News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Emeritus Bishop of Derry Edward Daly, who as a young priest unwittingly became a symbol of the Troubles when he was photographed waving a bloodstained white handkerchief as he tried to escort Bloody Sunday victim Jackie Duddy to safety, was buried on Thursday last week.

Mr Duddy’s sister, Kay Duddy, was in the offertory procession at his Requiem Mass. Tributes flowed in from the estimated 25,000 people who came to pay their respects at his open coffin, and from the Pope, whose message of condolence was read at the Mass by the Apostolic Nuncio.

“We are all blessed because we have seen how love can transform a bloodstained piece of cloth into an unforgettable symbol of divine compassion,” said Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry in his homily.

In Wales, Aberystwyth parishioners who wrote repeatedly to the Vatican to ask that their former parish church be reopened have been told to give up and move on. In 2012, St Winefride’s Church was deemed beyond repair and closed. Since then parishioners have been campaigning to save it. Some even sent appeals to the Vatican, but were repeatedly rejected.

Last month, the Vatican sent the campaigners a final letter of rejection. Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, simultaneously wrote to Bishop Tom Burns of Menevia, expressing satisfaction with diocesan plans to renovate an alternative church in nearby Penparcau.

The bishop passed the letter on to the Aberystwyth community with an emotional preface, in which he asked all parishioners to “move forward” together in support of the new church. “NO means NO,” he wrote, “Not MAYBE!”

When he received the Vatican letter, Bishop Burns wrote, he was praying in Lourdes for the resolution of the dispute. He returned to the Grotto to give thanks, but was too overcome by gratitude to speak.

Priest jailed for abuse
A priest and former children’s home worker has pleaded guilty to 27 counts of non-recent sexual assault against children.

Philip Temple, 66, of no fixed address, served at Christ the King Monastery in Cockfosters, north London, where he abused two children, including an altar boy. He appeared at Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London last week where he pleaded guilty to seven counts of non-recent sexual assault. He was jailed for 12 years.

Prior to becoming a Benedictine monk in 1981 and a priest in 1987, he had abused boys and a girl while working in care homes in south London. In April he appeared at Croydon Crown Court and pleaded guilty to 20 counts of non-recent sexual assault and two counts of perjury relating to previous assault trials.

The Catholic youth initiative, Youth 2000, will conclude its Mercy Tour of Britain this week, coinciding with the start of its annual prayer festival at Walsingham.

The three-week tour was held in partnership with the Basilica of our Lady of Walsingham with the aim of “bringing people to encounter God’s mercy, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation”. The tour’s programme included Adoration, Youth 2000’s signature contemporary worship music, and confession offered by local priests. The tour has visited churches in London, Richmond, Shoreham-by-Sea, Chichester, Bath and Plymouth, as well as Leicester, Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow.

The Church of England is to prevent protests during consecration ceremonies of women bishops. The last four consecrations were disrupted by the same lone protester shouting, “No; not in the Bible”, during the congregational acclamation. Church equality campaign group Women and the Church (Watch), which had written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said last week that he had informed them that “conversations are in progress with the relevant people so that in future, [such] objections … will not be allowed”.

In a statement on its website, Watch said that at one consecration the protester was given a microphone, and at another, the dean announced in his welcome address that the objector would be speaking. Watch said: “It is worth noting that this is not like an objection at a marriage service: here, there can be no legal objection to the consecration: the Royal Mandate is read aloud under which the consecration MUST take place.”

Allowing “a woman who has been called by God and the Church” to be “publicly insulted and undermined … undermines and insults all women”, Watch told Archbishop Welby.

Church celebrates environment
Cafod has encouraged churches to celebrate “Creationtide”, a period of prayer for the environment. The church aid agency has produced resources for a Creationtide prayer vigil that are available on its website.

The Church of England has also created a set of liturgical resources, including collects, post-Communion prayers, bidding prayers and additional material for the Eucharistic prayer, as well as for more informal worship and prayer.

Creationtide was instituted in 1989 by the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I. It begins on 1 September (the first day of the Orthodox ecclesiastical year and the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) and continues until the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on 4 October.

A cross-Scotland pilgrimage route, from Iona (above) to St Andrews, is close to being approved. The nigh 200-mile way will, supporters believe, be the Scottish equivalent of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. According to the Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum, discussions on the route are now close to breakthrough.

Two former teachers at a special school in Fife, Scotland, have been jailed for five and 10 years respectively, after being convicted of physical and sexual abuse of boys at St Ninian’s in Falkland. John Farrell, who had served as headmaster was found guilty on four charges and Paul Kelly on seven, all relating to the period between 1979 and 1983, when St Ninian’s closed.

Forgive arsonists plea
A Catholic priest in Basingstoke, Fr Mark Hogan, has called on his congregation to forgive two teenage arsonists responsible for a fire that seriously damaged their church.

A 13- and a 14-year-old boy from Basingstoke were arrested last Thursday after a fire broke out in a shed adjacent to St Joseph’s church. It spread to the main building, causing significant damage to the roof and exterior of the church, and putting it out of commission for many months.

“Forgiveness is not cheap but it is the only path to healing and true peace,” said Fr Hogan.