A former Abbot of Ampleforth, Dom Timothy Wright (pictured), has died at the age of 77. Fr Wright, who was educated at Ampleforth, entered the community in 1962 and served as Abbot from 1997 to 2005. He then served as spiritual director at the Beda College in Rome. He also worked on the relationship between Christianity and Islam.
Ireland’s bishops have issued a series of pastoral letters ahead of the abortion referendum on Friday 25 May. Article 40.3.3, which is known as the Eighth Amendment, inserted into the Irish constitution in 1983, gives equal right to life to the mother and the unborn child. Voters will be asked whether they want to repeal it and pass the responsibility for the country’s abortion laws to parliament.
‘Slave gang’ pupils punished
The Oratory School in South Oxfordshire has apologised after a group of sixth-formers “blacked up” as slaves for their leaving photo and posted an image on social media. In a statement, the boarding school said the pupils had dressed in an “offensive manner” and it apologised “unreservedly”.
“A group of six friends decided to create a tableau of a slave gang, with the white boys dressed as black slaves and the black boys as white slave owners,” the statement noted, adding that the headmaster and senior staff had excluded pupils from participating in the photograph, but a separate picture, which the school was unaware of, “was taken unofficially and was in no way with the consent or blessing of the school. We are extremely shocked and saddened that this has happened,” the school said.
Mourners lined the streets of Liverpool to pay their respects to Alfie Evans during his funeral on Monday. The 23-month-old boy, who suffered from a severe degenerative neurological condition, died on 28 April, some ten days after his father, Tom Evans, asked Pope Francis to help get him to Rome’s Bambino Gesù hospital. The family had insisted on a private burial but well-wishers applauded and threw flowers as the funeral cortege passed. Mr Evans and the boy’s mother, Kate James, wanted to remove Alfie from Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital after doctors said they could do no more to help him, and after a High Court judge ruled that it was in the child’s best interests to withdraw life support. The Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights upheld that judgment.
The Secretary to the Bishop of Lancaster, Fr Robert Billing, announced this week that he was standing down after 13 years. Speaking to The Tablet, Fr Billing explained that he was leaving with “mixed emotions” but that it was “time for a rest” before going to Canada in September to study canon law. He has handed responsibility for the diocesan website and social media accounts to Sr Sharon Rose Puthenparayll CMC. Fr Billing said he had agreed his departure with recently retired Bishop Michael Campbell – but “then I thought I’d show the new man in”. Bishop Paul Swarbrick was installed last month.
New head named
Downside school in Somerset has appointed a new head, Andrew Hobbs, who has been acting in the role since January. Mr Hobbs joined Downside as deputy head ten years ago. After giving evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in December, Mr Hobbs wrote to parents saying: “There have been times when Downside has fallen far short of its safeguarding responsibilities.”
St Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough in Hampshire has launched an urgent “subsistence appeal”, saying the need for private benefactors had become “acutely necessary”. The Benedictine abbey says it needs to raise £200,000 within 18 months. The community of nine, with an average age of 36, lives off the production of honey, the rearing of lambs, book binding and rent, but says these earnings do not cover “humble living requirements”.
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