From Ash Wednesday onwards, Jesuits in Britain will run an online Lent course, presenting a daily episode from the life of St Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish courtier-turned-priest who devised Ignatian spirituality. The retreat will show how God transformed the life of St Ignatius and through him, the lives of countless others. People take part individually but can also join weekly groups to share the fruits of their prayer and be helped in finding new ways to pray and be inspired. More details at onlineprayer.net
The Scottish-based children’s charity Mary’s Meals has announced that it is now operating in Yemen, where civil war has devastated the country and put thousands of children at risk of malnutrition and starvation. It is estimated that almost three quarters of the country’s population of more than 20 million people will require humanitarian assistance in the near future. Mary’s Meals founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, said: “Given that Yemen can be described as the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world, and so many children are suffering, we are delighted to begin serving our daily school meals there – meeting the immediate need of the hungry child and, crucially, at the same time, enabling their education.”
A leading Catholic charity has called for the UK government to change course on asylum and immigration, as drowning deaths in the English channel continue. A young man, believed to be a Sudanese national, was found unconscious by French authorities near Calais on 14 January. He died later that same day. Sophie Cartwright, a senior policy officer at Jesuit Refugee Service UK, “lamented” the death - which appears to be the first channel crossing fatality of 2022 - and appealed to the UK government to change their approach. “Policies and laws that focus on stopping boats and penalizing refugees and those who reach out a hand to help them will not prevent desperate people trying to move,” she said, “but increase the danger of their journeys.”
Sanctioned Redemptorist priest, Fr Tony Flannery, who was forbidden to minister publicly ten years ago, has called for an independent review of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s handling of his case. Writing in his blog, the priest, who turns 75 this year, highlighted how all the issues he had written about in relation to priesthood, women and Catholic sexual teaching and which the CDF objected to, “are now being discussed widely and freely right around the Church, with no fear of sanctions”. “They are figuring prominently in the German Synodal Path at present, with the most senior Church people in the country participating.” Fr Flannery said he would like the review to be carried out by somebody independent, who has a knowledge of civil and canon law. Of his dealings with the CDF, he said he continued to carry a grievance that he wasn’t given the most basic of human rights and that contrary to claims by the present Prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the CDF had “never made any direct contact” with him. “Nothing I have experienced in the past ten years would suggest that the members of the CDF have any real respect or care for the individual. For them it would seem that Canon Law is the only God,” he criticised.
Three Christians, including an Anglican Priest and a Catholic Priest, who stopped a DLR train at Shadwell station in London in 2019 in protest at inaction on the climate emergency, were lawfully exercising their right to peaceful protest, a jury has found. Rev Sue Parfitt, 79, Fr Martin Newell, 54, and Phil Kingston, 85, all members of Christian Climate Action, were found not guilty of obstructing trains or carriages on the railway under the malicious damages act. Sue and Martin stood on top of the train and Phil glued himself to the outside of it then prayed with other members of Christian Climate Action. They told the jury at Inner Court London that they took the action i in desperation after trying everything else they could think of to draw attention to the climate emergency. Speaking outside court after the verdict, Fr Martin Newell said that while he was delighted with the verdict he was still willing to take action that risks a prison sentence. He said: “I’m very grateful to the jury for acting on their conscience and hearing the issues that we wanted to raise in the original action two-and-a-half years ago. The climate emergency is the biggest issue facing the human race in our time and nothing is more important than dealing with that. Despite the words that many governments have said about it being urgent, they're just not doing it.”
Bishop Paul Dempsey of Achonry has said grandparents play a “critical role” in handing on the faith and he appealed to them to engage with the synodal process. “We need to hear your very valuable experience,” the bishop, who is a member of the steering committee working on the National Synodal Assembly in Ireland, told members of the Catholic Grandparents Association from Ireland, Britain, Australia and the US in a webinar. “I am so conscious of the very rich experience that so many grandparents have of life and of faith, and how important that is,” he underlined. Pope Francis, he said, was challenging the Church to reach out to as many people as possible to hear what they have to say. The 50-year-old bishop said he would sum up the question to grandparents as: ‘What would you like to say to the Church today?’ “Pope Francis is saying to everybody in the Church, including grandparents, ‘I want to hear from you’.” He acknowledged that there is some fear around synodality as some see it as heading into new territory and they wonder is it a good thing. “It is very important to remember that the whole process of synodality is far from new in the life of the Church. If we go right back to the beginnings of the Church, we see this in the Acts of the Apostles. The first synod is outlined in Acts 15,” he said.
St Mary’s University Twickenham will hold a special study day devoted to Catholic Social Teaching on 26 January. Organised to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales’ document “The Common Good and the Catholic Church’s Social Teaching”, the featured speakers include Richard Moth, the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Jon Cruddas MP, Pat Jones, and Clifford Longley. The original document, published in 1997 with a foreword by Cardinal Basil Hume, was the first teaching document devoted to Catholic Social Teaching issued by the Bishops of England and Wales.
JRS is calling on the UK to change its asylum policy after the drowning death of another person trying to cross the English Channel. A man – believed to be a Sudanese national in his 20s – was found unconscious by French authorities near Calais on Thursday after falling overboard from a boat bringing migrants to the UK. He later died. Another 32 people were rescued from the freezing water, with several of them suffering from hypothermia.
A cross-bench peer and professor of palliative medicine, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, has warned that legalising assisted dying risks “normalising suicide”. Writing on the ongoing Assisted Dying Bill, the Baroness argued that the legalisation would be used as “a cheap solution” for suffering - and divert resources away from palliative care at a time when health services are already under serious pressure. Her statement came as the Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales, Max Hill QC, announced that “mercy killings” may not be prosecuted under developing legal guidance. In the proposed guidelines prosecution, at present near-mandatory, would be less likely “if the victim had reached a voluntary, settled and informed decision to end their life”.
The priest in a parish in the Nottingham diocese where people were asked not to attend Mass over Christmas if they were not vaccinated has defended the move. It was carrying out a risk assessment that led the parish to take a “clear and robust approach” in the lead up to Christmas, said Fr Joe Wheat of the Holy Family parish in east Nottingham. He said the request for people who were not vaccinated and were not prepared to wear a mask not to attend church was made because of several factors. Nottingham has a high rate of non-vaccination and the parish’s own primary schools had experienced a significant rise in positive cases so had to segregate classes in the run-up to Christmas and cancelled all but one nativity and carol service. Hospitals were beginning to show signs of being overwhelmed and several local care homes had gone back to refusing to allow visitors. The parish was also experiencing some non-compliance with masks wearing. “We were very concerned about the numbers of people that might attend Christmas Masses in our, relatively, small churches. One of our churches has also experienced a high level of deaths from Covid which has left us reeling somewhat,” he said.
Composer, musician and author Philip Berthoud spoke about John Bradburne in a Zoom talk hosted by the John Bradburne Memorial Society. Berthoud is John Bradburne's godson and has been inspired by John in his life and career as a musician. He spoke about his family connection to John and how he was the inspiration of Philip's latest CD: The Thought Expressed. To watch the talk email info@johnbradburne.com.
There is one month to go for pupils in schools to enter an article or an image for this year’s Schools Competition of the Columban Missionary Society. The theme is: “Anyone can make a difference: 21st Century Changemakers” and the entry deadline is 11 February. People 13-18 years are asked to consider people doing something about inequality, injustice, exclusion and environmental degradation. The theme is based on a quote from young climate campaigner Greta Thunberg who has said: “No-one is too small to make a difference.” Cash prizes are offered and winning entries will be published in Columban media and in other Catholic media. More information and entry details here.
Loading ...
