Abbey's Trappist beer first
Mount St Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire is to become the first UK monastery to produce Trappist beer. Since its founding in 1835, the Cistercian abbey has gained income from dairy farming, but the low price of milk makes that difficult. The beer, “Tynt Meadow”, will be sold from the abbey from 9 July.
Martin seeks to cool Mass row
A week after a priest’s failure to show up to celebrate Mass in a Dublin parish sparked a row between the Archbishop of Dublin and culture minister Josepha Madigan, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin visited St Thérèse’s parish in Mount Merrion to lay the furore to rest.
On 30 June, Archbishop Martin apologised to the congregation for the priest’s “unfortunate mistake” but insisted that the need for a lay person to lead the service that day was not due to a shortage of priests. He told the congregation that he had never said that it was inappropriate in the absence of a priest for the community to gather in prayer. “Neither did I say that in such a situation the prayer ought not to be led by a woman. This is something that happens in such situations elsewhere.”
Ms Madigan, one of the parish’s Ministry of the Word team, stepped in to lead the prayer service when it was clear there was no priest to celebrate Mass. Afterwards she publicly called on the Church to allow priests to marry and to ordain women to the priesthood.
Catholic bishop for Marriage and Family Life, Peter Doyle, said he hopes that the ruling of the Supreme Court in favour of heterosexual civil partnerships “will not deter people from the sacred commitment of marriage”. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of a heterosexual couple who claimed the right to a civil partnership instead of a marriage on 27 June. The judges argued that preventing opposite-sex couples from having civil partnerships was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Bishop Doyle said: “Marriage is a response in love ultimately founded in the call of God who is love. Couples enter the bond of marriage as equal partners, mutually and freely giving and receiving each other.” The appeal was brought by two academics on grounds that they had “deep-rooted ideological objections to marriage”.
Chaplains offer seafarers vital aid
The role of Catholic chaplains in supporting seafarers to be increasingly important, a report has found.
“Being There: How Catholic chaplains support seafarers in the UK”, produced by St Mary’s University and released ahead of Sea Sunday on 8 July, found that the tens of thousands of “invisible” seafarers who visit British ports each year are made visible by the work of Apostleship of the Sea chaplains – who offer vital forms of aid and assistance to all, regardless of religion or nationality. At a meeting this week with members of the clergy, maritime and government officials on board HQS Wellington, Cardinal Vincent Nichols urged continued support for the AoS.
Pro-life clinic ban upheld
The High Court has ruled that Ealing council’s decision to ban anti-abortion protesters from outside a west London clinic should be upheld. Campaigners had mounted a legal challenge to have the council’s bid to create a 100-metre protester-free zone around the Marie Stopes clinic overturned.
Mr Justice Turner said on 2 July that although the ban interfered with the activists’ human rights it was a “necessary step in a democratic society”.
A spokeswoman for pro-life campaigners Life said: “The law already provides a legal mechanism to arrest and prosecute anyone who intimidates or harasses women and we fully support this. However, something has to be wrong when small groups of people praying and offering support to women if they want it are deemed to be harassing and intimidating women.”
Jonathan Aitken, the former Conservative cabinet minister, in his first sermon as an ordained deacon said that in ordained ministry, unlike politics, there should be no room for “high-voltage egos” or grandstanding over “pointless disputes”. In his sermon on Sunday at St Matthew’s, Westminster, Mr Aitken said he was trying to temper “joyful enthusiasm” about his ordination with “a proper Christian humility”.
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