Zambia honours Jesuit priest
President Edgar Lungu of Zambia has conferred the country’s Order of Distinguished Service on an 89-year-old Irish Jesuit in recognition of his commitment to ending HIV and Aids.
Fr Michael Kelly (pictured) is a world expert on addressing HIV and Aids through the education sector. He was instrumental in developing strategies for their prevention in Zambia. The priest, who has lived in Zambia since 1955, was a senior lecturer and Dean of the School of Education in the University of Zambia.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols met young Catholics from the Diocese of Westminster last week to discuss the youth synod in Rome.
Of nine proposed themes for discussion, the young people voted to discuss three: “The fundamental vocation of every human person is love”, “Only in Jesus are the deepest unrests satisfied” and, “Not a new Church but a renewed Church”.
Cardinal Nichols also spoke to the young people about synodality. He said that the respectful coming together, which was a mark of synodality, contrasted with the “hostile” discussion of today.
Firms urged to pay living wage
Catholic Bishops, including the Bishop of Salford, John Arnold, and the Bishop of Nottingham, Patrick McKinney, were among faith leaders who co-signed a letter to The Sunday Times calling on British businesses to pay employees a Living Wage that is higher than the national minimum wage.
The Living Wage, which rose to £9 this week to match the rate of inflation, is believed to more closely reflect the cost of living in Britain.
“The harm caused by poverty in our country should be a source of national shame,” warned the letter. It was also signed by the Bishops of Clifton, Northampton, Middlesbrough, Hexham and Newcastle, Arundel and Brighton, Wrexham, Brentwood, Southwark, Westminster and Leeds, as well as by leaders of other faiths and denominations.
A Government inquiry into prison healthcare praised the positive contribution that chaplains make to prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing. The report, by the Health and Social Care Committee, warned that overcrowding and staff shortages are among the factors affecting the mental health of prisoners in England and Wales.
The Bishop for Prisons, Richard Moth, welcomed the inquiry’s findings. He added: “While chaplaincy does not provide an alternative to professional mental health services, it does provide support to prisoners facing mental health concerns and can therefore reduce the risk of self-harm and suicide within prison. As such, chaplains often play a significant part in the mental health provision in prison.”
Magdalene scheme under fire
Ireland’s ombudsman has criticised the compensation scheme for those who worked in Magdalene laundries over an “unacceptable delay” in paying those wrongly excluded from it.
Up to 106 women were incorrectly refused compensation by those administering the scheme because they had not lived in an actual laundry, although they had worked in them. Many of the women had lived in adjoining institutions.
Ombudsman Peter Tyndall has said he believes there is no good reason why the women could not be paid immediately. He said that it was frustrating that many of the women, who had provided significant information about their time in the laundries, were still waiting for compensation.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols celebrated 450 years of Catholic history at a Mass at Ushaw College in County Durham last weekend. The College was founded in 1808, following the French Revolution, when teachers from the English College in Douai fled to England to avoid persecution. It closed as a seminary seven years ago.
It has since reopened as a conference centre and cultural attraction, and houses an extensive range of Pugin architecture.
A former priest of the Diocese of Cloyne who was defrocked by a canonical tribunal, which found him guilty of child abuse, has self-published a book claiming he was the victim of “false and unsubstantiated claims” and that the church tribunal violated his human rights.
In 2014, a Cloyne canonical court found Daniel Duane, who was referred to as “Fr Ronat” in the Cloyne Report, guilty of abusing young women. A criminal court had acquitted him twice, in May 2011 and in November 2011.
The former cleric, who spent 42 years in the ministry, was unsuccessful in his two appeals against the decision of the canonical court to dismiss him from the priesthood. His personal appeal to Pope Francis was also rejected.
Online Bible guide launches
A new online publication that aims to use art and digital imagery to guide readers through a visual commentary on the Old Testament, the New Testament and Apocrypha was launched at Tate Modern in London this week.
The resource, which is the outcome of a research project at King’s College London, will draw together biblical imagery from different denominations, traditions and cultures, and analyse it alongside the passages of Scripture they describe. The art works and commentary will be available to view at www.thevcs.org.
Dom Benedict Heron OSB, one of the founders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the UK, has died aged 97. A pacifist, he joined the Benedictine Olivetans after serving in the Friends Ambulance Unit during the Second World War. He was a leading light in Catholic Charismatic Renewal and served as a diocesan exorcist. He regularly attended Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican evangelical church in London.
Relic returns to cathedral
A relic of St Thomas Becket is to be returned to Canterbury Cathedral to mark the 850th anniversary of his martyrdom there, pending the approval of the Vatican. The bloodstained tunic will form part of a display of artefacts for a 2020 commemoration of Becket. The former Archbishop of Canterbury was killed before the high altar in the cathedral on December 29 in 1170 following a dispute with King Henry II.
Ampleforth College has appointed a new Safeguarding Lead. Adrian Smerdon, who has worked at Ampleforth for more than a decade, will be responsible for implementing a new safeguarding charter for the school.
Loading ...
