Cry, the beloved continent - Africa's Catholics must find their voice Matthew Kukah - Google Groups
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THE INTERNATIONAL 19 FEBRUARY 2022 £4.25
CATHOLIC WEEKLY www.thetablet.co.uk Est. 1840
Cry,
the beloved
continent
Africa’s Catholics must
find their voice
Matthew Kukah
07
9 770039 883271
Magdalene Kimani Joanna Moorhead Tina Beattie Laura Gascoigne
The religious sisters A Naples suburb The long shadow Francis Bacon:
eradicating FGM rises from the dead of eugenics man and beast
02_Tablet19Feb22 Leaders.qxp_Tablet features spread 15/02/2022 18:16 Page 2
THE TABLET
THE INTERNATIONAL
CATHOLIC WEEKLY
FOUNDED IN 1840
V
UKRAINE ladimir Putin gains nothing by invading Ukrainian independence in the face of Russian
ON THE BRINK Ukraine. But he gains some tactical success aggression, they now know that the Nato option is in
by threatening to do so, gains thrown away fact dead, though technically still possible. Putin’s
PUTIN in a day. Waging aggressive war is a crime
in international law, which Nazi politicians and
allegation that it represents a threat to Russian
security has always been fake news. Any Western
AND THE generals paid for with their lives at Nuremberg – on
indictments drawn up not just in Western capitals, but
politician who advocated sending Nato troops to
invade Russia, from a base in Ukraine, would be
RISK TO in Moscow. This is something for him to ponder.
Key to this dispute has been Putin’s desire to see
universally regarded as behaving unconscionably.
Putin is a martial arts expert and the Russians are
PEACE Ukraine returned to the Russian orbit or sphere of
influence. This quasi-imperialist goal was being
chess players, and in both contexts the way to victory
is to destabilise one’s opponent, so that, under
frustrated by Ukraine’s leaning towards the West, pressure, they lose. So far unity within Nato has held
which is as much about culture as it is about politics. firm, despite tensions over the right approach
Putin has failed to read the lesson from the collapse of between, say, the United States and France. Britain is
the Soviet Union and its satellites, which saw millions one crucial player in the anti-Putin alliance because
of people in Eastern Europe attracted not just by the City of London has been so very useful to the
Western consumer goods and lifestyle but by a model Russian oligarchy as a channel for money laundering
of freedom, democracy and human rights enjoyed and dodgy finance. Those are the people who
(more or less) by their Western neighbours. surround Putin, and a well-enforced programme of
The Soviet Union countered that by running what appropriate financial sanctions would hit them hard.
was in effect a series of police states across Eastern The battle for the soul of Ukraine could never be
Europe, with censorship, arbitrary arrests and a won by military occupation even if it succeeded short
climate of fear and suspicion – even assassinations. term. It is realistic to accept, however, that there are
This was never going to win hearts and minds. It is no parts of Ukraine on its eastern fringes that look more
surprise that Ukrainians do not want to return to that, to Moscow than to Kyiv. Putin now risks alienating
and Belarus next door is a warning. They had hoped them too, pushing them West-wards, culturally, by
that membership of Nato and maybe eventually of the trying to force them to the East. A more reasonable
European Union would guarantee them protection approach would be to democratise Russia itself, to
from encroaching Russian influence and power. make its model of human society more free and
From the way the few Nato military personnel on attractive. But then Putin’s own hold on power would
their territory have fled in the last few days, and the quickly slip away. His Ukrainian adventure is
obvious refusal of Nato countries to fight for ultimately more a sign of weakness than of strength.
W
POLICE ithout law and order in society, human scenario of a serving London officer kidnapping –
CULTURE life becomes “solitary, poor, nasty, using his powers of arrest – then raping and
brutish, and short” wrote Thomas murdering a young woman who had been walking
REFORM Hobbes in Leviathan in 1651, as
individuals engage in a “war of all against all”. This is a
home at night. Then came an official report into
misconduct at a central London police station, where
FOR THE nice contrast to Pope John Paul II’s declaration that
“all are responsible for all” in his encyclical Sollicitudo
homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and misogynist
attitudes had been treated as mere harmless “banter”
COMMON Rei Socialis in 1987. What keeps the latter from
slipping downhill into the former are those persons
among colleagues.
The report emphasised that such behaviour was by
GOOD and institutions committed to upholding the common
good by serving the cause of law and order, not least
no means confined to this small group of officers, and
what was needed in the police generally was a strict
the police. When they serve a narrow police interest policy of zero tolerance for all forms of misconduct, by
rather than the public interest, the good of society as a word or by deed. That zero tolerance also applied to
whole is threatened. police officers who witnessed or knew of such conduct
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who is also in others. Reporting it to senior officers was already
legally the police authority for the capital, made it required by the police code of conduct, but that rule
clear to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, appeared to be laxly enforced, if at all.
Dame Cressida Dick, that he had lost confidence in This is a deep cultural problem not easy to tackle,
her. Although she was not directly appointed by him because it requires the cultivation of a sensitivity that
but by the home secretary, the only police force in has not so far been part of police culture. Police
Britain where this applies, she felt she could not officers close ranks and ostracise those who “grass” on
continue, and resigned. In the wake of a series of very colleagues; officers have even been promoted after
damaging scandals in the Metropolitan Police, he had disciplinary offences have been proven against them.
asked her for a report on how she proposed to deal This is a serious institutional problem, not just a few
with them. The report in his view fell far short of what (or many) “bad apples” – the excuse offered by Dame
was needed, and he said so. He feared the police were Cressida. And it is a problem that concerns the whole
falling back into the “bad old days” of overt and of society, for it is to the police that the duty mainly
widespread racism in the ranks. falls of holding at bay the “war of all against all” that
But the particular issue in the headlines was not Hobbes predicted – or worse still, a war of the police
race but the safety of women, especially the nightmare against all.
