The Wise and the Wherefores

Ruth Gledhill and Christopher Lamb discuss the appointment of Argentinian Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and what this means for the synodal and other reforms of Pope Francis. Read more about Christopher’s chat with the Archbishop in The Tablet.

https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/23316/francis-finds-his-striker-cardinal-designate-v-ctor-manuel-fern-ndez⁠.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a relic of the Bishop and Martyr, Saint Thomas Becket, a piece of his skull, was given to Northampton Cathedral by Monsignor George Talbot, a secretary to Pope Pius IX. He had received the relic from the bishop of Veroli, Bishop Mariano Venturi. In a letter written in period Italian, from Bishop Venturi to Mgr Talbot in 1852, Venturi says it is is a relic of the ‘glorious bishop and martyr Thomas Becket’. It also mentions the ‘cranium’ that the relic resembles, therefore leading to beliefs that this is part of the skull of St Thomas Becket.  Veroli is in the Provence of Lazio, Italy and today is the diocese of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino. 

This weekend, the Becket Festival is being celebrated in Northampton. The Papal Nuncio to Great Britain, Miguel Maury Buendia, is making a pastoral visit to the diocese. St Thomas Becket’s feast day is at the end of the year, however the festival is being held in the summer in order to coincide with the Feast of the Translation of the Relics of Thomas Becket on 7 July. This year it will also include the blessing of the St Thomas Centre, Northampton’s new diocesan centre.

The festival will conclude with the Becket Lecture in the St Thomas Centre. Dr Judith Champ will deliver the lecture titled, ‘The complicated saint: Thomas Becket and English Catholics’. 

The Translation of the Relics of Thomas Becket refers to 7 July 1220, when due to both popular demand from pilgrims wishing to access the burial site of the Martyr and also a fire, the relics of Saint Thomas were moved to a more appropriate shrine in the main body of Canterbury Cathedral, where they were at the time.

So why Northampton? And how?

In this latest Tablet podcast, Fr Andrew Coy, private secretary to Bishop of Northampton David Oakley, is in conversation with Tablet assistant editor Ruth Gledhill in a bid to unravel the ‘martyr mystery’ of St Thomas Becket, his terrible murder at Canterbury and how he and his relics came to be associated with Northampton.

For more information about the weekend please click here 

Professor Myriam Wijlens is a theologian and church lawyer who is playing a pivotal role in advising the global synod process. She understands church reform: how it happens, what is possible, and what isn’t possible and was one of the first women called to be involved in the synod organising committee.

In this episode, she takes me through what has happened in the synod so far, including the groundbreaking reforms Pope Francis made to allow women to vote in the forthcoming October assembly. Myriam, a Dutch theologian who teaches in Germany, explains that this change did not come about in a vacuum but is a natural next step given the involvement of women in the synod so far.

The significant shifts in the synod, she says, are taking place in the way the church is making decisions and in reforms to its internal culture, moving away from a top-down model, to a bottom-up approach. A novelty of the synod, Myriam stressed, is that it started at the grassroots, of “where people live their faith.” 

During our discussions, she also addressed the questions of the German synod and the possibility of female deacons but emphasised that reforms had to take place in a gradual, step-by-step manner. 

“A change is coming about, and it’s a change in mentality,” she says. “Did anyone expect in October 2021 that 18 months later that women could vote in the next synod? It’s quite something.” 

Finally, addressing some of the fears and scepticism about the synod, particularly from those in the hierarchy, Myriam stressed that the “bishops who have stepped into the process, and walked with the people, now feel that this has been an enrichment for the way they exercise their episcopal ministry.” She offers some great insights throughout our discussion.

This podcast series is sponsored by the Centre for Catholic Studies at the University of Durham.

Producer: Silvia Sacco

Editor: Jamie Weston 

In this Tablet podcast, assistant editor Ruth Gledhill talks to Dr Natalie Watson, theologian and editor, about the coming Tablet trip to Turkey, where classical civilisation can be found alongside the sites of the earliest Christian churches along with the locations of some of the earliest and most significant events of the early Church.

We start with three nights in Istanbul, one of the world’s greatest cities, visting sites such as the grand Byzantine basilica Aya Sofya, often called Hagia Sophia, and the Ottoman sultans’ lavish Topkapı Palace. We take a guided stroll in the Grand Bazaar and have a traditional coffee tasting and ponder the spiritual adventure ahead, and enjoy the views from our Bosphorus cruise.

We then travel through the countryside visiting the sites of the Seven Churches of Revelation. These churches were real, physical congregations when the Apostle John wrote this last book of the Bible around 95 AD. While in Patmos, John was seized by the Holy Spirit and received prophetic visions from Christ instructing him to: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea”

We will also visit the bright-white terraces of Pamukkale, the warm mineral water that flows through them being the basis for the ancient spa city of Hierapolis. Then, we finish with three nights in Cappadocia, a geological wonderland in the centre of Turkey. The history of early Christians in Anatolia comes alive at the Göreme Open-Air Museum and the other cave churches and underground cities scattered around the valley.

For more information on The Tablet trip to Turkey in September, visit McCabe Pilgrimages or email [email protected] quoting TabTurk2.

