Salford Cathedral has announced it intends to use the building's ongoing restoration project to become the "UK's most sustainable Cathedral". With "net zero" targets, biodiversity and maximising the use of recyclable materials included in the project’s “sustainability goals”, designers are considering the use of insulation across the whole roof and underfloor, the installation of secondary glazing, and the use of sustainably sourced and durable materials where possible. The targets, set by the Diocese of Salford and in line with Church statements on the transition to a “green economy”, are likely to be difficult to meet given the near-total lack of insulation in the Cathedral, originally built in 1848. Repairs to the Cathedral, initially estimated at £18 million, have so far focused on ensuring the building is watertight and reversing damage caused by previous renovations. It serves as the mother Church of the Diocese of Salford, let by Bishop John Arnold and including around 300,000 baptised.
A first-class relic of St Margaret of Scotland has been gifted to the Catholic Chaplaincy of St Andrews from the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, after an older relic fragmented earlier this year. The relic, a piece of bone from the body of St Margaret, an Anglo-Hungarian princess who became Queen of Scots in 1503, broke off when a relic of St Margaret’s Church in Dunfermline was taken out of its reliquary. The Archdiocese with care of the relics, St Andrews and Edinburgh, decided to send the smaller fragment to Canmore, the Catholic Chaplaincy to students of St Andrews, which has a chapel dedicated to Margaret. St Margaret was admired for her private piety and renowned for her work as a religious and social reformer, restoring Iona Abbey, the cradle of Scottish Catholicism.
A relic of St Chad was transferred from Birmingham to Lichfield cathedral on Tuesday when a shrine of St Chad was reinstated in the location of the original medieval shrine. St Chad, a monk and abbot, moved his see from Repton to Lichfield when he was made Bishop of Mercia in 669. He died just three years later in a plague. His relics had to be moved during the Dissolution and were eventually enshrined in an ark designed by Augustus Pugin at St Chad’s new Catholic cathedral in Birmingham when it opened in 1841, in in an ark designed by Pugin. Archbishop of Birmingham Bernard Longley said: “I am very grateful that our pilgrimage together as Anglicans and Roman Catholics has been strengthened by our common devotion to the memory of St Chad, as a share of his relic returns to Lichfield Cathedral. St Chad reminds us of the unity we already enjoy through our baptism and faith in Christ – he encourages us to pray and work for the fullness of unity together.”
The idea that churches and similar buildings might operate as “warm banks” for vulnerable people is under threat according to Gordon Brown and Rowan Williams, who warn in a new Theos report that churches and other warm community hubs like pubs face closure this winter because “they cannot afford to keep the lights on”without urgent reforms such as exemption from business rates.
The presidential council of the Order of Malta in Ireland has been stood down by a delegate appointed by the leadership in Rome to oversee the running of the organisation in Ireland. The move by PJ McCarthy follows recent controversy over the Order’s handling of sexual assault allegations in Ireland made against a volunteer, who later went on to molest two 15-year-old boys. The Order of Malta commissioned an investigation after Scott Browne was sentenced to over nine years in jail after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two 15-year-old boys in separate incidents in 2018. It has since emerged that the Order of Malta had been aware of allegations that Browne sexually assaulted a young man in 2015 and another in 2017, prior to his 2018 assault on the two teenagers.
The Spiritans in Ireland have paid out more than €5m in abuse settlements and support services since 2004. Spiritan Provincial, Fr Martin Kelly, told RTE Radio Documentary on One programme that a total of 233 people had made allegations of abuse against 77 Irish Spiritans in ministries in Ireland and overseas. He was responding to allegations of abuse made by two siblings in an RTE documentary aired this week which they said took place while they were students at Blackrock College during the 1970s and early 1980s. They are two of the 57 people who have alleged they were abused at the prestigious Dublin school, which is one of a number of schools run by the Spiritans in Ireland.
There will be no live animals in the crib outside Dublin’s Mansion House this year, following a decision by the city’s Lord Mayor. Caroline Conroy, a Green Party councillor, said that an alternative “winter wonderland” would “bring more fun, excitement and interaction” and be “more inclusive”. The crib has been a feature of Christmas festivities in Dublin since 1995, and its cancellation has been criticised by the Irish Farmers’ Association and the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which supervised the crib. Asked whether Dublin City Council should reverse the decision, the Taoiseach Michael Martin said it was “above my pay grade”.
Artefacts from Stonyhurst and Campion Hall are touring the USA in an exhibition by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Tudors: Art and Majesty”. Alongside a cope commissioned by Henry VII which was saved from destruction in the Reformation are several artefacts linked to SS Thomas More and Edmund Campion. These include relics of More and his personal crucifix, and Campion’s Agnus Dei disk. The British Jesuits are running a parallel tour of lectures and events to explain the significance and legacy of the artefacts. The exhibition runs in New York until 8 January next year, then in Cleveland and San Francisco, closing on 24 September. (In production, two images from the Katharine Bray Hours. The copyright is: By permission of the Governors of Stonyhurst College, copyright Stonyhurst College.)
Bishop Paul McAleenan, lead bishop for migrants and refugees for the bishops’ conference, has commented on reports of overcrowding at the Manston migrant centre in Kent: “Above all we need to remember that migrants and refugees in Manston, like all others who have found their way here are human beings, made in the image of God. Regardless of how or why people have made the journey here, they must be treated with respect and dignity.”
The Ukrainian Catholic eparchy in the UK was due to host a requiem concert on Armistice Day, 11 November, for the children killed in the war in Ukraine. The concert at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile, Mayfair, was to comprise a performance of Adrian Snell’s “The Cry” and a selection of Ukrainian music from the cathedral’s Vivo quartet, with the conductor Dominic Ellis-Peckham and the London Oriana Choir. UNICEF reports that almost 1,000 children have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February. Proceeds of the concert will support the cathedral’s Ukrainian Welcome Centre for refugees.
Retired Irish priest Father Seán Sheehy has been removed from his duties after he said during a homily in County Kerry that homosexual sex was sinful and transgenderism was “lunatic”. About 30 parishioners walked out after Father Sheehy, who often covers for priests when they go on holiday, described sin as “rampant”. Bishop Ray Browne of Kerry apologised for the homily, saying the views expressed were not representative of Christianity. The Gospel “proclaims the dignity of every human person. It calls on us all to ever have total respect for one another.”
Catholic priest pacifist, Fr Michael Doyle, who was one of the Camden 28, a group of Catholic anti-Vietnam War activists in the US, has died aged 88. A native of Co Longford, Fr Doyle began his ministry in the US in 1959 following ordination. In 1971, he and three other priests were part of a group of anti-Vietnam War activists who planned to raid a Camden draft board office. The FBI discovered the plot and charged the Camden 28, including Fr Doyle. However, they were later acquitted. In a tribute, Bishop Dennis Sullivan of the Diocese of Camden said, “What made him truly remarkable was his dedication to people and his advocacy to improve the lives of the poor through affordable housing, crime-free neighbourhoods, clean streets and education.”
Fr Ian Ker, the leading scholar of St John Henry Newman who was dubbed the “midwife” to his canonisation, died on 5 November aged 80. Himself an Anglican convert, Fr Ker taught English at York University and began his Newman studies before his ordination, and went on to teach in theology faculties in America and Oxford. John Henry Newman: A Biography was published in 1988 and remains the authoritative critical study of its subject. He had a particular interest in Newman’s literary qualities, arguing that he was a significant wit and satirist. Fr Ker celebrated his eightieth birthday in August this year with the publication the Festschrift Lead Kindly Light: Essays for Ian Ker.
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