The National Gallery has acquired Eucharist, one of the greatest paintings of the Last Supper, by Nicolas Poussin (1594–1664). The painting is the first of the gallery’s bicentenary year acquisitions. The 15th painting by the French classicising artist to enter the gallery’s collection, Eucharist is part of Poussin’s revolutionary cycle of the Seven Sacraments. The picture is one of a cycle of seven scenes Poussin painted, in the second half of the 1630s, showing the Catholic Sacraments, for his friend and patron, the Roman antiquarian Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657): Baptism, Penance, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination and Extreme Unction.
Archbishop of Southwark John Wilson has issued a pastoral message challenging assisted suicide, saying that “we are called to care for those suffering, not to bring about their death”. Human life is a gift from God and must “be cherished,” he said, not a commodity “manipulate and dominate”. The Catholic Church believes and teaches that every life is valuable, regardless of physical or mental state or ability, he added. The context of the message is the increased pressure on MPs to change the legislation on assisted suicide. Archbishop Wilson noted that this has gained momentum following Dame Esther Rantzen’s announcement that she has joined Dignitas, the assisted suicide facility in Switzerland, prompting increased media coverage on the issue. Both assisted suicide and euthanasia – the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering – are illegal under English law. He called on people to write to their MPs to express opposition to assisted suicide and their desire for the government to commit to improving palliative care provision across the UK.
Past Lord Mayor of London Vincent Keaveny was elected as chairman of the Society of St Augustine of Canterbury at the society’s 100th annual meeting, held in the Throne Room of Archbishop’s House, Westminster last month after Mass in Westminster Cathedral. Outgoing chairwoman Mary Goodwin was six years in the role and 21 years as a trustee. Highlights of the centenary year included a reception in the presence of the then-Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and a visit to Arundel Castle the Duke of Norfolk. Following the AGM, Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols expressed his appreciation of the contribution the society makes towards the maintenance of Archbishop’s House and his office. He particularly thanked Mrs Goodwin and the other retiring Council members. The Society of St Augustine of Canterbury was founded in 1922 to promote and advance the Roman Catholic religion in England and Wales. Its principal objective is to support the Archdiocese of Westminster by contributing financially towards the funds needed for the conservation, maintenance and improvement of Archbishop’s House, Westminster.
The final report from the Commission on the Integration of Refugees calls for refugees and asylum seekers to be given free English language provision as soon as they arrive in the UK, for qualifications to be recognised and for access to further and higher education to be provided. The report also calls for people in the asylum system to be eligible for general employment after six months of waiting for their asylum decision. Based on more than two years of in-depth research, the report includes evidence from more than 1,250 stakeholders, policymakers, journalists, academics, as well as asylum seekers and refugees themselves.
The historian Tom Holland has said he was cured of cancer after praying to the Virgin Mary. In December 2021, the co-host of The Rest is History podcast was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He prayed in the Lady Chapel of St Bartholomew the Great Church, the alleged site of the only Marian apparition in London. “All kinds of things went right from that point on,” he told the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Weeks later, Holland was told his cancer had receded. “Two years on I seem clear of it,” he said, adding that for a “Protestant agnostic” the concept of Marian intervention seemed “sublimely funny.”
The Bishop of East Anglia, Peter Collins has been appointed honorary fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Founded in 1896 by Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, and Baron Anatole von Hügel, said to be the first Catholic to receive a Cambridge degree since the 17th century, the College was linked to St Edmund’s College, Ware, then seminary for Westminster archdiocese. Bishop Collins said the honour recognised the College’s “Catholic heritage and identity within the University of Cambridge.” He added that St Edmund’s exemplified “the contribution the Catholic faith can continue to make in higher education and research.”
The Bafta-nominated actor and writer Alex MacQueen will give a free talk on Catholicism and the world of acting on Tuesday, 30 April. MacQueen, who was appeared in television series including Peaky Blinders, The Thick of It and Downton Abbey is delivering a “pub talk” to the Catholic Union of Great Britain. For tickets to the 6pm event at the Windsor Castle pub near Westminster Cathedral, please register via: Catholic Union "Pub Talk" with Alex Macqueen Tickets, Tue, Apr 30, 2024 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite
Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols blessed the Alban Roe House Retreat and Visitor Centre that reopened at Ampleforth Abbey last month after a programme of refurbishment enabled by a generous donation. Around 175 guests were invited for the Mass of St Joseph followed by the blessing. The building brings together residential accommodation, a tea room, shop and visitor centre under one roof. The new visitor experience encourages people to learn about monastic life past and present and how the current community serves God according to the Rule of St Benedict.
A Rocha supporters gathered at sunrise on Easter Sunday in its urban reserve in Southall, West London, to celebrate Easter. A Rocha has launched a programme for churches to protect biodiversity over coming months. Registration has opened for Churches Count on Nature which focuses on the wildlife found in churchyards and chapel yards, whatever their size. Last year, more than 250 churches across England and Wales took part in the count, where people visit churchyards, burial grounds and other church spaces to record the plant and animal species they encounter there. Churches of any denomination in England and Wales can register to take part.
A group in Liverpool has launched a website, www.3prophets.co.uk, to keep alive the work and memory of three prophetic priests, now deceased, who served in Liverpool and who focused on social and environmental justice. The three are Benedictine Tom Cullinan, Kevin Kelly of Liverpool Archdiocese and Passionist Austin Smith. The site gives information about them and offers archives of their works. Key themes are Social Justice, Environment and Ecology, Ethics, Scripture and the Church.
