The 140 raft-borne men, women and children from different times in history, different religions and different homelands – sculpted by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz – are a stark reminder of the reality of so many of our brothers and sisters on the move.
At a time in which many other rafts, rubber dinghies and old boats don’t even complete their journey, resulting in innumerable tragic deaths at sea, that bronze raft is afloat and will be crossing the United States for the year to come, awakening awareness and empathy in those who come across it, and helping us all look at immigration in a more Christian way.
The sculpture is entitled “Angels Unawares” and it is the exact replica of the work installed in St. Peter’s Square in September 2019 to mark the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
For the month of November, the artwork that gets its name from the New Testament’s Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”, is on show in the grounds of Boston College.
As Jesuit Father James Keenan, a moral theologian, bioethicist, writer, and the Canisius Professor of theology at the College told Vatican Radio, it’s getting a great reception:
Listen to the interview with James Keenan, SJ
“It’s terrific. It’s a wonderful experience,” Fr Keenan said, explaining that it is located in a lovely plaza between the old Boston College hall and the library, a place of passage.
It invites people to stop in their tracks, he said, as they encounter it on their way: “You see people constantly walking around and taking pictures of it, trying to identify different people. The 140 figures… the Holy Family, the Rabbi, the slave… there is a real sense of people on the move, and as an artwork, it’s getting a great reception.”
It has also, he added, created great interest and appreciation for the work of Timothy Schmalz.
Fr Keenan said the presence of the sculpture on the grounds of Boston College goes hand-in-hand with an intense November programme of lectures and events on topics related to immigration.
“This is a 3.6-ton statue that with the angels’ wings hits 14 feet and has 140 figures on the boat,” he notes, so its large and compelling, and at the heart of it “we have a robust programme.”
Among the speakers on Boston College’s panel is Cardinal Michael Czerny, President of the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section, and incidentally, the person who commissioned the work.
Fr Keenan went on to list other members of the panel and of the series of multidisciplinary events, including prayer requests and worship ceremonies, all of which, he said, aim to offer the opportunity for discussion and engagement on topics related to immigration, refugees, migrants and call to action.
Thanksgiving
Recalling that November is also the month in which Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States, Fr Keenan said, “we’re wrapping it into being thankful and praying for blessings as well,” and Angels Unawares is serving “as a clarion call for our University to acknowledge and recognize immigration,” as well “as tapping us as a University.”
Noting that the two of the figures on the raft represent Cardinal Michael Czerny’s parents – migrants from Czechoslovakia – Fr Keenan said when Angels Unawares arrived in Boston he wrote to the Cardinal to tell him. “Good,” Czerny said, “And my parents are on it…!”
The month of Thanksgiving
“There is a certain way in which Thanksgiving calls us all to faith,” he said, explaining that throughout the month the College has programmed events to celebrate Thanksgiving and the diversity that is at the foundation of the country. Like the one entitled “Agape Latte” with Fr Quang Tran SJ, who will share his story of faith, family and gratitude that began with his family’s journey from Vietnam.
What’s more, he added, every week on Wednesday evenings, the College organizes a Candlelight Mass in which “people will be offering for a celebration of immigration itself.”
“I hope, in light of our election, it will be a way of maybe looking at immigration in a more Christian way, then perhaps the discussion has been in my country for the past couple of years,” he said, adding that “2020 has been a rough year, but maybe for us, November is turning out to be a good month.”
A journey throughout the country
Fr Keenan said Angels Unawares has about a year’s run in the United States: “It eventually will settle at the Catholic University of America, where will be installed permanently.”
Its itinerary, he added, is still in the making, but it will definitely be shown at Notre Dame University, at the Catholic University in San Antonio, in Washington and at other stops in between.
Fr Keenan concluded recalling another work by Timothy Schmalz, which is installed near the Community of Saint Egidio in Rome. It is entitled Homeless Jesus and he said“itportrays a covered Jesus sleeping on a bench, and you can see that it is Jesus by the wounds on His feet”.
It is clear, he said that “Schmaltz’s works of mercy, are very much beloved by Pope Francis and by the Church, and it’s really wonderful to see how his work is developing and how deeply connected it is to the papacy of Pope Francis.”
