Monthly Archives: January 2021

by Andrea Gagliarducci

Vatican City, Jan 14, 2021 / 05:45 pm MT (CNA).- Pope Francis might soon choose a new Archpriest of St. Peters Basilica, to replace Cardinal Angelo Comastri, who turned 77 in September. His replacement, according to Vatican observers, may bring a broader generational change that could involve at least five Vatican dicasteries.

Comastri, who had a private audience with Pope Francis on Jan. 11, is a well-known preacher whose books are good sellers. During the lockdown due to the pandemic, Cardinal Comastri began to pray the rosary at noon in St. Peters Basilica.

St. John Paul II appointed Comastri as his general vicar for the Vatican City State, President of the Fabric of St. Peter, and coadjutor Archpriest of St. Peters Basilica in 2005. In 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Comastri Archpriest of the St. Peters Basilica. He succeeded Cardinal Francesco Marchisano.

One clue of Comastris upcoming retirement is Pope Francis decision to postpone the election of the members of the Chapter of St. Peter, the college of priests that governs the Basilica under the guidance of the archpriest. The elections were supposed to take place at the end of the summer or during the fall, but the Pope asked to hold them after Jan. 11.

The Archpriest of St. Peters Basilica is in charge of the worship and pastoral activity of the basilica. The position is very ancient and has always been assigned to a cardinal. Since 1991, the Archpriest of the St. Peters Basilica is also the Popes vicar for the Vatican City State.

The position is important not only because the Archpriest is one of the Popes closest collaborators, but also because he manages and organizes the worship of the most emblematic temple in the Catholic world.

St. Peters Basilica includes 45 altars and 11 chapels, while the Vatican Grotto has several Marian chapels.

The daily Mass schedule in St. Peters Basilica lists one Mass per hour from 9 to 12 am, in Italian, at the Altar of the Chair. There is another Mass in Italian at 8.30 am at the altar of the Most Holy Sacrament, while every day at 5 pm, there is a Mass in Latin.

On Sundays, there are 5 Masses celebrated in Italian and one in Latin.

Beyond the regular Mass schedule, there is the possibility to celebrate Mass in every chapel of St. Peters Basilica. The chapels are booked by groups of pilgrims or individuals who celebrate Mass in their own language. In fact, every day, St. Peters Basilica is filled with celebrations in several languages at the same time.

The new Archpriest will be called to manage this. Will he keep things as they are?

There is a broad discussion among members of the Chapter of the Basilica regarding whether to keep the possibility to celebrate private masses in the Basilica or instead ruling that the pilgrims who want to take part in a Mass must be at the Masses already scheduled. The debate is also about a possible abolition of the daily Mass in Latin. The Mass is celebrated according to the Paul VI missal, so it is not a Mass in the extraordinary form.

A Vatican source with knowledge of the facts, who asked to remain anonymous, stressed with CNA that these discussions were also behind the power struggle that led to allegations of mismanagement at the Fabric of St. Peter. This institution takes care of the maintenance of St. Peters Basilica.

Following these allegations and investigation initiated by the Vatican prosecutor, Pope Francis made the unprecedented decision to put the Fabric of St. Peter under an extraordinary commissioner, Archbishop Mario Giordana.

According to Vatican sources, there seems to be two candidates to replace Comastri. One is Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner. Krajewski is in the Popes inner circle, and the Pope strongly appreciates his work for the poor. Among his initiatives are the installation of showers for the homeless in the St. Peter colonnade, the opening of two dormitories for the homeless in Vatican facilities around St. Peter Basilica, and the doctor and barbershop services on the side of the colonnade.

The other candidate would be Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. Cardinal Gambetti was the exiting Custodian of the Sacred Convent of Assisi. A Franciscan Conventual, Gambetti has no posts assigned yet. After his creation as cardinal, he went back to Assisi, waiting for the Popes call.

