Drop in religious marriages
The number of religious marriages in England and Wales has fallen to a record low, according to data published this month by the Office for National Statistics.
In 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, the number of religious marriages reached the lowest level on record (60,069 marriages), a decline of 4.1 per cent on the previous year and of almost half from two decades ago.
Less than a quarter (24 per cent) of all marriages celebrated in 2016 were religious ceremonies.
The number of marriages between same-sex couples increased by 8.1 per cent on 2015, to 7,019, or 2.8 per cent of all couples. The majority of those were between women.
Vanier charity criticises NHS
L’Arche, the international organisation that supports people with learning disabilities founded by Jean Vanier, has criticised systemic failures in the NHS that it said led to the death of one of its members. Giuseppe “Joe” Ulleri, 61, who had Down’s syndrome and was a member of L’Arche’s Manchester community, died of pneumonia in 2016 at the Manchester Royal Infirmary where he had been hospitalised after a fall.
A two-year inquest into his death concluded last week that Mr Ulleri’s death was partially caused by hospital failures.
Speaking outside the hospital after the inquest, Kevin Coogan, community leader of L’Arche Manchester, said L’Arche assistants, volunteers and friends who stayed with Mr Ulleri 24 hours a day during his 22-day stay were treated like a nuisance and excluded from key decisions. He said Mr Ulleri had been deprived of adequate care, food, and adequate pain relief.
“There are systemic faults in the healthcare system when it comes to treating, and respecting, people with learning disabilities,” he added. “The government set up an inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities and accepted its conclusions. Yet it is still happening.”
The Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin, which was founded by Brother Kevin Crowley, is to donate €5m towards building 25 new homes as part of its response to the homeless crisis.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio, Brother Kevin said the recent rise in the number of homeless families seeking the Capuchin centre’s assistance was “truly shocking”. “It troubles us greatly that children in our country have nowhere to call home,” he said. The Capuchin Day Centre helps around 300 people a day with food, clothing, showers and healthcare. It is not a housing organisation and works with the Peter McVerry Trust on the housing initiative.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Brother Kevin explained how “very generous donations” from the public over the last year had enabled the centre to make the €5m donation. He said the Pope’s visit last August had been “a huge boost” for the centre.
Advocates for LGBT rights have urged the Church to make a public stand against the criminalisation of homosexuality during a meeting with the Vatican’s secretary of state last week. Human rights experts, including lawyers from the International Bar Association (IBA), met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin to discuss violations of human rights law and failures to secure protections for gay people.
Baroness (Helena) Kennedy (above), director of the IBA’s Human Rights Institute, told reporters the cardinal was “responsive” to their cause.
A press release issued after the meeting said that Cardinal Parolin stressed that the Catechism points out the need to avoid all forms of violence against all people. “He indicated that these issues will be taken into account within the doctrine of the Church,” it read.
Death penalty ‘repugnant’
The Anglican Archbishop of York, John Sentamu (above), has described the introduction of the death penalty for gay sex in the sultanate of Brunei as “repugnant to natural justice”. In a message on Twitter Archbishop Sentamu said: “It is a crime against the innocent! What the State of Brunei has just passed as ‘law’ must NEVER be implemented in our Global Village! PLEASE GOD!!”
Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry has welcomed the establishment of Catholic Youth Ministry Ireland (CYMI) as a national forum for the support of those involved in youth ministry across the Irish Church.
The announcement came in a statement issued in response to Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Youth Synod, Christus Vivit, which Bishop McKeown said was a welcome sign that the Pope recognises the “urgency of a renewed emphasis on creating new young disciples of Jesus.”
The bishop, chair of the Commission for Worship, Pastoral Renewal and Faith Development, represented the bishops of Ireland at the 2018 Synod along with Archbishop Eamon Martin.
Bishop McKeown said youth ministry was essential because many young people are crying out for good news in their lives and “every new generation is like a new continent to be conquered for Christ”.
A priest from Hammersmith, in west London, has been appointed as Archbishop Co-adjutor of Mosul in Iraq. Mgr Nizar Semaan, who was responsible for Syriac Rite Catholics in the UK, has lived in west London for 14 years. He will succeed the current incumbent of the Syriac Catholic archdiocese of Mosul, where the Christian population is returning following the occupation by Islamic State.
Professor Michael Barnes SJ has been awarded the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation, one of the Lambeth Awards given by the Archbishop of Canterbury to people who have made an extraordinary contribution to the Church and wider society.
The Bishop of Motherwell in Scotland has banned family members from delivering eulogies at funeral services. Bishop Joseph Toal (above) has issued a directive to all priests in the diocese that personal tributes to loved ones, or the reading of favourite poems, should be restricted to a private reception afterwards. Bishop Toal said that the Requiem Mass “has its own structure and rhythm” and should not be interrupted to add in extras. He agreed that it was “appropriate” for the priest to integrate into his homily some detail about the deceased’s life, so that the funeral should be personal and reflect the feelings of the family, but “the instruction specifically says the homily should not be a eulogy. It is not a time for anyone else to be getting up to talk about the deceased, whoever they may be.”
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