Next Monday at 15.10 European time (14.10 BST) there is to be broadcast a film about our founder Blessed Gerard on RAI, the Italian television service. Link HERE. Our thanks to our brethren in the French Association for generously sending this information.
Blessed Gerard, pray for us
With apologies for not posting yesterday, but you have until Midnight tonight!
Deus in te sperántium fortitudo, adesto precibus nostris : quas tibi cum gratiarum offerimus actione : pro Victoria Magistro nostro, ac ejus exercitui, contra hostes Fidei Christianæ Turcos, per te mirabiliter Rhodi concessa : supliciter deprecantes: ut solitá tuæ pietatis clementiá muniti, dextráque tuæ potentiæ defensi : ab hostium insidiis, omníque adversitate protegámur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Filium tuum. Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum.
The Vocation of Martyrdom
What would you have done…? That’s the question that I always end up asking myself, whenever I read about this country in the 1530s. What would I have done…?
Of course, we’d all like to think that we’d have been among the three percent of this country’s population who remained faithful, so as to give up their lives for the Faith. But, if we were faced with losing everything (friends, family, house, income — even the Sacraments, and ultimately our lives), what would have stopped us being like all the other Catholics (all the other bishops, priests, religious, and pious faithful) who ended up abandoning the Church that they had presumably loved and cherished…?
Why was it that only three of the English Knights of Malta—at the time of the Order’s suppression in this country—were crowned with the glory of martyrdom…? Three times the number of bishops, it has to be said; and three times the number of government ministers: Saints John Fisher and Thomas More being the only representatives of their class… And the Order is rightly proud of this supreme witness to the faith, when so many—who should have known better, who should have been leading their lambs to the slaughter—preferred convenience and comfort. But what would we have done…?
It’s true to say that there were others who suffered a ‘white’ martyrdom: Knights of Malta who suffered exile; those who died in prison; and the heartbreaking account of the then Grand Prior, William Weston, who was spared the gallows, but collapsed and died, on hearing the news of his beloved Order’s suppression. But what of all those other knights? What of those knights and professed chaplains who were later to be found in England, collecting their royal pension, and even in personal service to King Henry VIII? What about Fra’ Edward Bellingham, now Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, or Fra’ Ambrose Cave, soon to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster?
Or, to be more blatant, what about Fra’ Philip Babington, the former Knight of Justice who brought the accusation against the blessed martyr that we celebrate today — against his confrère in the Grand Priory? What made a Babington a Babington, and a Gunson a Gunson…?
It’s not as if one of them got lucky — as if one of them managed the ‘shortcut’ to Heaven — as if, had circumstances been different, it could have been otherwise… Gunson arrived in England after the Order’s suppression — and, indeed, after the double martyrdom of Fortescue and Dingley. He knew what was coming.
Martyrs are not martyrs because of the ‘incidental blood’ that was shed. The cause of their martyrdom—the cause of their blessedness, their sanctity—is not their death, but their life: the life that leads them to martyrdom. Martyrdom is an expression of a relationship that already exists; it is a fulfilment of a love for Christ and for His Church. Of course, it is only grace that can bring us to love to such an extent as to offer our lives for that love — to prove that fullness of love which is martyrdom. But that grace is there for us all.
We may not all be called to a martyrdom of blood, but we are all called to be martyrs (to be witnesses) of truth — to make that truth known, through our sufferings, through our sacrifices, but—most of all—through our love: through being holy.
To be holy is to live out one’s vocation — to answer God’s call to our own personal holiness. The vocation of the Knight of Malta is summed up by its famous twin charism; it’s enunciated in that well-known Prayer of the Order that we’ll all recite at the end of our pilgrimage this evening, at the very place where our martyr lived out his vocation to the full: first, “to practise and defend the Catholic, the Apostolic, the Roman Faith against the enemies of religion” (tuitio fidei); and thereby “to practise charity towards my neighbours, especially the poor and the sick” (obsequium pauperum).
Like all vocations, it’s a vocation of love: it’s a fulfilment of Christ’s double commandment of love — love of God (tuitio fidei) and love of neighbour (obsequium pauperum). And, in the words of Christ’s vicar on earth—our current Holy Father—to be holy is “to love as Christ loves”. To be holy is not to know something, nor to do something, not even to be something — but it’s to be some-one: to be Christ.
