Peter Costello
Cardinal Vincent Nichols Faith Finding a Voice
by Cardinal Vincent Nichols (Bloomsbury, £12.99)
The new book by the Cardinal Archbishop of London will undoubtedly find a wide audience. How encouraging it is, too, that a senior prelate sees it as part of his mission to devote time to composing such a book. It does not happen everywhere.
His hope is for the emergence in our present day society of a more informed and compassionate Church, a hope shared widely by many.
“We are asked,” he writes, “to be both creative and imaginative, in order that Faith may find in our time its true voice: the voice of love.”
However, the book is no easy read. It calls for quiet reflective attention and thoughtful understanding.
The book falls into four parts. The first part lays a ground work in the revelation of God and the mystery of Christ. Here, for instance, a Renaissance altar piece is used as an image to promote our understanding of a sense of mission.
The second part deals with education and life, not so much in a mere social sense, but in the sense of life in communion with the divine.
He draws here on the insight of the Venerable Bede and St John Henry Newman.
Dialogue
The third part reflects on religious dialogue between Catholics and other Christians, and with those of other faiths.
In chapter eight, for instance he recounts his personal experiences of Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham, the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem, and the Catholic Community in Gaza – three instances of dialogue in difficult situations, the outcome of conflict of long standing.
The importance of caritas, one of the four kinds of love, that loving concept of charity (which seems to be so often misunderstood) as part of the hope of all humanity, is emphasised.
However, much of what is discussed and reflected on in these early parts, find its summary in the fourth part which deals with the ministry of the Church in the modern world from the Papacy down through the bishops, priests, deacons, and those in consecrated life to the People of God, to the laity, those on whom the whole structure actually rests.
Throughout the book the Cardinal advocates the “necessity of theological and religious literacy for the common good of society”.
Though the Church may seem to be working through a framework which functions, or seems to function, it has also to work in the “real world” in which many find that religion seems to be at a discount.
The emphasis is on what the individuals can do, on their identity as “missionary disciples”. All too often many seem to think the hierarchy will solve it, while others think that only a return to the 12th Century will save a world which hardly knows what happened 30 years ago.
The Cardinal does not make light of what faces people of Faith. That their calling was ever an easy one is an illusion. They must work with their family, their friends, and the neighbours, but mostly with those who may have no Faith at all in the past, the present, or indeed the future.
That voice of love of which he speaks, will become the important voice, hopefully, for Catholics can only live out the matters of Faith with a hopeful heart and a sense of the fullest charity.
Caveat
A caveat might be entered: One feels that this book has been put together from articles and talks made over recent years, pulled together by a common theme. But the presentation of his ideas might have been better served if it had been made into three shorter, more impactful books.
Certainly the last part, focused on the ministry of the Church, might well stand alone.