The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fun last week launched an emergency appeal for Ethiopia, stating, “Severe and desperate hunger across Ethiopia continues to worsen as the worst drought in recent history has led to severe food and water shortages.” At least 20 million people require food support. Bishop President, Bishop Brian McGee of Argyll and the Isles, was due to lead an online Prayer for Ethiopia on Friday 7 July. He visited Ethiopia in February to express solidarity with partners coping with the very acute food crisis in the south and the consequences of the civil war which raged in Tigray for more than two years.
Spirit Unbounded, the group dedicated to Catholic reform and an inclusive church, is organising a week-long event coinciding with the Synod on Synodality in Rome in October. “Human Rights in the Catholic Church” will take place from 8–14 October 2023 and will be streamed online, with gathering spaces in Bristol and Rome will allow people to attend. Sr Joan Chittister, Dr Mary McAleese and the author Steven Newcomb head a roster of more than 70 speakers that include activists, artists and storytellers alongside academics and theologians. The event will address the theme of human rights in the Catholic Church, particularly how the church can move beyond clericalism to model human rights both within and outside the institution.
The Catholic Union has launched a campaign to have the faith-based admissions cap on new free schools in England removed. Describing it as perhaps one of the biggest challenges in recent times, the union argues in the “scrap the cap” campaign that it has prevented the Catholic community from taking part in the free school programme. The union is calling on Catholics to sign an open letter to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education.
The Christian Just Money Movement has underlined the importance of its two campaigns, “Wealth Tax” and “Don’t Bank on Plastics”, for showing how money could be used for building a fairer and greener world. A petition by Tax Justice UK handed in 600,000 signatures to Downing Street on 28 June demanding that the PM increase taxes on the super-rich. Just Money suggests that calls for greater taxes on wealth are gaining momentum and the extra funds could be used to help tackle the cost-of-living crisis. It also urges banks to withdraw from financing the production of plastic. Twenty of the world’s largest banks, including HSBC, have lent an estimated US$30 billion since 2011 to companies making plastics from fossil fuels, fuelling the single-use plastic waste crisis.
Catholics are being urged to oppose the government’s Illegal Migration Bill on moral grounds by Cafod, the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The legislation would give the government power to deport people seeking safety to countries such as Rwanda, a policy the Court of Appeal last week ruled is unlawful because people deported could face persecution. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) welcomed the judgement and said that it would continue to campaign against the “cruel policy”. Its UK director, Sarah Teather, said: “Plans forcibly to send men, women and children seeking sanctuary here to Rwanda are inhuman. They are also completely impractical.They are destructive, and mean slamming the door shut on refugees, denying our duty to offer refugees sanctuary.”
Caritas Shrewsbury is calling for the two-child limit to benefit payments to be lifted to help address child poverty. The End Child Poverty Coalition of more than 100 groups wants people to email MPs and call for change, arguing that across the UK, 29 per cent of all children are living in poverty. Caritas Salford, which has launched a summer appeal to support more than 300,000 children living in poverty in the Diocese of Salford, is also a member of the End ChildPoverty Coalition. Director Patrick O’Dowd, has called for addressing the root causes of poverty “by ending the two-child limit on benefits, increasing the number of children with access to free school meals, and encouraging employers to pay the real living wage”.
The Joint Public Issues Team, a partnership between the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church, is offering an opportunity for young people to work with them for a year as interns. The House of Commons Internship offers two roles where time is split between JPIT and the office of an MP. The closing date for internship applications is 19 July. These are one-year fixed term roles aimed at young adults aged 21-30, interested in making links between faith, life and politics. Internships would run from September 2023 to August 2024.
Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin has defended Catholic patrons and the process of reconfiguration of schools in his diocese against criticism by some politicians. Responding to comments made in the Irish parliament, the archbishop said that for some, the reconfiguration process can only be judged a success if school communities conform to the demands for change from outside the local community. Referring to some “tangible impatience” with the pace he warned that this often led to “a desire to impose desired outcomes, regardless of local views”. Catholic patrons, he said, are not minded to impose solutions on communities. Reconfiguration is a process of consensus building.
The leader of the Irish Church, Archbishop Eamon Martin, will participate in the annual pilgrim climb of Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday to highlight the Year for Vocation to the Diocesan Priesthood. Fr Charlie McDonnell, administrator of St Mary’s parish in Westport, said he was delighted “the successor of Saint Patrick” would be taking part in the pilgrimage and would celebrate Mass on the summit of Ireland’s holy mountain. “I love being a priest,” Fr McDonnell said. “Our Church needs vocations to the priesthood like never before.” He invited any man discerning a vocation to climb Croagh Patrick and pray and reflect with other priests and members of the faithful.
The Coalition of Christian Voices Against Poverty has written to the Chris Heaton Harris, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, criticising cuts to the budgets of a range of public services. Made up of more than 30 churches and faith organisations, including the Catholic Council on Social Affairs, the coalition its letter says, “With the buckling pressure of poverty, we are shouldering greater burdens – we are continually stepping into the gaps created through failing statutory provision in terms of both policy and finance.”
Baroness Hollins hosted a reception for the Kairos Foundation at the House of Lords on Edith Stein, where scholars presented reflections on her work.
Fr Shaun Doherty was ordained to priesthood in St Eugene's Cathedral on Sunday. In his homily, Bishop Donal McKeown said, “Shaun, you are presented for priestly ordination at a time when there is much discussion about the future of the Church in Ireland. There is a temptation in some quarters to be drawn by thoughts of how we might compete for a larger audience share in the crowded market of religious-themed entertainment.”
Lord (William) Haughey and Lady (Susan) Haughey have been awarded papal knighthooods in recognition of their charitable work in Scotland. The businessman philanthropist and his wife of forty-five years received the awards of Knight and Dame of St Gregory the Great on June 29th at St Mark’s and St Anthony’s church in Rutherglen. Lord Haughey said that he was “surprised, humbled and honoured” that Pope Francis had bestowed the awards, adding that “our faith means everything to us”. Lord William, who became a life peer in the House of Lords in 2013, and his wife established the City Charitable Trust in 2002 and it has now given more than £20m to various charities in Glasgow, the Diocese of Motherwell and across Scotland and beyond. Born in Glasgow in 1956, Lord William made his fortune through City Refrigeration and has been associated with many entrepreneurial initiatives in Scotland. He was credited with saving Celtic Football Club, of which he is a devoted supporter, from receivership in the 1990s, but was later linked in the media with a plan to acquire rivals Rangers, a rumour he strenuously denied. Bishop Joseph Toal of Motherwell welcomed the papal award and thanks Lord and Lady Haughey for their “tireless generosity” to charitable causes in Scotland.
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