ragon
THE
P RTAL
May 2013
Page 8
Loved or loathed
You either loved her or loathed her, and even in death Margaret Thatcher continues
to divide as she did in life. Some worshipped her as the woman who transformed the country,
while others bitterly accused her of widening the divide between the rich and the poor. On
the day of her death most comments on her life and times were favourable, as one tends to
expect, but in the days since, the extent to which she managed to divide public opinion then
and now has become evident. Newspaper headlines the day following her death included,
‘The woman who saved Britain’ and ‘The woman who tore Britain apart’; subsequent days
saw much less generous assessments of this undeniably controversial prime minister’s legacy.
‘Are we being
true to who we are?’
that someone might find out that you belong to the
Ordinariate and be critical of you for it.
One thing that Margaret Thatcher’s
lovers and loathers agree on: you don’t the right thing to do
have to agree with her politics to consider Margaret
Two years ago we made a major shift; to the horror
Thatcher a politician of conviction and principle, who of some we did the unthinkable in becoming Catholics
knew what she believed and stood for.
and something unconventional in doing it as members
of the Ordinariate. But at that time we knew that it was
During her eleven and a half years as Prime Minister the right thing to do. We could have stayed where we
Mrs Thatcher did not deviate from the principles that were and ‘toed the line’, but our heartfelt convictions
underpinned her politics and quite obviously worked did not allow us to do that. We could have become
at building up a team of people around her who shared Catholics by the conventional route, and probably
them and were skilled in communicating them to would have had an easier time of it, but again we
others.
believed that the Ordinariate was right for us and for
the wider Church.
I’m guessing that the ordinariate contains both lovers
and loathers of Margaret Thatcher the politician, but pursuing our course
Two years on, when what we do, and for some our
we would all do well to possess the depth of belief and
conviction in who we are and what we are about that very existence, still proves very unpalatable, are we
she had. We are all very aware that the Ordinariate considering the U-turn or are we pursuing our course
has its lovers and its loathers; those who are strongly with steely con viction, tenacity and passion?
supportive of it and want to see it prosper, and those
who oppose it.
St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham
But we shouldn’t be too concerned by either. It is
not our aim to please others, and we can not possibly
hope to please everybody. We should not be asking
ourselves the question, ‘Are we being liked, or loved or
loathed?’ Our question should be, ‘Are we being true
to who we are?’
the courage of our convictions
Knowing what the Ordinariate is about is important;
believing in what the Ordinariate stands for is
necessary; and having the courage of our convictions,
living out those convictions and communicating them
with passion is essential. Having the courage of our
convictions in our context means having faith that
the Ordinariate exists by the grace of God and has a
definite purpose.
It means being willing to stand up to defend it.
Certainly it means not being ashamed of it; not fearing
The four important documents
of the Second Vatican Council
The series of open meetings at St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham
to discuss the four important documents of the
Second Vatican Council continues:
Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (1964) – Tuesday 28th May
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965)
– Tuesday 25th June
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
(1965) – Tuesday 24th September
The meetings are organised by members of the Ordinariate of
Our Lady of Walsingham and begin at 7.30 pm
Refreshments will be served
Contact – Fr Peter Andrews
[email protected] - 07753827967
St Thomas Aquinas R C Church, Ham Street, Richmond TW10 7HT