The third annual Becket Lecture was delivered on Saturday at Northampton Cathedral by Fr Andrew Coy, Secretary to the Papal Nuncio and a priest of the Diocese of Northampton. As part of the Diocese’s Becket Festival, the lecture — titled “Becket: A Saint for Europe” — drew a thoughtful crowd to reflect on the enduring witness of Saint Thomas Becket and his relevance for today’s Church and society.
Fr Coy traced the life of the martyred archbishop, highlighting the European dimensions of Becket’s story — from his formation in Paris to his exile in France and the widespread veneration he received across the continent following his death. But it was Becket’s spiritual legacy that stood at the heart of Fr Coy’s message.
“Today we live in a fearful Europe,” he said, “which, having decided it has no place for God, has lost any notion of sacrificial love or virtue, replacing this often instead with a vacuous understanding of values which seem to change according to the popular vote.”
In this context, Fr Coy offered Becket as a powerful model for modern Christians. “St Thomas of Canterbury is a reminder to us that we can and must stand up to abuses of authority, that we can and must defend the most vulnerable in our society and offer an alternative understanding of authority which is rooted not in power, but in service. But above all, Becket is a model of someone whose life was guided by his faith.”
Reflecting on the challenges of secularism in Europe today, Fr Coy observed, “The secularism which we see in modern Europe is at times a conscious decision on the part of governments and individuals, a conscious decision to reject the faith. But I think for so many people, perhaps the vast majority of people, it’s simply a fact that their lives are no longer guided by their faith. Their faith, if anything, is reduced to a cultural expression.”
In contrast, he pointed to Becket as one who “embodies the call of Christ to not simply proclaim with our lips, but to believe in our hearts and show forth in our lives the truth in love, which is a relationship with God.”
“Becket reminds us that peace — that peace which our world so thirsts for — is not simply the absence of war, but a gift from God, a fruit of knowing that we are held in his loving hands.”
Fr Coy concluded by affirming Becket’s enduring significance: “Put simply, Becket is a figure who, in the midst of trial and persecution, witnessed to the truth that Christ is the joy of every human heart and that with him as our shepherd, we need not fear whatever the world throws at us. It is this, above all, which makes St Thomas of Canterbury as relevant today as he has ever been. A saint, not just for Europe, but for our modern world.”
The Becket Lecture continues to be a central event in the annual Becket Festival, celebrating the Diocese of Northampton’s connection to its heavenly patron and inviting reflection on the enduring power of Christian witness.
You can listen to the lecture by Fr Andrew Coy here