2 | THE TABLET | 19 FEBRUARY 2022
03_Tablet19Feb22 Contents RN.qxp_Tablet features spread 15/02/2022 18:45 Page 3
PHOTO: ALAMY/FRIEDRICH STARK
Sr Ephigenia Gachiri, the nun
7 battling to eradicate female
genital mutilation in Africa
COLUMNS A R T S / PAG E 1 8
CONTENTS Religious art
19 FEBRUARY 2022 // VOL 276 NO. 9440 Chichester
Cathedral
F E AT U R E S PATRICK HUDSON
4 / Cry, the beloved continent Exhibition
Conflict, poverty and corruption have stifled Africa’s potential, yet the Church Francis Bacon
has been reluctant to involve itself in politics / BY MATTHEW KUKAH LAURA GASCOIGNE
Christopher
Howse’s Theatre
7 / Freeing women from a brutal tradition Wuthering Heights
Notebook
Campaigners around the world have welcomed Pope Francis’ condemnation of MARK LAWSON
‘Delay seems
FGM, sometimes known as female circumcision / BY MAGDALENE WANJIRU KIMANI
endless, just as Radio
when the phone 8 / Risen from the dead Heart and Soul:
rings as you are The Transgender
In a Neapolitan neighbourhood marked by poverty and organised crime there is a
making pastry’ / 5 Pastor
hidden treasure: its catacombs / BY JOANNA MOORHEAD D.J. TAYLOR
10 / The Tablet Interview: John Siddique
The Lancashire-born spiritual writer has turned away from the Catholicism of his
childhood, but says: ‘Jesus is what it is about’ / BY PETER STANFORD
B O O K S / PA G E 2 1
12 / Maude Petre’s way of faith
Tina Beattie
The intellectual independence of an English Catholic writer incensed the
Control: The Dark
hierarchy so much that she was denied the sacraments / BY JONATHAN W. CHAPPELL
Sara Maitland History and
‘If we can’t bless Troubling Present
sin, no one – and of Eugenics
so no human object ADAM RUTHERFORD
or act – should be Noonie Minogue
blessed ever’ / 14 Stalin’s Library:
A Dictator and
NEWS his Books
GEOFFREY ROBERTS
24 / The Church in the World / News briefing
Michael Glover
REGULARS
25 / Ukraine: appeal to the conscience of politicians Speed reading:
Word from
27 / View from N’Djamena poetry to brighten
the Cloisters 15 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing dark days
Puzzles 15
29 / Racism still blights our land says Archbishop Wilson A.N. Wilson
Letters 16
Crime fiction
The Living Spirit 17 COVER ILLUSTRATION: ALAMY/INGO MENHARD round-up
19 FEBRUARY 2022 | THE TABLET | 3
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FEATURES / The African Church
Conflict, poverty and corruption have stifled Africa’s potential in the post-independence era, yet the
Church has been reluctant to involve itself in politics. Now one of its most prominent voices argues it is
time for its leaders to urge Catholics to put their faith into action for a just society / By MATTHEW KUKAH
Cry, the beloved continent
C
PHOTOS: ALAMY
HRIS PATTEN’S shrewd and insight- ‘The Catholic Church
ful recent article in The Tablet on the produced a rather
Catholic Church’s mixed record as a rich harvest of
defender of democracy made me horrible dictators’:
wonder if Africa would be suffering from its top row (l-r) Mobutu
apparently interminable crisis of leadership Sese Seko; Robert
had Catholics – who make up such a vibrant Mugabe; and
part of the continent’s social and economic Mathieu Kérékou.
life – been encouraged to become actively Middle row: Paul
involved in politics. Catholics in Africa vote, Biya; Albert Bongo
of course. But there are rarely serious Catholic (later to convert to
politicians to vote for. Islam after visiting
I should say I’ve always liked Chris Patten, Libya and become
even though he became chairman of the Omar al-Bashir);
Conservative Party in 1990, when Margaret and David Jawara
Thatcher’s policies were having a corrosive (who also converted
effect on the poor and on foreign students to Islam and became
like me. Later, I thought he might launch a Dauda).Bottom row,
bid for the leadership of the party, and become Sédar Senghor (left).
Britain’s first Catholic prime minister. In 2003, Julius Nyerere
when I returned to the UK as a senior fellow excepted, ‘there
at St Antony’s College, Oxford, he was con- were hardly any
testing for the position of Chancellor. I voted Catholics with
for him and, when he won, two friends and credible records of
I celebrated his victory with a cheap bottle of governance’.
red wine over dinner.
The history of the Catholic Church in Africa
records the gallant struggles and self-giving
sacrifices of many brave young men and
women missionaries who came from Europe almost arbitrary – drawing of national Zimbabwe, Mathieu Kérékou in Benin, Paul
to light up the so-called “dark continent” with boundaries often created states with a frac- Biya in Cameroon, Albert Bongo (later to con-
the word of God. Inspired by the words of tured ethnic and religious landscape, vert to Islam after visiting Libya and become
Jesus, “I came that they may have life, and inhospitable to the tender seeds of democ- Omar al-Bashir) in Gabon, David Jawara
have it abundantly” (John 10:10), they pro- racy. Europe has struggled for centuries – (who also converted to Islam and became
vided schools and hospitals, and trained and sometimes still struggles – with the ideas Dauda) in the Gambia. Except for Sédar
teachers and nurses and doctors and other of free elections, of the orderly and peaceful Senghor in Senegal and Julius Nyerere in
professionals. They laid the foundation for transfer of power, of ruling with due regard Tanzania, there were hardly any Catholics
the management and professional elite that for the interests of every citizen, whichever with credible records of governance.
would emerge across Africa after indepen- political party they may support, of an inde- The cold war saw the United States frame
dence. But, despite the high moral standards pendent judiciary and of a sometimes global politics through the prism of a conflict
the missionaries set, those they taught, who awkward and critical free press. between liberal democracy and Communism.
went into politics, were to make a terrible job Unsavoury figures such as Mobutu, Mugabe,
of leading their people. WITH LITTLE experience or training, the first Biya and Co. consolidated their hold on power
What had happened? The focus of Catholic generation of African leaders had great dif- by posing as “friends of West”, protecting
education in Africa was on preparing young ficulties managing diversity. The notion of an Africa from the horrors of Communism.
