News Briefing: Britain and Ireland

The singer Adeniké Adewale is running the London Marathon on 27 April to raise funds for Cafod. Adewale, who is playing the role of Whitney Houston in the show Queen of the Night, said: “It is going to be an intense weekend … running the marathon will be the toughest physical challenge of my life.”

She added: “My favourite place to run is in nature, in the early morning. I often use it as a time of reflection – especially in this time of Lent – to enjoy the quietness of the world, which is a lovely contrast to the noise and bright lights on stage.”

The education secretary Bridget Phillipson praised a Catholic headmaster in Liverpool as a positive role model for British schoolboys. Referring to the Netflix series Adolescence, which explores social media and school bullying, last week Phillipson described “the behaviour of boys, their influences, and the young men they become” as “a defining issue of our time”.

She mentioned Jack Backhouse, the assistant headteacher at Cardinal Heenan School, Liverpool, and a former student. On Phillipson’s recent visit to the school, Backhouse told her he had “been given every opportunity to succeed at that school.

So he became a teacher to pass that on to the next generation of kids in his community,” Phillipson said. “He understood the power of his job – it’s about unleashing the power in all of our children,” she added. 

Caritas Salford has issued a Jubilee guide to help parishes ensure the sacraments and church visits are more accessible to the disabled.

Suggestions include placing inserts in newsletters encouraging parishioners to articulate their accessibility needs, and parishes creating wall displays highlighting accessibility needs, disabilities, and medical conditions, or organising accessibility awareness sessions in the parish.

Caritas is offering to support parishes with their efforts. “Accessibility is about ensuring that everyone can take part and contribute in a way, and to the extent, which suits them best,” says the guide.

Salford plans workshops to help parishioners identify signs of trafficking

Dying to live: why a writer who lives in chronic pain fears for his future

The Minister for School Standards, Catherine McKinnell visited St Mary’s Catholic School in Newcastle last week. As part of the schools Employer Experience programme, McKinnell who is a Catholic, told 150 sixth formers about her career as a lawyer, and later MP for Newcastle North and latterly, a government minister.

“Catherine discussed the importance of being interested in politics, and the role that young people have in shaping politics today,” said James Turnbull, the assistant headteacher at the school, which belongs to the Bishop Berwick Catholic Education Trust. He added: “Catherine spoke … about the importance of local community, looking out for others, and representing and advocating for the vulnerable in society.” 

Bishop Bosco MacDonald of Clifton said the Church’s pro-life stance needs to shift beyond being a “reactive” response to “legislation” or tragedy and towards a culture of co-responsibility, where every baptised person is called to participate in the protection and promotion of human life.”

MacDonald, who is the lead bishop in England and Wales for Marriage and Family Life was referring to Life is Always a Good, a new pastoral framework document issued by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. “At the foundation of this framework lies a profound truth: life is not an idea, it is a person,” MacDonald added. 

Four Christian aid charities are among those who have helped raise over £10 million for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Myanmar Earthquake Appeal. Cafod, Christian Aid, Tearfund and World Vision have provided emergency resources for affected families in need in Myanmar.

Janet Symes, Cafod head of region for Asia and Middle East, said: “This powerful earthquake has devastated thousands of people and families in areas already affected by conflict. As part of the Catholic Church, Cafod is working with religious leaders in Myanmar who have teams on the ground and are responding to those most in need”.

The Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols also offered prayers for “those who have lost loved ones, those in need of healing and those working tirelessly to bring aid and hope in these challenging times”.

Cardinal Bo describes ‘crushing anxiety’ in Myanmar after earthquake

Myanmar government urged to ‘silence the guns’ for earthquake relief

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who lives in Northern Ireland, is on a 40-day fast for the children of Gaza.

The Noble Peace Prize laureate, and a member of the Advisory Council of Pax Christi’s Catholic Institute for Nonviolence, has abstained from food since 21 March after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza dismantled a fragile truce and killed hundreds more people. The 81-year-old is calling on US, UK and European politicians to end their “complicity” in the conflict.