At Saint Thomas Waterings, 482 years ago today, Blessed David Gunson (the ‘Good Knight’, as he became known) loved as Christ loves. He consummated his vocation; he carried out the real work of the Order — which, as the late Pope once put it, is “not mere philanthropy, but an effective expression and a living testimony of evangelical love”. That is a love that turns a life of ‘tuitio fidei’ into a death ‘in odium fidei’. It’s a love that turns ‘obsequium pauperum’ into an ‘obsequium mortis’, an ‘obsequium crucis’ — an ‘obedience unto death’, an ‘allegiance to the Cross’. It’s a love that tells us what to do, and how to ‘be Christ’.
Blessed David Gunson, pray for us.
On this day, the ancient Octave day of the Feast of Corpus Christi, we are happy to share a video of the Homily preached by Cardinal Nichols at Mass of the Feast last Sunday, in the Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, the church of Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, in the presence of Fra' Max Rumney, Grand Prior of England. The Mass was followed by a Eucharistic procession around Covent Garden. (The video should start at the beginning of the homily at 21.23, which doesn't work in all browsers, and which lasts 15 minutes. If it doesn't work for you CLICK HERE)
At the Council Complete of State held at the Aventine villa today, Fra' John Dunlap was elected as Prince and 81st Grand Master of the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.
The new Grand Master, addressing the members of the Council Complete of State, said: “I accept this office with a profound spirit of service and with the solemn promise of a constant commitment. I thank each of you for having placed your trust in me and for having shown your great love for, and dedication to, our Order by your presence here today. There are many challenges that await us, but united in the awareness of our mission of Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum (witnessing the faith, helping the poor), I am sure that we will be able to face them together united and cohesively, in the same spirit that guided Blessed Gerard, founder of the Order over 900 years ago."
Fra' John Dunlap approached the Order of Malta and found his religious vocation in the mid-1980s during his volunteer work with patients suffering from AIDS and other diseases at the Cardinal Cooke Medical Center in Harlem (New York). He has volunteered in that hospital every week for the past 30 years.
Admitted to the Order of Malta in 1996, he took his solemn vows as a Professed Knight in 2008. For over a decade he has served the Order of Malta as Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Names and Emblems and Representative to the Alliance of the Orders of St John.
In 2009 Fra' John Dunlap was elected for a five-year term as a member of the Sovereign Council. He was re-elected for another five-year term by the Chapter General in 2014 and 2019. He has led the Order of Malta as Lieutenant of the Grand Master since June 2022, following the death of Fra' Marco Luzzago.
Ad multos annos!
In Festo Naufragi Sancti Pauli Apostoli
"Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea." 2 Corinthians 11:25
Today is the feast on Malta of the Shipwreck thereon of the Blessed Apostle Paul. We know of this because, as we recall from his Epistles, and from the antiphons of the feast we celebrated a couple of weeks ago, the Holy Apostle was fond of a good moan, a source of great comfort to anyone living today, or indeed in any age.
Nevertheless, taking refuge in cave, a place of enduring pilgrimage, he found a people still in the darkness of the absence of Faith, but who held naturally within themselves that charity which the charism of our Beloved Order would one day truly make theirs:
"And when we were escaped, then we knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and refreshed us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold." Acts 28:1,2
In all, Saint Paul was shipwrecked three times, but only once amongst us! Our Order had not celebrated it formally since 1798, a shame, having built such a truly beautiful capitular church in the honour of this great feast.
All members of the Order, Companions and friends are invited by our Principal Chaplain, Monsignor John Armitage, to a Day of Prayer to mark the beginning of the Chapter General of our beloved Order in Rome on SATURDAY 21st JANUARY, the final day of the Novena of Prayer.
The Day will take place in the Crypt of our former Conventual Church in Clerkenwell, the Priory Church of St John of Jerusalem (St John's Square, London EC1V 4JJ), now under the jurisdiction of the Venerable Order. We are very grateful to the Venerable Order for allowing us to use the Crypt on this very special moment in the life of our Order.
