News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

The Church of England has said it will uphold its traditional teaching of marriage as being between a man and a woman while allowing “maximum freedom” for gay and lesbian Christians and their pastors.

At a press conference in London a spokesman said that the House of Bishops had concluded its two years of “shared conversations” about sexuality with a report upholding the doctrine of marriage. But the report, to be discussed at General Synod next month, also found that the Church’s advice to priests on the prayers they can use to informally bless a gay marriage or partnership was inadequate.

The report calls for a fresh culture of welcome and support for LGBT people and also recommends that bishops prepare a new teaching document on the Church’s doctrine of marriage. Vicky Beeching (above), a campaigner for gay rights in the Church, said the document was “painful” and required “mental and emotional gymnastics”.

The Prince of Wales has complained that a report by Aid to the Church in Need that highlighted the persecution of Christians in the Middle East was buried by public obsession with Brexit. Prince Charles, who recorded a special edition of Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day” and posted a video message supporting the report, Religious Freedom in the World 2016, said during a private reception at Lambeth Palace that he was dismayed it had received so little coverage. A source at the event quoted Prince Charles as saying: “People are more interested and obsessed with Brexit than persecuted Christians.”

Jail figures ‘shocking’
The Catholic Church’s liaison bishop for prisons has called on the Government to speed up its plans for prison reform, following a damning report into self-harm and suicide among inmates. Bishop Richard Moth described the figures released last week as “shocking”. A record 119 prisoners killed themselves in 2016, an increase of 29 on the previous year, according to government data. The bishop said staff shortages and overcrowding were major contributing factors. He called on the Prime Minister to “move as quickly as possible on its reform agenda for our prisons”.

Heythrop appoints principal
The current deputy provost at the University of Roehampton has been appointed by Heythrop College as its new, and final, principal. Professor Claire Ozanne (above) is taking the post on a part-time secondment from Roehampton. Her responsibilities will include overseeing the closure of the Jesuit-run college based in Kensington, west London, which is due to take place at the end of the 2017-2018 academic year. According to a statement from Heythrop she will be “exploring any opportunities for staff at the college”.

One of the Church’s “greatest scandals” has been its treatment of women, Columban theologian Fr Sean McDonagh has said. Describing them as “the elephant in the Church’s reality”, the missionary said women must be brought into the Church’s structures of governance and administration.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio’s Miriam O’Callaghan on the Sunday show, the co-founder of the Association of Catholic Priests said one of the things that saddens him most is the number of young women in Ireland today who “are turning away from the Church because of misogyny”. Fr McDonagh was interviewed alongside censured Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery, who said with hindsight if he was a young man starting off again he would not join the priesthood because “I couldn’t be part of an institution that discriminates so blatantly against women”.

The Catholic development network, International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE), which represents 18 member organisations from Europe and North America, has appointed Éamonn Meehan, Trócaire’s executive director, as its new president. Mr Meehan takes up his role as CIDSE implements its new strategic framework, which will run until 2021.
 
The refugee Community Sponsorship programme piloted by the Diocese of Salford has been so successful that Caritas Salford was asked to share its model with the European Parliament in Brussels on 25 January. Caritas Salford chief executive Mark Wiggin presented a paper detailing the model developed by St Monica’s parish, Flixton, Manchester.

A bill to ban late-term abortions on the grounds of disability is to proceed to report stage, having passed the committee stage in the House of Lords with near unanimous support from peers on 27 January. The bill, proposed by Lord Shinkwin, would remove a section from the 1967 Abortion Act that allows for abortion on the grounds of disability up to birth. The law would then state that no babies can be aborted after 24 weeks. There were a record 3,213 disability-selective abortions in England and Wales in 2015, representing a 68 per cent increase in the last 10 years.

Cafod Brexit plea
The Catholic aid agency, Cafod, is calling on the Government to negotiate trade deals in the interests of both the UK and the world’s poorest communities following the Brexit vote.
The aid agency is to launch a letter-writing campaign calling on Catholics to remind their MPs that International Trade Secretary Liam Fox (above) must consider the impact on the world’s most vulnerable people of any new trade deals.