Whitefriars Chronicle

AS one who has done a fair share at newspaper assignments abroad, I understand the difficulties of correspondents who descend on a foreign city and in a few days—or sometimes hours— have to make an assessment of a situation and write a report of it.
I can, therefore, sympathise with the two correspondents whose reports on Cuba appeared in the Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph last week. But in this case. the discrepancy between them wa.s so great that one or other is completely wrong.
In the Sunday Telegraph. William Eccles, who spent three months in Cuba, had some alarming reports about the Church in Cuba. It has " almost ceased to exist as a moral and spiritual force", he said. " Viflanova University and all Catholic colleges and schools are empty. Many of the churches in Havana are closed as much for lack of priests as for lack of parishioners ".
Tom Stacey. the Sunday Times wide-roving reporter. was less detailed in his reports. Where his colleague had written of "a subtle and ingenious war to strip the Church of its power ". Mr. Stacey says that the revolutionary spirit in Latin America " is not an anticlerical one ". And he says, " the Churches are full. The Roman Catholic Church. very wisely, is playing it cool ".
NEO-GOTHIC
ACAR trip past Guildford this week added me the opportunity to pay a first visit to the new Anglican Cathedral on a height outside the town. (Incidentally, does the very siting of the Cathedral reflect the changed circircumstances of modern society? Only people with cars can reach the Cathedral: in earlier days, it would be unthinkable to build a Cathedral in such a comparatively out 01 the way site.)
From the outside. Guildfixd Cathedral looks undistinguished enough. Inside the Neo-Gothic architecture preserves the snaring effect, though the supreme simplicity of the. style strikes a flat note for one used to the more elaborate and flowing lines of the classic Gothic.
One admires little touches: the lovely children's chapel with its beautiful statues of the angel and the women at the Tomb of the risen Quist. One admires, too, the way everything has been thought of—power and microphone points in the right places so that there are no trailing wires.
But it may only have been an individual reaction. I could not help feeling that the fact of everying being in its right place added to the feeling of cold competence as distinct from the warm confusion we are often accustomed to. But then it may only have been the fact that Guildford is still very neW and that the warmth and confusion will come with use.
INNOVATION
STAINED glass stations of the cross are no innovation. But I hear that Christ Church at Heald Green, Cheshire, is claiming that its plan for combining stained glass stations with the normal windows of the church is unique in this country. The stations are being made by Mr. G Nuttgens at his High Wycombe studios. This week he brought two of them to Heald Green and temporarily installed them to enable the electricians to experiment with various types of exterior tighting.
The stations must admit sufficient natural light during the day and after dark will be illuminated from outside, The effect, I understand, will he striking.
SAMARITANS
FEW readers of the Sunday papers cannot but have been appalled at the extent of suicide (5.000 cases a year) and attempted suicides (40.000 a year) in Britain.
This was the situation which prompted the Rev. Chad Varah to start at St. Stephen's Walbrook the work known as the Samaritans. The movement, which has now spread to the provinces, is now dealing with something like MOO calls a year from potential suicides and those in grave mental stress.
The Portsmouth branch alone, recently founded, is now dealing with four calls a day. I learn that another branch is to be started soon in Reading. It will be based on St. Giles' Church with the Rev. Alfred W. H. Cooke as Director. He hopes that a Catholic priest will soon be on the panel of advisers. The Reading group is adapting the well-known prayer of St. Francis for its use.
"0 Lord make the Samaritans of Reading the instrument of Thy Peace:
Where there is hatred, may they bring love;
Where there is injury, forgiveness: Where there Is discord, harmony; Where there Is despair, hope; Where there is sadness, joy.
May they always seek to understand. to console and to love; and may they be given Thy grace to carry out the work of bringing Thy healing power and serenity to the mind; through Jesus Christ Our Lord"
FRIENDLINESS
CARDINAL BENS recent statement that the Vatican Council would not be exclusively an internal matter of the Catholic Church but would prepare " even if only in the long term" the union of all baptised Christians, was noted in last week's "Church Times " and in the " Methodist Recorder ",
The former contented itself with a straight report of the Cardinal's remarks, but the " Methodist Recorder " availed of the opportunity to carry an editorial on the Council itself. It gave a "cautious" but "genuine " welcome to Cardinal Bea's statement, but the tone of the editorial was, in the ecumenical context, a little begrudging. Certainly, the somewhat sweep ing statement that " Rome will not easily or quickly make the psycho. logical adjustment necessary for co-operation " would seem to ignore the way in which a positive attitude of understanding and charity towards their separated brethren is animating Catholics the world over.
However, it is encouraging that the preparations for the Council are being closely followed in the non-Catholic Christian press with interest and friendliness.
£100 FOR LEPERS
THE Catholic Stage Guild's annual meeting when over 200 attended shows what can be done with a keen chairman (Earnonn Andrews), a newlyappointed full-time secretary (Miss Veronica Silver). an • active committee and a healthy bank balance.
The ugly cliche " star-studded" could fairly be applied to an attendance which included Ben Lyon, Bebe Daniels, Marie Ney, George Baker, Catherine Lacey, Joan Gilbert, Cbarmain Innes and Georgie Wood. The AGM was followed by an informal wine-and-cheese partya civilised procedure which other Catholic organisations might emulate. Towards the end of this, despite thunderstorms. the illness of her husband and her own indisposition, Sue Ryder (Mrs. Cheshire) arrived to be presented with a £100 cheque for the. Cheshire Homes, the proceeds of a dinner organised by loan Turner and the Ladies Committee. The money will be used for a leper home in northern India.
IGNOTUS
ON St. George's Day, two women noticed the flag flying from the Church tower.
"1 wonder what they're flying that for," said one.
" For somebody quite important. I expect," said the other.
—Reader's Letter.