My mother had a Missal.
It’s a good thing that this is the written medium and not the spoken one, otherwise Americans might be concerned as to what an elderly Catholic woman might be doing with a missile.
No – Missal, not missile: the book that Catholics can take into a church and which allows them to follow the Mass. It gives the liturgy for Sunday worship and translations of prayers from Latin into English.
Also, traditionally, it has been the practice to insert ‘cards into the missal’ between its pages, on which are printed items at which the worshipper could glance during Mass and help him or her with private prayers or texts on which to reflect: perhaps a picture given on the occasion of First Communion, a photo of a family member who is far away from home, a picture of the Virgin Mary, a picture of a deceased loved one… that sort of thing.
My mother has been dead for many a long year, but I still keep her Missal on a bookshelf. It does not often accompany anyone to Mass – these days, when everything is in the English language, and ‘Missalettes’ are available on the pews, there is relatively little point in using one. But I keep it as a remembrance of her. Recently, not having opened it for a very long time, I took it from the bookcase and glanced through, looking at her collection of Missal cards.
When I found a folded newspaper article between its pages, I removed it and, quite intrigued, unfolded it so as to read the text. A Missal seemed an unusual place to find a newspaper article.
It turned out to be from the ‘Letters to the Editor’ page of The Daily Telegraph, and although the cutting is undated, I imagine it was from the mid-1960s, since it mentions the then recently appointed Conservative Party leader and future Prime Minister, Edward Heath.
The letter is titled, by the newspaper, The Ideals of Conservatism, and the writer is a Mr Anthony R Salter from Meopham, Kent. I have no idea who he was – maybe an official of the local Conservative Association or a Conservative councillor?
The world always turns out to be smaller than one might expect, so although Mr Salter must be deceased, maybe a descendent or younger friend might happen to read this present article and, I hope, be pleasantly surprised that his name and the letter he wrote all those years ago made such a big impression, providing inspiration to at least one woman who took the trouble to cut it out and keep it in her Missal.
The text follows below:
SIR – It must indeed seem churlish to voice any criticism of Mr Heath’s recent and widely acclaimed television performance, and yet in so many ways it was both disappointing and unsatisfying.
Without doubt Mr Heath has revealed himself as more than competent to deal with the problems of government and administration with which he is likely to be faced. But it is his very concern, even preoccupation, with these problems which so clearly demonstrates the intense narrowness of modern Conservative philosophy.
Conservatism should be so much more than just a plan for government, a programme for administration. By its very nature it must concern itself with man in his widest social context. To me, as to others, Conservatism is a philosophy of life or it is nothing. As Conservatives, therefore, we can no longer stand aside from the great social and moral issues of our day – if only because the men and women over whom any Government has to exercise its authority, must inevitably be the product of the social environment in which they live.
Traditional Conservatives have always advocated a limited role for government – not because, like the 19th-century Liberals, we saw man as capable of self-perfection but because we recognised that the influence of custom, tradition, religious faith and family life was more likely to produce well-being and contentment than were the impositions of the State.
Concern with the ethical and moral assumptions of society and with the well-being of the family unit is at the heart of all that Conservatism stands for and it must therefore be a false distinction to classify them as issues which are “non-political.” We are all familiar with calls for leadership but Conservatives, at all levels, must seek first of all not so much to become leaders of governments or of parties but to become leaders of society – holding fast to their convictions; seeking by persuasion and example to secure their wider acceptance.
Perhaps it is the particular affliction of youth to seek a philosophy of idealism where none exists. For me, however, Conservatism must always be more idealistic than pragmatic – committed to a society in which individual freedom and responsibility are tempered by an inner concern both for the happiness and contentment of other individuals and for the wellbeing of society as a whole.
Our problem as Conservatives, therefore, is not how to make society fit for man to live in but rather how we can make man fit to live in the society which is our ideal.’
The retention of this letter by my mother says just as much about her as it does about the letter writer, with whom she evidently shared the same convictions. But that shared world view, with some few notable exceptions, would make most party politicians of any hue recoil in horror in today’s world.
Politics and idealism have never been close bed fellows and doubtless in the decades before and up to Mr Salter’s time, the Conservative Party was better able to represent itself as being more honourable and upright than was actually the case – thanks to the lack of social media, less media scrutiny and greater social deference.
Poor Mr Anthony R Salter of Meopham, Kent, who complained in the 1960s about ‘the intense narrowness of modern Conservative philosophy’: that narrowness was never going to alter or widen, nor become more inspirational; let us hope that his political idealism never became embittered.
Poor late mother of mine: she would have found the modern Conservative parliamentary political party an increasingly unrecognisable organisation compared to the one she knew, loved, and for which she often volunteered at election time.
Factio quondam futurusque – a once and future political party? If only.
Alasdair Crosby is publisher and editor of RURAL magazine , a freelance journalist and writer living in Jersey.
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