News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders prayed together outside Westminster Abbey last week at a vigil to commemorate the victims of the London attacks. Speaking just yards away from the entrance to the Houses of  Parliament, close to where Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbed a police officer who later died, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said the attacks were in no way an expression of Islam. “Any system of faith can produce extremists,” he said. “We should not confuse the extremism within the human soul with a particular religion.” Last Sunday, Nichols offered a Mass for the victims, remembering that Christ “is the one who shows us how to walk in the dark places in which we find ourselves from time to time”. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said this was “a moment of determination for our nation together”.

Charity shuts down
The Catholic aid agency Progressio closed on 31 March, after 76 years. The charity had been unable to secure funding to ensure a viable future. Martin McEnery, the chairman of Progressio’s trustees, said: “The funding landscape has become increasingly competitive and we were unable to replace the £2 million unrestricted grant per annum from the Department for International Development, which came to an end in December 2016.” Chief executive James Collins urged supporters to find a different international development organisation to back.  

The Primate of All Ireland has said religion and faith must continue to play an important part in the national conversation of a truly pluralist democracy, dismissing accusations that the Church is seeking to impose a theocracy.

In a keynote address at the inaugural conference of The Iona Institute Northern Ireland in Belfast at the weekend, Archbishop Eamon Martin said the Church had no wish to “interfere in the legitimate autonomy of politics, or to support one political party or candidate over another”.

Stressing that the Gospel is meant for mission, he said the voice of faith must not be cloistered away from the cut and thrust of public discourse.

However, Archbishop Martin also acknowledged that many people feel they can no longer trust the Church’s message, following the hurt and betrayal caused by the sins and crimes of sexual abuse in the Church.

“When we speak in the public square about the right to life of the unborn, some are quick to point to the child-abuse scandals and to shameful stories about mother-and-baby homes and other institutions,” he said.

Brexit catastrophe warning
Former Labour politician Roy Hattersley (above) has warned that Brexit is likely to be “an utter catastrophe for Britain”. Speaking at the Mountains to Sea book festival in Ireland on his new book, The Catholics, Lord Hattersley said that one of the reasons was because Brexit had been “pursued by people who haven’t thought about it” and who are “doctrinaire”.

Elsewhere, he said he could not see how Brexit could take place without a reinstatement of a border between the Republic and Northern Ireland: “When people say we can manage this without a border – take it with a pinch of salt. They haven’t thought of a way to do it.”

A joint Lutheran-Catholic Commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation in 1517 was held at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, on 26 March, hosted by the Archbishop of Southwark, Peter Smith. The Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, chairman of the Bishops’ Conference Department of Dialogue and Unity, and Bishop Martin Lind, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, preached at the service. Longley said that 50 years ago it would have been impossible to imagine Catholics and Lutherans meeting together in St George’s Cathedral.
 
The Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) has recorded an increase of 3.5 per cent in the number of visitors to UK churches, with a combined total of 422,714 people visiting their top 10 properties. Last year, that number was 407,676, according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.

The increase reflects the huge popularity of “Champing” (church camping) whereby guests hire one of 12 churches across the country, which are no longer used as churches but have passed into the care of the CCT, to bed down overnight.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Fr Robert MacKenzie, a retired priest from Scotland who lives in Canada, in connection with allegations of child abuse. Papers are now being prepared in the Crown Office to submit an extradition request. Fr MacKenzie, 84, is a former teacher at the Fort Augustus Abbey School. He was parish priest of Cupar, Saskatchewan, and still lives in the town.

Meanwhile, a priest is facing prison after admitting taking at least £50,000 of his church’s money over more than four years. Fr John Charles Leo Reid, 69, admitted the offence when he appeared at Durham Crown Court last week. He will return to be sentenced this month.

More than 800 people have registered support online for plans by the Diocese of East Anglia to open eight new Catholic schools across the region, and for their children to attend such schools once open.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, gave the plan a boost when he mentioned removing barriers to opening good quality faith schools in his March budget. East Anglia has a severe shortage of Catholic school places, following demographic changes over the past decade.

The funeral of Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s former Deputy First Minister and one-time IRA commander, was held at St Columba’s Church, Long Tower, Londonderry, on 23 March. It was presided over by Donal McKeown, the Bishop of Derry. The chief mourners were McGuinness’s wife Bernie (above), his four children and his grandchildren. Thousands lined the streets to pay their respects. Representatives of the Catholic and Protestant Churches were both in attendance. Notable for her presence was Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s First Minister and the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Sinn Fein’s new leader in Northern Ireland and McGuinness’s successor, Michelle O’Neill, and the party’s president, Gerry Adams, were among those who carried his coffin, which was draped in the Irish tricolour. Former US president Bill Clinton, who gave the eulogy, told the mourners: “If you want to continue his legacy, go and finish the work he has started.”

McGuinness was buried in the City Cemetery, Derry.