I had a friend in the Manchester Jewish community who used to discuss with me which paper was more hostile towards Israel, the Church Times or the Tablet, which is Catholic. I used to opt for the latter, but my friend did have a point. Their generally sympathetic articles on Judaism as religion had to be balanced against their generally negative stance towards the six million Jews who now live in Israel.
Despite all this, In 2005 I wrote to the Tablet's editor, Catherine Pepinster. She had just appeared on a ridiculous BBC TV programme (which I think has now been axed) The Heaven and Earth Show (the title says it all). She had been attacked mercilessly on air by a fatuous guy who didn't like the Pope's Encyclical on Love. It dawned on me then that Catholics in Britain really are regarded with suspicion by many, even though the Director General of the BBC is currently a practising Catholic himself. And even though the former Prime Minister has recently gone over to Rome.
This lack of complete ease with Britain is obvious from reading the Tablet. It is probably the most intellectually stimulating, as well as spiritually aware, paper of all those I'd been asked to peruse by the UK Jewish community. And if Judaism were purely a spiritual practice, with no history of nationhood, ethnicity, language or culture of its own, then the admiration and empathy demonstrated by the Tablet towards the Jewish community would probably be 100%, in keeping with the spirit of Vatican II and the steps made towards reconciliation by Pope John XXIII.
So I suggested to Catherine, whose Thoughts for the Day on BBC Radio 4 had always been (in contrast to many others), thoughtful, that maybe I could analyse the Pope's Encyclical from a Jewish point of view. And she agreed. The article was one of many written to celebrate the first anniversary of the Pope's first year in office and was published at Easter 2006. This is the full version, kindly reproduced on the Anglican Friends of Israel website:
http://www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,26/p,285/
And so, on the level of continuity between Judaism and Christianity as belief system, in which the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, somhow flowers into the New Testament, without any suggestion of hostility or opposition, the Tablet has much to recommend it.
But there is also the small question of the State of Israel, in which half the world's Jews now live. And this problem for Catholics, as exemplified by this morning's BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day, is a good example. For its author, Clifford Longley, is one of the leading Catholic journalists in Britain today. Not only is he a former religion correspondent of the London Times, but also editorial consultant to the Tablet, as well as a regular broadcaster on Radio 4. In today's broadcast, however, one can hear echoes of the strange ambivalence felt by the Tablet itself towards the modern State of Israel, in contrast to the praiseworthy lack of ambivalence that it seems to feel for Judaism, defined in its narrowest, 19th century terms, as a religion practised quietly and unobtrusively in the home, but not in the outside world.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20080114.shtml
There's a great deal in this broadcast which is factually inaccurate. But that's for another blog, maybe, or this link might help:
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=43222
But that apart, a perusal of the Tablet edition of January 5th, may give us a clue to the misunderstandings that Catholics still have of Jews:
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/issues/1000081
It's first leading article is a wake-up call to the large Polish Catholic minority now resident in the UK. They must not emulate the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in cutting themselves off, and:
Cardinal Glemp [of Poland] ... is not entitled to disregard the consequences of a policy that could be harmful to British society.
Moreover, and even more fascinating:
Polish cultural and linguistic preferences can be accommodated in the short term, but in the long run this is not a good strategy
The Tablet is therefore encouraging all Catholics, including recent immigrants from Eastern Europe, to regard themselves as above all British. Great similarities there with the large early 20th-century influx of Russian Jews to Britain. The Jewish Free School frowned on Yiddish and the second and third generations very often became more English than the English.
Then, a really insightful piece on Pakistan, warts and all, which contrasts favourably with the accolades heaped on the late Benazir Bhutto by many other newspapers.
A sympathetic review of Tony Blair's conversion by Clifford Longley himself, with this seminal barb at the established church:
the Church of England continues to treat the whole nation as its parish
I'm not sure that's quite correct, but can understand why the Catholic Church might think it so. Research has shown, however, that parts of Greater Manchester and Lancashire are regarded by some in the Church of England as Muslim enclaves, which fascinate them, and which they contrast favourably with the stark lack of religion encountered in much of the remaining population. The question should therefore be asked: does the Church of England still know what it stands for? It's easier when you are a minority, of course.
An article on The Year Ahead by John Pontifex, 'Head of press and information for Aid to the Church in Need UK', includes this predictable if inaccurate assessment of Israeli (i.e. Jewish) views of Christians residing here. The tolerance and integration which can be encountered every day here in Israel are described by Pontifex as:
Israeli intolerance towards Christians and other Palestinians all over the Holy Land
Where do they get their information from, one wonders, or is it just something they make up to ingratiate themselves with ....
And then a surprisingly inaccurate account of how the Jewish year works. Any school pupil in Britain can now tell you, if they follow the national curriculum, that the Jewish calendar is lunar - up to a point. The calendar is altered every so often by adding a leap year, in order that Pesach takes place in the spring. This mistake in the Tablet strikes me as more than a mere mistake, however: it is there to make a point - a point which underlines the continuing Catholic ambivalence towards Judaism. For the writer states that:
The Church's Calendar is a holy marriage of [Jewish lunar and Roman, solar].
And then, in order to emphasize the Catholic Church's superiority over Judaism, he adds that, by contrast to Judaism,
The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; our religious feasts are not controlled by the Moon.
Precisely. Couldn't have put this view better myself. But it is Islam which is based on the lunar calendar, not Judaism. All the guy needed to have done is looked up this year's dates. Easter falls very early, but Pesach starts on April 19-20. It's one of those pesky leap years, you see!
And then a glorious tribute to Liverpool as European Capital of Culture. Written by the Tablet's supplement editor, Peter Stanford, himself from Liverpool. I heard him on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Programme today: he was great:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/sunday/index.shtml
What came over in both the BBC programme and last week's Tablet is that if the Irish hadn't made their great contribution to Liverpool Catholicism, Liverpool wouldn't be what it is. Which brings us right back to square one:
What is the real answer to the gradual influx of Poles to Britain? And what is the answer to the Tablet's ongoing misunderstandings of the entity called Israel?
Is it generic, or can it be cured?
I will continue to love receiving the Tablet in Haifa. A friend of mine sends it me weekly from Manchester University. It usually arrives on a Tuesday. Much of it is soothing and tranquil, and sometimes even wise. However, much of what isn't can be attributed to their incomprehension of the innermost being of Judaism, coupled with the overwhelming desire to empathize with Islam.
As for the Pope's encyclical, I still think it's a masterpiece and that the guy is steeped in the oral as well as the written teachings of Judaism. And it's great to realize that articles I've written for and letters I've penned to the paper have often resulted in lovely Catholics all over the world getting in touch.
The latest of these have been the Maronite Archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land, who lives a bus-ride away, and members of the Eckhart Society. Their annual meeting is held monthly in Oxford and as their guest in August 2001, I remember it being the most wonderful conference on earth.
Partly because of former priest and Celtic poet John O'Donohue, who has sadly just died. You can hear his voice on today's Radio 4 Sunday Programme, link above.
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