An important oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court this month went largely overlooked because of the nation’s nearly complete fixation on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. But statements and questions by some conservative justices during that argument –coupled with the new solid majority conservatives have on the court –have left LGBTQ legal activists feeling a bit unnerved.
Among other things, two justices claimed that the court’s 2015 ruling striking down state bans on same-sex marriage made “promises” that future Supreme Court decisions would show “respect for religious beliefs” hostile to same-sex marriages.
The two-hour hearing November 4 in Fulton v. Philadelphia is the latest in a long line of lawsuits that have attempted to secure an exemption for some people and businesses to laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Those arguing for the exemptions claim that requiring they obey the non-discrimination laws violates their First Amendment freedom to exercise of their religious beliefs that they should discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Opponents of such arguments say people and businesses have a First Amendment right to believe what they want, but if they voluntarily operate in the public arena, they must abide by laws governing the public, including laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In Fulton, the city of Philadelphia discovered that one of its contractors performing foster care placement services had a policy of denying consideration of same-sex couples to serve as foster parents. That contractor, Catholic Social Services (CSS), acknowledged it had such a policy but said no same-sex couple had ever approached it so it couldn’t be accused of discrimination. When its contract with the city came up for renewal, the city declined to renew it, saying CSS was in violation with the contract’s stipulation that contractees comply with laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of numerous factors, including sexual orientation.
The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty filed a lawsuit for CSS and two parents who had served as CSS foster parents, including Sharonell Fulton. They lost in the district court and in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The three-judge panel at the Third Circuit, which included a Reagan appointee, said the “City’s non-discrimination policy is a neutral, generally applicable law, and the religious views of CSS do not entitle it to an exception from that policy.”
CSS then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The signs of moderation
At the very top of oral arguments (which can be heard or read at the Supreme Court’s website), Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. struck a note that many LGBTQ people would probably take as a good sign. He referred to the Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, striking down state bans on marriage for same-sex couples.
The Fulton case, he said, “is a case involving free exercise rights, but…they’re in tension with another set of rights, those recognized in our decision in Obergefell. And whatever you think or however you think that tension should be resolved as a matter of government regulation, shouldn’t the city get to strike the balance as it wishes when it comes to setting conditions for participating in …its foster program?”
Justice Neil Gorsuch also challenged CSS attorney Lori Windham, noting “the city seems to be representing to us… that the [non-discrimination ordinance] is binding of its own force and that the department can’t offer any exemptions.” Later, to the Trump administration’s Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hassim Mooppan, he asked, “What do we do with the Fair Practices Ordinance and the argument by the city –and we normally take their representations about their law with –with some respect — that the Fair Practices Ordinance applies by its own force and that there are no exemptions here?”
Roberts and Gorsuch have, so far, established moderate records on LGBTQ issues before the court.
The conservative attack
But the established conservatives on the bench seemed eager to score points as such. Justice Samuel Alito was blunt about where he stands, saying, “if we are honest about what’s really going on here, it’s not about ensuring that same-sex couples in Philadelphia have the opportunity to be foster parents.
“It’s the fact that the city can’t stand the message that Catholic Social Services and the Archdiocese are sending by continuing to adhere to the old-fashioned view about marriage,” said Alito, who is Catholic. “Isn’t that the case?
“Absolutely not,” said Neil Katyal, the attorney representing Philadelphia. He pointed out that both the district court and the appeals panel “rejected that idea” and noted that the city still gives CSS some $26 million per year for other services, “which is hardly something demonstrating religious hostility.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh took a different approach, giving voice to a notion that the Supreme Court majority in Obergefell (three years before he joined the bench) made explicit “promises” to have “respect for religious beliefs” that oppose same-sex marriages.
“We need to find a balance that also respects religious beliefs,” said Kavanaugh. “That was the promise explicitly written by the court in Obergefell and in Masterpiece — explicitly promised that respect for religious beliefs.”
Masterpiece Cake v. Colorado, decided three months before Kavanaugh was sworn in, was 7 to 2 in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to sell wedding cakes to same-sex couples claiming it was against his religion to do so.
“What I fear here,” said Kavanaugh to Katyal, “is that the absolutist and extreme position that you’re articulating would require us to go back on the promise of respect for religious believers.”
Katyal did not react to the ‘explicit promise’ remark but assured Kavanaugh “both of these rights are important.”