Pax Christi International encouraged support for Maguire and on Friday 11 April Fausta Valentine and Pat Gaffney of Pax Christi England and Wales were to fast and pray for Gaza at Downing Street, Westminster, from 10am to 5pm.

The Jubilee Year Mass for Migrants, organised by the justice and peace commissions, Caritas and ethnic chaplaincies of the three London Dioceses of Brentwood, Southwark and Westminster, will be celebrated at Westminster Cathedral on Bank Holiday 5 May at 2pm.

The Mass and preceeding procession celebrate the contributions of migrants to life, work and faith. The main celebrant and preacher will be Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald MAfr. Earlier this week, more than 100 refugee charities, among them the Jesuit Refugee Service, igned an open letter to the prime minister calling for an end to “hostile politics, racist rhetoric and demonising language”.

The Catholic Union of Great Britain Charitable Trust is sponsoring the Catholic Young Writer Award, which has the 2025 Jubilee Year theme: “Jesus Christ, Son of God”. 

The award is open to all young Catholics, and pupils at Catholic schools, in England and Wales in secondary years 8-11 inclusive. There is a cash prize of £50 for the best essay, plus a number of runner-up book prizes. Deadline for entries is 30 May 2025.

Winners will be invited to the annual meeting of the Catholic Union, held each Autumn in London, to receive their prizes from the president, Baroness Sheila Hollins.

The All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group hosted a packed meeting with Jesuit Missions on 1 April to honour the life and death of Indian priest Fr Stan Swamy SJ, who was arrested in India, aged 83, in October 2020 on false charges of terrorism. He was kept in appalling conditions in prison and died the following year.

Jesuits internationally are calling on the Indian government to make a public declaration of Fr Stan’s innocence. Parliamentarians at the meeting undertook to question the UK government on what it will do to pursue justice in this matter.

Fr Swamy spent his life working in support of Adivasi and Dalit people and against the interests of large corporations. Jesuits will deliver greetings cards in memory of Fr Stan to the Indian High Commission in London on 25 April, the day before what would have been his 88th birthday.

A caged bird can still sing

The unjust arrest and imprisonment in India of Fr Stan Swamy SJ, aged 83

The Irish bishops have appointed the charity Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland) as the official publisher of church stationery and directories after what they described as “a competitive tendering process”.

The bishops wrote to priests informing them that ritual forms, which were previously published by Veritas, covering sacraments like baptism and marriage, are now available from Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland).

The charity will also produce Intercom, the bishops’ pastoral magazine, the Irish Catholic Directory and the Liturgical Calendar. School religious books such as the Grow in Love series will now be produced by Folens Publishers.  

Healthcare workers “always keep the light on”, no matter what the challenge, even when they are themselves exhausted, Bishop Brendan Leahy said.

In his homily at Mass from University Hospital Limerick, Bishop Leahy said that healthcare workers must be recognised for their selfless dedication. “We must remember the sick and those who suffer in silence, the lonely, the anxious, and those battling depression or mental illness.”

He added: “We must equally remember those who dedicate their lives to caring for the sick.” Talk of assisted suicide is “frightening and impacts people when they are most vulnerable”, he warned.

Sixty-two lay people graduated with a certificate in lay leadership in the Diocese of Killala. They will be commissioned by Archbishop Francis Duffy in St Muredach’s Cathedral, Ballina at the Chrism Mass in Holy Week as part of a drive to enhance the pastoral care of parishes.

The lay ministries include Ministry of Reader, Minister of the Eucharist and Funeral Ministers, who will co-lead funeral services with priests with the exception of the funeral Mass. “These men and women have responded to the call of the Gospel, stepping forward to share in the leadership of our parishes,” Archbishop Duffy said.  

Lay ministers commissioned in Diocese of Killala

Pastoral leadership course to equip parishes for synodal church

The Irish Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, has paid tribute to the Jesuit journal Studies at Dublin’s Mansion House. Launching a special edition titled “Visions of Ireland, North and South”, which reflects on the fraught legacy of Ireland’s partition and the current conversation around national unification, the minister warned against the tendency towards simplification in discussions on borders and unification. 

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: