News Briefing: From Britain and Ireland

Professor Alexis Jay (above), Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), has announced a delay in examining allegations relating to St Benedict’s independent school in Ealing, west London, but said they will be heard at a later stage. This is because of an imminent criminal trial of a former teacher. Three prominent Benedictine boarding schools – Ampleforth, Downside and Worth – are expected to be examined as a case study for the investigation of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church at a 15-day hearing starting in November. There will be a second case study into the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The inquiry into the Catholic Church in England and Wales is one of 13 strands that the IICSA is committed to examining.

“Difference does not mean division unless we choose to make it so,” the Dean of Southwark told his congregation on Sunday, the first day the cathedral opened since the terrorist attack on London Bridge and Borough Market on 3 June, in which eight people died. The Very Revd Andrew Nunn said the attack had been a “living nightmare” and he urged those people present to “make difference a blessing and an enrichment to our community.” It was important to remember, he added, that “God was not absent on that Saturday night; God is never absent.” Southwark Cathedral, situated next to the Market, was sealed off minutes after the attack as police searched for those responsible. Sunday’s service began by paying tribute to the emergency services and local community.

The bells of York Minster will ring out again following the appointment of a new head bell-ringer, eight months after the cathedral sacked its entire team of volunteer bell-ringers amid  “safeguarding issues”.

Angela Mitchell, a head-teacher and member of the former team, has been named the new Head of Bell Tower. She said she applied for the job to ensure the Minster’s “magnificent bells ring out again each Sunday and for other key occasions.” The part-time post comes with a salary of £7,000 and the duties include recruiting a new band of volunteer campanologists, many of whom belonged to the old team. It is hoped they will be in place by the autumn, almost a year after the dismissal.

Unpaid carers ‘undervalued’
The majority of people in the UK say that unpaid carers are not sufficiently valued by society, according to a survey conducted on behalf of eight major charities and published for Carers Week. The YouGov poll found the numbers increased from seven to eight out of every 10 people among people with their own experiences of caring. More than 6.5 million people in the UK provide unpaid care for an older, disabled or seriously ill person at an estimated cost of £132 billion a year.

Tributes paid to charity founder
Ireland’s President, Michael D. Higgins, and rock star Bono led a host of high-profile tributes to the late Spiritan (Holy Ghost) priest Fr Jack Finucane (pictured above in 1989) who died last week in Dublin.

Fr Jack played a leading role in one of the country’s largest aid agencies, Concern. Working with his late brother, Fr Aengus, they received worldwide recognition for their famine relief efforts in the 1960s when they shipped food to Biafra in the 1967-1970 Nigerian civil war. In 1985, he escorted the U2 frontman and his wife Ali to Ethiopia during the famine there, in which almost one million people died.  

In 1968, Fr Jack and Fr Aengus, also a Spiritan missionary, along with Fr Raymond Kennedy and John and Kay O’Loughlin Kennedy, founded Africa Concern, which later became the aid agency, Concern. The international humanitarian organisation now has more than 3,000 staff working around the world.

After ordination in 1963, Fr Finucane was sent to Biafra, which was later engulfed by famine. Concern was founded in response to the famine, with Fr Jack at the centre of the distribution of the relief goods flown into Biafra by Concern and other organisations.

In his tribute, Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick, Fr Jack’s native city, said the priest would “forever be a symbol of selflessness, caring and hope”. He had left “an inspirational legacy, on a par with the great humanitarians of our nation”, the bishop added.

Compiled by Lorna Donlon