If Gambetti indeed becomes Comastris successor, his appointment could be the first step in a generational change in several Vatican top positions. Cardinals Marc Ouellet, Leonardo Sandri, Luis Ladaria, Giuseppe Versaldi, Beniamino Stella, and Giuseppe Bertello are all older than the retiring age. The pope could be already looking for their successors at the helm respectively of the Congregation for Bishops, for the Eastern Churches, for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Catholic Education, for the Clergy, and at the Vatican City State administration.

More:

What changes to the Vatican may the replacement of the Archpriest of St Peter's Basilica bring - The Catholic Telegraph

Byline Times Chief Medical Officer, Dr John Ashton, considers the continuing challenges ahead in the Coronavirus pandemic despite the development of a vaccine

As we enter the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are faced with a bleak mid-winter.

With the numbers of new Coronavirus cases escalating daily, hospitals and intensive care units are at breaking point. Staff absences are running at more than 20% from COVID-19 through self-isolation from the virus and stress-related conditions. Seriously ill patients are being shipped around the country. But, following the Prime Ministers lax approach on gatherings during Christmas in parts of the country, the worst is sadly still to come.

The death toll stands at more than 1,000 people each day and the grim total is heading towards 100,000 people before the end of January. So much for the Governments Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallances optimistic target of less than 20,000 deaths that he espoused in March, along with his naive embrace of herd immunity.

But it is not all doom and gloom and we must celebrate the remarkable achievement of clinicians and scientists around the world collaborating to produce effective vaccines less than a year after the Coronavirus made its unwelcome appearance.

Coming exactly 100 years after virology came into existence during the period of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, this is surely the moment when the new discipline has come of age and can be added to the time-tested methods of practical, shoe-leather public health in rooting out and preventing death from natures most devious allies.

Yet, there is many a slip between cup and lip as can be seen from the story of the eradication of smallpox. It took the best part of 200 years from when Edward Jenner first demonstrated the effectiveness of cowpox inoculation against its most dangerous viral relative in 1796, to when the World Health Organisation was able to declare the demise of the virus in 1980. In the interim, efforts at mass vaccination ran into the sands of highly organised opposition.

Although smallpox vaccination was made compulsory for all newborn infants in Britain in 1853, branches of the Anti-Vaccination League soon brought it to a halt. From its centre in Leicester, the league organised a highly successful campaign against vaccination culminating in a large-scale demonstration in 1885, which led to a Royal Commission and the abolition of compulsory vaccination.

The basis of objections to vaccination were to be found in religious superstition and fear of needles, together with arguments about personal liberty and an anti-science movement which seems to have gathered even more momentum today at a time when science has given us greater insights into the natural world than ever before.

It remains to be seen whether the 80% of the population willing to welcome COVID-19 vaccines with open arms will have their public health rights compromised by a fanatical minority.

But it is not only the anti-vaxxers that should arouse our concerns. We must also be aware of the disastrous failures of the Government to take decisive and effective action at each point in the pandemic.

Whether it be testing, tracing and support for isolation, personal protective equipment, or leading from the front and implementing effective interventions in a timely way, the Government has been found wanting.

We are about to see whether the defining characteristic of the handling of the emergency in over-promising and under-delivering is about to be repeated with the roll-out of the vaccination programme.

After a nationalistic rush to be the first out of the blocks with a vaccine in December and implying by sleight of hand that a German-developed vaccine was somehow British the programme has struggled to get into its stride with some 300,000 vaccinations being given out each week.

We are now being asked to believe that, within a week, this will become 300,000 vaccines daily, that all care home residents will have been vaccinated by the end of January, and that the 13.5 million most vulnerable citizens will be protected by mid-February.

These ambitious targets are all too reminiscent of Boris Johnsons wild promises at other points of the pandemic, as well as Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancocks confabulation of the difference between capacity and delivery with regards to the Test and Trace operation last year.

Meanwhile, the alibis for failure are already being lined up vaccine manufacturers unable to deliver on the changing production promises, and GPs who say they are being let down by the supply side of the equation.

