Pain And Hope Of Compromise

THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY 28 JANUARY 2023 £4.25 www.thetablet.co.uk Est. 1840 Sculpting the Renaissance Joanna Moorhead marvels at Donatello Andy Bull Highway to Walsingham Liz Dodd Living on the margins Luigi Gioia Anglicans choose compromise Adrian Chiles Learning to talk proper PHOTO: SAFE PASSAGE, NATASA LEONI 33 Christian charities have called on the UK to honour its promise to reunite evacuated Afghan families COLUMNS A R T S / PAG E 2 2 CONTENTS Exhibition Donatello 28 JANUARY 2023 // VOL 277 NO. 9487 JOANNA MOORHEAD Theatre Watch on the Rhine F E AT U R E S 4 / United for peace Melanie McDonagh’s Notebook ‘Christians most exercised about homosexuality are astonishingly lax on divorce’ / 11 As church leaders begin a joint visit to South Sudan, a Catholic priest based in the region looks at the impact of their historic journey / BY JOHN ASHWORTH 6 / The way of compromise A former monk who is now an Anglican priest argues that the Church of England’s stand on same-sex marriage might be the best way forward / BY LUIGI GIOIA PILGRIMAGE SPECIAL Music Anna Mieke; Måneskin; Nguyên Lê BRIAN MORTON Television Happy Valley LUCY LETHBRIDGE 8 / The olde waie to Walsingham The pilgrim path from London to Walsingham has rarely been followed since the Reformation, but that is about to change / BY ANDY BULL B O O K S / PA G E 2 5 10 / The Tablet Interview: Ann Sieben Christopher Bray The Holocaust: An Unfinished History The solitary treks of the celebrated “servant pilgrim” have taken her across the world, relying on strangers for food and lodging / BY PETER STANFORD DAN STONE Morag MacInnes You Are Not Alone 14 / Another Russian revolution Liz Dodd ‘Church, here, is a place of defiant hope and defiant welcome’ / 16 MARK LAWSON An audacious plan for the reform and renewal of Russian Orthodoxy in August 1917 was followed by disruption, suffering and tragedy / BY DAVID GRUMETT CARIAD LLOYD; Spare PRINCE HARRY D.J. Taylor We Danced On Our Desks PHILIP NORMAN NEWS REGULARS Letters The Living Spirit Word from the Cloisters Puzzles 18 19 20 20 28 / The Church in the World / News briefing 29 / Second woman accuses cardinal of sexual abuse 31 / View from Rome 32 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 33 / Diocese in turmoil after bishop quits COVER: DONATELLO AND MICHELOZZO, ADORING ANGEL. © VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk Robert Fox Siena: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval City JANE STEVENSON Sue Gaisford For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on my Little Pain VICTORIA MACKENZIE 28 JANUARY 2023 | THE TABLET | 3 FEATURES / Christianity and sexuality The Church of England bishops have rejected same-sex marriage but backed blessings of civil same-sex marriage. A former monk who is now an Anglican priest argues that a decision that has been sharply criticised on all sides might be the best way forward / By LUIGI GIOIA Pain and hope of compromise W HEN I LEFT my monastery in June 2016, I had been a Benedictine monk for 29 years. When I joined, aged 18, I had known I was gay but I had total faith in the teaching of the Catholic Church on sexuality and I trusted that monastic discipline would help me to embrace chastity and sublimate my vital energies into spirituality. In many ways this is what happened. Prayer became the heart of my life and I remained unreservedly committed to celibacy. And yet, from very early on, I was flabbergasted by the number of gay people who, like me, had chosen priesthood or monastic life but were rather casual with their vow of chastity. I preached retreats all over the world, heard the confessions of hundreds of priests and monks, and discovered that many of them had had or were in sexual relationships. The sexual relationships were usually with other men. While trying to be a minister of God’s forgiveness and comfort, I faithfully taught that sex is reserved for marriage, and the path of Christian discipleship for homosexual people lay in chaste friendships and celibacy. In 2011 I started to teach at the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome. One of my brightest students challenged me to revisit the Church’s teaching with him in a series of tutorials on Scripture and ethics. I relished the challenge and trusted that deep down the student, also a monk, wanted to be convinced of the soundness of traditional teaching. We looked into the Scriptural and doctrinal aspects of same-sex relationships conscientiously and critically, in the way I had learnt when I had specialised in the history of the development of dogma for my doctorate at Oxford. For the first time, and with deep inner reluctance, I had to acknowledge that the traditional interpretation of Scripture on homosexuality is deeply flawed. It took me three more years of reading and questioning before my initial reluctant acknowledgment became a full-blown moral conviction. With this came a painful realisation that for three decades of my life I had been the captive of an erroneous interpretation of Scripture. I looked for advice and support in the Church, but I found only (sometimes indulgent) intransigence or, more often than not, sheer frivolity. The most baffling to me was the latter: as long as you are