11.30 Crypt opens for silent prayer12.30 HOLY MASS
14.00 Talk
14.15 Silent prayer
15.15 Talk
15.45 Silent prayer
16.45 Closing prayers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
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| George Moreland - Children playing at soldiers, 1788 |
The Scottish government in the Holyrood Parliament, under Nicola Sturgeon, is proposing to push through a Bill to allow anyone to change their legal sex without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, from 16 years of age. The two-year waiting period has been reduced to 3 months. Parents will not need to be consulted.
This grossly immoral Bill is a grave danger to vulnerable children, denying them the medical and mental care they need, and allows men of perverted disposition freely to threaten women, and thus children too, and invade their privacy with legal impunity.
Condemned by the Scottish Bishops (HERE), it has received very high profile opposition, including from the feminist author of the Harry Potter books, J K Rowling (see HERE), and is opposed by two-thirds of Scottish voters.
We are encouraged to support our Scottish friends by signing this petition to the MSPs. SIGN HERE. Let us fight this evil together as soldiers of Christ, to preserve the innocence of a future generation.
As promised, herewith Fr Dench's homily for the Rorate Mass this evening. We are very grateful to him. The Grand Priory wishes all its readers a very peaceful and blessed Christmas.
RORATE AND SAINT LUCY
Isaiah 7:1-15; Luke 1:26-38
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Words from the prophet Isaiah which are, of course, familiar to us all. This prophecy, the Gospel account from St Luke, the singing of the Rorate Coeli, the church lit only by candles. . . all these aspects of this evening’s liturgy are to point us towards the great feast of Our Lord’s Nativity. Look at the altar this evening, and we cannot help but think of Midnight Mass, and we should.
Advent is more than just a period of getting ready to celebrate Christmas, of course. It is a season in which we are invited to consider the Four Last things of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. It is a time in which are reminded of Christ’s promise that he will return, not with the cries and gurgles of a tiny child which marked his first coming, but rather with the sound of trumpets in the glory of his second. It is a time in which we are reminded that even now, before the Second Coming, He is still with us as he promised, in the Sacraments which we receive and celebrate and, above all, in the Eucharist.
This evening’s Mass brings out dramatically and vividly some of the great Advent themes. The flickering of the candles in our dark church remind us that it is in Advent that we relive that hopeful expectation of the children of Israel. We imagine ourselves as the people who walked in darkness and who have seen a great light.
Of course in many ways we still walk in darkness, yet guided by the Light that is Christ. A light which all too often is obscured by the darkness in our hearts, shadows of our own sin which mean we can’t pass that light on, or even see by its radiancy, because it is hidden in our own selfishness. That light all too often is hidden in our concerns with the world around us, in the trivialities of day to day existence and, yes, even in our anxieties and worries. But it is because we have been given that Light that we should take courage.
That Light, which is given to us, we are called to fan it into a flame, to keep it burning brightly, and to give it to others to burn all the more beautifully and warmly, scattering the darkness which blights their own lives and obscures the radiancy of God’s piercing love.
In Advent we remember that Light was born of the Virgin Mary to be given to the world. But before that Light was brought into the world, it was shielded within the darkness of the Virgin’s womb, carried, nourished, protected, before being brought forth into our world. So too for us we have a duty to protect that light in our hears, shielded from the fierce winds of doubt and despair which seek to snuff it out. Once guarded and preserved, it is then to be shared. Given away, even as Our Lady as offered her only Son for the world in order that God’s plan might be fulfilled.
Our calling as members of God’s Church is to protect that Light within our hearts and, like the Virgin, to bring him forth into the world, so that its darkness might instead be illuminated.
And St Lucy, who we commemorate today too, provides us with, for want of a better word, a shining example both in her life and name. And in that she stands in a long line of virgin martyrs of the early Church, consecrating her virginity, indeed her whole life and being to God. Famously it was through a dream that she received from God, a message carried by St Agatha, promising her healing for her family but also the glories that God was offering her, and what it was He wanted to accomplish through.
We remember that her virginity was no incidental adjective. It was an essential part of what she gave to God, and what she, and other virgin martyrs like her, possessed which radically upturned the values of the world around her. The dignity she possessed as a creature of God, and her use of God-given freedom, to give that dignity back to him was what enraged the culture around.