The Catholic Education Service reports that Catholic schools in England and Wales take in 50 per cent more pupils from the most deprived backgrounds than state schools. Data newly released shows that just under a fifth of all pupils in Catholic statutory education meet the highest national deprivation criteria, compared to a 12.8 per cent England average. “Many Catholic schools were established to help poor immigrant families during the nineteenth century, and this tradition of providing education for those most in need has continued ever since,” said Paul Barber, CES director.
Youth homelessness charity Depaul UK has appointed Alexia Murphy as its new chief executive. She has worked as Depaul UK’s executive director of operations for eight years and replaces Mike Thiedke. Murphy has worked in the homelessness sector for more than 30 years, starting as an outreach and shelter worker under the Government’s Rough Sleeper Initiative in 1991. Accruing operational experience in housing, mental health, outreach and developing prison services, she went on to become New Business Director at St Mungo’s for 10 years. Before joining Depaul UK, she led on the Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign to improve services for homeless women in the UK.
Jesuit Missions hosted the Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall of Alcluith, on 20 March at the London Jesuit Centre in Mayfair. In a personal talk, he encouraged everyone, including politicians, to use the best elements of religion – “faith, hope and charity” – in their lives. He added, “The more I’ve been in politics, the more I appreciate that we need to be humble.” Lord McFall, who served as a Labour MP for 23 years before entering the House of Lords in 2010, pointed out that both religion and politics are meant to work for the common good, and that there is often crossover between the two. He spoke of Pope Leo XIII’s support for workers’ rights in 1891 in Rerum Novarum, Pope Benedict XVI’s criticism of governments’ approach to dealing with trade unions and the mismanaged response to the 2007-08 banking crisis cited by Pope Francis. The Director of Jesuit Missions, Paul Chitnis, said: “In a world where hope feels in short supply at the moment, it is vital to have public figures like Lord McFall reminding us that faith communities play an important role in building a more just and hopeful national and global society.”
Pope Francis’ message in Laudato Sì to “protect our common home” was at the heart of the Columban schools “biodiversity matters” media competition, which included entries from 29 schools. In Britain, the winning article was written by Austin Beenham of Holy Cross Catholic High School in Chorley, Lancashire. The winning image was from Chidera Anyakora of the Loreto School in Altrincham, In Ireland, the winning article was Cliodhna McKeever of St Catherine’s College, Armagh and the winner of the image competition was Alanah Mckenzie of St Paul’s Secondary School, Dublin. Ellen Teague, who works in justice, peace and equality issues at Columban Missionaries in Britain said that the competition has broadened young people’s understanding of biodiversity and helped them to realise that the Church “helps young people to act on personal, local and national levels to build sustainable lifestyles which leave space for other species”.
A former priest of the Diocese of Westminster, Michael Hobbs, was sentenced on 25 March at Old Bailey to 12 years in prison following conviction of non-recent sexual abuse. Hobbs was stood down from ministry in 2000, after an earlier conviction for abuse, and laicised in 2002.
Tributes have been paid to Irish missionary Sr Majella McCarron who died in Cork aged 85.
Sr Majella helped Ogoni/Nigerian writer and Nobel Peace nominee Ken Saro Wiwa to internationalise the Ogoni struggle against pollution of their ancestral lands. The OLA sister donated 28 letters that Saro-Wiwa wrote to her while in detention ahead of his execution in November 1995, to Maynooth University archives. The letters were published in the book Silence Would be Treason, Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa dedicated one of the poems to Sr Majella, whom he first met when the missionary was lecturing in education at the University of Lagos.
Members of the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland took part in a peace pilgrimage of prayer and solidarity, organised by Jesuit, Fr Brendan McManus, in Dublin during Holy Week. The walk through Dublin city centre finished in Gardiner Street church where participants took part in a silent intercessory prayer for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the release of all hostages. Speaking about the situation in Gaza, Toni Pyke, Amri’s justice, peace and ecology coordinator said: “Today, the face of Christ is in the people of Gaza who are starving, homeless, denied their humanity and their dignity and we, as Christians are called, through the Gospel, to show our collective humanity.”
Renowned German-Irish sculptor, Imogen Stuart, has died at the age of 96. Born in Germany in 1927, her father was the art critic Bruno E. Werner. She was raised in the Lutheran church but converted to Roman Catholicism following her marriage to Irish sculptor Ian Stuart and her move to Ireland in 1949. She worked in bronze, stone, glass and marble but wood was her favourite. She had many commissions from Catholic churches in Ireland. Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin paid tribute to her in his Easter reflection by speaking about her work “The Tree of Life” which hangs in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh.
Scotland’s controversial hate crime law came into force last Monday. Passed at Holyrood in 2021, with the intention of streamlining existing legislation, it has added a new offence of hatred against protected characteristics, which include religion, age and disability, as well as sexual orientation, differences in sex characteristics and gender identity. Race is already covered in separate legislation. The changes to the law attracted considerable opposition from police bodies who say that officers are not sufficiently trained to enforce the new Act and among senior police that the legislation may be deployed for political gain. The Act has also been criticised by J. K. Rowling on the grounds that it infringes free speech.
The Scottish Bishops have spoken out against assisted suicide. In a submission to a consultation process proposed by Liam McArthur of the Liberal Democrats, the bishops expressed concern that proposed legislation to allow assisted suicide represented a threat to the elderly, frail and disabled and an assault on human dignity. In their submission, the bishops said that the legislation undermined attempts to prevent suicide, improve end-of-life care and threatened public trust in the medical profession. The Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Officer, Anthony Horan, said, “Assisted suicide attacks human dignity and is based on the mistaken belief that individuals can lose their value and worth. The state should support the provision of care, not the deliberate killing, of those at the end of life.” Mr Horan added that the proposed laws represented a slippery slope, with no future government sufficiently empowered to prevent their extension. He called the proposed enactment “a dangerous law with deadly and irreparable consequences”.
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