The second part of the report back of our faith and politics evening the other Friday. The third speaker was Christopher Lamb who is the assistant editor of the Tablet. It was very interesting listening to him talk about lessons learnt from the medias representation and misrepresentation of the Gay Marriage debate. Perhaps more interesting was the interest that is being shown in political circles about Catholic Social teaching. With John Crudass who is incharge of the Labour Party Police Review passionate about CST, and Ed Milliband, although an atheist, very interested. There is a feeling in ‘high places’ that CST could even reinvigorate politics.
English: John Battle MP at a family home in West Leeds. Taken by Lee Montgomerie in July 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Our final speaker was the retired MP John Battle. His enthusiasm and Passion for a politically engaged faith was infectious. Moving seamlessly from anecdotes about constituency surgerys to quoting Papal encyclicals – he made a deep impression on all the students present. When we addressed the importance of contemplation balancing activism, he had a beautiful description of contemplations as being ‘ a long loving look at the world’ (St Augustine ?) . He made a particularly important warning about how social media has created a climate of ‘opinionitis’ – where opinion and commentary starts to dominate media reporting not fact or truth.
All in all an invigorating evening, topped off by a group of students who put their faith into practice by holding a sleep-out to raise money for Shelter, and to highlight the needs of rough-sleepers. Our SVP group have already responded by starting a Monday Night soup run. Interestingly the sleep-out students also told me about a man who climbed over the gates about 3am and walked around the side of the Holy Name Church….. it got me thinking… who needs CCTV or guard dogs when you have so many students around!
Jesuit Priest from Liverpool, UK. Enthusiastic about too many things, Wilderness Seeker, Amateur Astronomer, LFC supporter, Teacher, currently Catholic Chaplain at the Manchester Universities. Oh .... also a bit lobsided as you can see in my photo .
It’s reassuring to learn that Catholic Social Teaching is still having an influence out there Tim. Some may call it ‘old fashioned’ but such teaching helps all of us to remain grounded in what is right.
Keep up the good work. I’m certain that, when they are older, the Students will look back and remember you, as we do all good teachers, because of the things you helped them to learn.
Very interesting reading – I’ve met John Battle too and he is a force of nature!!!