men and women to be teachers or nurses or “opposition” to a ruling administration was Church leaders, academics, trade unionists,
doctors or engineers rather than political lead- new and alien to many cultures. In many lan- writers, artists, and civil society groups who
ers. They were trained to serve rather than guages, the closest synonym to “opposition” opposed them were banned, tortured or jailed
to lead. Catholics came to participate in politics was “enemy”. Post-independence politics was on the grounds that they were “Communist
more as voters than as candidates seeking to characterised by one-party rule and dictator- sympathisers”. Right up to the late 1980s,
be voted for. This reluctance to participate ships by “strongmen”, with state brutality Margaret Thatcher would refer to Nelson
more actively in politics has come at a great common and little acknowledgement of Mandela as the worst thing imaginable – a
cost to Africa in the post-colonial era, and human rights, including the right to challenge Communist.
not just to its Catholic citizens. the policies and competence of the ruling The collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989
The story has often been told of the chaos administration. caught the world by surprise and generated
left by the departing colonial powers, who The Catholic Church produced a rather a mixture of anxiety and excitement across
hurriedly tried to impose multi-party democ- rich harvest of horrible dictators: Mobutu Africa. There was talk of a “second liberation”.
racy in Africa. The artificial – sometimes Sese Seko in Zaire, Robert Mugabe in Many dictators were toppled and apartheid
4 | THE TABLET | 19 FEBRUARY 2022 For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk
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CHRISTOPHER HOWSE’S NOTEBOOK
collapsed. But human rights and freedom
were slow-burning candles. And the voice of
the Catholic Church was still heard, largely
Delay seems endless, just as
through the various joint statements and doc-
uments issued by local conferences of bishops,
when the phone rings as you
little noticed by most Catholics, and politely
acknowledged, at best, and then ignored by
politicians. Beyond these appeals, despite
are making pastry
their authority, the bishops did very little else
to give a sense of direction to lay Catholics,
or to stir them to be involved in politics. I’VE MANAGED to from the next drawer down from the
develop a stigma. I don’t grapefruit knife and useless plastic
THIS HAS created a problem. The Church’s yet run to stigmata. It measure, I set about the recalcitrant
focus on skills and training rather than on came about in an bottle top. It was not then that I cut my
political education, its disinclination to “take unexpected way. hand.
sides” in political debate outside a narrow I’d bought some nice white wine. Since
moral agenda, has meant that, for the most I don’t drink now, that was rather like I DID, THOUGH, catch a sound like a
part, African Catholics have not been equipped Helen Keller buying a parrot. No doubt shard of glass parting company from its
to act as a leaven working for justice in society. my simile will offend somehow. vitreous hinterland. By then, there was
In the struggle against apartheid, for example Everything seems to. If you make a light light at the end of the bottle and an
– except for the extraordinarily courageous remark about a statue falling over, adequate stream of wine was persuaded
Denis Hurley, the late Archbishop of Durban, someone will complain that their aunt to fall into a glass. I peered to see if it was
and other brave individuals – the Church blew was crushed by a statuette representing full of broken glass, and it wasn’t. My
a muted trumpet. Perhaps the presence of Commerce toppling on to her during guest seemed to enjoy the wine, unless it
patrician foreign missionaries and the sluggish repair works to the Albert Memorial in was an Oscar-class concealment of
promotion of indigenous priests to the hier- Manchester. ascesis.
archy delayed the injection of a sense of social Anyway, Helen Keller could not see the Only late that evening did I spy
responsibility. colours of a parrot, though she could feel something on the kitchen lino that
In 1995, I had the opportunity to visit South its feathers. She could not hear its matched the Photofit for a wine-bottle
Africa, and a meeting with Archbishop Hurley squawk, though she could detect shard. To check, I picked it up and put it
was at the top of my agenda. When I rang vibration in its throat. She would know in the palm of my hand and poked it. Not
and introduced myself, he immediately invited its bad-tempered nip in greedily only was it a shard but it was determined
me to his home for lunch. I was struck by the snatching a segment of orange from her to make one more bid for freedom, and
simplicity of a man I had admired since my fingers. It’s the same with wine and me. I plunged its sharp end into the flesh of my
seminary days. I listened to the stories of his can sniff it but have no inkling of its palm like a sand-eel burrowing out of
engagement with the apartheid government. balance or complexity, and I’m aware of reach of an approaching puffin.
I asked him why he took such serious risks the price. But I was too quick for it, and removed
when, being a white man, he could have sim- By credible report, the white wine I’d it to a happier place. This left me with a
ply laid low. His face lit up. “I wrote my bought was a bargain. Then someone problem that I had learnt about in
doctoral thesis on Catholic Social Teaching,” came to visit, which in these late Berwick-upon-Tweed, as I mentioned
he told me. “You cannot read the Church’s pandemic days is like finding bananas in last year. There, I had unintentionally
social teachings and remain the same.” a greengrocer’s in 1945. So they (and they smeared an artificial orchid blossom with
Perhaps it is ignorance of Catholic Social must mean “she”, or I’d have said he) were my own blood. And it wasn’t even my
Teaching – still neglected in many schools offered a glass of wine. orchid. That day, not as in the cliché that
and seminaries in Africa – that explains the In opening the bottle, the first surprise politicians always use, lessons really were
apparent coyness in speaking out about was that the metallic hood round the top learnt. I didn’t intend to smear
poverty, injustice and corruption. In some was tough, not the easy-peeler I was used everything to hand with coagulate gore,
cases, the leadership of the Church in Africa to. I’d lost the foil-cutter that usually rests and, providentially, found an old plaster
fell victim to seduction by smiling dictators undisturbed in a drawer next to the in another drawer. (We are a multi-
who wore their Catholic identity as medals grapefruit knife and a conical plastic drawer household.)
of honour, posing as defenders of the faith measure of unspecified volume and use. When I was young, plasters didn’t stick
but failing to see all their fellow citizens – Why don’t I throw them away? very well. They often fell off while stirring
Catholic or Protestant, Christian or Muslim Anyway, it would have been of no avail a stew, never to be found again. Modern
– as equally God’s children. to have found the foil cutter, as the foil on plasters stick like flexible limpets. The
this bottle was weapons-grade. I decided, spring of my heart’s blood was sealed, to
THE EMERGENCE of St John Paul II lit up without clearing the way, to plunge in my trouble no one till my stigma should heal.
