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THE TABLET THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY FOUNDED IN 1840 ASYLUM SEEKERS THIS IS A SHAMEFUL WAY TO TREAT MIGRANTS Looking out to sea from the Port of Dover, it is possible to discern the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” of the retreat by Britain from the civilised and humane treatment of migrants. Hundreds have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year, often no more than frail rubber dinghies with outboard motors, in a desperate effort to stand on British soil. The government increasingly sees it as its duty, doubtless presuming the backing of public opinion, to thwart them by any lawful means, including using the Royal Navy to intercept them. It has even contemplated opening concentration camps for them on remote Atlantic islands. Such an attitude is shameful and unworthy of the United Kingdom. In order to qualify for the right to claim asylum, migrants have to be physically present on dry land. This is a peculiar quirk of international law that the UK, and many other countries, have ruthlessly exploited. The goal it sets for the authorities is to turn these boats back before they reach the shore. Halfway across the Channel they leave French territorial waters and become the UK’s responsibility. In a submission to the House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs, the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales spoke up for human decency when it stated: “The current tendency to suggest that people should remain in France, Greece or other supposedly ‘safe countries’ is oversimplistic and ignores the lived realities of those risking their lives to reach our shores.” Coercive measures will only increase the dangers, not reduce the flow. The Catholic Church has had a particular experience of immigration, not only from Ireland but from Poland and other Eastern European countries. It is therefore uniquely placed to bear witness to the “… turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery …”, to use another phrase from Matthew Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach”, that generates migration flows in the modern world. There is nothing in sight that will subdue them, which makes the British effort in the English Channel seem particularly fatuous and misconceived. In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti Pope Francis hits the nail on the head: “No one will ever openly deny that [migrants] are human beings, yet in practice, by our decisions and the way we treat them, we can show that we consider them less worthy, less important, less human. For Christians … this sets certain political preferences above deep convictions of our faith: the inalienable dignity of each human person regardless of origin, race or religion, and the supreme law of fraternal love.” The alternative to the dangerous game of cat and mouse between rubber dinghies and government patrol boats, as the bishops explain, is simply to allow asylum claims to be registered abroad. Those accepted would then have a safe and legal route into the UK, which can be properly managed in a dignified way. The man given the job of turning migrants’ boats back is former Royal Marine officer Dan O’Mahoney. He recently told The Daily Telegraph: “The vast majority of people seeking refuge in the UK are genuine asylum seekers. And they come from incredibly difficult conditions in the country … and I have a huge amount of sympathy for that.” The point is they are no “threat” to anyone. So why not let them claim asylum in Britain without having to face this dangerous passage across the open sea? SCHOOLS AND COVID-19 ANOTHER CHANCE MISSED FOR EXAM RETHINK The government is in trouble over its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the country is in trouble too, partly as a result. Nothing illustrates this better than the announcement that next year’s A-level and GCSE examinations in England are to be postponed by three weeks, so that pupils can catch up on time lost due to the closure of schools as a precaution against coronavirus. But they were not closed for three weeks; it was more like six months. This situation has all the makings of another government fiasco leading to another U-turn. The announcement ignored advice from head teachers and other experts. Once again the educational establishment is treated not as people who know what they are talking about but as a special interest with hidden motives. The announcement presupposes that the disruptive effects of the disease will be more or less over by next summer, which is wishful thinking. This autumn’s “second wave” has already arrived quicker than expected: Covid-19 is not a predictable enemy. This uncertainty refers not only to the new examination timetables but to the many months leading up to them, when schools may well face increasingly severe interruptions. So with the disruption of schooling as inevitable as it is unpredictable, next summer’s exam results are more likely to reflect a school’s more or less random experience of the virus than to be a fair test of the academic ability of its pupils. The impact will be even greater on pupils at state schools – whose education has suffered disproportionately since the beginning of the pandemic. It seems an opportunity for fresh thinking has been missed again – for instance, there is increasing questioning in the educational world of the usefulness of the entire GCSE system. With children staying on until they are 18, why measure their performance at 16 as well as two years later? There is also a growing consensus that statutory primary school tests – the Sats – are not helpful at age seven, and not much better at 11. Year Two Sats are due to be abolished in 2023 anyway. Why persist with them now? And what are the Year Six Sats for, exactly? Are they to assist secondary schools evaluate and sort their intake by ability, or are they to encourage competition between local primary schools by publishing league tables? Are they indeed part of a marketisation agenda by previous Conservative governments – when markets had the answer to everything – that has passed its sell-by date? What relevance do they have in a world struggling to cope with the unpredictable impact of a dangerous pandemic? Is the government even aware that these questions exist, or does it insist on behaving as if the world can soon be put back to how it was the day before yesterday? 2 | THE TABLET | 17 OCTOBER 2020
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PHOTO: CNS/VATICAN MEDIA Pope Francis talks with Australian Cardinal George Pell, former prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy 28 COLUMNS Melanie McDonagh’s Notebook ‘When you work somewhere for a long time, you end up sharing a little of its identity’ / 5 Sara Maitland ‘The devotion to the Fourteen Holy Helpers was established in response to the plague’ / 8 REGULARS Poetry 15 Word from the Cloisters 16 Puzzles 16 Letters 17 The Living Spirit 18 The Ethical Kitchen 34 Glimpses of Eden 34 CONTENTS 17 OCTOBER 2020 // VOL 274 NO. 9373 FEATURES 4 / When Catholicism no longer matters Does President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court face similar bigotry to that which John F. Kennedy had to overcome in 1960? / BY MICHAEL McGOUGH 6 / The Tablet Interview: Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow The founder of Mary’s Meals talks about the roots of the organisation and explains why charity is an act of love / BY PETER STANFORD SPECIAL REPORT: EDUCATION 10 / What does ‘good history’ look like? Students and educators at Catholic schools and universities are shaping teaching so that it better reflects the lives of their students / BY HILARY M. CAREY 11 / Making Black history matter The Catholic Association for Racial Justice works in partnership with Catholic schools / BY SUDDIE KOMBA-KONO and YOGI SUTTON 12 / The teacher who inspired me Brother Jerome was my teacher, my role model, and my friend – I am a lucky man to have known him / BY FERGAL KEANE 14 / Silent witness Fratelli Tutti is a powerful reimagining of the human predicament as a shared opportunity. Yet the experiences of women are neglected / BY LIZ DODD NEWS 27 / The Church in the World / News briefing 28 / Pell has private audience with Francis 30 / View from Rome 31 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 32 / Bishops oppose use of Navy against refugees COVER PHOTO: © CHRIS O’DONOVAN ARTS / PAGE 20 Music The Poor Clares of Arundel JOANNA MOORHEAD Radio Goodbye to All This D.J. TAYLOR Theatre Talking Heads MARK LAWSON Television Imagine: Marina Abramovic LUCY LETHBRIDGE BOOKS / PAGE 23 Christopher Bray The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? MICHAEL J. SANDEL Head Hand Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century DAVID GOODHART A.N. Wilson Crime round-up Karin Altenberg The Gospel of the Eels: A Father, a Son and the World’s Most Enigmatic Fish PATRIK SVENSSON 17 OCTOBER 2020 | THE TABLET | 3

