News briefings Britain and Ireland

Portsmouth’s two bishops have issued a statement on immigration and asylum in the wake of protests outside a Southsea hotel. The Right Rev Jonathan Frost, Church of England Bishop of Portsmouth, and Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth Philip Egan, noted that children were among those left intimidated within the Royal Beach Hotel. One asylum seeker, who is a Christian and attends church in Southsea, has also detailed what life is like for his young family inside the hotel. The bishops say, “We have been truly ashamed by recent events in our city that involve the intimidation, blaming and scapegoating of asylum seekers and refugees. We are horrified when protestors use Christian language to justify divisive chants. We are aware that more than 20 children currently live in the Royal Beach Hotel in Southsea. Here families live in fear as protesters chant crude slogans outside the hotel. We understand the real concerns and fears about immigration, including the perception that it adds to pressures on already stretched welfare and NHS systems. It is a complex problem that needs to be sorted out, but it requires a long-term solution, not a short-term quick fix or scapegoating. Every refugee or asylum seeker is a person with a name and a story to tell and we must remember they have often fled from truly desperate situations.”

Caritas Social Action Network has published a brief pilgrimage guide for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 4-5 October. Developed in partnership with the Department for International Affairs department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, it contains walking routes in London, Dover and Birmingham, prayers and reflections. Bishop Paul McAleenan the lead bishop for migrants and refugees, writes in the foreword: “Pilgrimage is a sacred act of encounter. When we walk in solidarity with those who have been forced to leave their homes, we allow their stories to speak to our hearts.” 

The Catholic Truth Society has published a study of the “Quiet Revival” of Christianity among young Catholics. After Secularisation: The Present and Future of British Catholicism is based on research in the context of parishes, youth movements, universities chaplaincies, Catholic diasporas and the Latin Mass. Written by Bernadette Durcan, Dr Hannah Vaughan-Spruce and Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society and professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University Twickenham, it says: “Younger Catholics have, thanks to relentless secularisation, been raised in a much less religious world than were older Catholics. … What this means is that, in order to still be ‘ticking the Catholic box’, younger adults are necessarily more likely to mean something by it.” 

The Countess of Oxford and Asquith will give a talk on her book Shadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare, which explores a hidden Catholic context to Shakespeare and Catholicism at the St Mary’s Church, 4 Holly Walk, Hampstead, London NW3 6QU at 4pm on Sunday 21 September.  The event is free but please book by emailing the Parish Administrator at hampstead@rcdow.org.uk. The lecture will also be livestreamed on the day via https://www.churchservices.tv/hampstead.

Mary’s Meals, founded in 2002, has announced that it is feeding more than three million children every school day, a milestone its founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, from Dalmally in Argyll, said he “could never have imagined”.  Mary’s Mary’s Meals provides school meals a day across 16 countries, including Haiti, South Sudan and Syria. Each meal is funded by a donation of 10p.

Christian groups are involved in a mass lobby of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 18 September on the climate crisis. They will call for urgent action on “our health, our nature, our communities, our climate, and our future. Christian Aid has said, “reducing Scotland’s domestic emissions is significant in helping our global neighbours who suffer from the climate crisis, particularly when they did little to cause this problem.” They say, members of the Scottish parliament will be urged “to deliver real benefits to everyone, with more energy-efficient homes, free public transport, healthy, sustainable food, green jobs, restored nature, and a fairer future.”  The lobby is being coordinated by Scotland’s Climate Coalition.

Eco Church has reported more than 8,700 churches registered with Eco Church – that is more than 20 per cent of churches across England and Wales. More than half of these have achieved Eco Church awards, demonstrating continued practical action to care for creation. There are nearly 3,000 bronze-awarded churches, more than 1,400 silver-awarded churches, and 111 gold-awarded churches. Eco Church is a project of A Rocha UK, a memberof Churches Together in England, which said, “We know that more and more churches are deepening their engagement with caring for creation and are embedding this in their church life.” It is advertising Good Money Week in October, which offers advice for churches on how to “green” their finances.

Well-known Irish priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan met Pope Leo last week and renewed a friendship dating back to their studies in Rome in the 1980s. Fr Iggy O’Donovan met Pope Leo when he attended the opening of an international gathering of Augustinians to elect a new leader in the Basilica of St Augustine. Speaking from Rome, Fr O’Donovan said the Church’s first American pontiff told his confrères that though “life has changed” for him, he would “always be an Augustinian”. Fr O’Donovan attended the future pope’s ordination to the priesthood in 1982. Pope Leo warmly greeted the priest who has often been in the headlines over his liberal views.

The Irish Church has welcomed three men to ordained ministry this weekend, with one ordination to the priesthood, one to the permanent diaconate and a third to transitional diaconate. Fr Patrick Corkery SJ was ordained by the Jesuits in Gardiner Street Church at the weekend. Meanwhile, Bishop Larry Duffy of Clogher diocese ordained his communications officer, Gary Carville to the permanent diaconate in St Michael’s Church, Annyalla. Cloyne diocese hopes to see its first priest ordained in nine years when Rev Tiernan Burke becomes a priest, following his recent ordination as a transitional deacon.

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