….As one lucid observer put it in the aftermath of the papal visit, \u201cThe British hierarchy didn\u2019t do much wrong on this visit, but they did contain their enthusiasm until the secular press declared it a success, and then they joined in.\u201d\u009d Five days after Benedict left, Archbishop Nichols of Westminster reflected on the visit in an article in L\u2019Osservatore Romano and suggested that the thread uniting the pope\u2019s various talks was that \u201cfaith in God plays an important role in modern pluralist societies.\u201d\u009d That role should be played, the archbishop continued, with sensitivity, openness, and courtesy. All of this, he concluded, amounted to a \u201cnew agenda\u201d\u009d for the Church in Great Britain.<\/p>\n
Unobjectionable if not inspired, one might say. But Archbishop Nichols\u2019 summary did seem to underplay several of the points that Benedict stressed in Britain. The first was the imperative of seeking holiness in truth, and speaking the truth in love. Then, and only then, will the Church\u2019s place at the table of public conversation mean anything. As the pope noted in a pointed comment at a press conference on his plane en route to Britain: \u201cA Church that seeks above all to be attractive is already on the wrong path.\u201d\u009d In other words, a Church that takes the edge off the truth it bears will be unattractive evangelically and useless publicly.<\/p>\n
And there was that business about cheap grace and costly grace, at the nocturnal vigil before Newman\u2019s beatification: Will the \u201cnew agenda\u201d\u009d of the British hierarchy include a call to bear the costs of a \u201cpassion for truth, intellectual honesty, and genuine conversion\u201d\u009d?<\/p>\n
That, one might suggest, is the only appropriate strategy in addressing the spiritual hollowness of the Britain Tony Blair left behind\u201d\u201da Britain whose current cultural crisis is less understood by its former prime minister than by the German pope who thanked the people of the United Kingdom for winning the Battle of Britain.<\/p>\n