Basil Hume: The Monk Cardinal (review)

Abstract

Basil Hume: Monk Cardinal. By Anthony Howard. (London: Headline Book Publishing. 2005. Pp. 342. £29.) In February, 1976, Pope VI reached over heads of all his bishops in England to select Basil Hume, then Abbot of Ampleforth, to be Archbishop of Westminster. In profile of Hume published shortly thereafter, I compared appointment to selection of Father Theodore Hesburgh of University of Notre Dame to be Cardinal Terence Cooke's successor as Archbishop of New York. Something unthinkable in United States became reality in England. Anthony Howard, author of three previous political biographies and self-described wistful agnostic ,describes behind-the-scenes maneuvering which led to Hume's selection as Patricians' Revolt. Calling Hume the very quintessence of Englishness, this official biography is itself quintessentially English: breezy, fast-paced, and often funny. It is above all good read. Where but in England could one find man like Herbert Byrne? For twenty-four years Abbot of Ampleforth (and deeply hurt when, at age 78, his community refused to reelect him for another eight years, and turned to Hume instead), Byrne responded to novice who announced that he needed to leave monastery for wider horizons by asking: What's her name? And could there be more delightfully English countenance than that of Father Neville, Headmaster of Ampleforth School from 1924 to 1954, known to generations of schoolboys as Posh Paul (his photo says it all). What I am is what you have given, Hume told packed Abbey church in his farewell sermon before leaving for Westminster. The gap between what is thought and expected of me and what I know myself to be is considerable and frightening. There are moments in life when one feels very small and in my life this is such moment. It is good to feel small because I know that whatever I achieve will be God's achievement and not mine. One cannot read these words today without recalling Pope Benedict XVTs words day of his election about cardinals' choice of a simple, humble worker in vineyard of Lord, and his confidence in God's ability to work even with insufficient means. Priests of that caliber seldom get miters. son of nominally Anglican Scots doctor and devout French Catholic mother, Hurne's first experience of non-Catholic religious service was his father's Church of England funeral in 1960. Yet as archbishop and cardinal he preached in most of England's ancient cathedrals, never sharing his co-religionists'feeling of having been dispossessed, but simply rejoicing in what, for him, was shared religious and architectural heritage. More important, for first time since Reformation Hume put Catholic Church in England on map, in effect annexing it to British Establishment. To appreciate this achievement, one must know that as recently as 1935, when Hume's predecessor Cardinal Hinsley twice sent King George V loyal address from his Catholic subjects sovereign's Silver Anniversary, envelope was both times returned from palace unopened and stamped Not received .Hume dissipated this Establishment hostility by combination of personal charm and deep spirituality. At his death June 17,1999, Hume was universally acknowledged to be Britain's leading moral authority. Rupert Murdoch's daily Sun, normally replete with sex and scandal, bore front page headline: Farewell our Beloved Basil: Friend who touched all our hearts. Howard portrays above all public man. He describes his subject's cordial but never close relationship with Pope John II, marked contrast to that which Hume enjoyed with VI. Always remain monk, pontiff told Hume at his appointment. And when he returned to Rome shortly thereafter to be made cardinal, Pope said: Above all, dear Father, be yourself. Hume emerged from that audience in tears-behavior which, when exhibited when he was first elected abbot, had caused stiff-upper-lip contingent in monastery to murmur about their new leader's Gallic temperament. …