News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Cardinal backs Europe
Cardinal Vincent Nichols broke ranks this week to voice his support for the UK remaining in the European Union. While the Bishops’ Conference as a body issued a neutral statement encouraging Catholics to pray before they vote, and voicing support for, as well as concerns about, the EU, the cardinal said that personally he thought Brexit would create “complex problems”. “Once you start down the path of division, that almost inevitably leads to further division. Once it becomes your solution it becomes a frequent solution,” he said. He emphasised, however, that the Church would not tell Catholics how to vote. On BBC Radio 4 on Saturday he said he was “greatly disappointed” by the Government’s slow response to the refugee crisis.

Concern for ‘untidy’ families
The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has welcomed Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia (the joy of love), in a joint statement that called for a compassionate pastoral response to people in “irregular” relationships. Following their plenary meeting in Leeds last week the bishops said that the document presents new pastoral challenges for evangelisation and catechesis, in particular for marriage preparation.

Married couples, they resolved, must be involved in the formation of priests and deacons. They went on to say that priests must be close to families in “untidy” circumstances, and encouraged divorced and remarried Catholics to practise spiritual discernment. “Pope Francis therefore encourages all who find themselves in difficult situations to speak confidently to their priests in order to understand their personal situation before God and discover a path of personal growth,” they wrote.

Other resolutions passed at the bi-annual plenary included one stating that at all Sunday Masses on 11-12 June should include prayers to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday. They also announced that the Department for Dialogue and Unity and the Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis would work together to create a new “Courtyard of the Gentiles”. The project, a forum for dialogue with atheists similar to that imagined by Pope Benedict XVI in a speech to the Roman Curia in 2009, is intended to complement the Bishops’ Conference’s “strategic outreach” to those who don’t believe in God.

People with Down’s Syndrome and their families gathered outside Parliament this week to protest against the Govern-ment’s plans to introduce more accurate, pre-natal screening for genetic diseases.
Campaigners from pro-life groups and the organisation Don’t Screen Us Out warned that the new form of testing – which poses a lower risk of miscarriage – will lead to more children with Down’s Syndrome being aborted. They cited a pilot study by the National Screening Committee that found that around 92 more abortions for Down’s would be carried out annually if it was rolled out across the NHS, because most people – 90 per cent – currently abort following a diagnosis of Down’s.
Cafod, the Catholic aid agency, has called on the Department for International Development (DFID) to provide more support for renewable energy among poor communities overseas who do not have access to electricity. The new campaign, Power to the People, urges Cafod supporters to lobby DFID minister Nick Hurd to shift the UK’s support from fossil fuels towards renewables. “Local, renewable sources of energy are the most affordable way of reaching those without electricity access, given they often live in very rural areas,” Cafod said in a statement.

Housing action plan
The think tank Ekklesia has published a book collating Christian responses to the housing crisis. Housing experts, architects and lawyers contributed to Foxes Have Holes, along with the Anglican Bishop of Manchester, David Walker. The book, which was produced in collaboration with the charity Housing Justice, calls on Christians to take positive steps to address the housing crisis, and lays out a 10-point action plan. It addresses the changing role of local authorities, rural housing and reform of the housing market.

The former General Superior of the Mill Hill Missionaries, Fr Anthony Chantry, has been appointed the new director of the Catholic charity Missio. He replaces Canon James Cronin, who has taken up a role in the Archdiocese of Southwark.

Hundreds of Catholics have attended a Charismatic Renewal weekend in Bury St Edmunds. Some 300 people attended the event at St Benedict’s School, which included a visit from the Bishop of East Anglia, Alan Hopes. Charles Whitehead, founder of the conference, told attendees that Pope Francis expected Catholic Charismatic Renewal to work towards “spiritual ecumenism with all churches who believe in Jesus and unity in the renewal”.

In Ireland, Catholic chaplains have hit back at claims that college students do not want their ministry, citing polling for the Irish Times that found that 65 per cent of respondents want them in post.
The group Atheist Ireland had publicised information it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that found very low Mass attendance – of around four to six people during the week – at some busy colleges. But the majority of the 2,247 who responded to the online poll wanted colleges to continue to employ chaplains. Fr Leon Ó Giolláin SJ, head chaplain at University College Dublin, said the atheist group’s initiative represented a naive and unjust attack on chaplains.

Nun killed in Ecuador
A young nun from Derry was among more than 400 people killed in an earthquake in Ecuador last Saturday. The bodies of 33-year-old Sr Clare Theresa Crockett and four other women were discovered among the rubble of a school in Playa Prieta belonging to her order, the Home of the Mother. In a BBC interview Fr Roland Colhoun, her spiritual director, remembered a joyful, enthusiastic and counter-cultural young woman.

Children at Catholic primary schools are to be taught about the importance of priests and sisters through assemblies developed by the National Office for Vocation and the theatre group Ten Ten. “The Gift of Priests and Sisters” tells the stories of priests and Religious interviewed for the project about their vocations, what they enjoy most about their ministry and what their favourite sports and hobbies are.

Compiled by Liz Dodd