Once again the Cleveland Newman Circle’s year got off to a rousing start with Dr Paul Murray, a Systematic Theologian from the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, who began by questioning the ways in which we are called to be Catholic, both collectively and individually, saying that it was essential for us to overcome any false dichotomies and that our core gift was our ability to hang together.

He outlined a concern which we needed to have for both the internal life of the Church and its external mission, quoting Timothy Radcliffe’s distinction of Communion Catholics (the members of the institutional church) as opposed to Kingdom Catholics (the people of God on pilgrimage towards the kingdom). In challenging the worst excesses of society, he felt that a social concern for Mission recaptured the more authentic characteristic of Christian hope. Whereas Communion Catholics identified with the new evangelisation of John Paul II’s papacy, were a highly energetic group, comprised largely of seminarians and Bishops, whose more assertive approach was geared towards getting the message out there. He felt that they were marketing the same product with muscular commitment rather than asking some of the more profound questions.

Given that the Church is already both missionary and sacramental he, therefore, thought that the purpose of the Church today was to live Catholicity well. Actions speak louder than words. Being comes before doing. At the heart of Catholicity he felt we are drawn ever more deeply into a reality, similar to that which Thomas Merton described as the deep sense in which we are living something of immense dignity, even in the normal humdrum of our everyday lives. Catholicity, said Paul Murray, was something into which we lean and which supports us. It is a dependence guided by the Holy Spirit.

To conclude, he said that we must live Whole Church Catholicity, both structurally and collegially. We must learn to do discernment together with the appropriate acknowledgement of authority. He wondered what resources were available to us personally and questioned how we would seek to live a healthy Catholic life? He hoped that we would seek to nurture good.