Catholics are asked to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament on 23 March to mark the UK national day of remembrance for victims of Covid-19. The anniversary of the first national lockdown has been designated a day of reflection. “Prayer completes reflection. Reflection informs prayer,” said Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Malcolm McMahon.
The Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, has called on the Vatican to intervene “before it is too late” in the “German Synodal Way”. On Twitter, the bishop said: “It’s right to work through hot-button issues but at the same time Rome should reassert the doctrinal parameters, insisting that German Catholics look outwards to service and mission.”
The Cancel the Debt campaign, which includes Cafod, is calling for banks and speculators to cancel debts owed by some of the world’s poorest countries as they grapple with the health and economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis. The campaign suggests that four private creditors – HSBC, UBS, JP Morgan Chase and Blackrock – should stop demanding loan repayments from any poorer countries that need debt relief. Countries across Africa are collectively spending three times more on debt repayments to banks and speculators than it would cost to vaccinate the entire continent against Covid-19.
Winners have been chosen from among 300 entries to the Columban Missionary Society’s media competition for young people on the subject, “Let’s create a world without racism”. Kashaf Zahid, of Gumley House School, in London, wrote the winning article and Esther Ojobara, of St Paul’s Academy, in London, won first prize in the images section. In Ireland, Ella Fleming, of St Dominic’s Grammar School, Belfast, wrote the winning article. Emily Grimes, of St Oliver’s Community College, Drogheda, won first prize in the images section.
| Read Ellen Teague on the Columban Schools Competition, “Let's create a world without racism”. |
The Bishop of Lancaster has welcomed an inquiry into plans for the UK’s first deep coal mine in 30 years at Whitehaven, Cumbria. Bishop Paul Swarbrick said: “It is necessary to establish what weight is given to science in this public inquiry, particularly as balanced against considerable social and economic factors.”
The theologian Donal Dorr has called for an exploration of more participative eucharistic celebrations on Zoom. In a blog post on the website of the Association of Catholic Priests, the 85-year-old called on sacramental theologians, in dialogue with Scripture scholars and with Christians “on the ground”, to explore more creative responses to the pandemic than tuning into a Mass celebrated by a priest on his own in an empty church and making an act of spiritual communion. This might, for example, involve having bread and wine to consume at the same time as the priest consumes the host and drinks from the chalice. He said that any creativity must not involve infringing current Catholic liturgical rules.
Professor Oran Doyle of Trinity College Dublin has said he believes Covid restrictions in relation to the ban on organising or attending religious celebrations are being incorrectly interpreted. The law professor challenged a statement by the Archdiocese of Dublin last week in the wake of the controversy over a Dublin parish priest giving out Communion to parishioners after online Mass, which ruled out drive-in Masses because “no gatherings of people outdoors or indoors are permitted”. “If this is intended to be a statement of the legal position – and it is difficult to read it any other way – it is categorically incorrect,” Professor Doyle wrote.
The annual National Ecumenical Service to mark the 41st anniversary of St Oscar Romero’s martyrdom was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in central London last Saturday. In her address, Sr Gemma Simmonds CJ (pictured) said: “You and I may not be called upon to die as martyrs, but we are most certainly called upon to live as martyrs, that is, as witnesses to the call of Christ in the poor and the marginalised.”
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