“I don’t think the framing of this as religion versus same-sex equality is the right one,” said Katyal. “The way the city sees this is actually a case about religion versus religion because, if you accept what [the CSS] argument is, then [that would] allow another [foster care agency to] say ‘We won’t allow Baptists, we won’t allow Buddhists’…. And, in that sense, religion will be pitted against religion….And this will be true, not just in foster care but, in any number of other areas in which the government contracts.”
Katyal’s point was a sentiment that Justice Stephen Breyer voiced, too. If CSS prevails, he said, “it’s pretty hard to see how all kinds of government programs can exist with every religion making exceptions every which way for all kind of reasons.”
Jenny Pizer, a senior counsel for Lambda Legal that filed a brief in support of groups serving LGBTQ youth, said Kavanaugh’s interpretation of Obergefell was “conveniently dropping the second part” of what its author, Justice Anthony Kennedy, wrote. Kennedy’s language, she said, “is the opposite of a promise to allow continued discrimination based on those anti-LGBT religious beliefs.”
In Obergefell, Kennedy wrote that “it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that… same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faith…. In turn, those who believe allowing same-sex marriage is proper or indeed essential, whether as a matter of religious conviction or secular belief, may engage those who disagree with their view in an open and searching debate. The Constitution, however, does not permit the State to bar same-sex couples from marriage on the same terms as accorded to couples of the opposite sex.”
Kavanaugh, said Pizer, was “taking half of Justice Kennedy’s respectful observation about some religious believers and conveniently dropping the second part of the comment — that when those views are made into government policy it wrongfully excludes and stigmatizes the religiously disfavored group.”
Leslie Cooper, deputy director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, said CSS is essentially asking the Supreme Court to create a “constitutional right to discriminate against us in every aspect of our lives” and “open the door to discrimination in any taxpayer-funded program.”
Shannon Minter, legal policy director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the arguments November 4 also revealed “that Amy Coney Barrett poses a serious potential threat to LGBTQ people.” Barrett began hearing her first cases as a U.S. Supreme Court justice on November 2, having been sworn in October 27, following an unusually speedy confirmation process to fill the seat left vacant by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on September 18. Ginsburg had the Supreme Court’s most pro-LGBTQ record; Barrett is expected to align closely with the court’s conservatives –Alito, Kavanaugh, and Justice Clarence Thomas, all of whom are Catholic. (Note: Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Sonia Sotomayor are also Catholic, and Justice Gorsuch was raised Catholic but now identifies as Episcopalian. The other two justices on the court –Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan—are Jewish.)
Seeking a radical re-write?
“Many of her questions,” said Minter of Barrett, “were designed to lay a foundation for a radical rewriting of existing law, in a way that could have far-reaching negative implications for our community and other marginalized groups.”
As an example, Minter noted that Barrett asked Katyal a question about the nature of the relationship between Philadelphia and the CSS –whether it was a government giving a contract or a government regulating a service through granting license. A government awarding contracts could, presumably, have great leeway in deciding the criteria it seeks in potential contractees who would be doing specified work on the city’s behalf. Regulating a field of service, through awarding of a license, would enable the government to set certain standards but would dictate the operation of the licensee.
Barrett asked Katyal, “Is it possible for any entity to participate in the recruitment and certification of foster families without a contract from the city?”
Katyal said no, not when it comes to selecting “who cares for the kids in city custody.”
“The whole point of the modern foster care system,” he said, “is to bring responsibility for those kids inside the government and not leave it into private hands. These are wards of the state, and the city has the highest interest in screening parents.”
“When someone is licensed –like to practice law or run a barber shop,” said Katyal, “they are not carrying out the government’s work. They’re performing their own work, a private profession, with the permission of the government.” The relationship between Philadelphia and CSS, said Katyal, was not like licensing a business but about performing work for the city to care for children who are wards of the state.
But what if the city took over all hospitals, asked Barrett, and granted contracts to operate them. And what if the city gave a contract to a Catholic entity to run one a hospital that had previously been a “Catholic hospital.” And what if the city said every hospital “has to perform abortions,” she asked.
“Do we still say this is a licensing question or, given that the Catholic hospital can’t even enter the business without this contract, do you still say this was the provision of a contractual service?” asked Barrett.
