Cardinal Vincent Nichols has inaugurated a new shrine dedicated to the rosary at the Dominican church of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic in Haverstock Hill, north London.
The establishment of the shrine, which Archbishop Nichols of Westminster called a “great joy”, coincides with the 800th anniversary of the Dominican Order.
Fr Thomas Skeats, prior and parish priest, said: “I pray that this shrine will be a place of contemplation for all of us, that in darkness we will bring the light of Christ to others, so that it may radiate from us. May this be the fruit of this shrine.”
The church has 15 altars dedicated to the mysteries of the rosary, which can be prayed as a Way of the Rosary around the church: five joyful mysteries, five sorrowful mysteries and five glorious mysteries culminating in the coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven.
The Rosary Shrine “will give a focus and a ‘home’ for the promotion of the Rosary in England,” says the church’s website. “It will also add to a growing and increasingly popular network of Catholic shrines throughout the country.” The church’s vision is “to become an important centre for promoting the Christian faith through the Holy Rosary”.
The church also houses a large replica of the Lourdes Grotto, making it a pilgrimage destination, particularly for those who might not otherwise be able to visit the shrine in France.
Pornography lessons? No thanks, says headmaster
The headmaster of Downside School has spoken out against suggestions that pornography should be taught in schools.
Following comments by the broadcaster Dame Jenni Murray, in which she said teenagers should watch pornography together and analyse it as though it were a Jane Austen novel, Dr James Whitehead said that promoting pornography goes against the ethos of gender equality.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Murray suggested that schools “put boys and girls together in a class and you show them a pornographic film and you analyse it in exactly the same way as you teach them to read all the other cultures around them”.
But in a blogpost for the Independent Schools Council, Dr Whitehead said Jane Austen would be “appalled”.
He wrote: “Obviously, the suggestion here is not that pornography should replace texts from the literary canon in English Literature classes, but that a new approach should be taken towards sex education, a position that is being advocated by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee. There is a general feeling that young people have lost their way in terms of having an unhealthy approach to sex based on distorted cyber-experience, one which reinforces gender inequality.
“However, young people watching porn in the presence of a teacher is highly problematic in many ways – not least for Safeguarding reasons – and it is a world away from analysing a conversation between Emma and Mr Knightley. Jane Austen, with her quiet endorsement of a Christian understanding of human relationships, would be appalled.”
If we value human dignity, pornography is no service in achieving gender equality, he said. “Many schools in the United Kingdom were founded by Christian organisations; in fact, several thousand remain explicitly Anglican, Catholic or Methodist, and other denominations also run a number of schools. There are other faith schools run by Jewish, Buddhist or Islamic foundations; many of these would find difficulty in justifying the study of pornography in school. Why? In short, because for the spiritually inclined, it is important that young people focus on the morality that should underpin human relationships, rather than begin to study a form of interaction that is essentially a negation of this.
“Catholic social teaching, for example, places great emphasis on the recognition of gender equality through respect for the dignity of every individual person. If we value human dignity as a means of achieving gender equality, this cannot be served through the study of pornography. As the Second Vatican Council put it, ‘A just society can become a reality only when it is based on the transcendent dignity of the human person.’ Equality is lost when we forget the dignity of the other; the sacrament of marriage provides for sexual equality within a context of commitment before God. While religions may differ in how they express this, an emphasis on commitment and justice in human relationships is common to most.”
He also cautioned against patronising young people, saying: “The vast majority want to live meaningful, positive lives and they do not need to analyse pornography to know that it is essentially demeaning both to watch it and to act it out.”
Interfaith campaigner mourned
Interfaith campaigner Sir Sigmund Sternberg, the only Jewish recipient of a papal knighthood, has died at the age of 95.
Former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote that Sternberg was “an irresistible, indefatigable force for good interfaith relations – a one-man campaign for reconciliation between Christians, Muslims and Jews.”
As well as his knighthoods, Sternberg won the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1998.
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