A number of Catholics were recognised in the New Year Honours List, the first awarded by King Charles.
James O’Donnell, the organist and master of choristers at Westminster Abbey until Christmas Day, was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, which recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch.
Mr O’Donnell, who was master of music at Westminster Cathedral until 2000, was the first Catholic in 500 years to hold his post at Westminster Abbey. He oversaw the music at September’s state funeral for the late Queen.
The Dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle, said that his “breathtakingly distinguished service” had maintained “the highest standards in our daily offering of worship and … at services profoundly in the public gaze”.
The Australian legal philosopher John Finnis received a CBE for services to legal scholarship. The Anscombe Bioethics Centre, where Prof Finnis served as a governor for many years, paid tribute to his contribution to the field – including his request to the then-Cardinal Ratzinger in 1993 for a recommendation of the centre’s work.
Several honours for services to education went to teachers and volunteers in Catholic schools across the UK.
Carol McCann, the former principal of St Dominic’s Grammar School, Belfast and Peter McGhee, the principal of St John Rigby Sixth Form College in Wigan, each received CBEs.
Rupert Evenett, the chair of governors for the Christ the King Sixth Forms group in south London, received an MBE, which he described as “a collective recognition of Christ the King Sixth Forms in its thirtieth anniversary year”.
The group’s executive principal, Shireen Razey, said that Mr Evenett’s “drive to provide equity within the local community has transformed the lives of our students”.
An MBE for services to education also went to Gaèl Hicks, the chief executive of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Academy Trust in Newham and a former headmistress of St Helen’s primary school. Mrs Hicks was credited with turning the school's fortunes around during her 20 years there.
Other recipients from Catholic schools include Susan Ball, a teaching assistant at St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School in Mill Hill, north London and Charlotte Francis, the head of mathematics at St Catherine’s Catholic Secondary School in Bexley, who both received BEMs.
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