Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A Catholic priest and cardinal, Archbishop of Westminster, leading the Catholics of England and Wales.
On the island
Eight records
Etude No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 25 No. 1 "Aeolian Harp"
I've always loved the piano. I've learnt the piano from a very early age, and uh one of my favorite composers is Chopin. So I've chosen uh one of his etudes, which I think is like Likrid, and it just shows Chopin at his lovely best.
It reminds me of um Time when I was a young curate down in Portsmouth. I had a youth club, and it was the time of the Beatles. Twist and shout, yeah, yeah, yeah. The youth club went mad for those first couple of years, and they were very happy times. They were great kids. So I'd like to have one Beatles record yesterday. Though I wouldn't like your listeners to think all my troubles seem so far away.
Well, the next r record is about my Rome life as a student, where we did all sorts of things. And for recreation, every summer we had a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. And I was the tenor for a lot of them. And we had a lovely place, you know, outside of Rome for a summer break, overlooking a lake. And there was a cortile in this. It was an old monastery. So we I used to sing a wandering minstrel in front of the stars in in this monastery.
Again, I suppose I go back to Rome, and I used to listen to quite a lot of opera, and so I'd like to hear. A song sung by Pavarotti from Tosca, Recondita Armania.
Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K. 482
Well, we talked about the the piano. And when I was in Sussex and Surrey as bishop, they very kindly let me play a sl slow movement of a Mozart piano concerto for a charity, and I enjoyed that very much. So I I'd like to have Mozart, uh, piano concerto number twenty two.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Well, uh my record number six is uh really, I suppose, coming to London. But uh years ago I used to listen to a programme in town to light, you know, with all the traffic well Stop the traffic. Stop the traffic, yes. So I associate The music of that with Eric Coates and the London Suite. So I'd like one extract from that.
Choir of Westminster Cathedral
Well, my next uh record is really from the uh Westminster Choir, which is a very high reputation, and rightly so, and I've heard the the choir a lot of times over the past year and a half, and so I'd like to hear them sing.
Praise to the Holiest in the Height
London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra
It's the end of The Dream of Dorontius, and it's about a a man who's d who's dying and going confronting his God. He's thinking of all his his uh his sins. That last journey that we all make is very profoundly expressed. But it ends up with praise to the holiest. In other words, that God in Christ is the victor at the end. And that in spite of all our weakness and all our doubts and all our sins, at the end, the Christian conviction is that God has won the victory. And therefore, at the end, there will be praise and glory because He's all-powerful and all-forgiving.
In conversation
Presenter asks
6:50Why would you choose the priesthood?
That is something quite mysterious and that has to do with the mystery of vocation, the mystery that maybe the good Lord had sort of imprinted it in my own mind, in my own heart. This is what maybe you should do.
Presenter asks
17:04Why is [the priesthood] such an unpopular vocation, do you think?
I often think that Partly the reason for the lack of vocations is not just that obviously that young men aren't coming forward, but it also is it a diminution of faith in the whole Catholic or Christian community? Because priests come when there's a strong, faithful people who are actually living out their Christian faith in a very deep way. When that happens within the community, then priests will come. There will be young men.
Presenter asks
19:00How much of a hardship has it been for you not to be able to be a husband and a father?
Well I think of course it can be a struggle. And at times you think it would be very nice to be have a to be married and to have a family and all those good things that are natural. And it would be wrong to say one didn't find that a sacrifice. But I have to say also that The consolations, not so much of celibacy, but what that brings you into in terms of a relationship with so many people and a freedom to exercise it, is also very fulfilling.
The keepsakes
The book
Niall MacMonagle
I've been reading uh some time ago something called Lifelines. It's it's poems that are chosen by about three or four hundred their favourite poem and the reason why they've chosen it. And there's a lovely selection. I love poetry. With it's an introduction by Seamus Heaney. So I think I'd like to take that as a book.
The luxury
Well, may I take this grand piano? Ballroom or it would be rather nice, wouldn't it, behind the tree, to have a have a to have a piano there and improvise.
Presenter asks
21:15What precisely do you mean by [the slippage of values in the family being most damaging]?
Well, I think that uh where children learn about love, forgiveness, stability is within the home. And uh that home, as the norm, should be father and mother. While I understand the breakups and the sadnesses, at the same time I think that uh the way th marriage has been fragmented in our society is one of its greatest evils, the society today.
Presenter asks
23:27Can you go on standing absolutely strong, sturdy, and true where you are, while people move more and more away from you?
Well, you saying that people are moving more and more away. I'm not sure about that, because uh w when I talk about uh moral matters I find that people on the whole say we are glad that the Catholic Church says something very clear about morality, social morality, sexual morality... I think it was Mother Teresa who said once God has called me not to be successful, but to be faithful. And I think that the Catholic Church In its moral teaching, Yes, it swims against the tide, but you know, tides come and go But if what we preach and teach is true For humanity Then that is important.
Presenter asks
30:38Have you had any dark nights of the soul, any crises along the way?
Occasionally I suppose you can kind of wake up at three o'clock in the morning and think, is it all true? You know, and I think faith today is a bit like Abraham's faith. Faith lived in a kind of bit of darkness and that's what faith is. Well exactly. Faith is a gift which enables you to believe even when things don't seem to be heading that way.
“I think it was Mother Teresa who said once God has called me not to be successful, but to be faithful. And I think that the Catholic Church In its moral teaching, Yes, it swims against the tide, but you know, tides come and go But if what we preach and teach is true For humanity Then that is important.”
“I think just speaking for myself, I can honestly say that up until 10, 15 years ago, even as a bishop, I wasn't aware of the compulsive nature of this addiction for paedophiles. And perhaps I should have been. But I don't think I was alone in that. I think we've had to learn a very hard way about this terrible, terrible thing which is child abuse.”
“Occasionally I suppose you can kind of wake up at three o'clock in the morning and think, is it all true? You know, and I think faith today is a bit like Abraham's faith. Faith lived in a kind of bit of darkness and that's what faith is. Well exactly. Faith is a gift which enables you to believe even when things don't seem to be heading that way.”