Her courage stands out as an example of us to follow in that path whatever the challenges and the dangers might be. To follow that same light of Christ as it guides on our journey, and holding true to the paths it illuminates for us, in spite of the what those around might think, in spite of those who seek to pull off that path in the vain promises of the dark.
Yes, as we will hear later on, ‘the people that walked in darkness has seen a great light.’
Christ is that light which will guide our journey towards our eternal home.
It is our fidelity to that path which will win us our lives in eternity.
The Grand Priory, in the preparations for the Nativity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, will celebrate a Rorate Mass tomorrow evening, Tuesday 13th December, at 6.30pm at the Church of the Assumption, Warwick Street. For these unable to attend the more usual early morning Rorate Masses around London, this is a great opportunity. It is also the feast of St Lucy, whom tradition relates lost the sight of her eyes. Let us ask her to open our own eyes to the Light of the World.
The Homily will be preached by Father Gary Dench, and will be published here tomorrow.
Rorate coeli desuper, et nubes pluant justum!
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| Maarten van Heemskerck - The Four last Things, 1565. Royal Collection Trust, Windsor. |
The Evening Recollection was held at the Assumption Warwick Street on Tuesday 29th November. The evening began with sung Vespers of the Little Office Our Lady, followed by a most excellent talk by the Rector, Fr Mark Elliott-Smith, then Holy Hour, two priest were on hand to hear confessions, and ending with a fraternal party in the Chapter Room.
The text of the talk is given below. We are greatly indebted to Fr Elliott-Smith, a good friend of the Order, for his generous time and hospitality at the altar.
"DEATH, JUDGEMENT, HEAVEN AND HELL"
The Feast of our Founder Blessed Gerard was celebrated solemnly at the Assumption, Warwick Street. This is also, of course, in this place, the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, King of England, whose shrine is barely a mile way. At the end of Mass the relic of Blessed Gerard's jawbone was exposed for veneration. This was the first occasion upon which the new Grand Prior presided from the throne. Ad multos annos!
The Mass was preceded by the Grand Priory General Assembly, and followed by a Reception in the Chapter Room.
The sermon was delivered by Monsignor John Armitage, Chaplain of the Grand Priory, who also celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Here is his text.
We are faced with the problem of good men and women! Each one of us has in our heart the desire to be a good person, but God does not create us to be be good, but to be like himself, to be like God. St Athanasius stated that “God became Man in order that Man might become god” He creates us in his image, presenting us with every gift we need.
In order for us to be like God, we have to embrace, and use these gifts that we may be shaped into the true likeness of God. The challenge we face is that we do not use the gifts for the purpose they were given, that is for God’s greater glory, but for our own. When our first parents walked with God in paradise, the image and likeness of God was in harmony in their hearts. The moment when they ceased to walk in harmony, they had to hide; the unconditional love offered by their creator was broken, the invitation to walk side by side with God was shattered. The re-union of humanity to God, whose “measure of love is to love without measure”, would be restored only in the person of Jesus Christ who prayed “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me”. In Jesus Christ we are invited once again to walk with God in unity and peace. Blessed Gerard chose to walk with his Lord, “Cor ad cor loquitor “ heart speaking unto heart.
Who do we walk with as we seek to use the gifts that God has given us? In whose name do we carry out the works of the Order? The answer lies in the first reading “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed…”
In the face of the disunity of our broken world, the change and decay that is all around us, we must constantly keep our eyes on the one in whose name we serve, for “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” This name is the source and the summit of our unity, and leads us along the path to healing and serving the sick and the broken so that the “people who are walking in darkness will see a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned”
Christ enables us to bring such light, the man of God whose feast we celebrate today, in the midst of the darkness of his age, “lit a candle rather than cursed the darkness”. In his humility he recognised his weakness and placed his trust in God and God alone. His radical service of the sick and the poor was the consequence of a great heart, the root of all true nobility. Trust and greatness of heart enabled Gerard to listen to “what the Spirit was saying to the Church” at a particular moment in history. This manifestation of the Spirit, our charism, inspires us to defend the Body of Christ which is the Church, as we serve the Body of Christ who are Our Lords the sick and those most in need. This charism became a gift for all time, thus we celebrate today for “Charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit …. They benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of all, and to the needs of the world. …They are wonderfully rich graces for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ” Gods glory lights up our world when humble men and women of great and noble hearts are fully alive “with authentic promptings of this same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms.”
In keeping with the charity of our charism we must work for unity, for the only way to build fraternity is by accepting each another as brothers and sisters in the Lord, as we seek to be obedient and open to what the Spirit is saying to the Order as this time. We seek to strengthen those things that unite us and in charity and humility seek the wisdom to address the challenges that always arise in the face of the renewal and reform. Without the unity Christ prayed for we walk alone, our service to Our Lords the sick is seriously weakened. We are all different, we see things differently, the Spirit transforms our differences we may become united. E pluribus Unum, out of the many come one! This is the work of the Spirit, and it brings light to humble and noble hearts “So, a prisoners for the Lord, let us seek to live a lives worthy of the calling we have received. Let us be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace..”
Let us pray for all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on us! As we pray together, our respect for one another grows, as does our shared concern for unity. From this will flow true fraternity in our service of the Gospel, meeting needs, challenging injustice, and demonstrating mutual respect with a willingness to listen and to dialogue. Then the witness we give will speak loudly to the society in which we live and will support our shared proclamation of the words of the Lord that when you did this to least of my brothers and sisters you did it to me. “For the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and indeed will do even greater ones than these,…for …whatever you ask in my name I will do”
Blessed Gerard, pray for us.
Saint Edward the Confessor, pray for us.
The annual dinner for members of the Order in Britain was held last Friday at Boodle's. The guest speaker was Lord Alton of Liverpool. We are very grateful to him for providing the text for a wider readership.
Your Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen, first I want to thank you for inviting me to be your guest this evening, not least because it gives me the opportunity to thank you for the huge contribution you have made over the centuries to the well-being of so many vulnerable people.
I live near a village in Lancashire which has a direct link to your Order. In medieval times and for 300 years until its dissolution by Henry VIII the Knights came to Stydd, near Ribchester, and created a hospice for pilgrims – some of them with incurable diseases such as leprosy – a disease that you continue to work to irradicate in developing parts of the world. In the hospital of St. Saviour, they received love and care from the brethren as part of their religious commitment to God. The small chapel still stands and is reputed to be where the martyred remains of St. Margaret Clitherow were secretly buried. Close by is the barn church built at the end of the eighteenth century thirty years before Catholic emancipation.
In Stydd chapel there is an octagonal font which features the shield of Sir Thomas Newport of Shropshire, a preceptor of the Order – and who is buried in the Knights Hospitaller citadel in Rhodes. And the second shield is of Sir Thomas Pemberton, a later preceptor.
Stydd chapel reminds me of the centuries old commitment of the Knights to care and welfare. Today through your work in hospitals, and hospices – and work with disabled people, the destitute and the homeless you are continuing in this vital life saving work. In England, the modern hospice movement, inspired in no small part by the tradition of the Hospitallers and illustrious Dame Cicely Saunders - nurse, social worker, physician, and writer – was a response to those who wanted and still attempt to legalise euthanasia.
All of us know that the one certainty in life is death. Perhaps the death of Her Majesty the Queen – with her son and daughter at her bedside – having lived a life of service until the very end - has given us all the chance to consider again what we used to call a good death – and your Order has an opportunity to meet a real need of how we can prepare to die well.
Care and kill can never be used as synonyms. But it’s not good enough to simply oppose something. You have to offer radical alternatives such as high-quality palliative care. That has always been part of your mission and as proponents of euthanasia continue to try and force through legalisation we have to do two things – demonstrate that to die with dignity you do not need a doctor to kill you; and, secondly, point to the lack of safeguards and dangers to the frail, disabled and elderly which have become routine in jurisdictions such as Holland where there are more than 6000 people euthanised each year – including for minors with psychiatric illnesses. Or Canada, where an army veteran recently telephoned his health authority looking for help and was directed to information about how to end his life.
