Circumspection: From the District Superior’s Desk

Rev. Fr. David Sherry, District Superior, September 2024

It is an old chestnut levelled against Catholicism that it is profoundly anti-scientific. One of my favourite falsehoods is the one that Catholics used to believe the Earth was flat. Any effort by you or me to debunk such a hoary myth would naturally be tainted with suspicion. Strangely, in 2009, Harvard University — hardly a bastion of Catholicism — published a book called Galileo goes to Jail and other Myths about Science and Religion in which they debunk the Flat Earth myth.

The Earth being flat or spherical is not an article of Faith. Nonetheless, all the Church Fathers assumed that the Earth was a sphere and not flat. This was based on Aristotle’s proofs that the Earth is a sphere. The great philosopher deduced that as the star Canopus could be seen in the southern sky from Alexandria but not from more northerly Athens, then the Earth could not be flat. Also the shadow of the Earth cast on the moon during a lunar eclipse is curved. The only early Christian teacher who thought otherwise was Lactantius whose “beauty of style cannot hide [his] lack of grasp of Christian principles and his almost utter ignorance of Scripture”.

Later on, St. Thomas Aquinas’s teacher, St. Albert the Great demonstrated that the Earth is a sphere in his Liber Cosmographicus de Natura Locorum. His illustrious pupil took it for granted as proven in the very first question of the Summa Theologica (Ia, Q1, A1, ad 2). He followed Aristotle's proof in demonstrating that the changing positions of the constellations as one moved about on the Earth's surface indicated the spherical shape of the earth. In the 19th century, Washington Irving (the creator of Rip van Winkle) invented the story that Christopher Columbus’ men were scared that their ship would fall off the side of the Earth. In fact, they were scared that they would not strike the land that Columbus had predicted they would, and would thus run out of food and water on the high seas.  


Although the District had no priestly or diaconal Ordinations this year, we did have occasion to celebrate the vows of three Dominican sisters. On the Feast of St. Dominic, in two different teaching congregations, two young ladies made their first vows. These teaching congregations are effectively sister congregations but run different schools on the Continent and in North and South America.

In the Congregation of the Teaching Dominicans of the Holy Name of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which has its Mother House near Brignoles on the Cote d’Azur, Mother Claire-Thérèse née Teresa Blyth took her first vows. Her parents, Andrew and Nicky, and the rest of the family live near St. Michael’s in Burghclere. 

Meanwhile, in the Congregation of the Teaching Dominicans of the Holy Name of Jesus which has its Mother House at Fanjeaux, France, Mother Beatrice-Thérèse made her vows. She will begin educating young ladies at her congregation’s school in the east of France. She joins in the congregation her sister-german, Mother Anne of Jesus, who entered some years ago. Both nuns are daughters of Gordon and Hannah Kane from Pontypool in Gwent.

Later in the month, on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I had the privilege of being present at the final vows of Mother Philomena, née Bridget Bevan. Mother Philomena is a member of the Brignoles congregation. She was joined on the day by her parents Joe and Clare Bevan as well as her brothers, Fathers Rupert and Bernard Bevan and the rest of the family. 

May God bless the generosity of these valiant women who do more for the world and the salvation of souls than we can imagine.

D.S.


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