Contradictions in the way the UK Government has spent money on energy overseas pose a threat to the world’s poorest communities and risk undermining its commitments on climate change, according to Catholic aid agency Cafod.
A report by Cafod and the Overseas Development Institute shows that between 2010 and 2014 the UK spent £7.5bn on energy in developing countries, with only £1.3bn (22 per cent) going on renewables, while £2.9bn was spent on fossil fuels. Dr Sarah Wykes (pictured), lead analyst on climate change and energy at Cafod, said: “Supporting fossil fuels overseas puts UK leadership on climate change at risk at a time when it is needed now more than ever.”
Romero centenary celebration
The 100th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Oscar Romero was celebrated last Saturday at a Mass in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, attended by about 500 people. The martyred Archbishop of San Salvador was born on 15 August 1917 and gunned down on 24 March 1980 while saying Mass, a few days after appealing to the army to stop murdering the citizens. Today El Salvador is under a different Government, and the Salvadoran ambassador, Elisabeth Hayek-Weinmann, read a passage from the Book of Wisdom at the Mass, which concluded with a hymn in honour of Romero, commissioned for the centenary. Finally, there was an act of commitment in the Romero shrine, where a 4m-high cross, painted by Salvadoran artist Fernando Llort, houses a relic of the bloodstained alb of Romero. The postulator of Romero’s cause, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, said in his homily: “We needed a Latin American Pope before Romero could be raised to the honours of the altar.”
The rector of Ireland’s national Marian shrine in Knock has revealed that it has raised €13.4m in donations and pledges over the past three years to finance its structural and spiritual refurbishment.
Fr Richard Gibbons hopes that another €750,000 will be raised by the end of the year, so ensuring that the target of €14m set in 2013 is achieved. The major part of the money raised – €11.4m – has been used to refurbish the 40-year-old basilica. A million euros has been spent on marketing the County Mayo shrine at home and abroad, resulting in the first transatlantic pilgrimages from the archdioceses of New York and Boston in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Another million has funded a series of new pastoral programmes as part of Knock’s outreach to the faithful in the twenty-first century. The annual novena in Knock takes place between 14 and 22 August, during which time more than 100,000 pilgrims are expected to visit the shrine.
A leading Scottish arts administrator’s suggestion that both the Catholic Church and the Muslim community are in breach of equal opportunity legislation by not appointing female clergy has attracted withering comment from the Church and the Muslim Council of Scotland.
The comments were made in a private submission to the Scottish Government by Ben Thomson, head of Creative Scotland, who also suggested that lack of female leadership created an environment prone to sexual abuse. A spokesman for the Scottish Bishops’ Conference described Mr Thomson’s comments as “little more than an intemperate, ill-informed and poisonously anti-religious rant”. Omar Afzal, media and communications officer for the Muslim Council of Scotland, said that Mr Thomson’s suggestion that Catholics and Muslims be obliged to appoint female priests or imams showed ignorance of the subject, and he rejected the Creative Scotland director’s suggestion that Muslims were insufficiently assimilated into British culture. “We have Muslim Lords, MPs, entrepreneurs and business leaders, senior health professionals, Muslim Olympians and even a Muslim winner of The Great British Bake Off,” he said.
More help for elderly
Four UK Catholic charities, co-ordinated by Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN), are launching “Embrace”, a pilot project to support parishes in combating isolation and building self-confidence in the elderly. Although people in England and Wales are, on average, living longer, they often find themselves isolated or housebound because of reduced mobility or following bereavement, said CSAN. Caritas Diocese of Salford in Greater Manchester; Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) in Keighley and Skipton; Father Hudson’s Care, Worcestershire, and the Society of St Vincent de Paul (England and Wales) in Brighton aim to train at least 160 parish volunteers to visit over 800 older people, primarily in their own homes rather than care homes, over the next two years. CSAN chief executive Phil McCarthy said Embrace will support the elderly “in line with their aspirations and preferences, to build new social relationships and to connect with local activities”.
Institute closes down
A college set up to provide Catholic tertiary education and to be a centre of excellence for religious art, music and drama in Scotland has been forced to close.
The St Ninian Institute, established in Dunkeld diocese with support from the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, is to close its doors after five years. Announcing the decision Bishop Stephen Robson cited financial pressures.
The Bishop of Galloway has described rising rates of homelessness in Scotland as “a matter of great shame for society”. Bishop William Nolan, president of the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission, was responding to new projections that the number of those living without shelter could jump to 12,000 over the next five years and to 18,000 by 2040.
‘Abusers must be prosecuted’
The United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) has told the Irish Government that members of religious orders who perpetrated abuse against women in Magdalene Laundries must be prosecuted.
CAT, which monitors adherence to the UN Convention Against Torture, said the Government had failed to implement its 2011 recommendations to investigate allegations of ill treatment in the laundries and ensure redress for victims. The criticisms were contained in CAT’s final report on the state’s performance in relation to historic institutional abuse.
More than 11,500 women were held in Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996, a quarter of whom reportedly carried out forced labour without pay by the state.
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