Preaching in the Pyrenees

Snooping about on the net recently I was a little suprised to find a youtube video of Rowan Wlliams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, preaching at the shrine of Our Lady at Lourdes. There he was, in the underground basilica of Pius the Tenth (which looks more like a vast carpark) preaching to an enormous congregation which appeared to include members of the French hierarchy. So far so good. Very ecumenical. And we cannot give Our Blessed Lady too much honour. (Well actually we can, but not if we are good Gallican Anglicans.)

The archbishop preached a fine sermon, but every now and again a little phrase popped up which made me feel rather uneasy. He said things like,"When Mary spoke to Bernadette." Did she really? Did she (for example) honestly endorse St Augustine's version of original sin by saying (in fluent Gascon Occitan), "Que soi era Immaculada Concepcion" - I am the Immaculate Conception? I hope not. I am all for the belief that Our Lady was sanctified from the very moment of her conception - even although I'm not quite sure what that could really mean with reference to a small group of cells in her mother's womb. I also believe that she was prepared by grace for a vocation in time and eternity outshining all others except that of her divine son. But like the Eastern Orthodox, I would prefer not to define such things too tidily, and furthermore, I would certainly not want to take St Augustine (genius though he undoubtedly was) as my mentor and guide on matters connected with the doctrine of grace.

So what was Dr Williams doing? I should be surprised to find that he actually believed everything he said in his sermon. We often talk about religious matters in a rather literal way even when we don't actually mean it. Thus we speak about Christ ascending to heaven, when we are pretty sure that our eternal destiny is not to be located somewhere in the Milky Way - unless we are Mormons, that is, who seem to have very strange ideas about this, as about so much else.

And where Lourdes is concerned there is a need for some reserve. Only eleven years before Bernadette's visions began, Our Lady of La Salette had made her appearance near Grenoble to a couple of children, saying to them (among other things), "If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it...If I would not have my Son abandon you, I am compelled to pray to him without ceasing; and as to you, you take not heed of it...Six days I have given you to labour, the seventh I had kept for myself; and they will not give it to me. It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy. Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which makes the arm of my Son so heavy..." And more of the same. I'm afraid it doesn't sound much like the Christ of the Gospels to me - or his Mother. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is an important part of the faith, but it's faith - not credulity - which gives honour to God and his Saints.

Queen Victoria, that most reformed of sovereigns (after Edward the Sixth and William of Orange) is said to have been somewhat put out at being upstaged by the Queen of Heaven among her Roman Catholic subjects with their enthusiastic devotion to the Immaculate Conception, and to have consoled herself by standing in front of a mirror and proclaiming, "I am the Diamond Jubilee." Perhaps she did, but I would be surprised if she suddenly found herself up to her ankles in a spring.