Reggae-pop anthem from Ooberfuse for Jubilee Year of Hope

News briefing from Britain and Ireland

The Jubilee Year of Hope anthem in the Catholic Church of England and Wales is in reggae-pop style from Ooberfuse and the nuns of Walsingham, marking a change from the Gregorian chant that is the usual musical genre for such productions.

In an introduction to the video on YouTube, Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols says: “I want to introduce you to this beautiful rendition of the Jubilee Year’s anthem. It’s gonna be heard all over the world, but here it’s presented in a lyrical and lovely way. And it tells us the story of being pilgrims in hope, or actually better – pilgrims into hope.”

Cherrie Anderson of  Ooberfuse said: “The track is for anyone in difficult times and a reminder that there is always hope, no matter how bleak life seems sometimes.The song is released and is available to download and stream for free.”

Pope Francis has recognised the heroic virtues of London-born Bridgettine Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough, née Catherine, and she has been declared “venerable”. Abbess general of her order, she was born into an Anglican family in 1887. The family became Catholic in Brighton when she was still a child. She helped save the lives of many Jewish families in the war by hiding them in the order’s convent in  Rome, Casa di Santa Brigida.

A fragment of the membrane surrounding Blessed Carlo Acutis’s heart will tour the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia from 14 – 17 February. Due to be canonised on 27 April, Bl Carlo, who died aged 15 of leukaemia in 2006, is known as “God’s influencer” because he used his technological skills to spread the Gospel.

The first-class relic is to visit the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St David, Cardiff,  followed by Belmont Abbey in Herefordshire and St Joseph’s Co-Cathedral  and the Sacred Heart Church in Swansea. Archbishop Mark O’Toole will celebrate Mass with the relic on 17 February at Blessed Carlo Acutis School in Merthyr Tydfil. 

Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan blessed a statue and shrine to Blessed Carlo Acutis at the Church of the Holy Family in Ardfinnan, Co Tipperary in a ceremony attended by 1,000 people. Local schools in Waterford and Lismore, including members of Carlo Acutis Youth Ireland, took part in the Mass, which was also viewed by more than 3,000 online. The shrine in Ardfinnan depicts a statue made in Italy, with Carlo Acutis holding a mobile phone, game controller, and a football. It has a livestream to his tomb in Assisi where his body can be seen.

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A photographer from Birmingham is producing six short videos exploring the themes of the Jubilee. The first of Con McHugh’s Jubilee videos will feature Fr Rob Taylerson, a priest of Birmingham Archdiocese and spiritual director at St Mary’s College, Oscott. An agricultural scientist before joining the priesthood, he says: “My life, our lives, must be simplified, must use less energy, must care for this world and all created life on it.” Other videos in the series will cover themes including food poverty, modern slavery, managing debt, forgiveness, rest and worship. 

St Thomas More High School in Westcliff on Sea has been awarded a LiveSimply award, recognising commitment to Catholic Social Teaching through sustainability, social justice and community outreach.

Cafod’s LiveSimply coordinator for schools, Siobhan Farnell, said: “Congratulations to the pupils and staff on achieving the LiveSimply award. Their actions are wonderful examples of caring for others and our common home and we wish them well as they continue to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with communities around the world experiencing poverty.” 

Catholic Social Action Network has organised an online course on Catholic Social Teaching from 4 March to 1 April aimed at parishioners not familiar with Catholic Social Teaching or who would welcome a refresher. The course will be grounded in the experiences of network members and their work on the front line of poverty and exclusion, with inputs from member organisations.

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Racial Justice Sunday will be celebrated on Sunday 16 February with the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope: Our Journey Together Towards Racial Justice”,  with Catholics across England and Wales invited to reflect on journeying towards racial justice in schools, parishes and wider society.

Lead bishop Paul McAleenan, noting that 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Racial Justice Sunday, said, “In your school, build good relationships, learn more about racial justice, and commit to prayer and action; in your parish, be Pilgrims of Hope in our journey towards racial justice by exploring how your local Church community can better reflect the diversity of your area.” Resources are available on the bishops’ conference website.

Bookings have opened for the 2025 Catholic People’s Weeks. Themes include: “The stories that shape us”, “Where is God in the Climate Crisis?” and a Walking Week in Northumbria, which includes a visit to Lindisfarne. The first, an adults-only event, will be held at Noddfa in North Wales 12–16 May. It will explore the richness of different Mass settings and what they can add to liturgies through pieces by Karl Jenkins and Benjamin Britten as well as traditional Gregorian Mass and an African Mass. Bookings at catholicpeoplesweeks.org.

Christians of different denominations walked more than 20 miles through the from Bronzefield Prison in Kent to London’s Royal Courts of Justice, to protest against the long prison sentences given to 16 climate campaigners ranging from 20 months to five years, for nonviolent civil disobedience protests. In addition, Christian Climate Action has welcomed news that the Rosebank Oilfield’s approval has been overturned by an Edinburgh court.

Operation Noah is hosting an information roundtable event on investing in climate solutions on Tuesday 18 February at Amigo Hall, St George’s Cathedral, Southwark. The two-hour event will feature an introduction to a toolkit aligning investment strategies with the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and presentations will be given by John O’Shaughnessy of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, Salesian Fr Martin Poulsom and Bokani Tshidzu of Operation Noah. It is aimed at financial directors, trustees, investment managers, treasurers within Catholic dioceses, organisations, or religious orders. The event provides opportunity for faith-based investors to network.  

As part of the National Justice and Peace Network’s Jubilee programme, a webinar on the evening of Thursday 6 February will highlight human trafficking, facilitated by Brian O’ Toole of the National Justice and Peace Network Executive, Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation in Europe and Talitha Kum.

“At this event you will learn a little more about the insidious issue of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery in the UK and what we can do as ‘pilgrims of hope’ during this Jubilee Year to help victims,” said the network.

If the religious share of the population drops too much Ireland’s fertility rate is likely to decline further, the Iona Institute has warned in a new report. The pro-family, pro-faith think tank’s new paper, “Religion, Marriage and Fertility: Shall the Religious Inherit Ireland?”, argues that religious people are more likely than their secular counterparts to marry and have children.

If there are fewer religious people in the overall population, then marriage and fertility rates will almost certainly decline further, it warns. Currently, Ireland’s fertility rate is 1.5 births per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1. It is projected to drop more.

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Bishop Michael Duignan, Bishop of Clonfert and also Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh, has said priests and people in Ireland are being called to a “radical change of mindset, a reset as regards our attitudes and our approaches to our ministry as sowers of the Word of God.”

Addressing priests and lay staff at the “Together Towards Tomorrow in Hope 2025” gathering, he said the time was coming to “cast seeds in new directions, to move off that roundabout we often seem to be caught on” and to move “on to open road and move together towards a better brighter, although very different hopeful tomorrow”.

Richard Williamson, one of four schismatic bishops of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), died in Kent on 29 January aged 84. 

An English-born convert from Anglicanism, Williamson was automatically excommunicated latae sententiae along with the three others for accepting episcopal ordination in 1988 without Vatican approval. After Pope Benedict XVI reinstated the four as a measure of reconciliation in 2009, he appeared on Swedish television denying the Holocaust. 

Williamson’s repeated antisemitic claims earned him expulsion from the SSPX in 2012, after which he made still-more extreme statements as head of the “SSPX Resistance” group. His consecration of another bishop without Vatican approval led to his second excommunication in 2015. 

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