Guest User 3/18/19 Guest User 3/18/19

A chance to meet the sculptor of world-famous 'Homeless Jesus'

"My heart, the work of my hands, and all of my spirit are forever mixed with the bronze that created this sculpture."

Tim Schmalz, the sculptor of the work of art depicting Jesus as a homeless person on a park bench, is giving a talk in London this Thursday about his art and his faith. ‘Homeless Jesus’ was recently installed inside Farm Street Church and was formally blessed in January by the Papal Nuncio. The artist’s talk is at 6.45pm in Farm Street Church Hall (following 6pm Mass). All are welcome. Admission is free. Refreshments to follow.

The artwork finally found a home in London after Westminster City Council refused permission for one to be installed outside Westminster Central Hall near the Houses of Parliament. It is already installed in the Vatican, Glasgow, Singapore, Dublin, Madrid and elsewhere.

At the blessing in January, a message from the sculptor was read out: "The Homeless Jesus in London spent years trying to find a place to lay his head. The same streets that were closed to him are open to statues of politicians, abstract art and visual puns continually planted in the urban setting of your city, but this work that challenges us to see the holy in the least in our community was not allowed outside. You brought him inside. You welcomed him, giving him a beautiful permanent spot in the centre of the city. May this sculpture become a symbol of how we all should let the stranger and the least in our community inside our hearts."

The artist added : "My heart, the work of my hands, and all of my spirit are forever mixed with the bronze that created this sculpture."

Parish Priest Fr Dominic Robinson said: "The Homeless Jesus statue can be found in cities throughout the world, and we are honoured to provide a space for it within our walls. The statue is a reminder that we are called to see the face of Jesus in all people, especially the impoverished. London is home to many people who find themselves forced to live on the streets. Farm Street Church, like many other organisations, both religious and secular, is committed to doing what it can to alleviate their suffering."

The Homeless Jesus is in the side chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours at Farm Street. Fr Dominic added: "It is fitting that Homeless Jesus should be inside the church and alongside his mother. He lies on the bench watched over by his mother, who shares in the suffering of her son. So we are invited to share in her suffering and especially in her compassion for those who suffer, and to recognise her son in those who suffer and those who are weakest in society."

Timothy Schmalz was inspired when he saw a homeless person on a bench in Toronto. He named the statue Matthew 25, in reference to a quote from that gospel - "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Guest User 3/13/19 Guest User 3/13/19

Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ to give this year’s Landings Lecture at Farm Street Church

An annual lecture in support of the ‘Landings Programme’ – which aims to accompany back to the Church those who have fallen away or are on the cusp of leaving – will be given on April 11th by Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ of Newnham College, Cambridge. It will address the subject: ‘Happy Landings: Accompanying the return to faith and practice.’

The previous two years’ lectures, given by Fr Christopher Jamison OSB and Dr Austen Ivereigh, have attracted a diverse audience of those involved in evangelisation, adult faith formation and communications in dioceses and religious orders.

As part of the evening there will also be a short update on the developing work of Landings across the UK. Landings is a series of relaxed, informal, lay-led meetings, based on faith-sharing within a small group, that offer a safe and supported “landing place” for Catholics who have been away from the Church and are thinking about coming back.

Landings offers already active Catholics an opportunity to share their faith; to participate in the Church’s mission to welcome those who have been away; and a chance to grow and learn from each others’ spiritual journeys. Landings offers Catholic parishes and communities a simple process for reaching out and supporting Catholics who have been away from the Church or who struggle in their relationship with God and the Church. Landings is usually parish-based and led by lay people within the parish community.

Background to Landings:

Landings was founded by the Paulist Fathers in the U.S.A. during the 1980s and continues to be a reconciliation ministry of the Paulists. It has since developed an international presence and, in 2001, Landings was introduced to the UK. It is estimated that over the last 30 years Landings has helped around 100,000 people who have left or drifted away from the Catholic Church and who would like to explore the possibility of rejoining the Catholic community.

LANDINGS LECTURE 2019:

Thursday April 11th at 7:00pm in Farm Street Church Hall, 114 Mount St, London W1K 3AH

Mass in the church at 6:00pm; buffet reception to follow

Suggested donation: £10

All most welcome – to book email landingsuk@gmail.com or telephone Fr Dominic Robinson SJ on (020)-7529-4802

Guest User 3/12/19 Guest User 3/12/19

Sisters organise two events in April to raise awareness of human trafficking

“Slavery still exists, here and now. Over 40 m. people live as slaves in our world – tricked into forced labour, trapped into prostitution, brutalised for their organs. Slavery is on our doorstep, it’s in our neighbourhood, hiding in plain sight.”

