Bishop of Nottingham Patrick McKinney, along with Rev Dominic Allain, International Pastoral Director of Grief to Grace, Rev Simon Gillespie, Private Secretary to the Bishop of Nottingham, Rev Gerry Murphy, Parish Priest of St Anne’s Buxton and Deacon Don Lavery of St. Anne's Buxton and Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, Chapel-en-le-Frith, prostrated themselves in front of the altar at the LOUDfence prayer service for victims and survivors of abuse in the Nottingham diocese Displays in the church included the shoes of a seminarian who was abused and lost his vocation and shoes representing the religious sisters abused by Rupnik. A previous parish priest at St Anne’s, Paul Cullen, was found guilty in 2012 of abusing three young children in the 1980s; he was subsequently convicted, sent to prison, and died there in 2018. Bishop McKinney encouraged the parishioners of St. Anne’s to hold this Day of Prayer, and went himself to the evening service to apologise publicly to the victims and the people of the parish. He said, “My prayers and thoughts are with all the victims of sexual abuse, but particularly with the survivors here in Buxton. As current Bishop of the Diocese of Nottingham, I wish to try and apologise to you for his (Paul Cullen’s) actions, for the way the diocese responded to them and most importantly, for the abuse and hurt each of the victims and their families have continued to experience.” He also apologised to the people of St. Anne’s parish for the hurt Paul Cullen has caused them. “I can well understand your very real feeling of having been betrayed by him as your parish priest.” He finished by pledging his commitment, and that of the diocesan safeguarding team, to ensure that everyone in the diocese is kept safe, especially the most vulnerable. He promised that his door, and the door of his safeguarding team, would be always open to anyone affected by abuse. The church was open all day for group prayer sessions including listening to recorded testimony of survivors and praying the Way of the Cross through the Voice of Victims. Prayer stations were set up around the church for personal prayer which helped people to reflect and pray for the victims and survivors.
Pope Francis has appointed the former Anglican Rev David Waller as the next Ordinary and the first Bishop Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, following the resignation of Mons Keith Newton. Bishop-elect Waller, currently parish priest of Christ the King, Chingford in the Diocese of Brentwood, said, “I have been a member of the Ordinariate since its inception in 2011, when groups of clergy and laity, up and down the country, were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church under the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.” In addition, Pope Francis has appointed Mons Timothy Menezes, Dean of St Chad’s Cathedral, and Canon Richard Walker, Vicar General, as new auxiliary bishops to serve the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Archbishop Bernard Longley said: “With their long experience of pastoral ministry, their contributions to priestly formation and their dedicated service as Vicars General I know that they will assist me and Bishop David Evans in caring for our clergy and in carrying out our diocesan vision and mission in the years ahead.” Mons Menezes said, “In this new role as a shepherd, I will continue to serve the Lord, encouraging the People of God, the Religious and my fellow Clergy to know God’s love for them and together to build the Kingdom of God beginning with the needs of those whom we might have left behind: those who are homeless, the asylum seeker and those for whom the Church owes a special duty of care.” Canon Walker said: “It is a privilege to be asked to serve the people of God in this manner and I look forward to continuing to work with Archbishop Bernard and the priests, deacons and people of the archdiocese to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
Catholic peace protestors Chris Cole and Virginia Moffatt were found guilty in court last Thursday after last year’s Gaza protest at Downing Street. They were ordered to pay fines, costs and compensation totalling £1,683.68. The couple’s trial for criminal damage followed their arrest on 29 December after they poured red poster paint on the gates and made handprints, held placards and read the names of children killed in the conflict. From the witness box Virginia said she felt a duty to act as the UK government resisted calls for a ceasefire.
An open letter signed by more than 250 organisations from across civil society in the UK, was sent to the Prime Minister last week expressing outrage following the passage of the Government's Rwanda Act. Jesuit Refugee Service UK (JRS UK) and Columban missionaries were among the faith groups that signed. JRS UK said, “it is vital that these cruel and unworkable proposals are stopped.” And many Church groups are supporting the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants campaign petition which says: "The Government must repeal the Rwanda Act and abandon all plans to outsource the UK’s asylum responsibilities to other countries, and we must protect people who need safety here as part of our communities."
Cafod has launched an emergency appeal to support families in Sudan, described by Britain’s representative to the United Nations Barbara Woodward as in the grip of the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis and where more than eight million people have fled their homes to escape violence and 25 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Cafod says there is a short window to act before the growing season in Sudan starts in June, as fears grow of impending famine.
New qualifications for gospel singers and musicians have been introduced by RSL Awards and the Gospel Music Industry Alliance. Until now, the proficiency and level of musicianship amongst gospel professionals had not been recognised outside gospel circles. The new award scheme will offer a suite of Ofqual regulated grades to assess gospel practitioners who demonstrate their performance skills at a grade six or above. These qualifications will carry Ucas points which help towards university and higher education applications.
