The Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family held a service on 8 July to mark 500 days since the Russian invasion.
Alongside prayers and songs in Ukrainian by schoolchildren and the quartet Vivo, the service also marked the UK’s support for Ukraine since last February, beginning with “God Save the King” and the Ukrainian national anthem.
Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, who led the service, was joined by the Ukrainian ambassador and government representatives, besides interfaith representatives including the Coptic Archbishop Angaelos, the Anglican Bishop of Fulham Jonathan Baker and the Muslim scholar Dr Sheikh Ramzy.
Bishop Nicholas Hudson was among the speakers who addressed 90 delegates in the online event “The Synodal Journey: Travelling with Great Expectations?” organised by ACTA, A Call to Action, on 28 June.
The other two speakers, Sarah Adams, from the Diocese of Clifton’s department of adult education and evangelisation, and Fr Jan Nowotnik, along with Bishop Hudson and Jessica Wilkinson, had been at the Prague Assembly.
Bishop Hudson focused on the concept of “the transformative power of listening”. Fr Jan Nowotnik, ecumenical officer with the bishops of England and Wales. spoke of the transition from Prague to the Synod in Rome, in October.
A concert in Dover on 24 June marking Refugee Week featuring Ooberfuse, a music group whose songs advocate social justice, was supported by the local asylum seeker support organisation, Seeking Sanctuary, a member of Caritas Social Network.
Flaminia Vola, European co-ordinator at the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development, described the event as an “inspiring and beautiful initiative”.
Farm Street parish priest Fr Dominic Robinson, SJ introduced each of the performers and recalled the message from Pope Francis: “Each of them has a name, a face, and a story”, that appears on a Dover seafront plaques remembering those who have died on perilous journeys.
Tsering Passang played Tibetan melodies on his bamboo flute in pauses during his account of growing up in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal and founding the Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities. Another contributor was Cameroonian exile, Bantu Tikar, who said he finds joy in singing as it is about loving and honouring each other.
Stella Maris, the largest ship-visiting network in the world and the official maritime charity of the Catholic Church, promoted celebration of Sea Sunday last week.
The Diocese of East Anglia called for congregations to remember seafarers and fishers in their prayers. The Diocese of Brentwood urged prayers and support for Stella Maris to help “make a difference to the lives of seafarers, fishers and their families”.
The parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Wanstead prayed for those who work aboard ships and held a retiring collection at all masses for Stella Maris.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth thanked chaplains and volunteers working in ports. The Round Britain Sailing Pilgrimage came into Portsmouth last Sunday and a reception was held at the cathedral. On 7 July the north-east team of Stella Maris ran a stall at the Tall Ships Races in Hartlepool, advertising volunteer opportunities.
Arundel Cathedral marked its 150th anniversary with Vespers on Friday 30 June and a Mass on Saturday 1 July, attended by the apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Maury Buendía, Cardinal Vincent Nichols and other Catholic bishops from across England and Wales. The Duke of Norfolk and representatives from diocesan parishes and schools also attended.
The present building, which was commissioned by the fifteenth Duke of Norfolk, opened on 1 July 1873. It became a cathedral in 1965 when the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton was established.
The anniversary will see a varied programme of events across the year, including an exhibition exploring the history of the cathedral and a series of concerts, one involving the cathedral choir.
The London Irish Centre has launched a new podcast series, “Irish Nurses in the NHS”, to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the NHS.
There was a huge demand for nurses in the early years of the health service and young women were offered free training, accommodation, and the chance to earn a wage during training.
Many came from Catholic backgrounds and were encouraged by nuns at their schools to go into nursing, and many came from big families and were used to looking after younger children.
One woman from Cork described being interviewed in 1961 in Dublin by a nun who was matron of a Catholic hospital in Surrey. Another, who started training in 1952, said she anticipated more freedom in England.
To celebrate 400 years since the publication of Shakepeare’s First Folio, a new exhibition at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire is highlighting the history and stories of about 40 objects from its museum and archives, each of which have unique links to Shakespeare’s plays.
The focal point will be Stonyhurst’s copy of an original First Folio. The First Folio is the first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays, collated and published in 1623. Around 750 copies were printed with 235 copies known to have survived, 50 of them in the UK.
The exhibition will be open to the public through a ticketed event every Friday and Saturday until 17 August.
A new book, Journeying Together: Accompanying People With Dementia: A Practical Guide for those Who Care, highlights dementia-friendly churches and communities.
Co-written by the Leeds diocesan director of Caritas Dr Joseph Cortis and Pia Matthews from St Mary’s University in Twickenham, it offers practical information on how to accompany someone with dementia.
The book serves also as a resource for professional carers, clergy, religious and social action groups such as SVP conferences, parish councils, lay faithful fulfilling a ministry in their parish. Journeying Together is available from Redemptorist Publications or from St Paul’s bookshop at Hinsley Hall.
Bishop Kevin Doran has condemned the use of cluster bombs as “immoral and unacceptable”.
Responding to US President Joe Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, Bishop Doran warned that the use of cluster munitions risked a further escalation of the conflict and the killing of many more Ukrainian civilians.
While he unreservedly supported the right of Ukraine to its territorial integrity, he added: “Even in war, however, there are moral obligations. One of those obligations is to avoid the use of weapons which place non-combatants, men, women and children, at grave risk.”
Irish monks rekindled the light of faith at the heart of Europe, the Bishop of Clonfert Michael Duignan told an audience at an event to honour St Columbanus and St Gall in Switzerland. “Perhaps today the Church in Europe might help rekindle the light of faith in Ireland,” he said.
Archbishop Noel Treanor, Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop Donal McKeown and Bishop Duignan joined members of the Columban Missionaries at the St Columban’s Pilgrim Day where prayers were said for peace throughout Europe.
They also signed the Columban Charter to promote pilgrimage relating to St Columbanus through the Columban Way pilgrim route from Mt Leinster in Co Carlow where the saint was born in 543 through eight European countries to Bobbio in Italy where he died in 615AD.
One of Ireland’s newest priests, Fr Shaun Doherty, has said Medjugorje played an important part in his decision to hang up his microphone and leave his life as one of Ireland’s most popular radio presenters to become a priest.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio, the 59-year-old, who was one of 10 children born to Irish parents in Stoke-on-Trent, said he made his decision to leave Highland Radio around six years ago. He said of Medjugorje, “It is a great place to go as a radio presenter when you just want some quiet and peace.”
Two well-known Vatican correspondents, John Alle, and Elise Ann Allen, are to join the Catholic Herald as part of a new partnership between the Herald and Crux Catholic Media, which Mr Allen co-founded and where he will remain editor-in-chief and president.
William Cash, editor-in-chief of the Herald, welcomed the appointments as an opportunity for two major international Catholic media operations to grow and flourish in partnership.
Cash said: “The Catholic Herald and Crux share similar journalistic values as truly independent and authoritative Catholic news operations. Our objective now is to expand our global readership and influence as we hold the Church to account from its spiritual headquarters.”
Tributes have been paid to well-known Franciscan missionary Fr Brendan Forde who died in Limerick while home on holidays from El Salvador.
Fr Forde had returned to Ireland to receive an honour from the Chilean government as part of the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the coup d'état in Chile in 1973. The ceremony at the Chilean embassy in Dublin was attended by President Michael D Higgins.
Fr Forde lived and worked in Chile under the military dictatorship of General Pinochet. The 80-year-old was featured in the documentary “The Friar in Blue Jeans”. He helped the homeless caught in the crossfire of Colombia's drug wars, those in the leper colonies of the Amazon and the poor in Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala.
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