Katyal was not given time to answer Barrett’s hypothetical fully, but he pointed out a couple of key differences between Barrett’s hypothetical and CSS. He noted, for instance, that CSS still receives $26 million a year from Philadelphia to run homes for children, so it can’t be said that the city is putting CSS out of the business of foster care.
What troubled NCLR’s Minter was Barrett’s “apparent endorsement of the idea that the city of Philadelphia is not contracting with Catholic Charities to perform governmental services but rather ‘licensing’ them,” which limits the government’s power to enforce its nondiscrimination protections.
“If the court were to adopt that view,” said Minter, “it would work a radical change in the law governing governmental services and open the door to unprecedented government-funded discrimination.”
The Woolf Institute’s study found that people are most likely to be prejudiced against Muslims (Picture: Getty Images)
People are more prejudiced about religion than ethnicity, race or nationality, new research has shown.
The Woolf Institute’s two-year study on diversity, How We Get Along, will tomorrow conclude that people are more intolerant of people’s religion than any other identity elements, the Guardian reported.
The study surveyed 11,700 people in England and Wales and found that people from other faiths are the most prejudiced about Muslims but Muslims are also most likely to have negative attitudes about other religions.
Researchers used the question of marriage to determine tolerance and prejudice.
Only 43% of non-black or Asian respondents were okay with their family members marrying a Muslim with about three-quarters saying they had no problem with relatives marrying a black or Asian person.
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The majority of Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists who were surveyed said they would not want loved ones to marry into a Muslim family with only a minority of surveyed Christians saying the same thing.
Likewise the majority of Muslims questioned did not want family members marrying a Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh or person with no religion whilst almost four in 10 Muslims were uncomfortable with relatives marrying Christians.
The study also found that prejudice within minority communities were experiencing generational shifts.
The study also found that Muslims often have negative attitudes towards people from other religions (Picture: Getty Images)
More younger British Muslim women were exercising more freedom to decide who to marry, when they want to marry and how they want to marry.
People over 75-years-old are more likely to be prejudiced about people from other religions along with people who have few or no educational qualifications, people from non-Asian ethnic minorities and Baptists.
There is more chance of men being averse to inter-religious, ethnic or national marriages than women.
The study concluded that religion is a ‘red line’ for many people in England and Wales.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
BYU-Idaho classes such as world religions and cultural psychology give students the chance to learn about other cultures and religions and expand their view of theworld.
According to CEDEI Foundation, this also opens people up to criticisms, but if they are patient and willing to think of how other people view the world, a lot can be learned.
Scott Woodward, a religion professor, explains that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsencourages its members to learn about other cultures, history and teachings.
Doctrine and Covenants 88; 93:53 both explain that it is God’s will that we should gain knowledge through other histories, countries and kingdoms.
“The Lord seems to be communicating that we’ll actually be better at doing what we do as members of the Church, as those who are committed to building up Zion, if we will have a better understanding and a more compassionate regard for the other nations and countries and people,” Woodward said.
Woodward explained that people will have a hard time making a difference in their community if they stay within the limits of their “own little world.”
“The fact that we are all children of God is fundamental to our religion,” said Jordan Rogler, a junior studying psychology. “So why would God treat us in the restored church any differently when it comes to giving His children light and truth?”
In the book Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, there is a reference to the Church being the “true order of heaven.” This book also discusses that there is truth in other places. Members and non-members can receive revelation and truth from anyone.
According to Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, members of the Church are guided to adopt principles that involve salvation no matter where it comes from. As a church, and as individual members, it’s important to embrace anything that brings light, knowledge or goodness to the understanding they have.
“I feel that there’s a fear and apprehension that has found its way into the culture we have here in the western part of the Church,” Rogler said. “A lot of people mix that culture with religious truth and it creates a plethora of issues.”
Matthew Whoolery, a psychology professor, compares and contrasts different cultures from around the world. Specifically, he explains the differences between other cultures and western culture.
“Even the way you see your own religious life is heavily based on your own cultural values,” Whoolery said. “Since Jesus wasn’t a modern American, you’ll probably miss a lot of stuff or get some stuff wrong with what he was trying to say.”
Whoolery expressed that when he studies Taoism, a Chinese philosophy and religion, and then studies his own religious writings, he gains a deeper understanding of what is meant by them. There are parables or stories that he would previously gloss over, but after learning more about Taoism, the principles behind those stories become clearer.