A walk was launched last weekend to highlight royal women who pioneered Christianity in Kent 14 centuries ago. The route connects churches in Canterbury, Lyminge and Folkestone. St Martin’s in Canterbury celebrates St Bertha who prayed with Saint Augustine in a chapel on the site. With her husband, King Ethelbert, they established the first Christian royal family in England. St Mary and St Ethelburga Church, Lyminge, contains remains of a church dated to the time of Queen Ethelburga, daughter of Bertha. She and her husband King Edwin were involved in the conversion of Northern England to Christianity. After his death, she returned to Kent to live at Lyminge. St Mary and St Eanswythe in Folkstone is the site of an early Christian community founded by Ethelburga’s niece, Princess Eanswythe.
Faith organisations must develop ethical oversight within their investment governance structures to align with their values, according to a new paper from FaithInvest and investment consultant NEPC. The paper, “Faith-based Investment Governance”, argues that ethics represent “a unique and essential element” of investment governance for faiths. FaithInvest is a non-profit organisation founded to support all faiths to invest in line with their values, for the benefit of people and planet. After a successful first course on faith-consistent investing in February, FaithInvest has scheduled a second four-week online training course, beginning 7 May.
North Wales village at the base of Snowdon in north Wales has appointed its first dedicated chaplain to the outdoors community. The Anglican Church in Wales Diocese of Bangor, in partnership with rural ministries, has appointed Jill Ireland, who has a background in sports ministry, as the new chapain, based at Llanberis. She says, “I will be working from home from the rectory in Llanberis so people can come and visit.” But she also looks forward to ministry outdoors. “God is active in the world around us,” she says, “and if we want to be part of that we might have to venture outside of the traditional ways or understanding of what churches looked like.”
Papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, has said he sees “no confusion” in Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on blessing those in irregular relationships including same-sex relationships. In a talk on Pope Francis in the Jesuit Gardiner Street church in Dublin, Ivereigh said, “What the doctrine says very clearly is that there is only one form of relationship that the Church can bless and that is marriage. But everybody is blessable. Everybody can ask for God’s grace.” He added that it was “perfectly appropriate” for the Church in response to people who ask for that kind of blessing to receive it. “It is not a liturgical blessing,” he said.
A man with intellectual disabilities has been charged over the stabbing of a Capuchin friar at a homeless centre in Dublin. Fr Ademir Marques, who is in his 50s, was stabbed in the back of the head as a volunteered at the Capuchin day centre as he gave out breakfast to clients. “We don’t really know what happened other than it was completely unprovoked,” a source told the Sunday World newspaper. In addition to working with the homeless, the friar ministers to the 200-strong Brazilian Catholic community who attend Mass at Church Street.
Younger staff members in Catholic schools have less of an “understanding of” and “respect for” the Catholic ethos of their school than their older colleagues, according to new research, “Reality of Identity and Ethos in Irish Catholic Schools”, by Mary Immaculate College in Limerick and Mater Dei in Dublin City University. Dr Daniel O’Connell, assistant professor of Religious Education at MIC Limerick, said, “Many dioceses don’t have the capacity to properly support and resource their Catholic schools.” The research included feedback from 4,000 people including members of boards of management, principals and teachers in Catholic schools.
Priests from India are set to begin ministering in the Diocese of Cork and Ross as hospital chaplains. Following discussions between Bishop Fintan Gavin and Fr Bijoy George Kuliraniyil, Provincial of the Order of St Camillus in India, an agreement was reached which will see priests from that province minister in some of the hospitals where the diocese supplies chaplains. These include Cork University Hospital, Cork University Maternity Hospital, Mercy University Hospital, South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital and Marymount University Hospital. The Camillian charism is inspired by the 16th century Italian St Camillus who devoted his life to the care of people suffering from plague.
The Irish Jesuit Province has announced that St Francis Xavier church in Dublin will become part of the neighbouring pro-cathedral parish from August. The church will continue to hold masses and novenas but when it ceases to be a parish church, baptisms, confirmations, First Communions and weddings will take place in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. The decision is in response to falling Jesuit vocations, as well as a declining number of Catholics living in the parish. However, the current parish priest Fr Niall Leahy said, “We are very much here for the long term.”
The Scottish Bishops have called on Catholics in the country to reject the proposed “assisted suicide” legislation. In a letter read out at all of Scotland’s 460 parishes last Saturday and Sunday, the Bishops said that Liam McArthur MSP’s private members bill “takes us down a dangerous spiral that always puts at risk the most vulnerable members of our society”. The letter, entitled “Called To Care, Not To Kill”, points out that in territories where assisted suicide has been legalised there has always been a tendency to widen its application to more and younger members of society, and to issues including depression, arthritis, autism and other conditions. The letter points that palliative care in Scotland needs further support but concludes that “when our society is already marked by so many inequalities, we do not need assisted suicide to put intolerable pressure on our most disadvantaged who do not have a voice in this debate”.
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