not found out, I was often told, do as you feel or please 6 | THE TABLET | 28 JANUARY 2023 Anglican priest Luigi Gioia lives in New York or need. Relapses into guilt will become more and more rare, until you end up leading a double life without even realising how you got there in the first place. Just at this time, the newly elected Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order asked me whether I would consider being a candidate for the position of Rector of Sant’Anselmo. I told him I had decided instead to accept the offer of a visiting scholarship at Magdalene College, Cambridge. This was meant to be a year of discernment before coming out. Through my ministry of confession and spiritual counselling I had witnessed too much of the spiritual, emotional and psychological ravages that result from intransigence and frivolity. I knew that for me coming out had to be a spiritual journey, a quest for a way of loving God with all my heart, my sexual orientation included. It is not an accident, I believe, that the moment I took this decision, I finally found the inspiration to write something I had been postponing for almost 10 years, a book on prayer called Say it to God: In Search of Prayer, which to my astonishment and delight was chosen as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2018. Leaving the monastery and the priesthood was much more traumatic than I could have ever imagined. It meant three years of depression and paralysis, which I survived only thanks to an extraordinary Jungian therapist and the unfailing support of a few friends. Since my time in Oxford, in the late 1990s, I had developed what I considered a close friendship with charismatic evangelicals, especially from Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB). They invited me to give talks several times a year. In 2014 I was interviewed on the main stage of the annual HTB Leadership Conference in the Royal Albert Hall by Nicky Gumbel in front of an audience of more than 6,000 people. When I returned to Cambridge, my evangelical friends were delighted by the prospect of a closer co-operation – until I told them that I was coming out. They immediately severed all relationships with me, with the exception of four lay people I had known since Oxford. I had transgressed their commitment to a strict “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The issue was too divisive, they explained to me. This time, I was exposed not to frivolity, nor even to intransigence, but to sheer, brutal denial. I spent five years in Cambridge and initially I thought I would remain in academia. Within two years however, partly as a result of the unexpected impact of my book on prayer, I understood that the most important thing in my life was my vocation as a priest. I had been familiar with Anglicanism for more than 20 years, loved its liturgies and was fascinated by its Benedictine roots. I had been greatly endeared to the Church of England when they decided to ordain women. Because of my experience with Anglican evangelicals, I was aware that I could find denial there too, but I also knew that there are many flourishing parishes with a sufficient degree of autonomy to be safe spaces of inclusiveness and affirmation, something almost impossible in the Catholic Church. I DECIDED then to start a two-year process of discernment which led me to “pursue my priestly ministry in the Church of England”. I couch my motives in this way to emphasise the continuity in my journey and that this choice was not a disavowal of my Catholic roots nor was it based on an idealisation of the Anglican Communion. As the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, at the time master of my college in Cambridge, told me: “It simply is a matter of finding your place in the Body of Christ.” St Paul’s Knightsbridge in London was that place. I found a warm welcome and unfailing support there, and for two years it was a place of deep pastoral and spiritual growth for me. Up to that moment I had encountered intransigence and frivolity in the Catholic Church and denial in my experience with charismatic evangelicals. I was soon to discover that in the Church of England it was the beginning of the season of compromise. In the interviews that were part of the process of “transition” (as it is curiously called), I was told that, as a gay priest, I was allowed to be in a celibate civil partnership (some, I have to say, For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk did seem to be aware of the oxymoron), but also that “no archdeacon is likely to put a video surveillance in your bedroom”. This was clearly part of an incremental process, similar to that which had successfully led to the ordination of women. By that time, I had come to the sad conclusion that as a gay priest I could only opt for the lesser evil, and swallowed the compromise. It seemed a small price to pay considering that for the first time in my life I did not have to hide my love for the person who has now become my husband, and I could start catering spiritually and pastorally for gay people in a way which, at least at St Paul’s Knightsbridge, was unreservedly affirming. UNDENIABLY, “compromise” is also the most accurate label for the proposals agreed by the bishops of the Church of England after a