Setting aside that GPs had previously claimed that they could deliver the vaccination programme without recourse to reinforcements whilst simultaneously being under the cosh for all the extra work thrown up by COVID-19,they were also being promised 10 a shot for delivering vaccinations in contrast to the 11 an hour for the army of vaccinators who were supposed to do the actual work. It has now emerged that the recruitment of the army is also faltering.

Initially, the NHS advertised that non-clinical workers as well as retired doctors and nurses could sign up to be vaccinators to staff an extensive network of vaccination centres around the country. It has subsequently transpired that a Government that could reconvene at the drop of a hat to get Brexit done could not pull off the same trick to authorise the training of non-clinical professionals.

What finally seems to have caught the Prime Ministers fleeting attention has been letters to the broadsheet newspapers from retired clinicians drawing attention to the bureaucratic process that even the most experienced clinician must navigate in order to join the army of jabbers. These include hours of arcane online training, only some of it relevant in a national emergency but including fire safety, guidance on heavy lifting and preventing terrorism, followed up by the need to search out educational verification in the form of 50-year-old O Level certificates.

It is said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce. As it stands, it is a toss-up between the Government and the anti-vaxxers when it comes to who will attract the most historical opprobrium.

Dr John Ashton is a former director of public health and the author of Blinded By Corona

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Will an Unholy Alliance of Anti-Vaxxers and Government Incompetence Grab Defeat from the Jaws of Victory? - Byline Times

Plymouths key cultural facility has been literally turned around to face the future. The original grand Victorian entrance into the museum and art gallery from North Hill, which was forbidding and told nothing of its contents, has been replaced by a glass atrium entrance facing a new square on the other side of the building.

The group of ships figureheads visible in the entrance foyer is a clear signal that The Box is in a maritime city. There is also the welcoming sight of visitors in the foyer cafe. In summer, tables will be available on a terrace and, no doubt, the square will be used for events.

The Box is more than just a museum. The building houses facilities that were spread across the city, including the South West Film and Television Archive and the South West Image Bank, as well as those that were already on the site, including the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office and the Plymouth Natural History Collection. One of the most exciting things about this development is the chance for creating symbiotic relationships for the public between these organisations.

Rather than exiting through the gift shop, visitors go through it to reach the galleries. This leads to what was the original entrance to the museum, where one of six contemporary works created as part of the Making It commissions is located. Figurehead II, by Alexandre da Cunha, consists of four huge sections of concrete drainage pipe stacked six metres tall a structure with inviting holes in it that was being explored by children when I was there.

Three gallery spaces lead off this. On entering the first, visitors are greeted by Plymouths life-size model of a mammoth. Interactive displays, and cases holding artefacts, tell stories about the geology of the south-west peninsular, those who lived there from prehistoric times, and its flora and fauna.

Visitors then move into the Port of Plymouth galleries, where a 3D film sequence on a giant screen reveals the port citys role in Britains history. This leads to displays telling the story of Plymouths industries and naval heritage, which is well illustrated with images and oral history.

The 100 Journeys gallery features travellers who departed from Plymouth as well as famous explorers such as the Tudor sea captain and explorer Francis Drake, the 19th-century evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin on the Beagle, the 20th-century explorer Scott of the Antarctic, and Francis Chichester, the pioneering aviator and sailor who solo-circumnavigated the world in 1967 in his boat, Gipsy Moth IV. The intrepid Gertrude Benham, an explorer and mountaineer, is also included. She donated 800 items to the museum in 1934, after having travelled to 60 countries.

All these history-changing events also remind us of the negative journeys that Plymouth has been part of. For instance, it was the port from which the Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported to Australia. And Plymouths part in the slave trade and its abolition is not ignored. Colonial slavery shaped modern Britain and we live with its legacies this is an important sentence in a display case devoted to John Hawkins, one of the originators of the slave trade. The journal of Arthur Frankland, the Plymouth captain of an anti-slavery ship, sits alongside a display of manacles and plans of slave ships a reminder of the appalling conditions that victims of the slave trade endured.