the world and gave verve to Catholicism. heartiest corkscrew. It usually works a
Catholics walked with their heads high. The treat. But a preliminary screw into the IF MY GUEST had swallowed the shard,
clarity of his voice and his message shook the unknown, like a fracking experiment in then, like the gunman Hipolito in the
foundations of dictatorships around the world. Lancashire, revealed that there was no Mexican corrido or ballad of Rosita
The unforgettable images of his visits to his cork in the bottle. A mysterious white Alvirez, I should now be making my
homeland are reminders of how Communism covering was revealed. For all I knew it statement to the police, or, if sepsis had
in Europe was defeated by ideas of truth and was polyvinylidene chloride, a cousin of leapt into my wound, I
freedom taking hold in people’s imaginations. PVC, apparently used to make dolls’ hair. should, like Rosita
His speeches in Africa were deep, urgent, This plastic cap was hard to remove, herself, be giving my
insightful and humane. A historic Synod of but opening a bottle to give a drink to account to my maker.
Bishops for Africa in 1994 and the insightful someone already present demands a But neither happened, so
post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia dynamic response. Delay seems endless, I’m not.
in Africa threw a searchlight on a continent just as when the phone rings as you are
desperately in need of a moral compass. making pastry. Christopher Howse is an assistant editor of
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Grabbing a stout pair of iron pincers the Daily Telegraph.
For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk 19 FEBRUARY 2022 | THE TABLET | 5
04-06_Tablet19Feb22 Kukah Howse MH MT.qxp_Tablet features spread 15/02/2022 14:38 Page 8
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 into boiling cauldrons of violence. Alan Paton’s hunger, poverty, euthanasia, or homelessness.
When he visited Nigeria in March 1998, damning novel against apartheid should have Mere lamentation is not enough. African
we were still in the grip of the rule of Sani been titled “Cry, The Beloved Continent”. church leaders must seize this moment to
Abacha, and many activists were in detention Africa was scarred by brutality, exploitation encourage our people to embrace and defend
or in exile. On the eve of his arrival, a news- and slavery before the British, the French, democracy.
paper ran a screaming headline that read: the Portuguese and our other uninvited guests Chris Patten argues that for democracy to
“The Pope Our Last Hope!” In his final arrived. But colonialism left Africa wounded survive, it must deliver security and prosperity
address, he told Nigerians: “The children and by some of the most inhuman cruelty in for citizens, and the countries which bear its
young people of Africa must be protected human history. Leopold’s ghost left in its wake colours must demonstrate their faith in the
from the terrible hardships visited upon the a history of savagery of monumental propor- values of an open society. The four pillars of
thousands of innocent victims who are forced tions unprecedented in human history. That Catholic Social Teaching – the common good,
to become refugees, who are left hungry, or same cruel Belgian king was Catholic; he even the dignity of the human person, subsidiarity,
who are mercilessly abducted, abused, sponsored missionaries. Apartheid was built and solidarity – give the Church a programme
enslaved or killed. We must all work for a on that legacy of cruel exploitation of black around which it can unite all people of good-
world in which no child will be deprived of Africans and their wealth. will, and address Africa’s current malaise. If
peace and security, of a stable family life, of it is to protect and nurture the fragile flowering
the right to grow up without fear and anxiety.” TODAY, WE ARE witnessing the return of the of democracy in Africa, the Church must put
Abacha died three months later. But strange evil contagion of military coups as a response the energy and resourcefulness of its lay men
and sad to say, very little has changed. to increasing violence and economic insecurity. and women, and especially the energy and
Most Africans are still trapped between a In the last 12 months, there have been military intelligence of its young people, to sustained
rock and a hard place. Democracy has failed coups in Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina and productive engagement with the state.
to deliver its promised dividends of equal Faso. If this doleful trend is not arrested, more Africa’s future depends on it.
rights and opportunities, freedom and justice. African states will descend irreversibly into
Often, the military stole our freedoms and the abyss of military dictatorship. Matthew Hassan Kukah is
offered us little security and no development There is no political system without flaws, the bishop of the Diocese
in compensation. The generals’ cure proved but, as Churchill famously observed, democ- of Sokoto, Nigeria, and
to be worse than the disease of corruption racy is the worst form of government – except founder of the Kukah
they promised to end. The hopes and aspi- for all the others. Pope Francis has recently Centre, a policy research
rations of our people still hang languidly in warned that democracy in Europe is under institute based in Abuja
suspended animation. The wealth that lies threat; in Africa, it is hanging on by its finger and Kaduna. In December
under the ground – cobalt, bauxite, diamonds, tips. We cannot simply continue to issue state- 2020, Pope Francis
coltan, phosphate, aluminum, uranium, cop- ments calling for peaceful elections or appointed him as a member of the Dicastery
per, iron ore, gold – has turned many countries pronouncing on single issues such as abortion, on Integral Human Development.
2
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6 | THE TABLET | 19 FEBRUARY 2022 For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk
07_Tablet19Feb22 Kimani MH MT.qxp_Tablet features spread 15/02/2022 17:02 Page 7
FEATURES / Female genital mutilation
Campaigners around the world have welcomed Pope Francis’ condemnation of FGM, sometimes
known as female circumcision. They include women Religious who have been in the forefront of
those working with communities to eradicate the practice / By MAGDALENE WANJIRU KIMANI
ical nurses. In six months, she interviewed
Freeing women from 45 circumcisers and hundreds of women who
had been cut. Sr Ephigenia taught in Loreto
schools, which are known for providing the
a brutal tradition
best education in Kenya. Girls came from all
parts of Kenya; if they were from Samburu,
Maasai, Pokot, Kiambu, Kisii, Muranga, Embu
or other areas that practise FGM, they would
be circumcised by the time they had arrived
at secondary school. “I could only hope to
PHOTO: ALAMY, FRIEDRICH STARK save the next generation,” Sr Ephigenia says.