sixyear period of discernment known as Living in Love and Faith, which will be reported to the Church of England’s General Synod for discussion next month. Under the proposals, the offering of prayers in churches for God’s blessing for same-sex couples to celebrate their civil marriage or partnership will be allowed, and the bishops will apologise to LGBTQI+ people for the “rejection, exclusion and hostility” they have faced in churches and the impact this has had on their lives; but the formal teaching of the Church of England that Holy Matrimony is between one man and one woman for life will not change. I sympathise with everyone who is disappointed and hurt by this outcome. And yet, compared with the intransigence and frivolity I experienced in the Catholic Church, and the denial I experienced from some evangelicals, much can be commended and learnt from in the way this process is unfolding in the Church of England. Most striking to me is its willingness to discuss the issue in the open without being afraid of its explosiveness, showing a bravery lacking in most Roman Catholic and evangelical leaders. The synodal process in the Catholic Church is not the same as the synodal structures of the Church of England, but Living in Love and Faith exemplifies some aspects of what Pope Francis is envisaging. Consider the suite of resources Living in Love and Faith published in November 2020: a balanced and impressive wealth of biblical, theological, historical and scientific thinking on human identity, sexuality and marriage went into the drafting of the main document and this was accompanied by films, podcasts, and course materials for study groups. The bishops of the Church of England invited church communities from across the country to use the resources to learn together, to listen to one another and to God. Everyone who took part was encouraged to share their insights, stories and reflections in order to contribute to the bishops’ discernment. Living in Love and Faith has been a remarkable effort to examine the traditional teaching of the Christian Churches on samesex relationships as fairly as possible while also taking into account human and social sciences and the real-life stories of people with diverse experiences and convictions. of repeating. As we saw with the ordination It is purely descriptive, does not make any of women, nothing softened irrational and final recommendation, and stems from the ideological opposition and paved the way to recognition that Christianity struggles to women bishops more than interacting on a embody the good news in its relationships daily basis with women priests. I learnt this with LGBT people. Whichever doctrinal from my own personal journey: most people position Churches might hold, this pastoral who distanced themselves from me when I emergency alone should be came out, expressed outright enough to bring Christians to disapproval, or simply did not pause and ask themselves know how to relate to a gay Christianity serious questions. married priest, over time have struggles to The Church of England does realised that nothing has embody the indeed compromise but as part changed, that I am the same of a process of listening and person I have always been. good news in its discernment. This remains Most of the rejection stems relationships with from the fear inspired by what painful, but gives me hope. In my view, allowing the blessing we are not familiar with, what LGBT people of same-sex civil marriages is we were always told was not enough, yet in my experiwrong, what we have never ence nothing changes the perception of bothered to look into consciously and critically. intractable issues (the ordination of women Sometimes, especially when agreeing on someis another good example) more than incre- thing seems impossible, the best way forward mental steps that take into account the diverse is keep walking together, for as long as possible. doctrinal sensitivities in the Church, assuage It does miracles. fears, and progressively help people to see Luigi Gioia is Theologian in Residence at things from a different viewpoint. Some on the fringes of the Churches of course Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New will always be afraid of listening and discerning. York City, and Research Associate at the A schism might be inevitable in the end, as Von Hügel Institute at the University of has happened at every critical doctrinal junc- Cambridge. His latest book is The Wisdom of ture in the history of the Church. We should St Benedict (Canterbury Press, £16.99; trust process and time, as Pope Francis is fond Tablet price, £15.29). Contemplattive e Sttudyy and Sabba atica al Proogrram Enviision yoourr sabba atical filled with silence so tha at you can rest and renew. Th he a tm m os ph here of the Soonoran De eser t is one of spiri tual i ty tha t is anchored in a con templ a tive a tti tude and approach towards l ife. 202 23 March 5-May 12 July 16-August 18 October 1-December 8 202 4 March 10-May 10 July 21-August 23 October 6-December 13 RRedeemptoristt RReneewall Ceenter Phone:: 520.744..34 400 ~ Tucsoon, AZ,, USA A Email:: offiice@deeseertrre neewa al .oorg www. desertrenewal. org For more features, news, analysis and comment, visit www.thetablet.co.uk 28 JANUARY 2023 | THE TABLET | 7