News Briefing: Britain and Ireland

The Dominicans announced a five-city tour to launch a book celebrating the canonisation of Pier Giorgio Frassati.

The initial launch of 15 Days of Prayer with St Pier Giorgio Frassati will take place on 17 October at St Albert’s Catholic Chaplaincy, Edinburgh. Afterwards the book tour will continue at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, Holy Cross Priory, Leicester, Blackfriars in Oxford and Fisher House, Cambridge.

Written by Fr Charles Desjobert OP and translated by Fr Matthew Jarvis OP, the book celebrates Frassati, a lay Dominican who died aged 24 and is to be canonised on 7 September alongside Carlo Acutis.

A 15-year-old boy has been found guilty of murdering a 15-year-old boy in Sheffield. On 3 February, Harvey Willgoose died at All Saints’ Catholic High School, Sheffield after being stabbed in the heart with a 13-cm long hunting knife.

The defendant admitted manslaughter and possession of a knife but denied murder. He was found guilty by a verdict of 11-1 at Sheffield Crown Court, following a 14-hour deliberation by the jury. Wilgoose’s parents have launched a campaign for knife arches, which work like metal detectors, to be installed in schools.

Two priests who are Catholic converts been ordained for the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Fr Gary Carter and Fr Scott Coleman were ordained in July by Bishop Richard Moth at Arundel Cathedral.

Fr Coleman was baptised an Anglican after discovering Christianity at university and worked for Church of England parishes in London but said he “soon felt the pull of the Catholic Church, which taught the fullness of the Faith, practised the sacraments”. Fr Scott was baptised a decade ago while working in a Catholic secondary school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

Bishop Moth described their ordination as a “celebration of immense hope for our diocese”. 

Liverpool Hope University has awarded an honorary doctorate for services to journalism to the BBC reporter and author Feargal Keane. A former BBC correspondent to Northern Ireland and later South Africa, Keane urged graduating students at Liverpool Hope to “never give up hope,” at the ceremony.

He said: “That means the legacy of the education you received here, but also your own capacity for believing the world can be made better, because it can. Get involved. Be part of change.” Keane added: “Knowledge is the route to seeing the world as it really is, not through the lens of ideology or prejudice.”

Mgr John Devine, a former pro-chancellor and chair of council at Hope University also received an honorary doctorate, which he described as “the icing on the cake of retirement”. 

A musical about Anne Boleyn is being staged until 30 August at her childhood home, Hever Castle, in Kent. Anne Boleyn: The Musical stars the West End actress Emily Lane as Anne and Mark Goldthorp as Henry VIII while the cast includes a community choir composed of people from Kent.

The plot tells “Anne’s personal story, revealing how her ambitions and choices not only placed her at the heart of Tudor court life but ultimately helped alter the course of English history”, said the producers. Audience members in the purpose-built 1,800-seater auditorium on the castle lawn receive headsets to allow them to experience the musical in a “personal and immersive way” producers added.

Around 30 people from St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Bunhill Row as well as Union Chapel, Wesley’s Chapel, Leysian Mission and other community groups joined a counter-protest mounted against anti-refugee demonstrators gathered at the Thistle Barbican Hotel in Islington, North London on 2 August.

They chanted “Refugees are welcome here” and “Whose streets? Our streets”. Some asylum-seeker members of St Joseph’s congregation, which has people from around 33 different national backgrounds, have been resident in the hotel in recent months.

An installation of paper doves decorated with messages of peace is on display at Southwark Anglican cathedral in London until 13 September.

By artist Peter Walker, the large-scale, mass participation illuminated artwork features thousands of paper doves suspended on ribbons with each carrying a personal message of peace and hope written by visitors, local school children and community groups.

“The world is crying out for peace and Peter Walker’s beautiful installation gives voice to the thousands who have written their hopes on the soaring doves,” said a spokesman for the cathedral.

Christian CND marked the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings with an art installation at Coventry Cathedral, showing until 25 August. The artwork, created by artist Leah Hislop, is composed of dark black and vibrant coloured paper cranes, encouraging reflection on the human cost of nuclear war and the shared responsibility to seek peace.

After reports of substance abusers and other issues outside Westminster Cathedral appeared in the press, the cathedral told The Tablet, “We share residents’ concerns about the level of anti-social behaviour in the area and are working closely with the local authority and police to support a stronger police presence. In the meantime, we encourage all residents to continue reporting any illegal activity to the police, as this helps build the case for further action. ”

An ancient copper seal found at Lindores Abbey in Fife has been described as the archaeological find of the year. The seal, which was apparently owned by John Leslie, Bishop of Ross and Commendator of the abbey in 1565, dates from the time of the Reformation when such religious houses were being dissolved and their assets redistributed.

Lindores had been the site of an abbey since the twelfth century and is also believed to be the first place in Scotland where whisky was distilled on any scale. The discovery was made by a team of researchers from the Monastic Archaeology Field School, with members from St Andrews and Brandeis Universities.

A priest was hospitalised with a head injury on Sunday after being attacked at a church in Co. Down. Fr John Murray was preparing to say 10.30 am Mass at St Patrick’s Church, Downpatrick when he was struck on the head with a bottle by a man.

According to the Diocese of Down and Connor, the man had requested Fr Murray hear his confession. Murray was about to celebrate his final Mass before retirement at the parish. A spokesman for Down and Connor diocese said 75-year-old Fr Murray was “highly respected and well-liked” and that some elderly priests feel “very vulnerable”.

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