It took her three years to get all the per-
missions necessary from her congregation
and from Kenyan bishops in order to launch
her campaign to save women and girls from
FGM. In 1998, the Termination of Female
Genital Mutilation (TFGM) project was
founded. She now holds workshops for thou-
sands of children and adults each year.
THE PROJECT aims to free communities from
the fear of curses, myths and taboos, enabling
young women to celebrate and enjoy a full life.
It takes a holistic approach. The Sisters’ engage
teachers, community gatekeepers, young peo-
ple, local chiefs and lawmakers, ensuring that
FGM is addressed as a community-wide issue,
not a “women and girls” problem. There are
many groups acting to end FGM, but when
they enter into a community abruptly, or try
to whitewash its traditions, they achieve little.
Sr Ephigenia’s project has tried to create cul-
turally sensitive and informed alternative rites
of passage for girls – and, since discovering
I
N THE WORDS of Pope Francis, it is one Sr Ephigenia Gachiri speaks at a village in the that they also have issues transiting from child-
of the “wounds of humanity”. Speaking diocese of Nakuru, Kenya hood for boys – that prepare them for
in Rome on the International Day of Zero adulthood. It is hoped these young people will
Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation clinics, performed by medical professionals in turn reach thousands more in their com-
(FGM), he said: “This practice, which is unfor- using surgical instruments, under an anaes- munities so as to root out FGM. The Loreto
tunately common in various parts of the world, thetic. This trend is known as the Sisters have now set up The Abundant Life
humiliates the dignity of a woman and gravely “medicalisation” of FGM. Centre in Isinya, exclusively for FGM work.
attacks her physical integrity.” He urged leaders In Kenya, it is estimated that about one in Sr Ephigenia has seen a surge in the number
to act decisively to prevent it. four women and girls aged 15 to 49 has of women and girls being subjected to FGM
FGM (also called female circumcision or endured FGM. Although FGM has been a over the past two years, which she attributes
female genital cutting) ranges from removing criminal offence in Kenya since 2011, it has to the Covid pandemic. She discovered that
part of the clitoris, to removing part or all of proved hard to eradicate. In most practising over a two-month period, more than 30 mar-
the labia, to infibulation, which means sewing communities, it is considered a rite of passage, ried women in one Rift Valley village had
the vaginal opening together, leaving a small necessary for social acceptance and to improve involuntarily had their genitals cut and sewn
hole for the passage of urine and menstrual a girl’s marriage prospects. up. They were not girls being “circumcised”
fluid. Female genital cutting in various forms as part of a rite of passage – they were teachers,
has been practised in every continent on Earth. THE FIRST effort to eliminate the practice in parents, and even wives of chiefs.
The practice dates back thousands of years Kenya was made by Protestant missionaries “Recently I learnt that some men, threatened
and is reported to have been performed in in the 1920s. Until recently, the Catholic by their own impotence due to excessive alcohol
Egypt as early as the fifth century BC. In 2016, Church assumed a low profile on the issue. and drug use, have wanted to ensure their
Unicef estimated that 200 million girls and When Sr Ephigenia Gachiri IBVM, a Loreto wives are as incapable as themselves,” Sr
women alive today have been subjected to Sister, attended the UN Fourth World Ephigenia said last year. “Then there are the
one or more types of FGM in the countries Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, she communities that believe that men with uncir-
where it is practised, mostly in Africa and was shocked to learn about the extent of FGM cumcised wives should not become leaders,
parts of the Arab world. in Africa. She had grown up in a village in a driving those with political aspirations to harm
The World Health Organization estimates Kikuyu area where Anglican missionaries their wives. These beliefs are hidden and dif-
that up to 3 million women undergo the muti- were well established, and Christians were ficult to ascertain, but fear keeps them alive.”
lation in Africa every year, or at least 6,000 forbidden to practise FGM.
per day. In most countries, FGM is performed When she returned from Beijing, Sr Magdalene Wanjiru Kimani is a former
by traditional practitioners, but in some coun- Ephigenia interviewed the women who did teacher. She has been involved in the TFGM
tries it now takes place in hospitals and health the cutting, some traditional and some med- Project in Kenya for more than 20 years.
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FEATURES / Rione Sanità catacombs
A Neapolitan neighbourhood marked by poverty and organised crime had a hidden treasure: its burial
chambers. Thanks to an enterprising parish priest and his youth group, these are now a tourist attraction
and are also helping to redefine our ideas about the early Church / By JOANNA MOORHEAD
Risen from the dead
I
T’S DAWN in winter Naples, and I am characterised by unemployment, poverty and The catacombs of Rione Sanità, a district in
walking across the still-sleeping city. I’ve crime, with the Mafia-like Camorra holding Naples ‘even a local would regard as perilous’
just arrived from Rome: the Italian cap- sway.
ital is a thousand miles away – or might Now, though, there is light at the end of Gennaro extra Moenia (“outside the walls”)
as well be. No one would call Rome (140 miles what has been a very long tunnel; it centres and meet my guide for the day, Antonio Della
north, in fact) clean, ordered or straight- on a group of young Catholics who have spent Corte, who takes up the story. “Fr Loffredo
forward: but within 10 minutes of sliding into the last 15 years rejuvenating the area using believes art can change the world, and he
Napoli Centrale on the first train of the day, an asset that seems prodigiously apt: its knew this area has a wealth of cultural heritage
I know I’ve landed somewhere that takes catacombs. From death to life; from past to in the ancient catacombs – but it was all hid-
chaos, edginess and street-decked filth to new present; from buried history to contemporary den away, hardly seen by outsiders.” The priest
highs (or lows, if you prefer). success – the analogies abound. Because, in encouraged the youngsters in the church youth
The rubbish is piled up on every street short, the faith of a group of youngsters, both group to see the catacombs as not only their
corner; washing flutters from a sea of in their challenged neighbourhood and in future, but a new future for the area. “He
wrought-iron balconies above the cobbled their God, has led them to reimagine the encouraged us to travel, so we could see how
streets; and there’s a menacing edginess in catacombs that were Sanità’s oldest jewel. artistic heritage was used in other parts of
the sharp morning air. Colour and madness And now the tourists they have started to the world,” Della Corte tells me. “I was one
and danger, or the promise of them, explode attract are opening up a newer and much of those who travelled: I went to Paris, Madrid,
like the bursts of graffiti that embellish the rosier future for the area. Barcelona, Morocco, Israel. It opened my eyes
walls of every cat-strewn alley. So there’s It all began at the start of this century, when to how culture can help an area – it showed
trepidation in my step, since the area of Naples a priest called Antonio Loffredo arrived in me a world beyond Naples, but it gave me
I’m headed to is one even a local would regard Rione Sanità. Working with a church youth ideas about how to better use what we have
as perilous. group, Don Antonio soon realised that the in this city.”