Whoolery and Woodward both expressed that having a basic understanding of other cultures and religions can lead people to become better listeners and more empathetic people in general.
Whoolery explained that once people educate themselves on other cultures and religions, they increase in awareness. This, according to Whooleryis often interpreted as political correctness. As individuals learn more about the needs and thoughts of others, they become more aware of other people’s worldviews.
He clarified the difference between political correctness and increased awareness though; the latter is Whoolery’s way of showing kindness.This sometimes is interpreted as a bad thing, but Whoolery poses the question, “why is it bad to be sensitive and aware of other people?”
The Church is full of truth and knowledge, but it’s good to know that many truths can be found in other religions too.
Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his closeness in prayer to the people of the Philippines who are suffering because of the destruction and flooding caused by a strong typhoon.
The death toll from Typhoon Vamco, the deadliest to hit the Philippines this year has officially climbed to 67, while many areas remain submerged in a northern region hit by the worst flooding in more than four decades.
Speaking after the Angelus prayer, the Pope said “I express my solidarity with the poorest families who are are also the most vulnerable to this calamity,” and he offered his support to all those who are working to help them.
Six cyclones hit the Philippines in a span of just four weeks, including Vamco and Super Typhoon Goni, the world’s most powerful this year.
Caritas Philippines has appealed to the government to seek international aid to help the victims.
Tragedy in Romania
Pope Francis also recalled a tragic fire that ripped through a hospital in Romania on Saturday where patients affected by coronavirus were being treated.
“I express my closeness and pray for the victims,” he said, asking those present to join him in prayer.
The fire in northeastern Romania killed 10 people and injured 10 others, seven of them critically. Officials the blaze spread through the intensive care ward designated for Covid-19 patients at the public hospital in the city of Piatra Neamt.
According to data released by Johns Hopkins University that is charting the coronavirus pandemic, Romania has registered over 350,000 infections and almost 9,000 deaths, making it one of the 20 countries with the highest mortality rate in the world.
“My thoughts go to the Ivory Coast,” Pope Francis said, “which today celebrates the National Day of Peace in a context of social and political tensions that have unfortunately caused many victims.”
Speaking after the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, the Pope asked for prayers to the Lord for national harmony. He also exhorted “all the sons and daughters of that dear country to collaborate responsibly for reconciliation and a peaceful coexistence.”
“In particular, I encourage the various political actors to re-establish a climate of mutual trust and dialogue in the quest for just solutions that protect and promote the common good,” he said.
Controversial election and aftermath
Ivory Coast’s Constitutional Council announced that President Alassane Quattara had won his bid for a third term in office on 9 November. Since then violence has continued across the country, with the political capital Yamoussoukro a particular flashpoint.
At least 16 people have reportedly died in election-related violence.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, registered 8,000 people as having fled the country – half of them to neighboring Liberia – and the rest to Ghana, Guinea, and Togo.
Observers said the mass exodus may well have been precautionary measures, similar to those taken by Abidjan residents, who left the city in droves before Election Day, but said they would be back as soon things were back to normal.
The All Faiths Network is a UK charity that reaches into some twenty-five different belief and faith traditions. Open to people of every faith and belief recognized in law (such as under the Equality Act 2010) without discrimination. Formally established on 30 August 2011, its charitable objects include to promote religious harmony for the public benefit, and to work for positive, inclusive dialogue.
Beginning this month, they released a brief yet complete collection of articles of what many of their affiliated denominations have been doing to help society during this COVID-19 pandemic and how they envision the present and the future. It is the most comprehensive yet brief collection of evidenced facts of what People of Faith DO in times of need.
It is the most comprehensive yet brief collection of evidenced facts of what People of Faith DO in times of need.
The European Times News
The circumstances surrounding COVID-19 brought about an unprecedented change in people’s lives on a scale as never before, at least in modern history. Lockdown, protection of the vulnerable, protection of self, poor and mixed government advice and evaluation, vested interests – all are part of the picture that has enveloped us and we have become since early 2020. This book is not the place to get into the rights and wrongs of government, corporate or global management of the crisis. But it is the place to go into how people of many faiths, and none, have responded to the crisis with the goodness of their hearts, inspired by their different spiritual awareness – and by doing so, rising above the crisis to make something positive from it.
