Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, currently Eparch of New Westminster, Canada, has been named as the new bishop of the Eparchy of the Holy Family of London for Ukrainian Greek-Catholics. In a pastoral letter Kyr Kenneth, who was born in Canada and is the great-grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, looked forward to his new appointment and to visiting all the parishes in the eparchy, one of two Eastern Rite Catholic dioceses in Great Britain.
Anthony McClaran, the former chief executive of UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, has been named as the new Vice-Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, south London. Mr McClaran, who was also Chief Executive of the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and most recently the Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, will succeed Professor Francis Campbell in April 2020.
A meeting of Sinn Féin members at a church-owned property in Co Tyrone that was due to be addressed by the party’s vice president was cancelled last week by the local parish priest over the party’s stance on abortion. The public meeting was organised by SF in Co Tyrone so that Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, could provide an update to members on recent political developments and the restoration of Stormont. “In light of their recent behaviour regarding the abortion debate and due to their long-running policy on pro-life matters I would not entertain the use of church property for any such meeting,” Fr Eugene O’Neill told pro-life campaigners in an email. A spokesperson for pro-life group Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth, praised Fr O'Neill for having “stood up for the faithful and strongly reaffirmed church teaching”. A former Sinn Féin MLA for East Derry, Francie Brolly, who is now a member of anti-abortion republican party Aontu, commended the priest’s action and said, “all the churches should be more vocal in supporting the right of the unborn to live”.
A Scottish council has overwhelmingly quashed a bid to remove voting rights from Catholic representatives to its education committee. Bishop Stephen Robson welcomed the 26:2 defeat of an Independent motion to deny voting rights to Church, trade union and teacher representatives on the committee. Councillor Gregor Murray denied that the motion was “an attack on religion”, but accused the Church of propagating negative propaganda about minority groups. Responding to the council decision, Bishop Robson said: “Dundee City Council has had a very good and fruitful working relationship with the Diocese over many years. The proposal to remove voting rights for faith community representatives was advanced by only one councillor. It was almost unanimously voted down”. Similar bids have been made on the part of other Scottish councils.
Popular BBC broadcaster Fr Brian D’Arcy received an OBE at Buckingham Palace from the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, last week for his work in cross-community relations in Northern Ireland. Speaking to RTE Radio’s Ray D’Arcy Show, the Passionist priest who has just marked 50 years of priesthood, explained that royal officials wished to award an OBE to a figure in Northern Ireland due to recent political difficulties. The 74-year-old priest said he had been offered the honour before but had reservations about accepting because he “didn’t feel that I should be getting an award for something that I should be doing as a priest anyway”. This time, he felt: “It’s a reward for trying to bring communities together for healing and that’s a good thing.” When accepting the OBE, Fr D’Arcy told Prince William he was praying for the Royal family. “I said in my particular job I’m fairly used to families having difficulties and everything can be worked out,” he told RTE Radio.
Christopher Tolkien, the last surviving son of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien, has died aged 95. A prodigious scholar in his own right, a fellow of New College, Oxford and lecturer on Old and Middle English and Old Norse, he edited and published a huge number of his father’s works, including The Silmarillion. The Lord of the Rings was partly written to entertain Christopher over the three years he was away from school – the Oratory in Berkshire – with an irregular heartbeat.
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