISSN1748-362X www.thepastoralreview.org In the seasonal liturgies covered by this edition of the Pastoral Review, the Church will not only celebrate Holy Week, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, but beautiful feast days such as Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and the Feast of Peter and Paul. Rich fayre indeed, and adorned still further by the garlanded pieties of May, the month of Mary. It was Hans Urs von Balthasar who referred to such things as the ‘Petrine’, ‘Pauline’ and ‘Marian’ elements of the Church. In so doing he identified ‘institution’, ‘mission’ and ‘charism’ as respectively capturing elements constitutive of its nature. Along with aspects such as the ‘Johannine’ (contemplative love) and ‘Jacobine’ (tradition), von Balthasar describes an ecclesiology that connects persons with principles and roots theological imagination in the example of lived lives. So much for theological depth. Skittered by growing up to the music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger et al., I can never think of the biblical Peter, Paul and Mary without recalling the popular folk trio of the same name. Along with the aforementioned luminaries, they closed the 1963 Newport Folk Festival with an arms-linked rendition of ‘We shall overcome’. Taken at the height of the Civil Rights movement, the activism and optimism of the musicians is captured in iconic photographs of the finale, a collective nonviolent defiance. Yet the problem with getting older is that we can begin to think that if change is going to happen, it will be for the worse. These days the horsemen of the Apocalypse seem to be restless in the saddle as plague, famine and war dominate global news bulletins which, as I write, have announced that Mass has been cancelled throughout Rome until further notice. At the individual level, revered figures such as Jean Vanier have come under the microscope while leaders of political parties at home, and famous film makers abroad, have been brought to trial. The upshot is that we are rendered cynical not just by the intractable nature of national and international problems, but by our own personal failures and those of our supposed betters. Where once we shamed the world, we are now shamed by it, constraining us as Church to the muted aim of survival, hopefully with a minimum of fuss.
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Editorial ‘We shall overcome’ Anthony Towey NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL 1963. PHOTOGRAPHER ROWLAND SCHERMAN. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, W.E.B. DU BOIS LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Is there naught for our comfort? Well, perhaps we might derive counter-intuitive consolation from the lives of the biblical Peter, Paul and Mary who were graced to overcome deep shame, failure and excruciating circumstances. For example, Peter’s contributions to the Passion narrative are almost wholly negative. He talks up his bravery at the Last Supper; he falls asleep when asked to keep vigil; overreacts with violence at the arrest; then as cowardice takes hold, denies his Galilean identity; swears he has no knowledge of Jesus and is absent from the foot of the Cross. It is surely only through mercy rather than credibility that this man could retain the leadership of the Christian elect and subsequently preach the message of salvation in Jerusalem and beyond (cf. Jn 18.13–27 and Acts 2.14). Paul’s ‘issues’ are equally problematic. An avowed enemy of the Church who had aligned his intellect and youthful vigour in pursuit of its bloody destruction, his conversion was doubted even by the one called to help restore his sight. Subsequently, he fell out even with his closest companion, Barnabas, struggled to persuade the apostles of his Torah-lite pastoral approach, argued with leaders of the churches he founded, and uniquely ended up with what amounted to an apostolic health warning on his writings (2 Pet. 3.16). Yet he could memorably recognise that only in his weakness was he strong, because just as sin abounds, grace aboundeth even more (cf. 2 Cor. 12.10 and Rom. 5.20). Mary? Well, Mary had not only to experience the drama of the birth of her Son; she equally vividly had to endure the loss of her motherhood on the Cross. Presaged by the separation associated with his mission, to have the light of her eyes quenched in so cruel a manner meant that as Simeon had prophesied, a sword did indeed pierce her heart (Lk 2.35). True, she was present at Pentecost, birthing anew the Body of Christ, but that same outpouring of grace was greeted with contestation and calamity across the Mediterranean, such that she doubtless witnessed Passiontide once more in the martyrdom of Stephen and his many nameless successors (cf. Acts 1.14; 7.59). It is our glory in the name of Christ to share whatever the distinct graces epitomised by Peter, Paul and Mary may be. But above all, it is our glory to share their fidelity. In the face of shame and beset by difficulties, deep in our heart we must believe. Walking hand in hand, being as one. So as Church, we shall overcome. April/May/June 2020 | Pastoral Review Vol 16 Issue 2 | 5

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PHOTO: RAVI PINISETTI, UNSPLASH

Pastoral Review Editorial Office Anthony Towey (Editor) St. Mary’s University, Waldegrave Rd, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, TW1 4SX, UK. Stephanie Bennett (Editorial Administrator) Tel: +44(0)20 8240 4019 bennetts@stmarys.ac.uk Natalie K. Watson (Publishing Editor) Tel: +44(0)77 6674 4011 pastoralreview9@gmail.com Amanda Davison-Young (Chief Executive Officer) Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 adyoung@thetablet.co.uk Ian Farrar (Marketing Manager) Tel: +44(0)20 8222 7358 ifarrar@thetablet.co.uk Malgorzata Chylinska (Design and Production) mchylinska@thetablet.co.uk

To Subscribe or to manage your subscription Tel: +44(0)1858 438736 thetablet@subscription.co.uk One year: £27 (UK), £35 (Airmail) To Advertise Lisa Ottway (advertising manager) Tel: +44(0)1293 312259 lisa@ottwaymediasolutions.com Head Office 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London, W6 0GY, UK Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 publisher@thetablet.co.uk Editorial Board Ashley Beck, Maureen Glackin, David Jones, John Lydon, Káren North, Gerald O’Collins SJ, Thomas O’Loughlin, Paul Rowan, Lynne Scholefield, Anthony Towey, Peter Tyler, Clare Watkins, Natalie K. Watson, Anthony Wilcox. © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited ISSN1748-362X www.thepastoralreview.org

In the seasonal liturgies covered by this edition of the Pastoral Review, the Church will not only celebrate Holy Week, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, but beautiful feast days such as Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and the Feast of Peter and Paul. Rich fayre indeed, and adorned still further by the garlanded pieties of May, the month of Mary.

It was Hans Urs von Balthasar who referred to such things as the ‘Petrine’, ‘Pauline’ and ‘Marian’ elements of the Church. In so doing he identified ‘institution’, ‘mission’ and ‘charism’ as respectively capturing elements constitutive of its nature. Along with aspects such as the ‘Johannine’ (contemplative love) and ‘Jacobine’ (tradition), von Balthasar describes an ecclesiology that connects persons with principles and roots theological imagination in the example of lived lives.

So much for theological depth. Skittered by growing up to the music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger et al., I can never think of the biblical Peter, Paul and Mary without recalling the popular folk trio of the same name. Along with the aforementioned luminaries, they closed the 1963 Newport Folk Festival with an arms-linked rendition of ‘We shall overcome’. Taken at the height of the Civil Rights movement, the activism and optimism of the musicians is captured in iconic photographs of the finale, a collective nonviolent defiance.

Yet the problem with getting older is that we can begin to think that if change is going to happen, it will be for the worse. These days the horsemen of the Apocalypse seem to be restless in the saddle as plague, famine and war dominate global news bulletins which, as I write, have announced that Mass has been cancelled throughout Rome until further notice. At the individual level, revered figures such as Jean Vanier have come under the microscope while leaders of political parties at home, and famous film makers abroad, have been brought to trial. The upshot is that we are rendered cynical not just by the intractable nature of national and international problems, but by our own personal failures and those of our supposed betters. Where once we shamed the world, we are now shamed by it, constraining us as Church to the muted aim of survival, hopefully with a minimum of fuss.

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