YOU WILL FIND THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES
■ Introduction, by Martin Weightman ■ What Is The All Faiths Network ■ COVID-19 Pandemic & Persecution of Religious & Spiritual Minorities, Fighting for Freedom, by Alessandro Amicarelli ■ Rising Above The Challenges Of COVID-19: One Jewish View by Rabbi Jeff Berger ■ Scientology London Volunteer Ministers: Response To COVID-19 by Tracey Coleman ■ Ateker International Development Organisation Response by HRH Paul J. Eganda ■ Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Response: Innocent Lives Matter by Sheikh Rahman ■ WHD: Creating A Million Humanitarian Impressions by Dr. Abdul Basit Sayed ■ Muslims And The Pandemic by Sheikh Ramzy ■ Sikh Perception On COVID-19 by Rabinder Sohil ■ Hindu Community: Rising To The Challenge Of The Pandemic by Ashwin Soni ■ Women Worship Gospel Music Awards by Rev. Precious Toe ■ 2020 & Beyond: Sanskruti’s Journey & Pursuits by Ragasudha Vinjamuri.
The parable describes three servants entrusted with large sums of money by their master, who goes away on a journey. In the parable, Pope Francis noted, the master gives to each of the servants “according to their ability.”
“The Lord does so with all of us,” the Pope explained. God “knows us well. He knows we are not all equal and does not wish to favour any one to the detriment of others, but He entrusts capital to each one according to his or her abilities.”
When the master returns and the servants are called to give an account of the money entrusted to them, two present “the good fruits of their efforts,” and are praised by the master. The third, however, who had hidden his talent, is condemned by the master and cast out of his household.
Using our gifts for good
“This parable,” the Pope said, “applies to everyone but, as always, to Christians in particular.”
He added that it is particularly relevant today, on the World Day of the Poor, when the Church urges everyone to stretch forth our hands to the poor.
We are all given different abilities – and “these gifts need to be used to do good in this life, as a service to God and to our brothers and sisters.”
Pay attention to the poor
Speaking off-the-cuff, Pope Francis urged everyone to look at the poor, of which there are many.
“There is so much hunger, even in the heart of our cities,” he said. “Often we enter into a mindset of indifference: the poor person is there but we look the other way.” Instead, he said, “stretch forth your hand to the poor: He is Christ.”
Jesus, added the Pope, taught us to speak to the poor. He came for the poor.”
Learning considerate love
Once again, Pope Francis pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as an example for all of us. She “received a great gift, Jesus Himself, but she did not keep Him to herself. She gave Him to the world,” he said.
“May we learn from her to stretch forth our hands to the poor,” he concluded.
London: A brave new world or a dangerous leap into the unknown? After nearly 50 years of integration with Europe, Britain starts an uncertain new chapter on January 1.
Britain formally quit the European Union in January this year but has continued to observe all its rules during a transition period.
That half-way house ends at 2300 GMT on December 31. So from 2021, it will stand on its own, for better or worse.
If the two sides can secure a new trade deal in the time left, that will smooth the path by lifting the prospect of tariffs and quotas for cross-Channel goods, from cars to lamb.
Without a deal, imports and exports face serious disruption with the abrupt return of barriers that have not existed for decades.
There are fears that certain foodstuffs and medicines could run short.
But even with a deal, the future won’t be seamless.
UK exporters will still need to file reams of new customs paperwork to prove their goods have authorisation to enter the EU’s single market.
Britain is urging business to be ready either way but industry players say the government has failed to deliver vital IT systems and support staff in time, heightening the risk of chaos after January 1.
Brexiteers argue the EU has held Britain back through onerous regulation and it can now embark on a buccaneering new mission to support free trade around the world — “God’s diplomacy”, according to a February speech by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
But if heaven was listening, it had other plans in mind: a month after Johnson’s speech, Britain was forced into national lockdown by the coronavirus pandemic.
If the world ever gets back to normality, the idea is that Britain will not shrink inwards after Brexit but will look outwards, as far afield as a free-trade pact with Pacific rim countries.
“Now Global Britain is back, it is time for the makers, the doers and the innovators to help us write our most exciting chapter yet,” International Trade Secretary Liz Truss declared in October, touting UK exports of everything from clotted cream to robots.
Truss has signed a post-Brexit trade deal with Japan, and is negotiating others with the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand — Britain’s partners in the “Five Eyes” collective of English-speaking intelligence powers.
