News Briefings Britain and Ireland

A carved altar designed for a Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle in 1942 has been moved to St Aidan’s Catholic Church on Lindisfarne. The architect Robert Burke created the wooden altar, reredos and panelling for Bishop Joseph McCormack upon his move from Tynemouth to East Denton Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Stephen Wright, the current bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, said the altar was too large to fit into the current episcopal residence in Benton, North Tyneside. He said: “We looked for a new home where the whole chapel could be reunited, used and valued. There can be no more fitting place than Holy Island.”

Friends of the Holy Land report that pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the Galilee area are feasible again. The Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office has updated its travel advice to say it no longer advises against all travel or all but essential travel to some areas of Israel and the West Bank.

The Friends said: “So many of our brothers and sisters depend on pilgrimages for their livelihood and having been isolated for so many months since October 2023, are eager to welcome new faces, enjoy companionship and see solidarity with their fellow Christians from the UK.” A fundraising concert for the Friends will be held at St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham on 27 February.

Jerusalem bishop to speak in Scotland about suffering of Christians in Holy Land

Century-old pilgrim medallion found by child in Jerusalem’s Ein Karem

A Catholic teaching assistant who claimed his dismissal from an Anglican school for comments on same-sex marriage, abortion and Sharia law was unfair has lost his case at an employment tribunal. Ben Dybowski made the comments at a staff diversity training session. 

Christine Allen, director of Cafod, met the King as part of an event with the 15 members of the Disasters Emergency Committee. They discussed some of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises around the world and the successes and challenges experienced in responding to them.

Every parish in the Diocese of Northampton has been provided with 20 copies each of We Dare to Hope, a national Lenten resource for adults including scripture-based reflections, personal testimonies, and practical suggestions on living out hope in daily life. Bishop David Oakley of Northampton described the resource as “a timely invitation to trust in God’s promises”. He added: “I encourage all our communities to use this resource to grow in faith and prepare our hearts for the graces of the season.”

A free, online retreat run by the Discalced Carmelites in the UK will begin on Sunday 9 March at 7pm. Lent : a Time of Grace and Prayer comprises six sessions. Each is designed to help participants experience “more intimately the gift of God’s grace”

A 74-year-old grandmother has become the first person to be arrested and charged with breaking Scotland’s buffer zone law implemented last September. Rose Docherty, a leader of the 40 Days for Life movement was told by police she was under suspicion of holding a “silent vigil” within a buffer zone around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. She was holding a sign saying, “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” 

Pro-life protests after buffer zone conviction

Government to roll out ‘buffer zones’

The Bishop of Shrewsbury is urging all Catholics to engage in the Jubilee year with the “apostolic task” of handing on the faith. In a 16-minute video message now available on YouTube, Bishop Mark Davies said handing on the faith was “at the heart” of his episcopal mission. He said: “By Baptism and Confirmation, we all share in this apostolic task by imitating God’s overflowing generosity in our readiness to share and defend the Catholic faith in all its fullness.” 

Historic England has awarded a £57,000 conservation grant to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Norwich. The funding will help pay for investigations into the cathedral’s roof and drainage system which have suffered from leaks and water damage. The assessments will be the first stage of a wider programme of repair to preserve the Grade I listed building.

Built in the 19th century by George Gilbert Scott Junior, and completed by his brother John Oldrid Scott, it is the second largest Catholic Cathedral in England. St John’s was added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register in 2024. 

A nurse from Arundel and Brighton diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes won a gold medal in the Invictus Games in Canada. Kayleigh Pierce competed in the Women’s Novice Alpine Sit Ski.

Nicknamed “K-Bomb”, Pierce is an RAF Nursing officer and flight lieutenant who serves as the lead nurse on the Arundel and Brighton Lourdes pilgrimage. She said: “Having sustained a complicated knee and nerve injury from a simple ski accident two years ago, I could never have predicted I’d be in this position now.” 

The bishop-elect of Plymouth has announced he will not take up the post. Last November Bishop Philip Moger, an auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Southwark, was due to be installed as tenth Bishop of Plymouth. Days beforehand, Moger declared he had “agreed to delay” his installation because “concerns of a personal nature had been raised” which he had to attend to “immediately”. He said: “These processes will take a little time.”

In a statement on 24 February, Moger said this had “taken longer than I anticipated” and the Pope had accepted his request to step down as bishop-elect. He added: “For the immediate future, I will be taking a sabbatical: a time of prayer and personal reflection, the next stage on the journey of my ministry.” 

Plymouth bishop installation delayed for second time

February ordination cancelled of new Bishop of Plymouth

More than 1,000 people attended the funeral in Ennis, Co Clare of the retired Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh. The popular prelate was 90 and served as Bishop of Killaloe from 1994-2010.

A former president of the Catholic marriage support agency Accord, he was supportive of women playing a greater role in the church and believed clerical celibacy should be optional. In 1999 he undertook a three-week “pilgrimage of reconciliation” to every church in his diocese to apologise for clerical child sexual abuse. He also rejected Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s 2015 criticism of the passing of the same sex marriage referendum in Ireland as a “defeat for humanity”.

The General Secretary of the Irish Synodal Pathway, Julieann Moran, has said she looks forward to the final reports of the 10 study groups set up in March 2024 by Pope Francis to discuss some of the issues that emerged during the first session of the synod on synodality.

Last week the study groups discussed their progress on issues such as women deacons and reform of seminary education. The meeting, Ms Moran said, “reaffirms the commitment, made during the universal synodal process, to walk together as a Church open to the Spirit: listening, discerning, and embracing co-responsibility for the life and mission of the Church together.”

Irish bishops plan first national synodal assembly

How to go synodal

“The Church of the future will be different – not better or worse, just different,” Bishop Ray Browne said as he commissioned the first 25 pastoral leaders for the Diocese of Kerry at St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney.

The volunteer pastoral leaders, a new ministry in the diocese, have been commissioned for three years and will work with the clergy, parish secretaries and all those already involved in parish ministry. Some of the roles they will undertake may be ones that were traditionally carried out by priests, such as bringing communion to the housebound or supporting schools with preparation for the reception of the Sacraments.

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