Caritas, the Catholic Church’s social action charity, says there are currently 35 parishes in 15 dioceses applying to join a community sponsorship scheme for refugees.
The charity has welcomed an additional £1 million funding to provide training and support for the scheme, which helps refugees from the camps surrounding Syria resettle in the UK. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was one of the first UK sponsors, welcoming a family to Lambeth Palace in 2016. St Monica’s in Flixton, Salford (pictured), was the first Catholic parish to receive a Syrian family.
Sean Ryan, the national co-ordinator for the project in Caritas, said: “Community Sponsorship offers ordinary people a unique opportunity to play the lead role in our welcome and resettlement of refugees into our communities.”
The funding, which was announced by the Home Office and based on a successful Canadian model, enables communities to support refugees from the camps in the countries surrounding Syria resettle in the UK.
Museum seeks volunteers
Blairs Museum, home to the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collection, has started to recruit volunteers for the summer season, following the appointment of Dr Alison Burke as curator by the country’s bishops. “This is a new era for the promotion of the heritage of the Catholic Church in Scotland,” said Bishop Joseph Toal, president of the Heritage Commission of the Bishops’ Conference. Dr Burke added that she was looking forward to bringing the Aberdeen museum’s treasures, which include the watch of Bonnie Prince Charlie, to a wider audience. Other highlights of the collection are sacred silver and Jacobite memorabilia belonging to the Scottish Catholic Church and hand- embroidered vestments from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
A new Centre for Global Disaster Protection which aims to help developed countries strengthen their financial and disaster planning, has been launched by the Department for International Development in partnership with the World Bank and Germany. Every year, more than 26 million people are forced further into poverty by natural disasters, yet research shows that for every £1 spent on preventative measures, £3 is saved in humanitarian assistance. The centre will bring together experts from finance, science and humanitarian communities as it works to develop innovative ways, including financial insurance, to manage risk.
The Education Secretary, Justine Greening (above), who is also the women and equalities minister, has called on the Church of England to “keep up” with “modern attitudes” and allow priests to marry same-sex couples in church. Ms Greening was speaking to Sky News ahead of the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967.
Ms Greening has also announced plans for a consultation to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004, to make it easier and less intrusive for a person to change their legal gender. Under the current law, people must be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition where a person’s biological sex and identity do not match. The most recent figures from January to March 2017, show that 112 people applied to change their gender; 88 per cent of those were granted the certificate.
Last week, Prime Minister Theresa May told LBC radio that the Church of England should “reflect” on allowing same-sex couples to marry in church. The Conservatives would continue to defend LGBT rights and to extend them where possible, despite her party’s pact with the Democratic Unionist Party, which opposes same-sex marriage, she said.
One of Ireland’s longest serving bishops has said the issue of female priests is an “insult to women” because there is a charism in femininity and a charism in masculinity and “somehow you’re saying it’s lacking in women because you’re not a priest”. The Bishop of Meath, Michael Smith, made the comments to The Meath Chronicle. In a wide-ranging interview, he dismissed the idea of priests marrying, saying he wasn’t sure it would even solve the shortage of clergy and added that he “wouldn’t put any bets” on women ever being ordained.
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