Your Order’s work running over 60 care homes in the UK provides a wonderful exemplar of a Christian response to the end of life, where one is treated with love and respect and is helped and guided both physically and spiritually through the twilight and eventual dusk of this, our earthly life. Top quality care homes and palliative care are essential for us to maintain the argument that euthanasia is not the answer.
And the same is true at the beginning of life too. We have just passed the bleak milestone of 10 million abortions in Britain – more than one every 3 minutes, some right up to birth – including 90% of all babies with Down Syndrome.
I vividly remember attending a performance of Blue Apple Theatre company in Westminster, – whose cast comprises disabled people - and which was organised by the Order of Malta Volunteers. Their award-winning leading actor, Tommy Jessop’s rendition of Prince Hamlet’s soliloquy, and those famous words, “To be or not to be” – take on a special meaning when uttered by Tommy. For anyone with Down Syndrome – and for millions of others - that indeed is the question. I particularly salute the work of the charity Right to Life, and I thank those members of the Order who have done so much to support its life saving work.
But beyond your caring work the Order has a mandate to defend the Faith.
As a schoolboy I read a gripping account of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565 and was captivated by the heroism of the Grand Master, Jean de la Valette, and his brother Knights Hospitaller as they countered Ottoman attempts to impose Islam throughout Europe. On his tomb in the city named in his honour appear the words “Worthy of eternal honour…. the shield of Europe.”
This paved the way for the victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, in which the Knights played such an important part. GK Chesterton wrote a rollicking epic poem commemorating the defeat of the Turkish Sultan’s attempts to seize and control the Mediterranean Sea.
As in any conflict a heroic figure emerges, and in Lepanto Chesterton unapologetically points us to the illegitimate Don John of Austria who was undoubtedly the hero of Lepanto – whom Chesterton describes as the “Last Knight of Europe”.
In this, perhaps Chesterton was wrong – for in every succeeding age unexpected heroes emerge and some of them, like Don John, spring from unlikely origins.
Who, just two years ago, would have believed that an obscure former comedian in Ukraine would rally his people and lead Europe in the defence of the sovereignty of nations, the rule of law and democracy? But that is precisely what Vladimir Zelensky has done.
And what if Churchill had been judged by his first 60 years – and by serial failures and mistakes – he would be a footnote in our history books rather than acclaimed as the greatest of our Prime Ministers.
In Lepanto Chesterton encourages its readers to rise “tiny and unafraid” from their “nameless thrones” and to hear the song that was first sung “when all the world young.”
He knew that in remembering a battle for the soul of Europe, 450 years ago – when the religious and cultural heritage of Europe was in the balance - it might inspire and challenge future generations to think about what they must do in their own time and in their own ways to defend those same values and beliefs which we hold and are passed down by all those who have sung the same song celebrating the inestimable value and dignity of every human being made in God’s image.
None of this is to glory in conflict or war – quite the reverse. My father and grandfather both had to fight in terrible wars. My uncle died in the RAF. Cities like Liverpool Coventry and the East End of London suffered appallingly through aerial bombardment.
But who can doubt the justice in fighting against a destroyer, like Hitler, who sought the destruction of the liberties and freedoms which we hold dear? And who can doubt that too often good people choose to be quiet until it is too late?
We remember our past, we tell one another our stories, so that we can avert the repetition of past errors. We may not care for some of those commemorated on plinths or with statues but rather than acts of vandalism or endless campaigns seeking to cancel people and cancel history we use our energy and our gifts to understand what went before and to challenge contemporary injustices and present dangers.
When Croesus, the King of the Lydians, went to the Oracle at Delphi he asked what was the most important thing a man should know: “Know who you are” came the reply. Similarly, the prophet Isaiah says we must remember the rock from which we were hewn. When we succumb to collective amnesia and forget who we are it leads to the sort of identity crisis which seems to plague contemporary society.
Today, so many new challenges to our way of life demand the same heroism of Jean de la Valette, or Don John of Austria or the countless men and women who have dedicated their lives to withstanding the assault on what we hold dear – with the assailant often insidiously arriving unnoticed in carpet slippers.
Those challenges demand the tiny and unafraid to give voice and to use our opportunities and privileges to speak and to act.