The principal gallery on the second floor contains the Mayflower 400 exhibition, on until September 2021. The importance of this show cannot be overstated, not just because of the significance of the objects, which include the first Bible to be printed in America, Mayflower memorabilia and photos of descendants of the passengers, but also because of the involvement of people from the Wampanoag nation.

The Wampanoag people are an indigenous American population who formerly occupied parts of what are now the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In a message that should be spread widely, Paula Peters of the Mashpee Wampanoag nation writes: I do not hold you responsible for the past, but I do hold you responsible for the future.

There are three distinct elements in the Our Art gallery. One wall shows works on the theme of the artists studio. Highlights are Stanhope Forbes 1884 painting, A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach, which is shown alongside studies for the work, and items from the studio of the 18th-century portraitist Joshua Reynolds, who was born and bred in Plymouth. Reynolds recently conserved self-portrait is also on show.

The second element is a floor-to-ceiling display containing ceramics, pottery, plates and figurines. The third part is the Plymouth Panorama, which comprises around 30 paintings depicting scenes along the coastline from the River Plym to the River Tamar. These are displayed three-deep on high walls. This allows a large number of paintings to be shown in a small area, the disadvantage being that many are hard to see at a distance.

When I visited, the Media Lab and the Photo Album spaces, which showcase film and photography, were proving popular with visitors. Media Lab shows the development of film and television as well as a sequence of film, featuring everything from the Beatles visit to Plymouth to Barbara Hepworth at work. The relevance to local people was brought home when I heard one visitor say: Oh look! Theres Sues mum!

The exhibition in the Photo Album gallery, Plymouth: the Five Towns, consists of 200 photographs displayed on giant lightboxes. This will facilitate the changing the selections from the vast collection held by The Box.

The Active Archives space provides visitors with a chance to explore some of the holdings of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, including reference books. Items on display enable visitors to explore the development of Plymouth following its bombing in the second world war. This space leads into the Cottonian Room, where researchers will be able to order items from the archive.

On the other side of the new square is the restored church of St Lukes, which now provides a space for changing exhibitions of contemporary art. The opening show is of sculptural work by the Portuguese artist Leonor Antunes, who was commissioned to design a new window for the church. The window, made of multicoloured glass, is a glorious enhancement of the space.

There is so much more to explore at The Box, such as the community figurehead project display that can be seen from the cafe, and the powerful Ship of Fools works by the contemporary portraitist Kehinde Wiley in the Arts Institute. Is a day enough to do justice to The Box? No its a place to visit regularly, savouring one element at a time. It is a vital addition to cultural provision in the West Country.

Plymouth City Council; Arts Council England; National Lottery Heritage Fund

Masterplanning, exhibition design and graphic design

Richard Rogers Conservation

Orbis; Mainmast; Hugh Harrison; The Box

See the article here:

Sailing into the future | The Box, Plymouth - Museums Association

While deprecating the separation of a place from its history, novelist Alan Moore rightly said: A place is much more than the bricks and mortar that go into its construction. I think its more than the accidental topography of the ground it stands on. With the apex court giving its stamp of approval to the Rs 2,000 crore Central Vista project it includes a glittering new Parliament to be built at a cost of Rs 971 crore an analysis of the Narendra Modi governments track record on respecting Parliaments soul and substance is relevant. Has the BJP and the Modi government imbibed the true spirit of our temple of democracy or have they treated it as a necessary evil, to be formally bowed down to while increasingly marginalising it?

