Faith leaders in Leicester called for restraint after Hindu and Muslim men were involved in tense confrontations, particularly around a Hindu temple in Smethwick. In a joint statement issued by the Faithful Friends interfaith team in Smethwick and Sandwell, representatives of Christian, Sikh and Muslim organisations said they were saddened by the reaction of protestors who were angered by an invitation made to a controversial preacher by a local Hindu temple. Fireworks and missiles were thrown during a gathering of up to 200 men at the gates of the Durga Bhawan temple and community centre in Smethwick. Signatories to the statement included Rev’d David Gould and Rev’d Nick Ross from Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Smethwick. Hindu and Muslim community leaders in Leicester said in a joint statement: “Physical attacks on innocent individuals and unwarranted damage to property are not part of a decent society and, indeed, not part of our faiths.” The Muslim Council of Britain said: “Hatred of any kind has no place in our society”. The Birmingham faith leaders’s group issued a statement in support of counterparts in Leicester, saying they condemned violence in the name of faith.
The London Jesuit Centre was to begin a course on Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ and the politics of climate justice on Wednesday. The five sessions of “Laudato Si’: Politics, Theology and Beyond” at Farm Street will read the text not as “a document of do-goodery” but as a radical intervention rooted in Catholic Social Thought, and assess its interactions with various political and theological traditions. Participants will be invited to explore the practical implications of the text and to contribute to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
The Wythenshawe and Sale East MP Mike Kane hosted a Catholics for Labour social gathering on the evening of 25 September, during the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. Earlier that day, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, preached at a service held by Christians on the Left in the Church of St James in the City. He called for a vision of politics “that unites all of us and a vision which recognises our common humanity”. The message of the Magnificat “isn’t levelling up, but over-throwing” he said. “It is redistribution. It is mercy and justice.” The service was sponsored by the Langley House Trust, a Christian charity which supports prisoners and ex-offenders.
Thousands of people took part in a minute’s silence at 11:41am on Friday last week to commemorate the ten million lives lost to abortion in England, Wales and Scotland since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967. Right To Life UK also released a video, The Ten Million, which began with the question: “Had these ten million babies been born, who would they be today?”
The Religious Links group for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation in England and Wales is drafting a letter to King Charles III to ask him to ensure that his Coronation will be as environmentally-friendly as possible. The initiative followed a day on 24 September with the theme, Building Hope for People and Planet, which looked at the role of Christians in building a sustainable and just future. An ecumenical event, it was led by Ellen Teague of the Columban missionaries. Representatives from 16 religious and associates of Anglican and Catholic communities had gathered in person at the FCJ Spirituality Centre in London and online. Key issues were the climate crisis and diminishing biodiversity. On the eve of the World Day of Prayer for Migrants last Sunday, it was noted that environmental factors frequently cause movement of peoples and that environmental refugees could become the largest group of involuntary refugees. Religious shared on their involvement in many hope-building ventures throughout the UK. Earlier. Bishop Paul McAleenan, lead bishop for migrants and refugees, said that this year’s day of prayer for migrants and refugees was an opportunity for Catholics throughout the world to remember and pray for those who are displaced through war, poverty and persecution. It was also a day to raise awareness of the fact that migration offers opportunities for many people, he added.
Their Catholic identity is important to nearly nine in ten Catholic women even when they struggle with Catholic institutions and structures, according to the International Survey of Catholic Women, commissioned by the Catholic Women Speak network to prepare a submission to the Synod of Bishops as part of the Synod 2021-2023 consultative process. The report, by Professor Tina Beattie, University of Roehampton, London, Dr Tracy McEwan, University of Newcastle, Australia and Dr Kathleen McPhillips, University of Newcastle, Australia, found that many Catholic women continued to practise their faith and to engage with their parishes and Catholic communities, despite their difficulties with the institutional Church. The survey found that most would welcome reform in the Catholic Church, especially but not exclusively regarding the role and representation of women. Other issues included church teachings on sexuality, including respect for freedom of conscience and the place of LGBTIQ persons within the Church; women’s leadership roles in church institutions and worship, including for some the ordination of women to the priesthood and diaconate and remarriage after civil divorce. A minority of respondents rejected reform and instead expressed a preference for the Church to revert to a pre-conciliar model of authority, priesthood, and liturgy.
The most senior Catholic aristocrat in Britain, who organised the Queen’s funeral and will organise King Charles’ coronation, has announced he is to remarry, months after divorcing his wife of 34 years earlier in 2022. Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, a practising Catholic and a descendant of Saint Philip Howard, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, married Georgina Fitzalan-Howard in 1987. They divorced earlier this year. According to the Mail on Sunday he proposed to Franscesca Herbert on holiday in Italy last month. It also emerged this week that he has been banned from driving for six months after being caught using his mobile phone while driving in Battersea, London in April.
Women religious in Ireland say they have been subjected to “constant battering” by the media which has used them as “scapegoats” for the Irish Church and society. In their submission to the synodal process, women religious lamented how religious life in Ireland is given a lot of bad press, with a particular focus on the past. They also regretted the “invisibility today of women religious” and said there was a sense of “being silenced”. “We are partly to blame for our own invisibility as we appear to have gone underground,” they acknowledged and said that silence is seen as condoning the accusations and giving an impression that “we’re all guilty”. On hearing of women religious’ experiences, the bishops expressed “a deep-felt sense of sadness that women religious have become hidden, criticised, belittled”.
Irish priest, Msgr Joseph Murphy, who is Chief of Protocol at the Vatican's Secretariat of State has been awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest distinction. The priest was presented with the honour by the French Ambassador to the Holy See, Mme Florence Mangin, last week in recognition of his role with the diplomatic corps. A priest of Cloyne diocese, Msgr Murphy was ordained in 1993 following studies at St Colman's in Fermoy, St Patrick’s College Maynooth, the Irish and French Colleges. After ordination he studied for a doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. In 1997 he entered the service of the Holy See, becoming an official of the Secretariat of State. In 2002 he was appointed private secretary to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then Vatican secretary of state. In 2018, he was appointed Head of the Protocol Office of the Secretariat of State.
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