News Briefings: Britain and Ireland

The Lord Mayor of Westminster Robert Rigby has been awarded a papal knighthood, the highest honour that can be granted a lay Catholic by the Holy See. Rigby will become a Knight of St Gregory, an honour first established in 1831 and granted for service to the Church or in public life.

Educated at Ampleforth, Rigby, 63, was elected to Westminster City Council in 2010. He is a former chair of the Catholic Union and lifelong Catenian. He has spoke publicly about how important his Catholic faith is to his life and the Cardinal Hume Centre is one of the mayoral charities he is supporting.

Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray was among 30 new Labour peers to be named in the New Year Honours List. Former environment secretary Dame Thérèse Coffey was among six new Conservative peers named by Kemi Badenoch. Gray, who achieved public recognition as investigator of “partygate”, was appointed chief of staff after the election by Starmer but stepped down in September being replaced by Morgan McSweeney.

Starmer’s nominations also included Gerard Lemos, chair of English Heritage, chair of National Savings and Investments and chair of the London Institute of Banking and Finance. The prominent Anglican theologian Professor Nigel Biggar, a former Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford, who has argued in support of aspects of colonialism, was nominated for a peerage by Badenoch.

Cathedrals in England marked Christmas with light shows, displays of angels and even live animals at Exeter Cathedral. Several were lit up with shows projected onto the exterior and sound added inside for an “immersive experience”. Visitors to Lichfield cathedral were encouraged to tour the cathedral, see the nativity tableau and an avenue of Christmas trees, described byDean Jan McFarlane as “an attempt to enable people to find their place in the Christmas story”. The Association of English Cathedrals published a daily picture during Advent of angels in sculptures, carvings or art, including stained glass windows. 

Two bishops from England and Wales will be among 12 bishops travelling to Jerusalem from 18-23 January for the Holy Land Coordination. Bishop Nicholas Hudson and Bishop James Curry are both auxiliaries in Westminster.

Bishop Hudson, chair of the Department for International Affairs for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and moderator of the Holy Land Coordination, said: “As the visit planned for 2024 was not possible due to the outbreak of war, this upcoming Holy Land Coordination visit feels all the more significant. It will be a time to reaffirm our bond of communion with the Church in the Holy Land, and with all who suffer.”

Every year, with the support of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Pax Christi promotes Peace Sunday on the second Sunday in Ordinary Time, focusing on the Pope’s message for 1 January. In 2025, Peace Sunday will fall on Sunday 19 January, with the message: “Forgive Us Our Debts: Grant Us Your Peace”. Parish resources are at paxchristi.org.uk.

An historic Lancashire chapel is one of 53 churches to share in a £871,696 pay-out from the National Churches Trust. Slates are falling off the roof of St Francis Hill Chapel in Preston and the crumbling ceiling is shedding asbestos and dust, forcing it to reduce services to twice per week. The £5,194 award will help pay for urgent repairs. In the early eighteenth century, the Franciscans built the small chapel on high ground near the village of Goosnargh. Designed to resemble a barn, Hill Chapel is now one of only a small number of “barn” churches. 

Bishop Peter Collins of East Anglia has given a diocesan medal to Keith Morris, his retiring director of communications. The first communications director of the diocese, Morris edited its yearbook, website and the newspaper Catholic East Anglia. The bishop described Morris, leaving his post after nine years, as “a herald with great faith”. Speaking at a Mass in St John’s Cathedral, Norwich, Collins said Morris was “a believing Christian” and non-Catholic who had “brought his personal faith to bear on his ministry”.

Bishop John Sherrington has welcomed the government’s £100 million funding pledge for hospices. Sherrington, an auxiliary in Westminster who is also lead bishop in England and Wales for life issues, said: “I welcome the proposed additional funding for the hospice sector which is facing so many financial problems at the moment. Although it is only a one-off payment, it will be welcomed by hospices nevertheless.” A further £26 million will be given by the Department of Health and Social Care to hospices for children and young people between 2025-2026. Sherrington described the hospice sector as a “beacon of light”.

On 2 January, St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham offered the first organ recital in a free series of monthly performances. Paul Carr performed “Gopak” by Mussorgsky, “Choral Song and Fugue” by S.S Wesley, extracts from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite no 1, Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor and Guilmant’s Grand Choeur in D major. Details of subsequent recitals, which begin at 1:15pm, are available here.

Diocesan synodal teams are being prepared to host local conversations in Irish dioceses in the spring ahead of a pre-synodal assembly on 18 October 2025. Participants in the spring gatherings will be invited to reflect on the themes highlighted in the Irish National Synthesis, informed by the final document of the Synod. The local gatherings aim to identify key priorities from the themes to bring to the pre-synodal assembly according to Julieann Moran, general secretary of the Irish Synodal Pathway. “These two assemblies will be further significant milestones in this ongoing process of renewal,” she said.

Preparations are underway to mark the 400th anniversary of the Irish Franciscan presence at St Isidore’s, the Irish National Church in Rome in 2025. Spanish discalced Franciscans founded the convent of St Isidore in 1622 but abandoned the project after running into financial difficulties. Irish Franciscan Fr Luke Wadding offered to take over St Isidore on condition that he could turn it into a seminary to train Irish Franciscans for service in Ireland. The new community took up residence in 1625. St Isidore’s became a centre of learning in Europe for Irish language and culture and for the study of the theology of Bl Dun Scotus. 

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