PHOTO: © MAZUR/CBCEW.ORG.UK

COLUMN

Melanie McDonagh’s Notebook ‘Depression is related to what medieval people identified as acedia – a sort of lassitude’ / 6

New priests ordained at Westminster Cathedral, including Fr Timothy Mangatal, 28, second from left, now the youngest priest in the diocese 28

CONTENTS 3 JULY 2021 // VOL 275 NO. 9409

FEATURES

4 / The German Church’s thorny path The damaging legacy of clerical abuse is reminding many of the events of 500 years

ago, when a storm of protest changed Catholicism for ever / BY DEREK SCALLY

7 / Royal investment This year marks the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Reading Abbey,

established by Henry I and now lying in ruins / BY HUGH DOHERTY

8 / Beside the sea

Summer holidays mean the sea – picnics behind the windbreak, pork pies, crisps

and orange squash – and the contemplation that follows / BY ANN WROE

10 / A deep awakening When writer Marilynn Robinson and Cistercian monk Erik Varden discussed the longing for God in a secular age, our literary editor took notes / BY MAGGIE FERGUSSON

BOOKS / PAGE 18

Pamela Beasant The Sea is not Made of Water: Life Between the Tides ADAM NICOLSON Lucy Popescu Speed reading: female perspectives in fiction Ian Thomson The Apocryphal Gospels TRANSLATED BY SIMON GATHERCOLE James Moran Crazy JANE FEAVER

REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 14 Puzzles 14 Letters 16 The Living Spirit 17 Across the Universe 31 Glimpses of Eden 31

NEWS

24 / The Church in the World / News briefing 25 / Pope encourages German Catholics on synodal path

28 / View from Rome 28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 29 / Apology brings healing for abuse survivors

COVER PHOTO: ALAMY/DPA

ARTS / PAGE 21

Sculpture St Chad at Lichfield Cathedral PETER STANFORD Exhibition Gustave Moreau LAURA GASCOIGNE Theatre Happy Days MARK LAWSON Television Somos LUCY LETHBRIDGE

3 JULY 2021 | THE TABLET | 3