News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

The Prime Minister, Theresa May (above), has spoken about how her Christian faith inspired her political career. She said that growing up as the only daughter of a clergyman instilled in her a sense of service.

“My father would be out and about visiting people. I’d go with him on odd occasions, but he’d come back and talk about what was happening,” Mrs May told The Sunday Times Magazine.

Mrs May, who described herself as a practising member of the Church of England, said that her faith informs her decision making: “[That] lies behind what I do. It’s not like I’ve decided to do what I’m going to do and I’m stubborn.  I’ll think it through, have a gut instinct, look at the evidence, work through the arguments, because you have to think through the unintended consequences.

“But ultimately, if you’ve done all that and you believe it’s the right thing to do , you should go and do it – but sometimes it is difficult,” she said.

New bishop for migrants
Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster Paul McAleenan is to replace Bishop Patrick Lynch as chairman of the Bishops’ Conference’s Office for Migration. Bishop Lynch will focus on his work on prevention of human trafficking. Bishop McAleenan, who was born in Belfast, was ordained into the priesthood in 1985 and was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as auxiliary bishop for Westminster in November 2015.

Abbot exonerated
No action is to be taken against the abbot of Ampleforth, Cuthbert Madden, following an allegation of historic abuse, North Yorkshire Police has said. Abbot Cuthbert, who denied wrongdoing, stepped aside in September this year during the investigation, but will return to the abbey soon.

Lambeth Palace has announced the appointment of Ruth Mawhinney, currently editor of online news site Christian Today, as head of media to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The new role will see Mrs Mawhinney, who started her career on The Baptist Times, overseeing day-to day contact with the media. She will take up the role in January.

Greening praises faith schools
The Education Secretary, Justine Greening, has hailed England’s church schools as “hugely popular”. In a letter to Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and president of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, Ms Greening said that church schools are “significantly more likely than other schools to be rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding”.

Ms Greening hoped that the Government’s decision to end the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions would provide the opportunity for many new faith schools to be established.

The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, (above) has officially opened a new Irish missionary seminary in the Archdiocese of Armagh. The Redemptoris Mater seminary in Dundalk, Co. Louth, linked to the Neocatechu­menal Way, has 16 seminarians from eight countries. They will travel from Dundalk to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, for their philosophical and theological studies.

Laurence Soper, the former abbot of Ealing Abbey in West London, who was accused of historic sexual offences against five victims, is due to stand trial on 13 February at the Old Bailey in London. His preliminary hearing took place last week.

Representatives from the Royal Navy have delivered a cross carved from the wreckage of refugee boats to the Bishop of Plymouth, Mark O’Toole, and other faith leaders as part of an event marking the end of the Year of Mercy. The Navy has been involved in European-led rescue operations in the Mediterranean. The event, organised by Cafod, the Diocese of Plymouth, the Anglican Diocese of Exeter, Justice and Peace Plymouth, and local charity Transforming Plymouth Together saw hundreds of people accompany Bishop O’Toole, who held the Lampedusa cross, through Plymouth as part of a walk in solidarity with refugees.

James Purnell, a former Labour Minister and the BBC’s head of radio and education, is to take over responsibility for religious affairs programming following the departure of Aaqil Ahmed as head of religion and ethics. He will add the role to his existing responsibilities.

The BBC recently appointed high-profile presenter Martin Bashir as its religious affairs correspondent to lead its news and current affairs coverage.
The director general, Tony Hall, said Purnell’s appointment was a sign that the BBC was taking “one of the big issues of our time” seriously.

An app being developed in Scotland that is being tipped to become the first mobile phone application for finding nearby Catholic Masses and Confessions was launched in Rome last week. It will use a smartphone’s embedded global positioning system (GPS) to display the nearest churches to the user and times of Masses and Confessions.

The Russian ambassador to Ireland has hit out at Bishop Kevin Doran’s “ignorance” after the Bishop of Elphin expressed his “abhorrence” over Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Syria. Bishop Doran had written to Ambassador Maxim Peshkov criticising Russia’s role in the “daily bombing of the innocent civilian population of Aleppo”.

Ambassador Peshkov responded: “It seems the cause of your ignorance is one-sided preconceived Western propaganda … the Western mass media deliberately demonises Russia …  in order to conceal the West’s crimes, including their support [of the] terrorist machine used as an instrument in Western hands to oust the legitimate president of Syria.”

Catholic Paul Nuttall has been elected leader of the UK Independence Party. In his leadership campaign Nuttall backed the death penalty for child killers and said he would focus on the issues of immigration, patriotism and social mobility. In an interview with The Tablet last year he said that his policies were in line with Catholic sensibilities. “On moral issues, we, more than any other political party, are more in line with Catholic thought,” he argued.

The Christian disability and community charity Livability has held a conference to explore how to make churches more dementia-friendly. Retired GP Jennifer Bute, the keynote speaker at the event that took place at the charity’s headquarters in North Greenwich, London, said that dementia offered churches “a glorious opportunity” to offer welcome and support.