News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Cardinal’s campaign
Cardinal Vincent Nichols (above) visited the US this week to promote the work of the Santa Marta Group, which unites government, police and church leaders in the fight against modern slavery.

The cardinal, who was accompanied by the UK Government’s anti-slavery tsar, Kevin Hyland, met in Washington, DC with representatives of the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, as well as the US Bishops’ Conference. He also met Republican Senator Bob Corker, who is steering the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act.

On Thursday, in New York, Cardinal Nichols was due to meet with Karen Bradley, Minister for preventing abuse, exploitation and crime, to discuss how the Church and UK Government can develop the anti-slavery partnership. Afterwards he was to speak alongside Commissioner Hyland and Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, at a major UN conference on human trafficking, hosted by the Holy See Mission and co-sponsored by the Santa Marta Group. A letter by Pope Francis was due to be read out at the conference.

Christians are more likely than people of other faiths to vote for England to leave the European Union, according to a new poll. According to the survey, of 4,000 people by Populus, 18 per cent of Christians (the polling was not split by denomination) said they would definitely vote for the UK to leave the EU in a referendum, compared to 10 per cent of Muslims and 13 per cent of Jews. Just 4 per cent of Christians said they would definitely vote for the UK to remain a member of the EU.

Palliative care failing
The first comprehensive report into end-of-life care in the NHS since the Liverpool Care Pathway was scrapped has criticised palliative care in hospitals. According to the report, funded by NHS England and the cancer charity Marie Curie, improvements have been made since the guidelines for care of the dying were dropped in 2013. Compared to a previous audit almost double the number of people close to the patient said that they were given opportunities to ask for help and support. But it found that only 11 per cent of hospital trusts in England provided specialist palliative care services around the clock, and only 10 per cent of dying patients were assessed as to whether they needed help to drink.

In the week that the Government’s new living wage came into force the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, denounced it as a slightly improved minimum wage that will trap working people in poverty. The new living wage, £7.20 per hour, is 50p more than the national minimum wage, but is significantly lower than the figure recommended by anti-poverty campaigners. Writing in The Times, the archbishop said that the Government’s living wage was not high enough and would force some families to rely on food banks to survive. He also warned that it would set young people against old, because the new pay standard will only apply to over-25s.

MPs have warned that the government fund intended to help poor families manage the cost of a funeral is inadequate. The Social Fund Funeral Payments (SFFP) – a means-tested benefit – has been frozen at £700 since 2003. But the report, by the Work and Pensions Committee, states that even a simple funeral now costs over £1,200, leaving bereaved people in debt. Labour MP Frank Field, a Christian, and chairman of the committee, said the “opaque and outdated” system was hitting vulnerable people on low incomes. “We do not want a return to the spectre of miserable ‘pauper’s funerals’,” he added.

As the new Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland (above) outlined her priorities at a ceremony at Marlborough House in London on Monday. The Catholic peer told the audience that her priorities would include working to end violence against women; tackling the existential threat of climate change; boosting trade; and helping young people so they are not tempted by the influence of extremists. “We need to get our own house in order,” she said. “I want to start a conversation. How do we own the values we all share? We can change things for the better if we choose. We face some of the most critical challenges any of us have seen. But together, as one people, we can make a different future.”
(See Notebook, page 11.)

Members of Caritas Westminster and Westminster Justice and Peace have delivered a minibus full of food and clothing to refugees in what remains of the Jungle camp in Calais. The supplies were taken to a new Catholic Worker house, dedicated to St Maria Skobtsova, that has been established to support people during the crisis. The minibuses – one for people and one for donations - were paid for by Caritas Westminster; elsewhere parishioners across London supplied food, money, clothes, bedding and toiletries.

Most people in Scotland are not religious, according to research published this week. Church attendance has plummeted to the lowest level ever, the Scottish Social Attitudes survey said, and the number of people who say they are not at all religious has risen to 52 per cent. Of those who said they are religious 66 per cent did not attend services. The sharpest decline has been in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland: the proportion of people who said they belong to it has fallen from 35 per cent to 20 per cent since 1999. The number of Catholics and other Christians has remained steady.

Mass for terror victims
The Bishops’ Conference’s foreign affairs spokesman, Declan Lang, celebrated Mass for victims of the Easter Day attack in Lahore, Pakistan, last Sunday. The Mass, at St Nicholas of Tolentino church in Bristol, part of the bishop’s Clifton Diocese, was said in Urdu and English. More than 70 people were killed in the attack, which targeted Christians. In a statement Bishop Lang said: “We pray that the authorities in Pakistan will act decisively to guarantee religious freedom and to bring all forms of religious persecution of minorities to an end.”

Canon Andrew White, the Anglican vicar of St George’s Church in Baghdad, is to be awarded a Doctorate of Divinity by Liverpool Hope University in July. The award recognises his courage and commitment to reconciliation across the Middle East. Canon White led the only Anglican church in Iraq until November 2014, when he was forced to flee by sectarian violence. He is now based in Israel and Jordan.

Compiled by Liz Dodd