Lord Patten, the former Conservative MP who served as governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to the handover to China in 1997, has been appointed to be a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. The Order, in the gift of the King, includes the King, Sovereign of the Garter, some members of the royal family and 24 knights.
Buckingham Palace said: “His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to appoint the Right Honourable the Baroness Ashton of Upholland GCMG to be a Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and the Right Honourable the Lord Patten of Barnes CH to be a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.”
The Diocese of Northampton has announced it is divesting from fossil fuels, meaning that half the Catholic dioceses of England and Wales have now divested.
More than 31 other faith institutions from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy and France also announced divestment including three religious orders, eight Catholic charities, a Catholic parish in Canada, seven Church of England dioceses, and many others.
Archbishop Giovanni Ricchiuti, President of Pax Christi, Italy, one of the divesting Catholic charities, said: “The Pax Christi Movement joins the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign because it embraces the urgent message for social and environmental justice contained in Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’.”
Our Lady of Fatima Church in London’s White City received Cafod’s LiveSimply Award at Mass on Sunday 16 April.
A plaque, produced by Cafod partners in Cambodia, was presented by Tony Sheen of Cafod Westminster. He praised the parish “for hearing the Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor” and thanked parish priest Fr Richard Nesbitt and Hilda McCafferty, the Justice and Peace contact, for their “inspirational” leadership.
Activities earning the LiveSimply award included diverse imagery introduced into the church following discussions about racial justice, becoming a fairtrade parish, the annual creation fair; promoting cycling and recycling; renewing the parish garden and composting, ethical fashion shows; a weekly food project with the local community and celebrating creation time.
The Scottish Laity Network begins its “Towards Pentecost 2023” programme on 4 May, highlighting Church dealings with victims of abuse and exploring discipleship through coming together in small groups.
The first session is a conversation with members of the Scottish Catholic safeguarding agency asking, “Are we truly listening and responding to those who have been abused physically, mentally, sexually and spiritually, by those in positions of trust in the Catholic Church in Scotland?”
School feeding charity Mary’s Meals is asking people during the month of May to join in prayer for its mission to feed more hungry children. Meanwhile new figures reveal a record number of food parcels were provided to people facing hardship by Trussell Trust food banks in past 12 months.
The leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín, has criticised changes recommended in a review of Ireland’s abortion laws which would see the removal of the three-day reflection period for women seeking abortion.
Barrister Marie O’Shea’s report looked at the current abortion regime which was introduced in 2019 following the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment in 2018. The review recommends 10 legislative changes and 60 operational changes. Mr Tóibín said that the number of abortions jumped 25 per cent to 8,500 in 2022, nearly triple the rate in 2017.
Both the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Tánaiste Micheál Martin have expressed caution about implementing some of the legislative changes recommended in the report.
The leader of the Irish Church has said more must be done on reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Church leaders must bring people together.
In an interview with The Irish Times, the Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin spoke about growing up in Derry during the Troubles and the challenges for the Catholic Church around Republican funerals. Priests, he said, were caught in the middle.
In Spring 1987, all republican funerals were banned from St Eugene’s Cathedral in the city by the Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly. However, talks between the bishop and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness resulted in a compromise. Archbishop Martin also recalled that Martin McGuinness was a regular at a Mass in Irish at Derry's Nazareth House, which he said as a diocesan priest.
Fr Michael Ward, the literary critic and theologian, will deliver the next public lecture at St Mary’s, Hampstead, on 14 May – “Lewis and Tolkien on the Beauty of the Gospel”.
Fr Ward, an Ordinariate priest, has published extensively on C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien, including the award-winning Planet Narnia on the theological symbolism in The Chronicles of Narnia. In 2013 he unveiled the plaque commemorating Lewis in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, on the fiftieth anniversary of the author’s death.
The Primate of Poland, the Archbishop of Gniezno, Wojciech Polak, presided at a Mass to mark the 81st anniversary of the Polish parish of St Wojciech in Kensington and Chelsea on 16 April, the Feast of Divine Mercy.
The parish originated in the academic chaplaincy to Polish students and soldiers in London during and after the Second World War. The Mass at the Anglican Church of St Cuthbert, Earl’s Court, also marked the first anniversary of ecumenical relations with the parish, which began hosting the Polish Mass in April last year.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the Bishop of Kerry was among those who intervened to oppose plans by the Irish government to move Ukrainian refugees hundreds of miles across the country last year.
Radio Kerry reported that Bishop Ray Browne wrote to the Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, to say that he was shocked and saddened by the decision to move 135 refugees from a hotel in Killarney to Westport, Co. Mayo, at 48 hours’ notice.
Refugee charities said that the move would cause distress to the families, many of whose children were attending local schools in Kerry. The government reversed the decision after facing widespread criticism in the two-day period.
After 120 years apart, the two bodies representing Reform and Liberal Judaism in the UK have merged into one body, Progressive Judaism, “to create one single unified progressive Jewish movement for the UK”. The new organisation represents nearly a third of British Jews affiliated to synagogues.
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