Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has appointed Monsignor Ciaran O’Carroll, Rector of the Irish College in Rome, as the Archdiocese of Dublin’s new Episcopal Vicar for Priests. Mgr O’Carroll succeeds Bishop Eamon Walsh who retired from the role in 2019. The appointment takes effect immediately and Mgr O’Carroll will return from Rome to Dublin to take up office after Easter. The move is being interpreted by some priests in Dublin as paving the way for Mgr O’Carroll to succeed Archbishop Martin, who is due to offer his resignation to Pope Francis on 8 April 2020 when he turns 75. The two have worked closely together on a number of high profile projects.
Rev Paul Nicholson, social justice advocate and founder of the group Taxpayers Against Poverty, has died aged 87. A retired Anglican vicar, Mr Nicholson last month sat for hours outside Church House in Westminster to show solidarity with people who are street homeless and to call on the governing body of the Church of England to do more to help them. Labour MP John McDonnell described him as a “wonderfully caring, compassionate and courageous campaigner for social justice”. A fundraising page has been established to support the two anti-poverty charities he established.
The Bishop of Dunkeld, Stephen Robson, has been cleared of charges of plagiarism that related to his prize-winning dissertation on St Bernard of Clairvaux, written for the Gregorian University’s Institute of Spirituality. Concerns were raised by an Austrian priest and historian Fr Alkuin Schachenmayr, who complained in the journal Analecta Cisterciana that Bishop Robson had copied passages from other scholars without attribution. Bishop Robson categorically denied the accusation and was last week cleared of the charge by a specially convened panel at the Gregorian University.
The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace in the UK have become the latest Religious order to announce their divestment from fossil fuels. The Sisters, who believe that care of creation is an essential element of peacemaking, committed in 2008 to reduce their carbon footprint and pray, study and act to promote a sustainable lifestyle. The announcement came as the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales revealed that the theme of its 42nd conference, to take place 17-19 July in Derbyshire, would be “Action for Life on Earth.”
Churches across England and Wales are due to mark the fortieth anniversary of the martyrdom of St Oscar Romero of El Salvador this month, with the Archbishop of Southwark, John Wilson, due to celebrate an anniversary Mass at St George’s Cathedral on 21 March. Two days later there will be an ecumenical Evening Prayer in Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral led by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon. On the anniversary, 24 March, Bishop Nicholas Hudson will celebrate an evening Mass in Romero’s honour at St Ignatius’ Church, Stamford Hill, in north London. Other events are listed on the Archbishop Romero Trust website, www.romerotrust.org.uk
The former president of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese, has said in a letter to Pope Francis that L’Arche’s recent investigation into its founder Jean Vanier, which revealed that he had sexually abused a number of women, implicates the Vatican “in a way that demands explanation.” The Vatican sanctioned Vanier’s mentor, Fr Thomas Philippe, in the 1950s for abuse. McAleese wrote: “Now that both Philippe and Vanier have been unmasked the spotlight moves to the Holy See. What did it know and when and what did it do to prevent Vanier and Philippe living their grand lie? What did it do or not do which allowed Vanier to grow into the uncontested legend of folk saint and icon, a reputation which must have made it so very difficult for victims to come forward?”
A skeleton hidden for centuries inside the wall of a church in Folkestone, Kent, is likely to be that of one of the first English Saints. After carbon-dating teeth and bone samples, researchers judged it “highly probable” that the remains belonged to St Eanswythe, a seventh century Kentish royal who became a nun in her late teens.
Catholics’ views on abortion, LGBT relationships and euthanasia have liberalised over the past 40 years, according to a new report. Researchers at Roman Catholics in Britain: Faith, Society and Politics, a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and based at the University of Leicester and St Mary’s University, compared five data sets from surveys of social attitudes over the last 40 years. The results showed the greatest shift occurring over LGBT issues: in 1991, 65 per cent of Catholics thought that “same sex relations” were always or mostly wrong, which had declined to 22 per cent in 2018