Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh has urged people to use the coronavirus lockdown to think about what they value and question how they have been living their lives. The leader of the Irish Church appealed to people to make sacrifices and maintain the current restrictions in order to protect and save lives, as there was still a long way to go in the fight against Covid-19 and its consequences. “Please God it won’t be too long before we can go back to singing and dancing together, to meeting and greeting, travelling and discovering, and gathering in church to celebrate and praise God,” he said in his message for Easter Sunday.
Chatsmore Catholic High School in Goring-by-Sea, Worthing, West Sussex, is to become the first school in the UK to take St Oscar Romero as its patron, and change its name to St Oscar Romero’s Catholic School. The decision was announced to the school community, of some 750 students aged between 11-16, on 24 March, the 40th anniversary of St Romero’s murder.
Six programmes about faith and belief, including The Archers and a BBC documentary about the Troubles, have been shortlisted for the Radio Times Readers’ Award category of the Sandford St Martin Trust Awards. The awards, which recognise excellence in religious broadcasting, usually culminate in a presentation ceremony at Lambeth Palace, but this year will conclude with a pre-recorded virtual celebration on 11 June. To vote, go here.
The Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1841 and the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world, is to close, along with its sister company Jewish News. “Despite the heroic efforts of the editorial and production team at the newspaper, it has become clear that the Jewish Chronicle will not be able to survive the impact of the current coronavirus epidemic in its current form,” its board announced. “The Kessler Foundation, owners of the Jewish Chronicle, are actively working to secure a future for the Jewish Chronicle after the liquidation.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has called on the Government and the Church to help protect victims of human trafficking from the impact of the coronavirus, many of whom, he said, could not self-isolate, socially distance themselves or guarantee access to medical care. “Women and girls trapped in sexual exploitation are at particular risk,” he warned, adding that the additional pressure the pandemic exerted on police forces and civil society reduced their capacity to rescue people from slavery. In a statement last week he backed the call made in a cross-party letter to the Home Secretary for adequate accommodation and support services to be made available to survivors.
Mary’s Meals, which provides school dinners for children around the world, has praised its volunteers for finding ways to continue to provide food to children during the coronavirus pandemic. Its founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, said in an Easter message: “Working with the government ministries, community leaders and our incredible local volunteers we have established safe ways to bring the food to the homes of children for it to be cooked there. There are already plans in place to reach hundreds of thousands of those children in this way – and each day new solutions are being found and that number is rapidly growing.”
The Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office has welcomed a Scottish Government decision to suspend the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill during the coronavirus crisis. However, Anthony Horan, Scotland’s Catholic parliamentary officer, said that the suspension, while welcome, was not an end to a bill that would lower the age at which people could legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Mr Horan said that the decision was “a temporary move” but that it was “highly unlikely” that the bill would be scrutinised at Holyrood before parliament rose in March 2021. Mr Horan also said he doubted that there would be time to analyse a recent consultation on the bill’s measures.
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