A group of 24 Laudato Si’ Animators from around England, visiting Salford’s Laudato Si’ Centre during the Season of Creation, have undertaken to write to their bishops and push for similar facilities in their dioceses.
The members of the Laudato Si’ Movement support local parishes and communities to engage in ecological spirituality, sustainable lifestyles and advocacy for climate and ecological justice. They say centres in every diocese “would help towards the UK Government’s commitment to rewild 30 percent of our land and seas by 2030”.
During their visit, they met the Bishop of Salford John Arnold, the environmental lead for the bishops of England and Wales.
Prisons are in crisis, according to Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton, the liaison bishop for prisons, speaking on Prisoners’ Sunday.
“Violence, overcrowding and lack of purposeful activities mean that, for too many prisoners, the deprivation of liberty has become the deprivation of human dignity.” He commended the work of the national Catholic prisons charity, Prison Advice and Care Trust (Pact), in supporting prisoners and their families.
Pact chief executive Andy Keen-Downs said: “While with the new government we are waiting for system change, we must carry on, sleeves rolled up on the prison wings and landings.”
St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, Northampton and Hallam Cathedrals were among those celebrating special Masses last Sunday. Westminster Cathedral was to host a special Mass on 15 October, celebrated by Bishop Paul McAleenan.
The former Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather is to step down as director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the new year, after nine years. In a largely hostile environment during this time, she has advocated for a better future for refugees and asylum seekers.
Jesuit Missions presented a climate petition to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The Superior Provincial of the Jesuits in Britain, Fr Peter Gallagher SJ, was joined by four schoolchildren last week to deliver a climate petition to Downing Street, ahead of COP29 in Azerbaijan in November.
The next prayer vigil for Migrants at the Home Office in London will take place on 21 October. It will mourn those who have suffered and died seeking safety, “inhumane” policies of governments, and highlight the need for safe routes to avoid tragedies.
The vigils, organised monthly for three years, are co-sponsored by Westminster Justice and Peace Commission, London Catholic Worker and London Churches Refugee Fund. There were four deaths of people attempting to reach Britain in small boats in the Channel on 5 October, including a two-year-old, and 52 have died in the Channel in 2024.
Michelle Moran from the Archdiocese of Southwark, a co-founder of Sion Catholic Community for Evangelisation and a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 2008 to 2016, said it was “poignant” that the canonisation of Blessed Elena Guerra OSS, an Italian Religious who died in 1914, was to take place on on 19 October.
Guerra was beatified by Pope John XXIII in 1959, and he gave her the title “Apostle of the Holy Spirit”. Moran said: “It is particularly poignant that Elena’s canonisation will take place at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality. The dynamics of the gathering placed great emphasis on listening, discerning and included roundtable conversations led by the Holy Spirit.”
Bishop of Salford John Arnold is the new president of Catholic Concern for Animals, taking over from Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool, who has retired.
Catholic Concern for Animals aims to advance Christian respect and responsibility for animals through education and advocacy with special reference to Catholic teaching. The Ark magazine for members is issued twice a year. The charity works closely with other animal advocacy organisations and is a member of the Faith for Earth Coalition of the UN Environment Programme.
Catholic parishes, schools and communities were invited to celebrate World Mission Sunday on 20 October by Missio, the Pope’s charity for world mission in England and Wales and for the support of missionaries.
Missio and the Mill Hill Missionaries work together through the Red Box partnership, jointly making parish appeals for prayers, donations, and support through regular giving. There are Red Boxes in more than 200,000 Catholic homes.
Missio Scotland says its donations around World Mission Sunday help it “to continue to assist our missionary priests and religious sisters and strengthen the universal Church”.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales is marking Black History Month by celebrating inspirational black saints in the Church. These include St Josephine Bakhita, the first black woman to be canonised in the modern era, and St Matthew Ayariga, who was martyred by Islamic State militants in Libya nine years ago.
Jesuit Refugee Service UK shared a poem on social media about “the beauty of Black excellence seen in the activities held at JRS UK and the strength found in community”.
Last week, Tyrone Allee, a trustee with Catholics for Aids Prevention and Support, was given a special Metropolitan Police Black History Month collaborative partnership award, for his work as a Notting Hill Carnival Ambassador.
Home Office figures show that religious hate crime recorded by the police in England and Wales has risen by 25 per cent over the past year, since Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel.
A total of 10,484 religious hate crimes were reported to police, up from 8,370 the previous year, and the highest number since hate crime records began in 2012. Hate crimes against Jewish people more than doubled. In the year to March 2024, almost two in five of religious hate crimes were against Muslims.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the “appalling levels” of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes and said the government will “work tirelessly to tackle this toxic hatred”.
Faith Invest is starting its next online course, “Faithful Finance: An Introduction to Aligning Investments with Faith Values”, on 29 October. The course is designed to give faith groups the practical tools and strategies to integrate their faith principles into their investment strategies.
It addresses the complexities and challenges that faith-based asset owners encounter as they try to ensure their investments reflect their mission and values. Subjects covered include the foundational principles of faith-based investing and learning how to engage with financial intermediaries with clarity and confidence.
The Lourdes pilgrimage charity HCPT announced Tricia Macfarlane as its new chief executive. She joins from Impact Funding Partners, a Scottish fund management charity, where she was chief executive, and has held leadership roles in Scottish and UK national charities for 16 years.
Chair Emma Derby said: “I’m delighted that Tricia is joining HCPT in the run up to our seventieth anniversary in 2026.”
Every Easter, HCPT travels to Lourdes on pilgrimage with several thousand disabled and disadvantaged children and young people. Each summer more than 1,500 adults, many of them with disabilities, visit HCPT’s Hosanna House in the hills above Lourdes.
The Bishop of Aberdeen Hugh Gilbert OSB, president of the Scottish bishops’ conference, met with First Minister John Swinney at the Scottish Parliament.
During the meeting, which took place last week before the death of former First Minister Alex Salmond, they discussed the role of the Catholic Church in supporting local communities and providing for those in need as well as Catholic schools. They also discussed issues around the beginning and end of life.
The liaison bishop to the Irish Prison Service has called for Irish gang members to be invited to participate in a local version of “Homeboy Industries”, a rehabilitation programme run by Jesuit Fr Greg Boyle for Los Angeles gang members.
In his reflection for Prisoners’ Sunday, Bishop Martin Hayes highlighted how Fr Boyle emphasises that there be no “othering” and that “we are all one” so that healing can help form “a community of cherished belonging”.
The President of St Patrick’s College Maynooth, Professor Michael Mullaney, has announced that he is standing down from the role after eight years. In a statement, Fr Mullaney said his time as president of Maynooth had been “demanding” as he navigated challenges like the pandemic. He has worked for a total of 25 years in the college and seminary. Fr Michael Shortall, a moral theologian in Maynooth and a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin has been appointed as acting president.
The Church has had to face and will continue to face “its own brokenness” said Bishop Paul Dempsey as he admitted: “We got lost in our own self-importance.”
In his homily for the Red Mass to mark the Commencement of the Legal Year at St Michan’s Church in Dublin, he told members of the legal profession that the pain inflicted on so many in past decades is a reminder that “we failed to exercise the compassion and care expected of us”.
He said the wounds of this “shameful chapter” are open wounds and “will always be part of our story and the story of survivors”.
The former Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray has died aged 84. In a tribute, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin said: “I remember him as a prayerful pastor, who reflected deeply on the challenges and new opportunities facing the Church in contemporary Ireland.”
Bishop Murray was a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. He was chair of the Bishops’ Department of Catholic Education and Formation and of the Bioethics Committee.
Loading ...
