News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Catholic charity Mary’s Meals has launched a Crisis in Malawi campaign after severe droughts left 6.5 million people facing chronic hunger. Mary’s Meals already provides a daily school meal to 814,000 Malawian children. The campaign aims to continue this commitment and expand its reach to more areas. “It’s become normal to go one or two days without having any food at home,” schoolgirl Ndilibe, 13, said. “You worry about where the next meal is going to come from.”


Signatories of a leaked letter to the College of Cardinals calling for Pope Francis to clarify certain interpretations of Amoris Laetitia, the apostolic exhortation on marriage and family life, have issued a press release explaining and defending their action.

Dr Joseph Shaw, spokesman for the theologians and clerics who signed the letter, said the organisers had chosen not to publicise its content because they wanted cardinals and patriarchs to consider it “without the distraction of public controversy”.

He said that “theological censures”, such as those made in the letter, have their authority from the scriptural and magisterial texts they cite, and may be made “by any person in the Church who has the knowledge, role and mission needed to teach concerning questions of faith and morals”. (See Letters, page 14.)


A specialist maternity clinic for survivors of sexual violence has opened in London. The clinic will be co-run by the Barts Health NHS Trust and My Body Back, a project that helps women who have been raped or abused to rebuild a positive relationship with their bodies.

Many survivors find pregnancy and birth highly traumatic, regardless of how their pregnancy occurred. The new clinic will be integrated into the existing maternity ward at the Royal London Hospital, but patients will be offered additional meetings with specially trained staff.


One of Ireland’s oldest magazines, the Far East, run by the Missionary Society of St Columban, has appointed its first female lay editor. Sarah Mac Donald, who writes for The Tablet and other Catholic publications, is a former journalist with RTÉ Online.

The society, known originally as the Maynooth Mission to China, was founded by Fr Edward Galvin and Fr John Blowick. The magazine, founded in 1918, currently has a circulation of 75,000 across Ireland and Britain.

Ms Mac Donald takes over from Fr Cyril Lovett SSC, who edited the magazine from 2003 to 2016.


Rabbis, imams and Anglican clerics took part in a vigil on Sunday to commemorate Fr Jacques Hamel, the priest who was murdered by two Islamic extremists in Normandy last week. The vigil was organised by Faiths Forum for London and took place at Westminster Cathedral, where faith leaders joined Fr Martin Plunkett, rector of the College of Chaplains at Westminster, outside the Door of Mercy for prayer and reflection.

Fr Plunkett said at the act of remembrance: “We believe in a God of mercy. In this we have shared attributes with the theology of Islam. Both Catholics and Muslims can find common ground in the loving and merciful nature of our God.”


Pope Francis has created an eparchy for Britain’s 40,000 Syro-Malabar Catholics. An eparchy, roughly equivalent to a diocese, is a jurisdiction of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The new Eparchy of Great Britain is based in Preston; its first bishop is Fr Joseph Srampickal, born in Kerala and previously Vice-Rector of the Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Rome. The eparchy’s cathedral will be St Ignatius Church in Preston. St Ignatius was a Roman Rite church until the Diocese of Lancaster closed it in 2014. It was given to Preston’s Syro-Malabar community in 2015.


Representatives of the Catholic Church in England and Wales appeared before Dame Lowell Goddard last week at a preliminary hearing of the Goddard inquiry’s investigation into sexual abuse of children. Representatives of the English Benedictines and the Archdiocese of Birmingham, the two case studies due to be investigated by the inquiry, appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday. Justice Lowell Goddard said there would be another preliminary hearing this year, but indicated that further hearings may not begin until the second half of 2017 at the earliest.


Michael Cura, a 16-year-old schoolboy who died cycling the Camino in Spain, will be remembered at a Mass in his home town of Swansea this weekend. The teenager was nine days into a 560-mile pilgrimage from Swansea to Santiago de Compostela, which he was making with schoolmates and teachers, when he collapsed and died.

Bishop Vaughan Catholic School in Swansea, where he was a sixth-form student, flew the other 20 pupils and eight staff back from the pilgrimage before they reached Santiago de Compostela.

Michael’s head teacher, Paul White, described him as “a gentle, kind and caring person with a wonderful sense of humour. He was a shining example of Christian witness and lived out his strong faith through serving others. He was an active member of HCTP [Hosanna House & Children’s Pilgrimage Trust] helping disabled children in the community to visit Lourdes.”

His body was received at his home church of the Sacred Heart, Morriston, at a morning Mass on Friday, before a sung Memorial Mass in the evening. On Saturday, a Requiem Mass is due to take place at St Joseph’s Cathedral, Swansea.


Greg Dyke, former chairman of the Football Association, has been appointed a visiting professor at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. Mr Dyke will work with students and staff from the university’s School of Sport, Health and Applied Science and the School of Arts and Humanities. He said: “I have long been involved in both media and sport – two of the major subject areas covered at the University. As I live nearby, I have known of St Mary’s for a long time and seen it expand, so I am very pleased to have been asked to be involved more directly in its future.” Mr Dyke has previously served as director general of the BBC, chancellor of the University of York, chairman of the British Film Institute, and chairman of Brentford Football Club, who play close to St Mary’s.


New bishop for Killaloe
Pope Francis has appointed Fr Fintan Monahan as the new Bishop of Killaloe in Ireland. Born in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Fr Monahan, aged 49, will become Ireland’s youngest bishop. He was previously the diocesan secretary in the Archdiocese of Tuam and taught at St Jarlath’s College, Co. Galway.