News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

The outgoing Bishop of London, Richard Chartres (above), has praised the work of L’Arche Communities, which support people with learning disabilities, in his valedictory sermon.

Calling its Catholic founder, Jean Vanier, “one of the authentic prophets of our time”, Bishop Chartres said: “We are not called to be a Church of warring sects like those which the great seventeenth-century Anglican theologian Sir Thomas Browne denounced as ‘heads that are disposed unto schism and … naturally indisposed for a community’ but ‘do subdivide and mince themselves almost into atoms’.” Speaking to a congregation at St Paul’s Cathedral in London that included Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the bishop called on the Church of England to “seek alliances in the wider household of faith”, adding “thank God for the gracious presence here of so many Christian friends from other communions”. He went on: “In an increasingly post-denominational world we are simply Christians seeking to serve the world in … humility.”

Residential library for Ushaw
Durham University is to develop a £2m international residential research library at Ushaw College, in a bid to attract leading researchers from around the world. Scholars will be able to stay at the 200-year-old establishment and have access to Ushaw’s collections along with those of Durham Cathedral and the university’s Palace Green Library. Through the partnership, Durham University will become the UK’s first university with a facility of this kind. The refurbishment of the library starts in the 2017-18 academic year.

Reformation service
Catholics and Lutherans are to jointly commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with a service of common prayer at St George’s Cathedral in London. The service, due to take place on 26 March, will be led by the Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, and the Rt Revd Martin Lind, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

Members of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) met representatives of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) last week to discuss the management of anonymous allegations of abuse against priests and religious.

Frs Brendan Hoban, Tim Hazelwood and Sean McDonagh on behalf of the ACP, as well as the NBSCCCI’s CEO Teresa Devlin and Peter Kieran, director of safeguarding, indicated that they all wanted to make the process as “fair, transparent and Christian as possible”. The ACP said it could make suggestions about how this area might be developed in the future.

Separately, the NBSCCCI has highlighted in its newsletter that priests who are out of ministry have been able to celebrate public Mass as visiting priests, without any checks being carried out. According to safeguarding protocols, prior to visiting Ireland, all visiting priests must seek permission from the church authorities.

A vetting check must be carried out through the Garda National Vetting Bureau.

Vocations drive
The Scottish Church has distributed leaflets in parishes to try and persuade young Scottish men of the value of joining the priesthood. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow welcomed Priests for Scotland’s contribution to the “sacred task” of promoting vocations, which have been dropping for many years. Archbishop Tartaglia said that he hoped a new priest would be ordained in Glasgow in each of the next three years, with two men proceeding to seminary later in 2017. There were also a number of men in the archdiocese discerning a vocation. “This tells me that God has not forgotten us,” he said. “It tells me that, even in times not especially promising, God continues to serve the Church in the priesthood.”

The Pro Life Campaign (PLC) in Ireland has accused the Citizens’ Assembly of a lack of balance in the speakers chosen for its deliberations on the Eighth Amendment, the foundation of Ireland’s anti-abortion laws. With just two more weekends of deliberations on abortion for the 99 Assembly delegates, the PLC questioned why the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and the Guttmacher Institute had been invited to speak to the exclusion of those who could highlight the achievements of the Eighth Amendment.

“It is bizarre that a leading abortion provider in Britain, a business that has publicly campaigned against Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn, should be invited to present under the heading of ‘case studies’ and ‘care paths’,” the PLC said. The chairperson of the Assembly, Justice Mary Laffoy (above), said great care had been taken to make sure information presented to Assembly members was balanced.

A number of Catholic institutions in Scotland are to be investigated as part of a national inquiry into historic sexual abuse. The inquiry, now headed by senior judge Lady Smith, is to look into some 60 institutions responsible for the care of children and young people. These include ones run by Benedictines, Christian Brothers, Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, as well as some major non- Catholic independent schools.

Ahead of Racial Justice Sunday, three leading Catholic organisations are calling upon all Catholics to eradicate discrimination and inequality and instead “celebrate our communities wherever we worship, work and live”. The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, the Catholic Association for Racial Justice and Caritas Social Action Network said: “Racial justice is a gospel imperative since Christ called us not just to welcome all who we meet, but to treat people with dignity and respect in every aspect of our private and public lives.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the Church of England “failed terribly” for not reporting the head of a Christian charity accused of abusing young boys in the late 1970s to the police.

Justin Welby (above) said he had volunteered at the Christian holiday camps, run by the Iwerne Trust, at which teenage boys were physically abused, but was unaware of the allegations until the police became involved four years ago. He has issued an “unreserved and unequivocal” apology on behalf of the Church. After a six-month investigation Channel 4 News broadcast allegations last week claiming that John Smyth QC, the former chairman of the trust, had used the summer camps to gain access to teenage boys, forcing them to strip naked before beating them.