The role of the Commonwealth is to create a safe space for frank and honest discussions about faith and cohesion between communities and religious and ethnic groups, according to its Secretary-General. Baroness Scotland (pictured) was speaking last week at the annual Craigmyle Lecture, named after the late president of the Catholic Union, Lord Donald Craigmyle. Reflecting on the new Faith in the Commonwealth initiative, Baroness Scotland stressed that “99.9 per cent of the message of the great world faiths is the same, providing comfort and succour … The tragedy of our history is that the norm is to concentrate on the 0.1 per cent which separates us.”
Memories of a cardinal
In his homily at the Memorial Mass for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in Westminster Cathedral on 4 October, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said of his predecessor: “He was truly a great gift of God. We miss him.” Princess Anne represented the Queen; the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Princess Michael of Kent were also present. “All who knew him will have recognised, as I do, the two great loves that filled his heart: a love of life, expressed especially through family and friends, and love of his Catholic faith.” He recalled Cardinal Cormac’s final days: “He kept a lightness of spirit, telling me how strange it was that in his family the doctors had all died first, followed by the priests and last of all the bishop. It was an advert for ‘the good life’!”
“Homelessness is not simply because you haven’t got a home, it’s often because our problems become compounded,” the founder of the Big Issue magazine, Lord Bird, said at an event in the House of Lords to mark the work of Caritas Anchor House on World Homeless Day. He praised the charity’s work to find a sustainable path out of homelessness, adding that for many people, the problem is rarely as simple as just finding a new place to live. Caritas Anchor provides homes and support to more than 250 adults in London each year. Last month, a report by the public spending watchdog said that homelessness of all kinds had increased “significantly” over the last six years.
Soul food
Nuns are opening a free pop-up restaurant for two days in London’s trendy Shoreditch area, to flag up a reality television programme filmed at their East Anglia convent, which follows a group of hedonistic young women learning to change their ways. NUNdos will open at the White Rabbit studio from 17 to 19 October to coincide with the launch of the series. Over dishes such as “Mother Superior’s Chicken Broth”, diners will be encouraged to chat with the sisters as well as to reflect on daily life and the “millennial malaise”. Sister Francis Ridler, one of seven Daughters of Divine Charity who will be serving food, told The Tablet that the aim was to tap into people’s appetite for spirituality.
Elderly Irish missionaries who have returned home after decades of working overseas are helping migrants and refugees in Ireland, the Chair of the Irish Bishops’ Council for Missions has said. Speaking to The Tablet after a Mass in Maynooth to honour returnees, Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly said these older missionaries acted as “a bridge” to the worlds where they had served, in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as acting as a bridge to vulnerable communities within Ireland. He suggested that Irish society needed to find a way to evaluate and assess the contribution that Irish missionaries had made across the world in areas such as education and healthcare over decades.
Blue print for our politics
Art historians have created a 3D virtual-reality image of a long-lost medieval royal chapel, the layout of which is credited with establishing the design of the present House of Commons. University of York researchers have delved into national archives to build a digital picture of St Stephen’s Chapel. Before a fire destroyed it in 1834, it had become a meeting place for MPs, with rival parties gathering in choir stalls on opposite sides of the aisle and passing through separate doors to vote. Dr John Cooper, from the university, said: “The move by MPs into St Stephen’s was a by-product of the Reformation, but it had profound consequences for the future of British politics”.
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