What is it with Archbishop Leo Cushley ? Printed in this week’s ‘Tablet’ is his absolutely brilliant Episcopal Christmas message, in which he compares Advent to the film ‘Ice Cold In Alex’ with a flair and insight which Gerard Manley Hopkins himself would have applauded. But he featured last week in a Glasgow newspaper, sitting, as one does, on a large map of his archdiocese with eight children, two of them in the middle of the Forth. He was about to undertake a tour of the archdiocese to tell the people how he was going to remove their churches. He emphasised the necessity of creating ‘vibrant Christian communities centred on Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist’.
Now we always believed that words were important in the world of diplomacy, even presumably in the world of ‘Vatican diplomacy’, a concept about as difficult to grasp and as sensible as ‘naval landscape gardening’. Archbishop Cushley was a Vatican diplomat.
Firstly, do you create communities by closing their churches?
Secondly, he speaks , as he has done recently in a similar context, of the importance of the Eucharist. But at the moment the Eucharist is largely provided by the Tridentine priesthood. The entire world knows that the Tridentine priesthood is no longer able to do this effectively. The Pope, echoed by possibly as many as 9 British bishops and umpteen lay organisations worldwide have advocated extending ordination. Only one Scottish bishop reads Scotland’s only Catholic magazine , and who knows how many cross the street when they pass a shop selling ‘The Tablet’, the national Catholic magazine ,in case they are infected, both of which have added their voices to this. But wait a minute, Archbishop Cushley is a former Vatican diplomat. Surely he –of all Scottish bishops- must know that the Pope allowed the ordination of married men in the Eastern Church in January this year ? This would permit ‘vibrant communities centred on Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist’. And yet he does nothing about asking the Pope , as the Pope has suggested, to allow this in Scotland . Why not ?
But, of course, is even Archbishop Cushley anything more than a mere puppet ? Although the leading figure in our regional episcopacy, and even nominated as one of the hundred most important people in this neck of the woods, Canon Law – of 1917, we remind you, and not AD 37- says that the boss is Archbishop Mennini, Nuncio to Great Britain. He and all the other bishops in Britain jump when the Nuncio cracks the whip. Actually when one thinks about it –why? What can a mere Nuncio do against the tide of world opinion ? Really do? Confiscate their palliums? Ceremonially snap their crosiers ? Bash in their mitres?
Archbishop Mennini ‘s ‘family has strong links with the Holy See’ (Wikipedia). He was ordained by a cardinal, and consecrated by another. His father was managing director of the Vatican Bank at a bad time. Yes, that time. After a degree (theology) he entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1981. It will soon be the fifth anniversary of his appointment as Nuncio to Great Britain, and the second of his being sent a letter with registered delivery many months ago by ‘ To Feed The Flock’, to which he has still not replied.
The Nuncio is obviously Curia to the bone. He and his associates must surely see , even if Archbishop Cushley is apparently unable to do so, that we cannot follow Christ’s Eucharistic imperative if its provision is only by the Tridentine priest, and that the Eastern Church has shown us the way to go ?
Why can’t we have ‘vibrant communities centred on Jesus Christ and the Holy Eucharist’ not just in Edinburgh but all over the world ?