Island mourns bomb victim

Island mourns bomb victim

The funeral of Eilidh MacLeod, 14, a victim of the Manchester bombing, was held on the Scottish island of Barra on Monday. The parish priest, Fr John Paul MacKinnon, told the congregation at the church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, that Eilidh packed a lot into her 14 happy years. “The last thing in Eilidh’s life was happiness – she had spent a wonderful weekend away from the island … She was the happiest she had ever been and that’s what we hold on to today,” he said. Prayers were said for Eilidh’s friend, Laura MacIntyre, still in hospital in Manchester after being injured in the terrorist attack which killed 22 people last month.

There are at least 2,000 food banks in the UK giving out emergency food parcels on a weekly basis, according to research that shows the scale of charity food provision in Britain is higher than previously thought. The findings by the Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan) classify a food bank as an organisation that gives out food parcels on a weekly basis, and it said the increase in numbers reflected the rapid rise in poverty levels across the UK. The UK’s biggest food bank provider, the Trussell Trust, handed out a record 1.2 million food parcels in the past year.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has established its first formal parish in Torbay in Devon. The church, formerly a Methodist chapel, was bought by the Ordinariate in 2015 following a public appeal and will have Fr David Lashbrooke as its first parish priest. The decree establishing the parish was signed by the Ordinary Mgr Keith Newton. Until now the Ordinariate has operated as one large “diocese” across England, Wales and Scotland.

Thousands of people took part in celebrations to mark the Golden Jubilee of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King last weekend. In a special message from the Pope, read out at a Solemn Mass on Pentecost Sunday, Francis prayed that the cathedral may be a “community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach”.

The St John of God charity, which provides services to people with mental health and learning disabilities in Ireland, made payments of over €6m (£5.2m) to senior lay managers, according to an investigation by the Irish Health Service Executive. This included undisclosed payments of €1.8m after the Vatican told the order to sort out any liabilities before being restructured into a new organisation in 2012. Lay management was put in place after the number of brothers fell, but there is still direct accountability to the Vatican.

Compiled by Lorna Donlon