During last years budget session, Parliament was allowed to work despite the COVID-19 outbreak because the MP Assembly had to be summoned for the formation of a BJP government against the popular mandate. A full-fledged monsoon session was convened when the virus was at its peak in Delhi because anti-farmer ordinances had to be ratified. Almost all states had their Assembly sessions during the pandemic, exposing the COVID-19 excuse for curtailing Parliament as the fig leaf it was. But when farmers, not allowing the winter to dampen their resolve, sit on roads demanding restoration of MSP for their produce, the winter session of Parliament becomes dispensable. If Parliament is not allowed to become the appropriate forum for the consideration of demands that affect nearly two-thirds of the countrys population, it can hardly qualify as democracys heartbeat, one that was Nehrus priority, the subject of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayees undying respect and, indeed, PM Modis floor-kissing obeisance, when he first entered its hallowed portal.

Perhaps, BJPs social and political agendas take precedence over such democratic pillars. In 2017, the winter session was delayed because of the Gujarat Assembly elections. Since the government is currently investing all its energy in election management in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry, it has no time for Parliament. Political priorities seem to have replaced constitutional propriety. The government is fully aware that people across the country are agitated. Therefore, despite the pendency of many important pieces of legislations the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, Dam Safety Bill, 2019, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill, 2020, Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019, Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2019 the winter session has been guillotined.

The BJPs undermining of Parliament has a long legacy in its relatively short life as a ruling party. Its policies and actions have frequently been antithetical to Parliamentary democracy. In Opposition, its disruption of parliamentary proceedings and blockage of legislations was elevated to a fine art remember the vigorous defence of disruption as a legitimate democratic tool by the late Arun Jaitley. During the 2013 budget session, of the 163 hours available, 146 hours were lost due to disruptions by the BJP.

Since 2014, there have been more subtle stratagems to undermine Parliament. Ordinance, as the preferred legislative route, is being misused as a constitutional tool and Parliament is increasingly ceasing to be a place for debates. Important bills are moved and passed on the same day or rushed through, thus depriving members of their parliamentary rights to contribute effectively. During the 2018-19 budget, 100 per cent of the demands for grants were passed without discussion. The Farm Bills passage was the apogee of all brazen violations and subterfuges.

Parliament has an effective committee system and new bills introduced in the House are generally referred to department-related standing committees for detailed scrutiny. Having been privileged to chair such a committee, one of us (Singhvi) can testify to their sterling non-partisan contributions. Invited domain experts also scrutinise the bills. In the 14thand 15th Lok Sabhas, 60 per cent and 71 per cent bills, respectively, were referred to such committees, whereas in the 16th Lok Sabha, only 25 per cent bills were referred. Not a single bill has been referred to committees in 2020.

Accountability and scrutiny have unfortunately been perceived as irritants by the Modi government. Subversion of the constitutional spirit was evident when the Aadhaar Bill was certified as a Money Bill. Having nothing to do with the imposition, abolition or alteration of taxes nor with financial obligations of the government, it was so certified simply to avoid Rajya Sabha scrutiny. That issue is now pending before a larger apex court bench, but judicial delays are inevitably used to bypass Parliament. During the last monsoon session, the Question Hour was suspended to avoid legislative scrutiny. If every other business could be transacted in both the Houses, there was no plausible reason to suspend the Question Hour except avoiding processes designed to hold the government to account.

The Modi governments decision to freeze the entire MPLAD funds scheme was less about economics or welfare and much more about politics. The impact was disproportionately larger on Opposition MPs who, being out of power, will have no say in any development work in his/her area. Despite marginal aberrations and abuses, the MPLAD scheme, to the co-authors (Singhvi) knowledge as a three term MP, has surpassed all expectations at the grassroots. Meanwhile, there is the unaudited PM Care Fund to take care of the ruling dispensation. Hopefully, the new Central Vista will signify a more meaningful realisation of the true ethos and pulsating spirit of Parliamentary democracy and not merely creation of brick, mortar and concrete structures.

This article first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2021 under the title Running away from House. Singhvi is a three-term sitting MP, former chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee and senior national spokesperson, Congress; Shergill is a Supreme Court lawyer and national spokesperson, INC. Views are personal

Continued here:

The government and BJP have consistently undermined Parliament - The Indian Express