The Diocese of Salford is holding a local synod called The Big Listen intended to connect with people who feel distanced or disconnected from the Church and faith.
The Bishop of Salford, John Arnold said: “While we must look to Rome to prioritise global actions as the Catholic Church, we must recognise that we have a particular responsibility for our local Church here in the North West of England and its own particular needs and opportunities.”
The Diocese is inviting all people to respond to this stage of the process by submitting their thoughts online at www.dioceseofsalford.org.uk/faith/synod/ or attending a meeting at their local parish.
Pope Francis has praised a 49-year-old Cumbrian mother and abuse survivor for her campaign against clergy abuse. Antonia Sobicki, who recently gave a 45-minute address to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, is the founder of LOUDfence events where abuse survivors and their supporters tie messages and ribbons to Church railings or fences.
When Sobicki gave Francis a LOUDfence ribbon, he told her the events should happen “everywhere” describing the ribbon as “molto bello “and a symbol of hope for the whole church”. According to the News & Star, Sobicki said: “When this began, I thought it would help five people in Cumbria; it’s now spread across Europe and the Atlantic.”
The headteacher of a joint Catholic-Anglican academy has spoken at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on how to support pupils who are refugees or asylum seekers. Jo Leech, headteacher of the Academy of St Francis of Assisi in Liverpool joined a round-table discussion with policy makers and third sector organisations.
Ms Leech said: “There are 60 different languages spoken [at the school] and we celebrate each and every one. As headteacher, I understand some of the hardships these students have faced and what challenges and barriers they are up against in the education system.”
A new Prayer and Liturgy Directory for Catholic schools, colleges and academies in England and Wales has been launched.
Titled To love You more dearly and published by the bishops’ conference and the Catholic Education Service, it supports prayer and liturgy coordinators, senior leadership teams and governors and others in implementing the understanding of the Catholic Church in prayer and liturgy. Topics covered include the use of music, celebrating sacraments and devotions.
The directory was presented to dioceses on 17 October in York by speakers including Dr Sue Price of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology and its editors Martin Foster, director of the Liturgy Office for the bishops’ conference, and the Rev Prof Peter McGrail of Liverpool Hope University.
Flooding throughout the UK followed Storm Babet last week. Catholic school closures in Wales due to flood danger included Flintshire’s St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, St Winefride’s Catholic Primary School at Holywell and Christ the Word Catholic School in Denbighshire.
“In his recent apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, Pope Francis warned of a worsening climate crisis,” Anne Peacey, chair of the National Justice and Peace Network, told The Tablet. “Over these past few days we have seen the effects of climate change literally on our own doorsteps and witnessed the despair of many who were unprepared for the loss of life and severity of the damage done to homes and communities,” she said. “We cannot ignore what is happening.”
There was one death and considerable damage to homes and businesses in her home town of Chesterfield.
The LGB Alliance Conference in London on 27 October saw a network established for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Christians concerned by gender ideology.
In a statement, LGB Christians said: “A concerning number of people (youth in particular) are being persuaded they are transgender, or misdiagnosed as having gender dysphoria, when they are simply gay or lesbian, or bisexual… Sex-change treatments involving hormones, medication and surgery have taken the place of the more familiar psychological conversion therapy”.
In a joint representation to the Treasury, the Catholic Union and the Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) have called for children and families to be the focus of the chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 22 November.
The two organisations called on Jeremy Hunt to consider changes to the benefit system to help families with the cost of living. These include increasing the rate of child benefit, scraping the two-child cap on Universal Credit and Working Tax Credits, and lifting the High-Income Child Benefit Charge. They highlighted that their call is based on firsthand experience of CSAN members.
The newest pilgrim walk offered by Pilgrim Ways is the Brentwood Pilgrim Way in Essex, which project lead Phil McCarthy describes as “a revelation!”
It is a 68-mile long walk from the Cathedral of St Mary and St Helen in Brentwood to the Shrine of Our Lady of Light in Clacton-on-Sea. It passes the recusant house of Ingatestone Hall and Catholic churches at Ingatestone, Stock, Danbury, Maldon, West Mersea, and Brightlingsea.
The walk is through quiet countryside, river and coastal paths and is generally flat. It can only be walked during the summer months because the route involves two seasonal ferries at Brightlingsea and there is also a short tidal causeway. However, there is the option of a shorter 38-mile walk avoiding these by branching off at Stock along the St Peter's Way to the isolated St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea where St Cedd landed in 653AD on his mission to the East Saxons.
Caritas Westminster has launched this year’s Advent Giving Calendar. It invites schools and parishes to use it for supporting a local food project. Opening a ‘snowman’ each day provides ideas for making up a food parcel for a foodbank. There are over 300 food projects in the diocese, including foodbanks, food collections, sharing and giving, and community meal initiatives.
Parishes and Church-linked projects are also being encouraged to offer warm spaces during the winter months, after 20 parishes were involved last year. In partnership with Westminster and Camden councils, Westminster Caritas is to bring rough sleepers in from the cold during the SWEP activation period which runs from December to March. The Severe Weather Emergency Protocol is activated once the temperature drops to zero.
When President Michael D Higgins met Pope Francis last week he presented the pontiff with a sculpture entitled “The Expelled” in recognition of the vital work he has done for refugees and migrants.
After the private audience in the Pope’s library, President Higgins said that Pope Francis faces “grave” difficulties. “He’s reaching out to people in the LGBT community” and “those who feel that they haven’t been labelled as Catholics”, Mr Higgins said.
The Irish president also laid a wreath marking the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty whose operation during Second World War saved up to 4,000 Allied prisoners of war and Jews.
Dr Fáinche Ryan, Associate Professor in Systematic Theology at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin, has been elected Vice President of the European Society of Catholic Theology (ESCT).
The ESCT is composed of members from 22 European countries. It is concerned primarily with Catholic theology at the intersection of Church and society. Dr Ryan will serve as Vice President for two years and then as President for a further two years.
She completed her doctorate work in 2007 at the Angelicum in Rome. Her current research focuses on the virtue of truth telling in the context of a so-called “post-truth” era.
This year’s recipients of the Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad include Kiltegan missionary Fr Gabriel Dolan who has been recognised for his work in peace, reconciliation, and development in Kenya.
Originally from Cashel, Co Fermanagh, Fr Dolan was ordained in 1982. He arrived in Kenya at a time of coups and increasing corruption. For over forty years he has dedicated his life to east African communities, fighting first for voters’ rights, land rights and battling corruption. His book Undaunted: Stories of Freedom in a Shackled Society was published in 2021. It recounts his work with people of all backgrounds and creeds in the fight for social justice.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols presided at a memorial service in Westminster Cathedral last week for the late Baroness Masham of Ilton. The longest-serving female member of the House of Lords, Baroness Masham, who died in March, was a prominent campaigner for improved accessibility and support for the disabled.
A former Paralympic gold medallist, Sue Masham founded the Spinal Injuries Association in 1974. A convert to Catholicism, she became paralysed from the waist downwards at the age of 22 following a riding accident. At her wedding to David Cunliffe-Lister, she arrived in a hearse made accessible for wheelchairs.
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