News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Princess Eugenie of York (above) laid a wreath on the grave of William Wilberforce, who fought in the eighteenth century to have slaves freed in the British Empire, at a service to commemorate the anti-slavery movement last week.

Speaking at the Westminster Abbey service, which was held on the same day that the UK’s anti-slavery commissioner, Kevin Hyland, launched his first annual report, Prime Minister Theresa May said: “My message to the criminals is this: we are coming to get you.”  

Mrs May, who as Home Secretary oversaw the Modern Slavery Act, also pledged that £33 million from the overseas aid budget will be used to combat slavery and trafficking.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols spoke of the next gathering in Rome in a fortnight’s time of the Santa Marta Group, set up by Pope Francis in 2014, to help the victims of trafficking. At that first meeting, attended by Mrs May, police chiefs from more than 20 countries pledged to work with the Church to combat human trafficking. “The Catholic Church is mobilising its resources in this struggle,” said Cardinal Nichols.

The Bishop for Prisons, Richard Moth, has called for a “safe, secure and humane prison system” in the UK. He said he was “struck” by a call last week from the Prison Governors Association for an independent public inquiry into the state of prisons in England and Wales. “For prison governors to unanimously make such a call underlines the current serious nature of the state of the prison service,” Bishop Moth said. He pointed out that there were 105 self-inflicted deaths in prisons last year, and that there had been an increase in non-fatal self-harm and serious attacks on staff.

St Mary’s University is to launch a Business and Management school and procure a new central London location for public events and teaching as part of a strategy for development over the next nine years. The university has also announced that it will invest £100m in students and staff between now and 2025; part of that will be spent on improved facilities, new accommodation and sports grounds at its site in Strawberry Hill, London. In a statement it said it also planned to expand its international reach by developing new partnerships with overseas universities: specifically it hoped to forge alliances with five high-profile international universities by 2025.

The former president of Ireland and the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate, Mary Robinson (above), has paid tribute to Irish missionaries as “advocates for protection of nature and the environment as God’s creation”.

In her foreword to The Legacy of Irish Missionaries Lives On, a book launched this week at St Paul’s Church on Arran Quay in Dublin, Mrs Robinson describes Irish missionaries as “an important part of our diaspora”. The book was authored by Matt Moran, a former chairman of Misean Cara, the representative group supporting the development projects of Irish missionaries.

A key message of the book is how the legacy of Irish missionaries is being carried forward by the new generation of local and indigenous missionaries and by lay missionary volunteers from Ireland.

Bells fall silent
Bell-ringers at York Minster have appealed for a meeting with the dean after being axed over health and safety concerns. Following an emergency meeting last week the belfry was locked and the team disbanded until Easter, when a spokesman for the Minster said it would hire a new team of volunteers. In a statement York Minster said that it was working to improve its training, development and recruitment. To do this, it explained, some existing roles had to be closed to ensure consistency. Peter Sanderson, the former ringing master, said he would “love to know” what was going on.

“I make a plea to the dean here and now – let’s meet, let’s talk and come up with a sensible and achievable plan that addresses all of the concerns which the Minster have, whatever they may be. That would then allow the sound of those glorious bells to be heard across the city again immediately,” he said.

Hate crime
The Church’s social action network, CSAN, has described hate crimes against Travellers as “the last acceptable form of racism”. In an article posted on its website, Faith Anderson, CSAN’s public affairs officer, said that the authorities were at best indifferent and at worst hostile to the Traveller community. In the charity’s experience, she said, reported hate crimes committed against Travellers were rarely acted on by police. There was an even slimmer chance that there would be a prosecution, she added. Some 98 per cent of Travellers experience hate crimes, but only 27 per cent seek redress. “One side needs to reach out and end the cycle of animosity – and as the majority of Travellers are Catholic, perhaps the Catholic community is best placed to open our Church’s doors, literally and metaphorically, to this community – so that racism against them is condemned as racism ought to be,” she wrote.

Church Action on Poverty (CAP) and 10 other charities including the Trussell Trust have joined together to launch a campaign that aims to end hunger in the UK. Speaking on World Food Day on Sunday, at the end of the global Churches’ Week of Action on Food, CAP director Niall Cooper called for an urgent conversation and Government action to end hunger in the UK. “We see working parents missing meals so that their kids can eat, and vulnerable individuals turning to charities on a daily basis to get a meal. This is unacceptable,” he said.

An illuminated cross atop a Middlesbrough church that was once visible across Teesside has been lit up again for the first time in 30 years thanks to efforts by parishioners. The eight foot by four foot cross, which stands on top of St Alphonsus Church, went out in the 1980s when its neon tubes burnt out. Parishioners have replaced them with LED rope lights and the cross is now illuminated from dusk to dawn. Parish priest Fr Pat Day said: “The light used to be visible from all over Teesside. People said when you saw it, you knew you were home.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols (above left) met the Polish ambassador, Arkady Rzegocki, at Archbishop’s House last week, as official figures revealed that the number of race and religiously motivated hate crimes increased by 41 per cent after the UK voted to leave the EU. The President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, wrote to Cardinal Nichols and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in September, urging them to confront “xenophobia”.