Further deals in the pipeline will cover 80 percent of overseas trade by 2022, according to the government, which has shaken up the Foreign Office to integrate aid and development into Britain’s diplomatic agenda.
Johnson’s pitch to voters in last December’s general election was to “get Brexit done” and focus both money and attention on parts of the country that have failed to benefit from London’s finance-driven growth.
That “levelling up” agenda to bring new investment such as high-speed rail to northern England has been side-tracked by the pandemic.
But the government insists its long-term goals remain in place and that membership dues sent to the EU will be better spent at home.
Some Brexiteers want a radical overhaul of Britain’s economic model, to turn the country into “Singapore on Thames” — a lightly regulated, lightly taxed rival to supposedly sclerotic Europe.
Yet the government stresses that any free-trade deals won’t sacrifice its “red lines”: the state-run National Health Service, food standards and UK farming.
All of those sacred cows could be carved up if the United States forces post-Brexit Britain to yield the same kind of concessions on trade that the world’s most powerful economy has negotiated elsewhere.
And Joe Biden‘s election as US president could restrict Johnson’s plans to bind Northern Ireland into the post-January 1 UK internal market, free of EU influence.
Celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday to mark the occasion, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel (Mt 25:14-30), in which Jesus recounts a parable about a master who entrusts his servants with talents distributed according to their ability.
The Pope said the parable sheds light on the beginning, center, and end of our own lives.
Our lives, said the Pope, began with the grace of God, at which moment we were each entrusted with different talents.
“We possess a great wealth that depends not on what we possess but on what we are: the life we have received, the good within us, the indelible beauty God has given us by making us in His image.”
‘If only…’
Pope Francis also warned against the temptation of only seeing what we lack in life, like a better job or more money.
“If only” are illusory words, he said, which keep us from appreciating our talents and putting them to good use.
“The Lord,” he said, “asks us to make the most of the present moment, not yearning for the past, but waiting industriously for His return.”
Center: Lives of service
Pope Francis went on to reflect on the center of the parable, and our lives: “The work of servants, which is service.”
He said service is what makes our talents bear fruit and gives meaning to our lives. “Those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life.”
The Pope said the Gospel makes clear that faithful servants should take risks.
By not clinging to what they possess, good servants put their talents to good use and are not fearful or overcautious.
“For if goodness is not invested, it is lost, and the grandeur of our lives is not measured by how much we save but by the fruit we bear.”
He said a life centered on accumulating possessions rather than doing good is empty. “The reason we have gifts is so that we can be gifts.”
Poor bankers
“How then do we serve, as God would have us serve?” asked Pope Francis.
According to Jesus’ parable, the master tells the faithless servant who buried his talent that he should have invested his money with the “bankers” in order to earn interest.
Those bankers, said the Pope, are the poor.
“The poor guarantee us an eternal income,” he said. “Even now they help us become rich in love. For the worst kind of poverty needing to be combatted is our poverty of love.”
The Holy Father added that Christians can multiply our talents by simply holding out our hand to the poor, rather than demanding what we lack.
End: Success versus love
Pope Francis then reflected on what Jesus’ parable tells us about the end of our own lives.
When our lives are over and the truth is revealed, he said, “the pretense of this world will fade, with its notion that success, power and money give life meaning, whereas love – the love we have given – will be revealed as true riches.”
“If we do not want to live life poorly,” he said, “let us ask for the grace to see Jesus in the poor, to serve Jesus in the poor.”
A recent example of selfless service
Finally, Pope Francis recalled an Italian priest who was killed two months ago while serving the poor.
Fr. Roberto Malgesini was murdered at his parish of Saint Roch (Rocco) in the Italian city of Como. The man who killed him was allegedly a Tunisian migrant with mental problems, whom Fr. Roberto had been assisting.
“This priest was not interested in theories,” said Pope Francis. “He simply saw Jesus in the poor and found meaning in life in serving them. He dried their tears with his gentleness, in the name of God who consoles.”
The Pope concluded his homily holding up Fr. Roberto as an example of a faithful servant whose life was centered on the poor.
“The beginning of his day was prayer, to receive God’s gifts. The centre of his day was charity, to make the love he had received bear fruit. The end was his clear witness to the Gospel.”