For more information on The Tablet trip to the Holy Land and Jordan in November, email [email protected].

Our panel here is hosted by Ruth Gledhill, The Tablet’s Assistant Editor, and consists of Dr Michael Hahn and Dr Eleanor McLaughlin who run the MA programmes in Christian Spirituality and in Theology, Imagination and Culture, respectively, at Sarum College in Salisbury. Michael is a medieval theological historian working on the early Franciscan mystical traditions, and Eleanor is a theologian working on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and disability theology.

In this webinar, the speakers examine the works of St Francis of Assisi and establish how useful they are in conversations about the Church, theology and faith today.

Dr Michael Hahn explores Francis in his own time and introduce themes of disability, ecology and art in the early Franciscan tradition

Dr Eleanor McLaughlin discusses how Francis’s writing on these themes fit into modern theological studies of these topics.

Ruth Gledhill, assistant editor of The Tablet, talks to Dr Ruth Segal and Dario Kenner of Cafod about the recent report, Sowing the seeds of poverty: how the World Bank harms poor farmers.

The report accuses the World Bank of promoting agricultural models that benefit large-scale agribusiness at the expense of poor farmers, arguing that id demands “regulations and laws that support the expansion of commercial markets for hybrid seeds and chemical inputs”, forcing poorer nations to purchase seeds and fertilisers from global corporations.

Dr Segal is Cafod’s food systems lead analyst. She has worked on food and agriculture issues, both in the UK and internationally, for more than 25 years and is an expert on global food systems and seed systems. 

Mr Kenner is lead analyst for sustainable economic development at Cafod. He is an expert on the World Bank and debt within the Global South. He has published numerous research papers on the subject and regularly gives evidence at parliamentary select committees. 

A news story about the report published in The Tablet can be read here.

Ruth Gledhill, assistant editor of The Tablet, talks to Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of international school feeding charity Mary’s Meals. Mary’s Meals grew out of a charity called Scottish International Relief, which was set up after Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow and his brother Fergus took aid from their home in Argyll to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992, during the conflict. The global Mary’s Meals campaign was born in 2002 when Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow visited Malawi during a famine and met a mother dying from AIDS. When he asked her eldest son, Edward, what his dreams were in life, he replied simply: “To have enough food to eat and to be able to go to school one day.” Mary’s Meals feeds 2,429,182 children every day at school in 18 countries, across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Listen now to find out what happened to Edward, how thousands of children and communities are being helped and more about the incredible story behind the foundation and ongoing success of Mary’s Meals.

A three-year ‘synodal’ process is taking place in the Catholic Church that culminates in two Synodal gatherings in Rome in October 2023 and a year later in 2024. The overall theme is “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission”.  Christopher Lamb hosts this live webinar where he reflects on where the synodal discussions are leading the Catholic Church with guests Dr Elissa Roper, a theologian specialising in synodality in the Catholic Church based on Australia;   Vimal Tirimanna CSsR, Professor of Moral Theology at the National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka, Kandy, Sri Lanka and the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy, Rome and Christina Kheng, A lay person from Singapore, who teaches pastoral leadership at the East Asian Pastoral Institute in Manila.  She was called by the pope to be part of the Commission on Methodology that is accompanying the Synod’s work.

Leadership in uncertain times

Credible leadership is a critical feature of the synodal journey with Catholics across the globe calling for lay women and men to be more involved in decision-making. The synod is pointing to a renewed model, away from the top-down, command and-control style of the past to one which includes diverse voices and charisms in forging the future mission of the Church.

In this episode, Christopher Lamb talks to Lord McDonald, who was in charge of the British Diplomatic Service from 2015-2022, about his new book Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy. Lord McDonald looks at what makes for a successful leader today and how to navigate the unprecedented scrutiny and pressures experienced by those in senior roles.

Pope Francis has emphasised that the synod listening process must “pass beyond the 3 or 4 per cent that are closest to us” and “broaden” its range. The interview with Lord McDonald took place in that spirit, with the former ambassador talking about how he grew up as a Catholic, although he is no longer an active member of the Church. 

Nevertheless, he offers some fascinating insights into the reform process that Francis has begun, reflecting on the complexities of reforming a historic institution and his experiences in seeking a fairer representation of women in the Foreign Office. When it comes to leading, however, some things remain the same. Lord McDondald points out that good leaders have the courage to make bold decisions, stay humble, operate with a clear authority structure and have a strong team around them. 

This podcast series is sponsored by the Centre for Catholic Studies at the University of Durham.

Executive Producer: Silvia Sacco 

Editor: Jamie Weston 

How can we decide a fair allocation of healthcare resources during a pandemic?

Hosted by Dr Sarah Walsh of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, this event features contributions from Dr David Kirchhoffer, Director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre at Australian Catholic University; Dr Bernadette Tobin, Acting Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and Reader in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University and Prof. David Albert Jones MA (Cantab) MA MSt DPhil (Oxon) FHEA, Director, Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Professor of Bioethics, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, Research Fellow, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, Vice-Chair, Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee.

This podcast was sponsored by Australian Catholic University.