Christ Church, part of the University of Oxford, has confirmed in a letter to alumni that its dean, Martyn Percy (pictured), was suspended last year over a pay dispute and not over safeguarding concerns. The chairman of governors wrote: “The current dispute does not concern safeguarding. We are not able to discuss the detailed basis of the complaint except to say that it related to issues surrounding the Dean’s pay and how it is set”.
Last autumn, Dr Percy was accused of “conduct of an immoral, scandalous or disgraceful nature incompatible with the duties of the office or employment” and relieved of his duties. Fr Robin Gibbons, ecumenical Catholic canon at Christ Church, said that Dr Percy had done great ecumenical work. “I’m very concerned for justice to be done,” he told The Tablet. “I hope allegations of bullying and harassment [of Dr Percy] will be investigated and the tribunal will be open, not closed.”
A gospel for people with autism and a version of the Gospel of Matthew in sign language will form part of the Bishops’ Conference’s resources for a year dedicated to the “God Who Speaks”. The year-long initiative, which aims to encourage Catholics to engage with the Bible, will be launched in September and be run with support from the Bible Society. Its coordinator, Fleur Dorrell, told the Italian website Servizio Informazione Religiosa: “We wish to find new, unprecedented ways to promote the Bible.”
Persecution review welcomed
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has welcomed a government review of the persecution of Christians, telling ministers at the Foreign Office launch that part of being Christian involved offering a critique of power.
The review, due to report back at Easter, will provide an analysis of the UK government’s current support for persecuted Christians and will offer recommendations for a “cohesive and comprehensive policy response”.
The Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen, who will lead the investigation, said a number of reasons, including post-colonial guilt, had led to the UK being “blind to the issue” of Christian persecution.
Abuse survivor Marie Collins has called on the Church to remove the “vagueness and ambiguity” in canon law around child sexual abuse. In a submission to the organisers of the summit on clerical child sexual abuse, due to take place in the Vatican from 21-24 February, Ms Collins called for a clear definition of what constitutes sexual abuse of a minor and a clear definition of the term zero tolerance.
De Paul UK, a Catholic charity that works with homeless people, has welcomed a fall of 2 two per cent in rough sleeping, revealed in recent government statistics. However, Mike Thiedke (pictured), chief executive of Depaul UK, warned that rough sleeping “will not end unless issues with the benefits system are sorted out. Universal Credit should be helping people to escape homelessness but, instead, it is trapping people on the streets”.
Meanwhile the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, has called for urgent action on homelessness in his city, where one rough sleeper dies every month.
People in the Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin in Ireland were left “bereft and adrift” by the death of Fr John Cummins, 52, Bishop Denis Nulty said at the priest’s requiem Mass last Saturday. At the church of the Holy Rosary in Abbeyleix, Bishop Nulty said the loss of the popular priest. following a car accident at the parochial house, had left people feeling “broken and crushed”.
“At a time when the Church needs more good priests on the pitch, it feels as if God scored an own goal last Wednesday evening,” the bishop said.
A Catholic priest has been jailed for two years and two months for abusing four boys.
Fr Francis Simpson, 71, who pleaded not guilty at Bolton Crown Court, was a priest at St Jude’s, Wigan in the 1980s when the abuse took place.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Liverpool said: “The Archdiocese acknowledges the verdict and expresses profound sorrow for the terrible crimes committed by him.”