WNW
Cardinal Heenan
How to succeed
Peter Hebblethwaite
The elegantly understated obituaries of Car-' dinal Heenan nearly all contrived to say what everyone knew: he mistrusted intellectuals and did not enjoy their company. In a speech at the Vatican Council he denounced the "experts" — the code word for theologians — with a memorable adaptation of Vergil: Timeo peritas adnexa ferentes. The adnexa were a set of supplementary documents which dealt with practical questions ranging from marriage to peace. The Cardinal feared that they were being withdrawn from episcopal discussion and entrusted to theologians. In his favourite scenario bishops were above all pastoral men whose vocation was to save the Church from the speculative efforts of out-of-touch theologians. Their natural allies in this enterprise
were "the simple faithful". An Italian Jesuit, now head of Vatican Radio, deplored the Cardinal's attitude. A bishop mistrusts intellectuals at his peril. They control the media. It is better to have them on your side. But Cardinal Heenan was his own media man. He was never reluctant to embark on an interview. He could make mistakes. In a BBC Radio interview he regretted the influence of Schiller on modern Catholic theologians. The producer intervened to suggest that the German poet had not really made much impact on theology and that perhaps the Cardinal was thinking of Paul Tillich. Heenan accepted the suggestion while correcting the producer's German pronunciation. In a book written with Rosemary Houghton he advanced the view that Voltaire was responsible for the theory of "the general will". However, this slapdash approach to scholarship did not inhibit him from sPeaking his mind. He was addressing Mrs Murphy, of Manor Park, the parish that he loved. She would not be bothered about Tillich or Rousseau.
In the first volume of his autobiography, Not the Whole Truth, the Cardinal provided a key to Understanding these attitudes. As a promising young clerical student he had been dispatched to Rome where he attended lectures at the bregorian University. He freely admits that he was not greatly drawn to the study of theology which, he says, was largely a matter of meniory. Philosophy, on the other hand, enchanted him: "I cannot imagine any other subject which leaves the student so free to think no formulae, no dates, nothing to commit to memory. , just the contemplation of ideas". Philosophy, thus conceived, enabled him to cultivate his dialectical skills without being impeded by the facts. This stood him in good stead when he became head of the Catholic Missionary Society and stumped the country as preacher and apologist. He was never at a loss for an argument, never short on repartee.
Another inheritance from his student days proved equally difficult to overcome. He was in Rome when Pius XI's encyclical, Mortahum Animos, was published. This now-forgotten document dismissed the growing ecumenical Movement as likely to lead to "indifferentism" and warned Catholics off this perilous ground. Though Cardinal Heenan learned to speak a very different language in the post-conciliar Period and though his efforts to reconcile Catholic and Protestant in Liverpool were real enough, he seemed to think of ecumenism as merely a matter of more friendly personal relations. He recoiled from its theological consequences and the self-questioning to Which it leads. Hence his frequent complaint that "continental" theologians could not begin to understand the non-committal complexities Of the Church of Ep.gland. Again, the evidence is in his autobiography. "Few of the bishops", he remarks, speaking of his colleagues, "were instinctive ecumenists. The more sturdy their English stock the harder it Was to persuade them that ecumenism was not a betrayal of their Catholic forefathers". Those of sturdy Irish stock had much the same difficulty. Ecumenism wasa hard-won conquest, a triumph of obedience over long-engrained habits of mind. The problem of the succession is to discover someone who combines ecumenical openness, rcholarship and presentability to the public at large. The first two criteria exclude most of the existing bishops. Bishop Alan Clark is the most ec, umenically-minded among them. He has learned the art of dialogue by actually engaging
in it. He was rapturously received by the Anglican Synod when he addressed it on November 7, 1974, even though he could bring little comfort on the vexing question of Anglican orders.
Bishop Christopher Butler is the most scholarly of the bishops. But he has the disadvantage of being a monk and having engaged in dialogue with Humanists an activity suitable for "well-meaning mugs", as an editorial in the Catholic Herald put it. But he and Bishop Alan Clark seem too way out to many of their fellow bishops. And to judge by a memorandum prepared on behalf of the National Conference of Priests, the priests are reluctant to risk an intellectual.
Invited to give advice to Mgr Bruno Heim, the Apostolic Delegate, who acts as a letterbox for Rome, the priests said and they had Westminster in mind: "We should avoid imitating the kind of appointments made to Canterbury by the established Church. There will be a temptation to appoint an intellectual". The priests think that the temptation should be resisted, but their picture of an "intellectual" is of a remote and dusty figure who lacks the common touch. They would drag us back to Cardinal Heenan's purely "pastoral" approach, This is a highly dangerous recommendation, for without some understanding of what is happening in the Church and the world, the next Archbishop of Westminster would be obliged to fall back on an inconsistent mixture of affability and authority. Unless Cardinal Heenan's successor has some coherent vision of the Church of the future, he will have no criterion for taking decisions other than short-term expediency.
Meanwhile in Rome, where Cardinal Baggio presides over the dossiers of possible candidates, the implications of the priests' memorandum will have been carefully pondered. The priests show such little confidence in existing bishops that the Congregation of Bishops may take the bold course-and chose a simple priest. That would mean a fresh start. The trail would then lead to Southall where Fr Michael Hollings has managed to build a thriving and exciting community in a mixed racial situation. His work there has enabled him to live down the damaging reputation of having been Chaplain of the Catholic students of the University of Oxford. An ex-Guardsman, his is a man of prayer who has taught others the difficult art of prayer. No one in his senses would ,actually ambition ecclesiastical advancement today, and Fr Michael is embarrassed by the groundswell that is building up. That might be a positive recommendation.
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