Bishop Michael Evans was criticised by some of being 'a man in a hurry'
As vocations to the Catholic priesthood have all but dried up in western Europe, most church leaders have preferred to bury their heads in the sand and hope that divine providence will provide an answer to empty altars. Michael Evans, bishop of East Anglia, who has died aged 59 of prostate cancer, was one of the few who chose to address the issue head-on. His diocese, covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, is one of the largest geographically in the English Catholic church, but – despite the presence in its midst of the ancient Marian shrine at Walsingham – has one of the smallest congregations of regular worshippers. Just 4% of its population is Catholic, against a national average nearer 10.
With a dwindling band of priests to serve a large number of small parishes and no vocations, Evans decided to push through a painful process of amalgamations and closures. Announcing a consultation with local Catholics, he caused offence by writing to the parishes that he intended to "throw some chilli peppers into your salad".
And he was true to his word. Despite its upbeat title, A Community of Welcome, his plan for reorganisation, published in 2006, caused controversy among those most directly affected. He was accused by some of being "a man in a hurry", willing to disturb long-established patterns of worship without sufficiently understanding them. The charge of acting quickly was one he did not deny, though he pointed out that "the hurry is not caused by me".
His remarks on the lack of priests in an article the previous year in the Tablet, the Catholic weekly, were equally unwelcome among those who hankered back to a "golden age". For them Evans committed the cardinal sin of suggesting that the heyday of vocations in the 1940s and 1950s, when every presbytery had three or four resident clergy, may have been an unhappy time because it allowed Catholic parishes to fragment round particular priests rather than coming together as a single body.
Not by nature a cautious man, Evans was unusual among his fellow bishops in his willingness to say unpopular things and embrace unpopular causes. After 30 years as a member of Amnesty International, several of them on its council, he made headlines when he resigned from the organisation in 2007 when it shifted from its hitherto neutral position on abortion to include a woman's freedom to choose to end her pregnancy on a list of essential human rights. Abortion is banned in all circumstances by the Catholic church.
The previous year Evans had joined a group of Anglican bishops in demanding that the prime minister, Tony Blair, provide compensation for victims of Gulf war syndrome. And he made a point of speaking up for travelling people when they faced prejudice and exclusion from local communities.
Born in south London, Evans grew up in Kent and was one of the last to go on to training for the priesthood straight from school. As a seminary vice-rector, he was later among those urging potential recruits to do precisely the opposite – experience the world before signing up. Ordained in 1975, he went on to take a master's in theology at Heythrop College, London University – he was one of the best theologians among the Catholic bishops – before returning to teach at his old seminary, St John's, Wonersh, in Surrey. He spent six years from 1987 as a university chaplain in south London before taking on a large parish in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
He had, however, caught the Vatican's eye with his work on the unfashionable subject of improving Catholic-Methodist relations and was appointed in 2003 as bishop of East Anglia, an offer he accepted, he said, "with a joyful though nervous yes". His commitment to ecumenism remained strong. He was one of four co-presidents of the Christian Muslim Forum set up in 2006 by the archbishop of Canterbury. And he was a vocal supporter of moves to canonise Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador murdered at his altar by soldiers in 1980. The Vatican had long resisted naming Romero a saint because it saw his championing of the rights of the poor as too political, but under pressure from Evans, among many others, Rome is now relenting.
In person, Evans combined the down-to-earth (he was a passionate supporter of Leeds United football club) with the refined (he was an admirer of the music of Shostakovich). When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and given a gloomy prognosis, he chose to follow the example of Cardinal Basil Hume, eschewing traditional clerical secrecy around such matters and sharing the news with his diocese. He remained wholly committed to his work and unshakeably strong in his faith to the end.
In January, he wrote to all Catholics in his diocese to share with them his consultants' verdict that he had only weeks to live. "I am as prepared for that as I can be, accepting it as a gift of God's grace … I am sorry for any ways I have failed in my ministry during these years. There remain a number of difficulties on my desk which will need to be handled by others."
• Michael Evans, priest, born 10 August 1951; died 11 July 2011
With a dwindling band of priests to serve a large number of small parishes and no vocations, Evans decided to push through a painful process of amalgamations and closures. Announcing a consultation with local Catholics, he caused offence by writing to the parishes that he intended to "throw some chilli peppers into your salad".
And he was true to his word. Despite its upbeat title, A Community of Welcome, his plan for reorganisation, published in 2006, caused controversy among those most directly affected. He was accused by some of being "a man in a hurry", willing to disturb long-established patterns of worship without sufficiently understanding them. The charge of acting quickly was one he did not deny, though he pointed out that "the hurry is not caused by me".
His remarks on the lack of priests in an article the previous year in the Tablet, the Catholic weekly, were equally unwelcome among those who hankered back to a "golden age". For them Evans committed the cardinal sin of suggesting that the heyday of vocations in the 1940s and 1950s, when every presbytery had three or four resident clergy, may have been an unhappy time because it allowed Catholic parishes to fragment round particular priests rather than coming together as a single body.
Not by nature a cautious man, Evans was unusual among his fellow bishops in his willingness to say unpopular things and embrace unpopular causes. After 30 years as a member of Amnesty International, several of them on its council, he made headlines when he resigned from the organisation in 2007 when it shifted from its hitherto neutral position on abortion to include a woman's freedom to choose to end her pregnancy on a list of essential human rights. Abortion is banned in all circumstances by the Catholic church.
The previous year Evans had joined a group of Anglican bishops in demanding that the prime minister, Tony Blair, provide compensation for victims of Gulf war syndrome. And he made a point of speaking up for travelling people when they faced prejudice and exclusion from local communities.
Born in south London, Evans grew up in Kent and was one of the last to go on to training for the priesthood straight from school. As a seminary vice-rector, he was later among those urging potential recruits to do precisely the opposite – experience the world before signing up. Ordained in 1975, he went on to take a master's in theology at Heythrop College, London University – he was one of the best theologians among the Catholic bishops – before returning to teach at his old seminary, St John's, Wonersh, in Surrey. He spent six years from 1987 as a university chaplain in south London before taking on a large parish in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
He had, however, caught the Vatican's eye with his work on the unfashionable subject of improving Catholic-Methodist relations and was appointed in 2003 as bishop of East Anglia, an offer he accepted, he said, "with a joyful though nervous yes". His commitment to ecumenism remained strong. He was one of four co-presidents of the Christian Muslim Forum set up in 2006 by the archbishop of Canterbury. And he was a vocal supporter of moves to canonise Oscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador murdered at his altar by soldiers in 1980. The Vatican had long resisted naming Romero a saint because it saw his championing of the rights of the poor as too political, but under pressure from Evans, among many others, Rome is now relenting.
In person, Evans combined the down-to-earth (he was a passionate supporter of Leeds United football club) with the refined (he was an admirer of the music of Shostakovich). When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and given a gloomy prognosis, he chose to follow the example of Cardinal Basil Hume, eschewing traditional clerical secrecy around such matters and sharing the news with his diocese. He remained wholly committed to his work and unshakeably strong in his faith to the end.
In January, he wrote to all Catholics in his diocese to share with them his consultants' verdict that he had only weeks to live. "I am as prepared for that as I can be, accepting it as a gift of God's grace … I am sorry for any ways I have failed in my ministry during these years. There remain a number of difficulties on my desk which will need to be handled by others."
• Michael Evans, priest, born 10 August 1951; died 11 July 2011
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