Rione Sanità is a 30-minute walk north of main ambition of most of the area’s youngsters Sanità’s secret weapon was its underground
the centre. Back in the eighteenth century it – entirely understandably – was to get out. burial chambers dating back to the second
was affluent, thanks mostly to the existence In other words, the already destitute Sanità century: the geology of the local stone made
of the Bourbon palace of Capodimonte on was being further impoverished by the loss it easily workable for the creation of tombs
the top of the hill. But then in 1806 a new of its greatest asset, its young people. There which were located in what became a sub-
bridge was built that meant the well-off visitors had to be another way, Don Antonio thought terranean cemetery stretching deep into the
to the palace could bypass the area entirely, – both for the area, and for its youth. Capodimonte hillside. The first patron saint
and Sanità fell into a long-term decline I have now arrived at the Basilica di San of Naples, St Agrippino, was buried here, and
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in the fifth century the remains of another
Neapolitan patron, San Gennaro, also arrived.
Born in AD 272, San Gennaro died in 305 as
a Christian martyr: the first attempt to have
him killed failed, according to legend, when
the bears dispatched to see him off decided
to bow before him rather than tearing him
apart. He was successfully decapitated the
following day, but a phial of his blood was
preserved, and to this day the faithful of the
city gather three times a year to witness its
liquefaction. On the most recent date this
was due to happen, 16 December, there were
reports that it had remained solid; but after
what were described as intense prayers by
those gathered, the blood apparently flowed
freely in its tube.
The bodies of the two saints were far from
alone in the catacombs of Sanità: at least
3,000 corpses are believed to have been buried
here, Della Corte tells me as we descend into
the cave-like chambers. In most parts of Italy, A fresco in the catacombs depicts a woman, Mass and guided the community,” it says.
catacombs were no longer in use after around Cerula, who may have been a priest Nearby, Cerula is shown with arms raised in
the sixth century; in Naples, their use con- prayer, and above her hands are gospel texts
tinued: “This place was hugely significant: hauled; today, the catacombs are almost that academics and the guides here believe
the presence of the bodies of martyrs made Gaudí-esque, an undulating series of tunnels suggest she was a priest, and a person of learn-
it very important, and in the fifth century San and shadows, with shelves carved into the ing. “We know very little about her, but what
Gennaro was invoked to stop the lava from rocks where bodies once lay (the remains have we do know is that the location and art of her
Mount Vesuvius from enveloping the city.” now been removed and buried elsewhere). grave suggest she was a very important person
The catacombs, he explains, were far from a An attraction that in 2006 had 5,160 annual in the community,” says Della Corte. “The
neglected cemetery: people gathered there visitors, by 2018 had 129,830. way the texts are arranged suggests she could
for Mass, for baptisms, for The high point of the tour read the Word of God.”
community events. The dead for me was seeing the murals Covid has put a dampener on tourist num-
were never far away; they were ‘Even if the Church that suggest that women in bers to Sanità over the last couple of years, but
incorporated into the festivals still denies the the Early Church may have in 2019 there were 160,000 visitors, up hugely
and daily events of the living. priesthood to been functioning as priests. on the 5,000 or so of a few years earlier. When
Like all Italian catacombs, I’ve heard of images like these, the crowds return to Italy, Della Corte is
the burial chambers of Rione women, about 1,600 but I hadn’t realised there confident they will be back in their droves to
Sanità were under Vatican years ago women were some at Sanità. Two fres- the catacombs of San Gennaro and, he points
control, so the first job for Don
Antonio and La Paranza – the
celebrated the Mass’ coes in particular seem to
depict women priests; and you
out, it’s not only the burial chambers they will
visit. “What we’re seeing here is the growth of
cooperative he set up with the don’t have to be an art histo- all sorts of other businesses to cater for the
youth group – was to persuade the powers rian to see the relevance. Both images are tourists,” he says. “People come primarily to
that be in Rome to hand them over. Once very obviously of female figures, and both see the catacombs, but they stay for a meal,
this had been done, the youngsters of La have women’s names – Bitalia and Cerula – they look round the shops, they spend money.”
Paranza began to reimagine an attraction that written alongside. Bitalia is portrayed in There’s now even, he tells me proudly, a
was pulling in a few thousand visitors a year. prayer, and it’s the two copies of the gospel growing market for holiday accommodation
Some disused buildings beside the basilica open alongside her that give her particular in the area around the basilica. “And that’s
became a ticket office, a shop and a cafe; significance; according to the guide book, not something anyone in Sanità thought they’d
meanwhile underground, a team set to work these signal she was a priest. “Even if the be seeing, just a few years ago.”
cleaning the murals lining the subterranean Church still denies the priesthood to women,
cemetery. The lighting was completely over- about 1,600 years ago women celebrated the Joanna Moorhead is The Tablet’s arts editor.
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FEATURES / The Tablet Interview
ever, entertain such coyness and so an
encounter with him is strangely refreshing,
even liberating.
Elsewhere in our largely secular, sceptical
society discussing religious experience in the
raw, especially when done in everyday, non-
guru-like terms, can make the more
buttoned-up among us, even if believers, shuf-
fle awkwardly in our seats. Siddique, though,
speaks as he is – and as he writes in two new
books, a new verse collection So, his first in
ten years, and a self-help guide, Signposts of
the Spiritual Journey.