You have a special mandate to defend Faith. One in eight Christians worldwide live in countries where they may face persecution. Among this number, 309 million Christians are living in countries where they might suffer very high or extreme levels of persecution. On average, every day, 13 Christians are killed for their faith, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested, detained, or imprisoned, and 5 Christians are abducted for faith-related reasons. In the 21st century, it is still not possible to practice religion or belief safely.
Think of the 50-70,000 Christians held in North Korea’s labour camps; the Nigerian Christians murdered by Boko Haram; the Christian girls abducted, raped, and forcibly converted in Pakistan; the endless discrimination in so many countries, which morphs into persecution, then into crimes against humanity and in places like Northern Iraq finally into outright genocide.
As a Sovereign entity, your Order has recently joined the International Religious Freedom Alliance, and took park in the Ministerial on Religious Freedom hosted by the UK Government in June, and I understand the Order is considering the appointment of its first Ambassador for Freedom of Religion or Belief. I commend you for this important work.
Unsurprisingly, I want to end by mentioning China.
Unsurprising the CCP has sanctioned me and my family and six other parliamentarians for speaking out against their atrocities against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, the destruction of Tibetan Buddhism, the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, the destruction of Hong Kong’s democracy and freedoms and the daily threats to the peaceful people of Taiwan.
Since 2001, on over 400 occasions in Parliament I have raised the violation of human rights in the People’s Republic of China. From the 1980s on I have highlighted the appalling one child policy – where forced abortion and sterilisation of women was used to enforce a disastrous policy which made it illegal to have a brother or a sister.
Back in 2008 I drew attention to 8,000 executions in the PRC and the failure to provide benchmarks to demonstrate whether the “golden age” diplomacy which would be promoted so assiduously by the Coalition Government was delivering anything of substance. I specifically cited Mao’s belief that “religion is poison.” In 1980 as a young MP, I had managed to get to Shanghai, where its brave bishop, - later secretly made a Cardinal, in pectore, by Pope John Paul II - Bishop Kung was spending 30 years in Chinese prisons for defying attempts by China's Communist government to control Catholics in the country through the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association. I met brave underground Catholic and Protestant Christians.
I have also travelled to Western China, Tibet, and Hong Kong to see the situation for myself.
Although willing to see if Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms and the “two systems one country” agreement for Hong Kong would create new possibilities for religious freedom, political and democratic rights, and the rule of law, I remained sceptical.
It soon became obvious that once Xi Jinping became CCP Chairman, he was more interested in becoming another Mao with the declared aim of extending his CCP ideology worldwide.
On its recent 100th anniversary it was estimated that the CCP has been responsible for killing 50 million people.
Since Xi became the CCP leader in 2013 the human rights of all of China’s citizens have deteriorated further.
Hong Kong’s brave 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, now arrested and facing fines and further charges that could lead to prison, has frequently warned that the leopard had not changed its spots.
In Hong Kong young and old Catholics, along with many others, are incarcerated in prison or awaiting trial – including the Catholic publisher of Apple Daily Jimmy Lai, and the Catholic father of Hong Kong democracy Martin Lee KC.
Others I also know personally include the young democracy campaigner, Joshua Wong and the acclaimed lawyer and former legislator, Dr. Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee.
The National Security Law in Hong Kong is being used to create outrageous parodies of justice. A conflation of show trails and kangaroo courts have verdict decided in advance by judges who are simply an extension of the CCP. False allegations have become a tool for targeting formerly Hong Kong’s free press, former legislators, and pro-democracy activists whom I met when I was part of the international monitoring team in the last free elections in 2019.
It would be foolish to believe that Cardinal Zen – who has been treated as a troublesome priest in the mould of Thomas Becket - will be treated any differently. The UK Government says, “we are seeing the implications of this sweeping legislation, including the chilling effect on freedom of expression, the stifling of opposition voices, and the criminalising of dissent.”
If you want to know what it is like to be a believer in China ask Archbishop Cui Tai - jailed intermittently since 2007,
Ask the courageous citizen-journalist and lawyer, a Christian woman, Zhang Zhan, who is festering in a CCP prison for seeking the truth of the origins of Covid 19 in Wuhan.
