The Scottish Government is to consider setting up a parade commission, similar to the one that regulates marches in Northern Ireland. The move follows a recent outbreak in civil disturbance during sectarian parades held recently in Glasgow, when 14 arrests were made over allegations of inflammatory behaviour and controversy over the routing of marches past Catholic churches.
Millions more girls are at risk of becoming child brides as a result of the pandemic, it is feared.While the government’s Forced Marriage Unit saw a reduction of 44 per cent in forced marriages in the UK last year compared to 2019, the charity Karma Nirvana has revealed that they saw a 150 per cent increase in calls last year from teenage girls concerned that they would be pushed into marriages.
New research commissioned by the Christian charity Pilgrims’ Friend Society has found that ageism is on the rise across the UK, when compared with five years ago. The charity, which runs residential care homes and living schemes, found that while five years ago only one in five UK adults feared ageing, this has increased to two in five.
The Princess Royal has visited the Canvey island branch of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. Princess Anne presented the group with the Canvey Island Town Council’s Community Group of the Year award. The local branch of the Catholic anti-poverty charity worked throughout the pandemic to make sure that local communities didn’t go without food. Among those who helped also were Wyvern Community Transport, St Joseph’s Roman Catholic School, the Salvation Army and St Nicholas CofE Church.
Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin has called on the Irish government to honour its commitment to take in refugees and to end “the desperate system” of direct provision centres. In a message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Bishop Nulty, chair of the Bishops’ Commission for Pastoral Care, said that the 2024 deadline for the ending of this “cold and unacceptable system” was too far away”.
Sr Frances Orchard CJ, a member of the Congregation of Jesus, is taking on the new role of religious safeguarding lead, a post created in response to IICSA’s recommendation for there to be a lead bishop and a lead religious for safeguarding in the Catholic Church. It follows a nine-month period in which Fr David Smolira SJ has operated as implementation lead for religious in response to the review of safeguarding in the Church by Dr Ian Elliott, which called for new structures for safeguarding.
The Women’s Interfaith Council in Kaduna, Nigeria, which was founded by Irish nun Sr Kathleen McGarvey, provincial of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles and president of the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland, has been awarded the Aachen Peace Prize 2021. The award will be presented on 13 November in Aachen. The WIC’s vision is a society where Muslims and Christians live together in peace, where the rights of women are respected, and where women are protagonists of peaceful coexistence. Speaking to The Tablet, Sr Kathleen McGarvey said that apart from being a great honour, she felt the award would “strengthen the voice of the WIC and women of faith in general, which was much needed today in many parts of the world”. She said: “It might also draw international attention to Nigeria at this challenging time and promote interreligious dialogue.”
The Daughters of Wisdom held a special liturgy at Cregg House in Sligo on Sunday to mark the closure of the facility after 66 years. The residential centre in Sligo for people with an intellectual disability was set up by the order in 1955 at the invitation of the Department of Health in Ireland.
Crumbling churches will need £1 billion for repairs over the next five years, according to the Church of England. Many of its 16,000 buildings – some of them hundreds of years old – need work done but the Church has a huge deficit in its maintenance funds. Tory MP Andrew Selous, Second Church Estates Commissioner, said the churches will need a funding boost. He said: “At best, parishes currently raise and spend approximately half of that annually, so there remains a significant and growing maintenance deficit on these beautiful and treasured buildings.” He was responding to a written parliamentary question from Alex Stafford, Tory MP for Rother Valley.
The National Office for Vocation England and Wales, Vocation Network Scotland and Vocations Ireland have announced they will attend COP26 to promote the call to call on young people “to sow the seeds of the future and consider how we can care for God’s beautiful creation for the good of every living creature and person around the world”. Events at COP26 will include a sacred space at Pauline Books and media, talks on Laudato Si’ and a youth-led liturgy. Resources available at sowingseedsofthefuture.org.
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