I want to hear more. With the benefit of
hindsight, how would he describe that blind-
ing flash of light? “As a kind of naked aliveness,
a wholeness of being, an experience of the
soul,” he replies, “something that is eternally
young and inspired and alive, and yet has this
dignity about it and sense of authority and
completeness to it.”
AS ONE WHO rejects any formal attachment
to a particular faith – “I move easily between
them,” he tells me - Siddique is a bit of a
stretch from the usual subjects of Tablet inter-
views. But his success – literary (he is in
London working with the Royal Literary Fund
as a member of the editorial board of
WritersMosaic) and as a teacher, with more
than two million people having downloaded
his online mediations – is one more aspect
of the contemporary drift away from the tra-
ditional believing-and-belonging approach
of institutional religion, and towards a more
individual, freelance search for spiritual mean-
ing. And, as he chronicles in verse and prose,
JOHN SIDDIQUE he is one of those who is living out that shift
in focus.
“The four of us children went to Catholic
schools in Rochdale,” he recalls. “My mum
was an Northern Irish Catholic, hard core.”
Finding
He doesn’t remember home as a happy place.
His Indian Muslim father eventually left.
“There was violence and social services. I was
a council estate boy. We were very poor.”
School wasn’t much better. “We were the
sanctuary only brown kids, so were on the sticky end of
your basic racism from both teachers and
other kids.” He says it in such a matter-of-
fact way. It was the 1970s, when such things
went unnoticed – though not by Siddique and
The Lancashire-born spiritual writer has turned away from others experiencing them nor, he adds, by his
the Catholicism of his childhood, but, he tells Peter Stanford, uncompromising mother. “She came to the
school and complained. ‘What colour was
‘Jesus is what it is about’. Our Lord?’ she asked one of the perpetrators.
When there was no answer, she pointed at
“I
me and said, ‘Same colour as him’.”
KNEW FROM the age of six,” says I used to resist. Now I allow myself to be
John Siddique, poet and sacred guided.” MORE GENERALLY, he remembers school as
teacher. “I was on a school swim- Unfiltered and unabashed talk of spiritual an environment where he felt completely iso-
ming trip to Rochdale public experiences and glimpses of God usually only lated. “The only sanctuary was the school
paths. I was only able to swim side-to-side, comes up in conversation after a long build- library. That is where, at 13, I came across
not lengths, but I liked going under the water. up of trust between participants, for example Stephen Levine’s A Gradual Awakening. It
That day when I came up to the surface there when on a retreat. But I have only just met was my first meditation book. I knew I wanted
was a blinding flash of light. The minute I Siddique for the first time, and we are sitting to do that.”
felt it, even at six, I’d always known. And I’ve on opposite sides of a table in the impersonal And has been ever since. Reading his
always known since.” environment of the British Library café in descriptions of meditation in Signposts – “the
Known what? “That God has not spared central London. The man opposite me in a place where you take time to access the great
me. In the years since” – it took place half a white collarless shirt and waistcoat with a nourishment of your life and soul” – it sounds,
century ago – “I have had to learn from things. neatly trimmed tash and beard does not, how- I suggest, very similar to prayer. “I see no dif-
10 | THE TABLET | 19 FEBRUARY 2022 For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk10-11_Tablet19Feb22 Stanford Siddique EP sub CH.qxp_Tablet features spread 15/02/2022 14:46 Page 7
ference. People think meditation is a face you voice of God.” Siddique, as befits his denom- delusional,” he says simply and humbly,
put on. That’s why my book begins with primal inational independence, is cautious around “that’s fine.”
questions. Who am I? What am I here for? language. “I use words throughout my book Fully recovered, he returned to Britain and
Is there a way to end suffering? What I do in like ‘soul’ and ‘God’ because those are the now, finally, he feels a sense of wholeness.
meditation is turn towards the soul and allow words I like to use, but what is most important Hence the book and his return to poetry. The
it to illuminate my life. I just sit with God.” is the journey home.” title poem of So captures something of his
By the age of 16, he felt drawn to priesthood. There followed two years of what he calls approach:
“The only person with the word ‘spiritual’ “painful, inner-child work”, trying to find a
above the door when I was a teenager was way to start over again. By December 2014, Sacredness is not mooning around
the local priest. Just like you go to the doctor he was in a much better place but, on a trip in a special way – let sacredness use
when you are ill. But our priest was not having to India with his partner Abha, he suffered a your talents and identity.
it at all when I went to see him. When I was burst abscess in his gallbladder. The hospital
saying I could see the oneness of life in things, he was taken to left it too long before treating It is an open hand in motion,
he told me I had seen the devil.” it and the doctors told him that there was tending to what is truly needed
Such blunt rejection, unsurprisingly, caused nothing more they could do to save his life. in the here and now
Siddique to turn away from the Church. He He should say his goodbyes.
went off instead to study for an HND in elec- “I started meditating. And then I died. I’m It has been, I put it to him, a long journey
trical engineering, then trained as a welder. told that I was gone for about five minutes. since that day he went to see his local Catholic
But his reading and searching carried on In that place I felt absolutely and profoundly priest about a vocation. Does anything from
regardless. Kahlil Gibran’sThe Prophet and that I was home. I knew I was one with God.” his religious upbringing remain with him in
Jesus, Son of Man, he recalls, both made a Then, he says, he was given a choice – to stay his practice? “I still go to church sometimes.
big impact on him. or to return to life. He remembers worrying When I am in Manchester, it’s the Hidden
Around the same time, he was drawn to a about Abha, and how she needed him. “God Gem [St Mary’s Catholic Church, in the centre
residential community in Manchester where spoke clearly again: ‘Leave your work and of the city]. But then other times I go to the
he trained in Mahayana Buddhism. “I was go talk to people’. And then I was back in Hindu temple.”
made to feel welcome, as I hadn’t been in the the bed. I had not been resuscitated, I was And in a spiritual sense? “Well, I have an
Church,” is how he explains it now. He became just back.” abiding love of Jesus. He is what it is about.
a monk there, but remained essentially rest- He pauses while I digest what he has said. He didn’t say, ‘Come and be a Catholic’, but
less, moving on to spend time in a Zen Reports of Near-Death Experiences – or ‘Come and join me in the kingdom of heaven’.”
