The Catholic composer Sir James MacMillan CBE was yesterday due to conduct the first public performance of his work The Culham Motets in the Chapel of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.
The work was composed for the consecration of a new chapel in a private country estate, Culham Court, the Berkshire home of the UK-based Swiss financier Urs Schwarzenbach. The Chapel of Christ the Redeemer (above) took three years to build and was consecrated in 2015 by the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. It is open to the public for Mass on the last Sunday of the month and Holy Days of Obligation. Before the performance, Professor Eamon Duffy, Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity, was to give a talk on the place of the private chapel in the great houses of England. Sir James is an honorary fellow of St Edmund’s.
Bishops to visit Holy Land
Auxiliary Birmingham Bishop William Kenney, who this week was on his 17th annual visit to the Holy Land in support of local Christian communities, has told The Tablet he is more convinced than ever that the encounter is hugely important.
The Holy Land visitation, by bishops from across Europe, North America and South Africa, had a specific focus this year on meeting young people. Speaking from Jerusalem, after going to a school for a discussion with teenagers, Bishop Kenney said that the visit shows Christians in the region that the international Church has not forgotten them as they experience the political and socio-economic realities of living in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Last Sunday, the bishops celebrated Mass with the small Christian community in Gaza. Bishop Kenney said that his opinion of the plight of the people there has not changed: “As I said 10 years ago, Bethlehem and Gaza can be regarded as open prisons. People can’t get out and there’s a lack of supplies and infrastructure … nonetheless I found the young people still full of hope for a better future.”
Prayer poll
A survey has indicated half of the adults in the UK engage in some form of prayer. The poll, of 2,069 adults, conducted by ComRes, found that prayer still played an important role in the lives even of non-religious people. One in five of these “non-believers” said they still prayed at least once a month. The most common reasons cited for praying were help during a time of crisis (55 per cent), belief in God (39 per cent) and the belief that prayer makes a difference (32 per cent). Among the 27 million adults who pray, the most popular topics were family, thanking God, praying for healing and for friends.
Abuse survivor plea
Pope Francis has been urged to meet the clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins when he visits Ireland in August, as a show of support for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. A lay reform lobby group, We Are Church Ireland (WACI), said a meeting with Marie Collins would show the Pope’s appreciation of her “valuable work” over three years on the Vatican Commission.
Speaking to The Tablet, Ms Collins, who resigned from the Commission in 2017, said the fact that the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was “in abeyance” was “a disgrace”. “If I was to meet the Pope, I would ask him why he has allowed this situation to come about,” she stated. She added, however, that she was not personally requesting a meeting. The first term of office of the members, which ran for three years, ended on 17 December 2017.
According to Ms Collins, the second term should have begun immediately. However, so far, the appointment of new members for the second term has not been announced, nor have the names of those first-term members being retained for a second term.
The Bishop of Nottingham, Patrick McKinney, set off to Nicaragua and El Salvador this week on an eight-day visit to see Cafod’s work.
In Nicaragua, he is meeting small farmers and members of women’s rural cooperatives working to create small businesses and implement farming practices that protect and conserve the environment.
In El Salvador, he is visiting Blessed Oscar Romero’s crypt and seeing a project run by Poor Clare sisters in an urban community riven by gang violence. Bishop McKinney said: “I very much look forward to visiting a variety of the Cafod projects and meeting some of the local people. I have never been to Central America, and I am trying to prepare myself in prayer for the challenge of the degree of poverty and injustice that I will no doubt encounter during my visit to these two countries.”
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