In Retrospect

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle

The Real Presence in our Day Godfrey Wilson It is an unfortunate fact, but a fact that must be recognised and reconciled, that many good and devout Catholics, both amongst those who have been Catholic from infant baptism as well as amongst many who have been drawn to the faith in later life, are experiencing dismay and anxiety at the many changes that their traditional and beloved forms of divine worship have undergone during the past five years since the Second Vatican Council. Some feel bereft of a solid foundation which had been the bedrock of their spiritual lives, others are bruised and hurt by the sudden and often illexplained dramatic changes which have affected them at their deepest level of consciousness – at the point where their own souls have for so long felt the healing balm of the finger of God. To deny this fact is to ignore the genuine bewilderment amongst so many loyal and holy Catholics. To ignore it is to be guilty of lacking that real compassion which we are to have for all men – ‘but especially towards those who are of the household of the faith’ … Some have fearfully voiced ‘demotion’ of worship of the unique presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament .. The Council insists that the tabernacle must still occupy a prominent and respectful place in the Church .. the main altar is for the Sacrifice; the tabernacle is for the reservation of the real presence of Christ which comes only from the celebration of that Sacrifice. It is in consequence of our private and public devotion to the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle that we are drawn into an ever deeper participation in the Sacrifice of the Mass … Let us then go forward to renewed devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament – confident and encouraged by the true Spirit of the Council. from the April 1970 Westminster Cathedral News Sheet ..... Fake News By the time this number appears, readers will have learnt that the irresponsible report, published in several morning papers on March 22, that the Cardinal had been taken seriously ill at Nice, was a false one. In order to check, if possible, the rumours that are being spread in reference to the Cardinal’s health with such reckless disregard of accuracy, we take this opportunity to state that His Eminence is not at Nice and is not suffering from disease of any kind whatsoever. He contracted a severe chill some time ago, and as this was aggravated by strain due to overwork, his doctor insisted upon a complete and prolonged rest from work in the south of France. At the time of going to press news comes that His Eminence has already greatly benefited by his enforced leisure. Varia The ‘Revelations of the After Life’, by the Rev Vale Owen, were so widely advertised that probably many readers even of this magazine so far succumbed to curiosity as to read one or more of them. As a matter of fact, these ‘Messages’ began in 1913, but, apparently, the Weekly Dispatch had sufficient ‘copy’ during the war to fill its pages. After giving examples of various descriptions of the other world put forth by different spiritualists, Fr Thurston SJ concludes his interesting article: ‘Three brief comments suggest themselves. The first is the remark that there must surely be something unhealthy, something stupefying about the atmosphere of Spiritualism which allows men of integrity and really first-rate abilities to swallow all this twaddle and to treat it as a serious contribution to our knowledge of religious truth … Secondly, I venture to affirm that the different accounts of life in the spirit world abound in contradictions of the most formal kind … the accounts which I have read seem to me to vary with almost every automatist. In some we have houses, in others, not; in some we have food, in others knowledge; in some the children are educated only in the seventh sphere, in others they may be found even in the second. Lastly, Mr Owen and Sir A C Doyle seem to exclude altogether the hypothesis that at least nine-tenths of the matter of spirit communications comes from the brain of the automatist himself or from that of those with whom he is intimately associated. When Professor Flammarian, the astronomer, began to practise automatic writing and found that his hand was continually writing out religious platitudes and astronomical speculations, signed “Galileo”, he had the good sense to see that all this rubbish, as he himself called it, came from his own subliminal consciousness. It is a great pity that Mr Vale Owen cannot be induced to look upon the matter in the same light.’ from the April 1920 Westminster Cathedral Chronicle