Buddhist centre in Cumbria. There were also “Actual-Death Experiences” as Siddique
spells living in India and Ireland. “I have a prefers to call them – are something that he Signposts of the Spiritual Journey: A
little saying,” he says. “God kept me slippery.” knows are often treated with scepticism. “If Practical Road Map to a Meaningful Life
What was it that was proving so elusive? someone wants to think that I am fool or (Watkins, £12.99; Tablet price, £11.69).
“A lot of the time we are looking for ourselves,
something that will complete us, whether
that be God, or ‘The Answer’ or whatever we
call it, because we feel empty. So our motion
is outwards.” His breakthrough only came,
OBERAMMERGAU 2022
he says, when he realised that the place to go
was inwards. “We are like sticks of rock. The Austria and Oberammerrgau
body would not be here without the soul
within it. Everything forms around the soul.” Led by Monsignor Roderick Strang
ge
Exclussive to readers of The Tablet
a t
ALONGSIDE THIS new and fruitful direction
in his spiritual exploration, he began to publish
poetry, garnering widespread praise for his 12
2–19 August 2022
collections The Prize (2005), Poems from a
Northern Soul (2007), Recital: An Almanac
(2009) and Full Blood (2011), appearing in
the pages of Granta and on Radio 4’s Poetry
Please. There was a spell as British Council
writer-in-residence at California State
University, nominations for the Forward Prize,
and a string of Arts Council awards.
Success had its upsides. It gave him the
money to buy a home near Hebden Bridge
in West Yorkshire, but the trappings of literary Fly from London, Manchester,
M Birmingh
ham or Dublin
y is £1,765
,
acclaim did not bring him peace. Quite the
opposite. By 2012, he was, he says, “in real The cost of thiss holiday per p
p person
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SINCE 1840
Whose voice was it? “You could call it the
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FEATURES / Catholic Modernism
The intellectual independence of a reform-minded English Catholic writer a century or so ago incensed
the Catholic hierarchy of the time so much that she was denied the sacraments in one diocese; yet like
many women ostracised in the past, her work may at last be bearing fruit / By JONATHAN W. CHAPPELL
Maude Petre’s way of faith
Maude Petre with nephews Arthur and Philip
Clutton. Inset, George Tyrrell
This was the beginning of an intense spir-
itual and intellectual friendship between Petre
and Tyrrell. Petre speaks of her friendship
with him in her diaries as the “beginning of
a new life”. She believed her love for him – in
its necessary purity – would lead her to “more
faith and religion than [her soul] had ever
known”. Tyrrell, of course, had taken a vow
of celibacy; he was distinctly ambivalent about
the devotion Petre lavished upon him.
Inspired by Tyrrell’s example, Petre began
to publish in earnest at the turn of the century,
focusing on the call for greater freedom and
reform within the Catholic Church. For her
pains, she was not permitted to renew her
religious vows. Her intellectual independence
so incensed the Catholic hierarchy that the
Holy Office wrote a “secret letter” to the Bishop
of Southwark, Peter Amigo, stating that action
must be taken against this “sinful woman”.
Bishop Amigo consequently denied her the
sacraments in his diocese.
THE ATMOSPHERE in the Church was
intensely hostile towards anyone suspected
of Modernist leanings. Modernism was
strongly condemned by Pope Pius X in 1907
as the “synthesis of all heresies”. Like most of
those accused of being Modernists, Petre and
W
HEN SHE was asked by puzzled of theology seems to have worked wonders, Tyrrell dismissed the papal encyclical as a
friends where her young niece at least temporarily. In 1890, she joined the caricature of their position.
was, Lady Lindsay would tell London novitiate of the Filles de Marie, later Petre’s faith faced another test when Tyrrell
them: “Maude has gone to becoming the superior of the order’s English (who had by now been expelled from the
Rome to study for the priesthood.” and Irish provinces. Jesuits and excommunicated) was struck
Maude Dominica Petre was born on 4 But Petre remained, as she admitted herself, down with Bright’s disease in 1909. As she
August 1863 into an old aristocratic English both “passionately religious” and “innately nursed him in the cottage she had built for
Catholic family whose members were used sceptical”. The latter quality reasserted itself him in her garden at Storrington, West Sussex,
to fighting for what they believed in. in July 1900, when she met George she felt at last a true union of their hearts. In
This heritage and a private educa- Tyrrell – an Irish Jesuit priest two- her diary entry for 6 July 1909, she wrote:
tion combined to create a fiercely and-a-half years her senior – at “Another night with him. He put his arm
independent mind. She lost both one of his retreats. His theolog- around me so lovingly – I kissed him, and he
her parents before she was 20. ical views were already causing my face … and [he] kissed me on each cheek
From a young age, she had concern to his superiors. and on the mouth …” Just nine days later,
unnerved priests with her critical She began to associate with a Tyrrell died aged 48, having received Extreme
approach to faith; as a remedy for group now known as the “Catholic Unction but being refused a Catholic burial.
her doubts, her confessor advised Modernists”. The Modernists were Tyrrell’s death was a turning point in Petre’s
her to go to Rome to study scholastic a loose association of Catholic thinkers life. In her autobiography My Way of Faith
theology. The works of St Thomas across Europe who believed it was possible she wrote: “For then heart met heart in a
Aquinas, he believed, would render her faith to reconcile the teaching of the Church with union for which no danger any longer existed;
unassailable. Aged 22, she travelled to Rome, the scientific and intellectual developments he knew, better than ever, what he was to me,
where she studied under professors from the that had been taking place since the and I knew, at last, what I was to him. No!
College of Propaganda. As far as Maude knew, Enlightenment. Petre shared their aspirations, not as much as he was to me, but a great deal
she was the only woman studying theology in believing that Catholicism must overcome the all the same.”
Rome at that time. She herself admitted: “It hostility towards modernity that had charac- The Church introduced the draconian anti-
was a fairly crazy idea.” But this strong dose terised it for much of the nineteenth century. Modernist oath, which all clergy were obliged
12 | THE TABLET | 19 FEBRUARY 2022 For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.ukYou can also read
