The Bishop of Paisley (pictured) has asked for 40 days of prayer and spiritual preparation prior to the consecration of Scotland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which will take place at the Carfin Lourdes Grotto on 3 September. Bishop John Keenan likened the 40 days preceding the consecration to an “extraordinary Lent”, asking Scots to engage in prayer, meditation and almsgiving.
Francis prays for Charlie Gard
Pope Francis paid tribute to 11-month-old Charlie Gard on the evening of his death in a hospice on 28 July, tweeting: “I entrust little Charlie to the Father and pray for his parents.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, said he was “deeply saddened” by Charlie’s passing and offered his “sincere and profound condolences” to his parents “who have treasured him with such strong and undiminished love”. He also paid tribute to the “outstanding professionalism” of the Great Ormond Street Hospital staff who had cared for Charlie since October 2016. On 24 July, Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, from West London, abandoned their five-month legal battle to take their son, who was on life support, to the US for experimental therapy for his rare condition. It was reported this week that Charlie had been baptised in April.
RIP a ‘Catholic superstition’
A row has erupted within the Protestant Orange Order in Northern Ireland over the use of RIP (“Rest in Peace”) on social media. Writing in The Orange Standard, Wallace Thompson, secretary of Evangelical Protestants Northern Ireland, said it was a “Catholic superstition” and told BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback: “from a Protestant point of view, we believe ... when death comes, a person goes to be with Christ for all eternity, or into hell”.
Diversity appeal
LGBT Catholics Westminster, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised homosexuality, called on the Church’s global and local hierarchy to undertake a “serious listening process” in order to bring about the “unity in diversity” that Pope Francis has embraced. (See page 6)
The 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St Magnus was marked by a special Mass in
St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall on Sunday 30 July. It is believed to have been the largest gathering of Catholic clergy ever held on the Orkney Islands. Representatives of all Scotland’s dioceses were present, as were bishops from Westminster, Oslo and Copenhagen, reflecting the Nordic heritage of the islands.
In his homily, Bishop Hugh Gilbert likened the murder of St Magnus in 1117 to the gospel parable of the grain of wheat that has to fall and die before it produces its crop.
Many parents are “endlessly pressurised” and “feel caught between their parental responsibilities and their professional career”, the Archbishop of Tuam has warned. In his homily for “Reek Sunday”, the day when thousands of pilgrims make the arduous climb up Ireland’s holiest mountain, Croagh Patrick (below), Archbishop Michael Neary expressed concern over the pressures families face today. While parents do their best every day for their children, families are relatively time-poor compared to previous generations, he said.
Anti-slavery campaign
The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) has launched a campaign to raise awareness about the thousands of children who are caught up in human trafficking each year in India. An estimated 10,000 children were trafficked in India in 2016, either as cheap labour, or for forced marriage and the sex industry, or for the harvesting of organs. SCIAF’s communications director, Charlotte Hull, said SCIAF would be working in collaboration with Caritas India.
Christians who profess their faith in Jesus Christ could become a focus of the Government’s new counter-extremism strategy, the Bishop of Shrewsbury warned on 31 July. Addressing 1,000 English pilgrims in Lourdes, Bishop Mark Davies said measures aimed at countering the ideology behind terrorist attacks could be misused to ensnare peaceful Christians who reject some secular attitudes.
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