Ask Chinese Christians if they are surprised by the reported plans of the CCP to ‘contextualise’ the Bible to make it more ‘culturally acceptable’ and the requirement for Christian preaching to be adapted to include the core values of socialism. Ask those Christians who have now been subjected to forced indoctrination in mobile ‘re-education camps.’ Or ask Pastor, Wang Yi, of Early Rain Church, imprisoned for refusing to comply. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have called for his immediate and unconditional release. Ask the 23 million besieged people of Taiwan; ask His Holiness the exiled Dalai Lama. Ask the up to 50 million Chinese Christians who have suffered persecution including the “increasing persecution” of Catholics since 2018, noted by the US Commission of Inquiry on China. Ask the 1 million Uyghurs of Xinjiang incarcerated and used as slave labour - the most glaring example of State-authorised atrocities in recent history. Why are we so indifferent to evidence of the destruction of a people’s identity; of mass surveillance; of forced labour and enforced slavery; the uprooting of people; the destruction of communities and families; the prevention of births; the ruination of cemeteries where generations of loved one had been buried? Escaped Uyghurs attested to degrading treatment, torture, human trafficking, forced labour, forced sterilisation, and forced abortion. The UK’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Mirvis describes it as ‘an unfathomable mass atrocity." Don’t we care about people being forcibly indoctrinated to believe that you, your people, your religion, your culture, never existed – and the certainty that through ethno-religious cleansing, you will cease to exist?
Those whose signature is written across these monstrous crimes know the name that describes all of this. The word is Genocide.
How easily we forget.
Recall how, in Europe, bureaucrats identified who was a Jew, confiscated property, used their victims as slave labour, scheduled trains to uproot them from their homes and communities, and deprived them of livelihoods and positions in society; and how German pharmaceutical companies tested drugs on camp prisoners, confiscated personal property, shaved heads, sent hair, jewelry, and other artefacts as trophies, and then made prisoners build their crematoria. All of that is happening today on what the UK has described as “an industrial scale."
In the 1930s political leaders and tainted corporations – and the calculating machines which owned them –danced obligingly around Hitler and didn’t give a tinker’s damn about what was happening to the incarcerated Jews. The Uyghurs are in a comparable position today.
After the War new demons emerged. Incapable of learning the lessons of appeasement the West turned a blind eye to many of the excesses of Stalin and Soviet Communism. The new doctrine was termed Ostpolitik - which sought closer economic and political ties with Soviet Communism and in return agreed to be quiet about the repression of the citizens of those countries.
Ultimately, in the 1980s, it was the spiritual inspiration and heroic leadership of St. John Paul II, trenchantly aligning himself in solidarity with democracy and the rule of law which became the catalyst for peaceful revolution.
Like Cardinal Zen, John Paul had experienced suffering first hand, knew what he was dealing with, and had no intention of becoming one of Lenin’s “useful idiots.” And nor should we.
If you want to understand the situation of the Church in China I commend to you Cardinal Zen’s book, entitled “For Love of My People, I Will Not Remain Silent”. As he risks his freedom can we do any less? (Link HERE)
The denial of religious freedom is always a litmus test of the nature of a society. It is hated by totalitarians, authoritarians, dictators and ideologues and terrorists – from North Korea, to Iran, from Nigeria to China. Conversely, it is also true that where religious freedom is promoted it creates the most stable and economically prosperous societies.
Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights insists that everyone has the right to believe, not to believe or to change their belief. In so many parts of the world, it is a right that is honoured only in its breach. The famous Christian axiom, ‘preach all the time, and sometimes even use words’, pertains well to the Order of Malta. The work you do, as members and volunteers, for the most vulnerable people in society is a tremendous witness to our faith that every human being has inherent worth and dignity, but sometimes we must also use words to speak up and defend those rights and inherent dignities. In the spirit of those who resisted in the Great Siege and who fought at Lepanto, I can think of no worthier current and pressing cause, for your noble and illustrious Order than to give voice to all those whose suffer today in domains where this fundamental right of religious freedom is denied.
Thank you for inviting me.
Cardinal Zen's book "For Love of My People I Will Not Remain Silent: On the Situation of the Church in China." is available HERE.
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