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PHOTO: CNS/VATICAN MEDIA

Pope Francis talks with Australian Cardinal George Pell, former prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy 28

COLUMNS

Melanie McDonagh’s Notebook ‘When you work somewhere for a long time, you end up sharing a little of its identity’ / 5 Sara Maitland ‘The devotion to the Fourteen Holy Helpers was established in response to the plague’ / 8

REGULARS Poetry 15 Word from the Cloisters 16 Puzzles 16 Letters 17 The Living Spirit 18 The Ethical Kitchen 34 Glimpses of Eden 34

CONTENTS 17 OCTOBER 2020 // VOL 274 NO. 9373

FEATURES

4 / When Catholicism no longer matters Does President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court face similar bigotry to that which John F. Kennedy had to overcome in 1960? / BY MICHAEL McGOUGH

6 / The Tablet Interview: Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow The founder of Mary’s Meals talks about the roots of the organisation and explains why charity is an act of love / BY PETER STANFORD

SPECIAL REPORT: EDUCATION

10 / What does ‘good history’ look like? Students and educators at Catholic schools and universities are shaping teaching so that it better reflects the lives of their students / BY HILARY M. CAREY

11 / Making Black history matter The Catholic Association for Racial Justice works in partnership with Catholic schools / BY SUDDIE KOMBA-KONO and YOGI SUTTON

12 / The teacher who inspired me Brother Jerome was my teacher, my role model, and my friend – I am a lucky man to have known him / BY FERGAL KEANE

14 / Silent witness

Fratelli Tutti is a powerful reimagining of the human predicament as a shared opportunity. Yet the experiences of women are neglected / BY LIZ DODD

NEWS

27 / The Church in the World / News briefing 28 / Pell has private audience with Francis

30 / View from Rome 31 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 32 / Bishops oppose use of Navy against refugees

COVER PHOTO: © CHRIS O’DONOVAN

ARTS / PAGE 20

Music The Poor Clares of Arundel JOANNA MOORHEAD Radio Goodbye to All This D.J. TAYLOR Theatre Talking Heads MARK LAWSON Television Imagine: Marina Abramovic LUCY LETHBRIDGE

BOOKS / PAGE 23

Christopher Bray The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? MICHAEL J. SANDEL Head Hand Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century DAVID GOODHART A.N. Wilson Crime round-up Karin Altenberg The Gospel of the Eels: A Father, a Son and the World’s Most Enigmatic Fish PATRIK SVENSSON

17 OCTOBER 2020 | THE TABLET | 3

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