Composer and nun named in Queen’s latest honours list

A composer, head teacher, religious sister and the leader of an international cultural relations body are among the Catholics listed in the Queen’s birthday ­honours list last week, writes Christopher Lamb.

Sir James MacMillan, a composer and active Catholic who wrote a Mass setting for the visit of Benedict to Britain in 2010, has been knighted, as has Sir Ciarán Devane, the chief executive of the British Council. Born in Dublin and educated by Christian Brothers, Sir Ciarán is a former chief executive of MacMillan Cancer Support.

The list also included Sr Maria McCready, who has been made an MBE in recognition of more than 30 years of working with deaf people in Manchester. A member of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Evron, Sr Maria works at St Joseph’s Mission to Deaf People, Collyhurst, and is fluent in sign language. She had been sent to work with the deaf by her order although she had no previous experience of the area, she said, adding: “It is an honour for me but also for everyone else who has worked here over the years.”

The Manchester mission to the deaf was started by Fr William Hayward, who himself was deaf, in 1929. Others honoured include Thomas Mannion, the head teacher responsible for turning around the fortunes of St Aloysius College, in Highgate, north London, who was made an OBE. He took over the school when it was in special measures in 2004; its most recent inspection rated it outstanding.

In 2008 Mr Mannion told the BBC how he and staff started escorting boys from the bus stop to school to guard against knife crime incidents. St Aloysius, founded in 1879, includes the Archbishops of Liverpool and Cardiff and the actor Michael Gambon among its alumni.

In the Church of England Christina Rees, a long-time advocate for women bishops, was made a CBE and Sir Andreas Whittam Smith, First Church Estates ­commissioner, was knighted. Coptic Orthodox Bishop Angaelos was made an OBE, as was Karen Armstrong, a writer on religion.