The lead bishop for life issues in England and Wales, John Sherrington, has responded to the recent sentencing of a mother-of-three to 28 months imprisonment after she induced an abortion at between 32 and 34 weeks gestation. Sherrington, an Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Westminister, said, “Abortion is always a tragedy, both for the mother and for the child who is killed”. Referring to the recent court case, he termed the situation “deeply distressing for all concerned” but said that “it is the responsibility of the judiciary to decide how the law should be applied”. After receiving pills to induce an abortion at home following a remote appointment where she did not reveal how far along her pregnancy was, the woman, aged 44, called emergency services after she went into labour in May 2020. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate her child, named “Lily” in court records, but the coronor’s report concluded she was already dead at the point she was delivered.
Aid to the Church in Need has announced that the charity’s support for the Church in Ukraine amounted to almost 10 per cent of its entire budget in the 2022 financial year, amounting to around £8 million in direct emergency aid to priests, parishes, internally displaced persons and Ukrainian Church institutions caring for the needy within the war-torn nation. The news comes a few weeks after ACN’s launching of its 2023 Ukraine Appeal, entitled, “Without your help we would not survive”. The charity states that it has so far provided subsistence aid for 7,447 priests and religious sisters, direct emergency aid to 2,200 internally displaced Ukranians and equipment for 231 religious institutions in the country already caring for those in need.
Stonyhurst College has been awarded the highest possible rating by the Independent Schools Inspectorate. The college and the prep school, Stonyhurst St Mary’s Hall, were awarded the rating of “excellent in all areas” following an inspection in April as part of the regular inspection procedures for independent schools. The key findings of the report acknowledged the excellence of Stonyhurst in fulfilling its aims and the outstanding achievements of the pupils in academics and attitudes to learning. Headmaster John Browne, said, “I am thrilled that Stonyhurst has been awarded the highest possible rating by the ISI in all areas of the latest inspection. Stonyhurst not only achieved full regulatory compliance but also secured a finding of ‘Excellent’ in both the main inspection headings: for the quality of the pupils’ academic and other achievements, and the quality of the pupils' personal development.”
“Prayers for Tomorrow”, written by Catholics across England and Wales, have been delivered to 10 Downing Street to call for action against the climate crisis. The prayers were sent in response to Pope Francis’ challenge to Catholics to reflect on the way we are treating our Common Home and how our actions today impact the lives of people tomorrow. Sister Karen Marguerite d’Artois, a Dominican Sister of Newcastle, Natal led the hand-in of the book of prayers at No 10 on 6 June.
They were organised by Cafod, the official aid agency for the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Sister Karen said, “Prayer is a powerful instrument. Not only do we acknowledge our failure to care for creation, but we ask God for guidance to bring about change – starting with our own behaviours, small steps. Our prayer brings communities together to create change.” The prayers were submitted online by people of all ages, including children praying for the future as well as grandparents praying for their family.
One of the 11 remaining Carmelite monasteries in Britain has been placed on the market, valued at £2 million. Carmelite Convent Preston, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary as a religious community, has begun the process of selling their monastery in Fulwood, Lancashire, and the 4.81 acres surrounding their property. The announcement follows a long-term consolidation of Carmelite houses in Britain due to long term falling vocations and increased upkeep costs. Maryton Carmelite Monastery in Liverpool, described as the “largest Carmelite community in Europe” when it opened in 2012, was formed from the previous communities of Liverpool, Golders Green and Upholland. It’s currently unknown whether the Preston community, founded from the London Carmel of Notting Hill in 1917, intends to move to a nearby site or to merge with another community.
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, will celebrate a Memorial Mass on 4 July to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of the composer William Byrd. Westminster Cathedral Choir will sing Byrd's 1594 Mass for Five Voices and two of his motets, Miserere mei, Deus and Ave verum corpus. Cardinal Nichols said, “William Byrd’s settings for the Mass were first heard in secret, in private chapels and back rooms, attended by Catholics who risked their livelihoods and by priests who risked their lives.” He said that the music remains vital and powerful today. “Every note, every phrase, is a prayer.”
Scotland’s Catholic dioceses will join the diaconate programme at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, from September, sending four students from the dioceses of Dunkeld, Galloway, Motherwell and Paisley. The programme, which includes a pastoral ministry foundation degree and a postgraduate degree in Catholic social teaching, has been used by dioceses in the south of England and Wales as their formation for the permanent diaconate. The Bishop of Paisley, John Keenan, is the bishop responsible for the formation of deacons in Scotland. He said that Scottish dioceses “are looking forward to building closer relationships with the Church in England and Wales in the building up of our ministries and dioceses”.
Pope Francis has blessed an image presented to him by Pact on behalf of prisoners in England and Wales. The charity’s chief executive, Andy Keen-Downs, was in Rome for a conference marking the thirtieth anniversary of Fondazione Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice, which promotes the study of Catholic social teaching. He said during the delegates’ audience with the Pope, “In terrible Italian, I asked Pope Francis to bless a beautiful silver image of Mary, Untier of Knots, on behalf of those in prison in England and Wales”. Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton had suggested that the image would be especially appropriate for those affected by the criminal justice system and for those striving to make a difference.
Caritas Salford and Caritas Shrewsbury supported the launch of child poverty statistics research on 5 June by the End Child Poverty Coalition which shows that more than half a million children have dropped below the poverty line in the last year. Across the UK, 29 per cent of all children are living in poverty and seven in 10 children experiencing poverty are in working households. Child poverty is climbing most steeply in the North and Midlands. The analysis of official statistics, carried out by Loughborough University for the coalition, also shows how children from black or minority ethic communities are more at risk than those with white ethnicity. The research shows that the withdrawal of pandemic-era support combined with the soaring cost of living has driven up poverty.
The new Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, was among the bishops who ordained Bishop Paul Connell as leader of the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois. In his address at St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford, Bishop Connell referred to the difficulties the Church is currently facing including an “ageing priesthood”. He said, “The model of Church we have been living with will not survive what is happening now.” Speaking after the ceremony he revealed that the youngest priest in the diocese is 50 years old. “We have a large number of priests coming towards retirement and we have no seminarians at the moment. We don’t have enough personnel to do what has been done in the past.”
The leader of Irish political party, Aontú, has published a bill which if passed will prevent male-born criminals being placed in women’s prisons. Peadar Tóibín said the Bill seeks to remove the threat of sexual assault or abuse by male-born prisoners in female prisons by making provision for single-sex accommodation. According to Laoise de Brún, founder of women’s rights organisation The Countess, “No man should ever be housed in female prison regardless of how they identify.”
She said a gender recognition certificate should not be “an access-all-area pass” and warned that nowhere are the consequences of such a policy felt more viscerally than in prisons.
A former Anglican bishop will be received into the Catholic Church as a priest in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at the start of July. The Rt Revd Richard Pain, who retired as Bishop of Monmouth in 2019, is the first bishop from the Church in Wales to join the Ordinariate, following the reception of several former Church of England bishops in the past two years. He said that “the call to Catholicism seems natural and spiritual” after a period of discernment since his retirement.
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