Msgr Cuthbert Alexander

“If I have no right to feel angry,” said the caller to our newsroom last week, “then at least tell me why.” She was disturbed about Peter Minshall calling his Carnival band “The Sacred Heart” and the seeming indifference among Catholics.

The truth is that while some Catholics find this affair intolerable, others, no doubt, led by a deep respect for the bandleader and his work see nothing wrong with the name of the band and see it as serving some good, perhaps even helping the faith.

At the heart of the matter is the question of symbols though, their power and how we understand them. I suppose no one has a right to tell another person how he or she ought to feel about a particular symbol but I believe it important to allow for dialogue.

The Sacred Heart, as Catholics understand it, refers to Jesus and therefore, to say the least, has special significance. Mr Minshall has said the name refers to his heart, no doubt his own suffering and the pain of others in our society and the world, who know great suffering. I actually wondered at one point whether he was attempting to give us Catholics a bit of a jolt to make us see that as Church we are not doing all that the Sacred Heart calls us to be and to do.

But the matter of symbols and how we use them still has to be addressed. On the same day that the polite but angry caller contacted us, a Catholic News Service (CNS) report appeared which quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying “religions and their symbols must be respected.”

He was referring to the satirical cartoons of the prophet Mohammed which appeared in a Danish newspaper last year and continues to provoke much outrage in the Muslim world. Christians have been killed in Nigeria, including a Nigerian priest and churches burnt.

The Pope, after deploring the violence, went on to state: “For believers and for all the people of good will, the only path that leads to peace and fraternity is that of respect for the convictions and religious practices of the other.”

It is most probable that Mr Minshall means no disrespect to the Catholic Church, but I do not believe that solves our problem here. Symbols are what they are.

I tried to explain my own position on this matter—vainly I might tell you—to some Catholic young people. I told them I had serious problem when bits of cherished classical music are used to advertise cars or underwear.

Arguably, my choice of example may not have been the best for that particular group of young people but it struck me that there was no sense of any incongruity here, no feeling that some things ought to be left sacred.

Of course, that raises the perennial question of what do Catholics make of Carnival anyway. It seems to me, in the first place, that at issue here is not Carnival but belief, religion, faith. I do not have to be a Carnival-hater to be offended or even disturbed.

I may dislike some things about Carnival because they are evil, but really some aspects of Carnival can still stir the soul. Carnival, however, is not my religion; my religion is not Carnival. Some things deserve to be set apart. It is proper to do so. It is necessary to do so.

It is futile to tell me, as well, the reference is not to Jesus. When I hear Sacred Heart, I think of one person—well, up until now. I imagine some readers asking, “So what? After Carnival we may all have a richer understanding of the Sacred Heart.”

It is a great risk. Mr Minshall may not be concerned about that. But, for now let us at least wait to see what the Holy Spirit does.