Two Sisters who attended the anti-trafficking meetings for Religious in January have organised follow up awareness raising days, to urge more congregations to get involved.

Sr Nora Coughlan SMG, who attended the Manchester meeting, has invited two of the keynote speakers from that day for a follow up on April 9th in Formby. Brother Francis, Chair of the Medaille Trust and Sr Isabel Kelly, FMSJ, a long time member of the campaigning group TRAC, will both be giving presentations as will Anthony Brown, who has worked extensively with Caritas in the Salford diocese to raise awareness of anti-trafficking, at parish level.

Sr Nora said: “Come and learn more and ask what we can do together in practical ways to help strengthen the fight against human trafficking & slavery…..”

The meeting will take place at St. Joseph’s Prayer Centre, Blundell Avenue, Formby L37 1PH on Tuesday 9th April, from 10.30 – 3.30pm. Donation £20, includes lunch

01704- 875850 / 07712178670 or email: theprayercentre.stj@psmgs.org.uk

On April 6th, the Religious of Mary Immaculate are also holding an awareness raising day in London for young people and students but would welcome any Religious who’d also like to participate. The main presentation will be given by Michael Duthie, Deputy Director of the Santa Marta group. Sr Ruby, who took part in the very well attended January meeting in London explained: “As a response to that gathering we have organised a workshop for students in London to raise their awareness of this ongoing problem. It’s a small step but we are hoping that we can make a change somehow.”

It will be held at the RMI hostel for students, near Gloucester Road tube: 15 Southwell Gardens, London, SW7 4RN, from 11am to 1pm.

Guest User 3/12/19 Guest User 3/12/19

Religious urged to take part in Dementia Prayer Week (12 – 19 March)

Religious congregations have been invited to participate in the national, annual event linking parishes and schools around the country in prayer for those suffering from dementia. With an estimated 800,000 individuals in England and Wales affected in various ways by dementia, a new prayer card, sponsored by the Day for Life Fund, aims to offer hope.

Dementia Prayer Week is now in its eleventh year and is an opportunity to create a sense of purpose and meaning. Organiser Frances Molloy of the Pastoral Care Project said: “Our hope is that the new prayer card will encourage people to visit a care home or family and that it will equip them once they are there. You may just be the answer to a person’s prayer: "God help me" a familiar cry of the poor, which can be our prayer too!”

Online resources have also been made available. For example, a new word search activity is a reminder of the difficulty the individual with dementia may experience in searching for the right word to say. Redemptorist Publications collaborated on the design of the prayer card and have made the card available on their website: https://www.rpbooks.co.uk

Giselle Beaumont of Redemptorist Publications said: “Our mission is to support people at every stage of Christian life so working with the Pastoral Care Project is the perfect partnership for us! Learning about the work that they have been carrying out for 25 years and the success of Dementia Prayer Week has been both inspiring and encouraging. We hope our small contribution will help this mission to grow even further and help more people.”

For further information email: info@pastoralcareproject.org.uk or phone 01675 434035

Website: www.pastoralcareproject.org.uk

Guest User 3/4/19 Guest User 3/4/19

A Protocol for the admission of Religious Congregations and Members for Pastoral Ministry in England and Wales

This protocol has been agreed by both the Conference of Bishops and the Conference of Religious

Background to this Paper

For some time there have been difficulties with individuals and new religious orders coming into England and Wales in their relations with the local Church. There is also concern when religious are invited from religious congregations who already have an established presence in England and Wales. This paper is intended to address some of these issues and to make recommendations to both individuals and new religious congregations about the processes of establishing a domicile in England and Wales, and further, to ministering within the local Church.

In the following, religious congregation is used generically to address religious orders, congregations and other institutes of apostolic life.

For Religious Congregations

1. If a religious congregation wishes to establish itself in the jurisdiction of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, they should immediately approach the local Ordinary into whose diocese they wish to be domiciled.

2. It is strongly recommended that all religious congregations, especially those of Pontifical Right, should consider being registered as a charity in civil law, following the procedures as laid down by the Charity Commission and that the Superior of the congregation should have formal training in financial and safeguarding laws and protocols to ensure that they are aware of their civil and canonical responsibilities.

3. If the local Ordinary responds positively to an approach from a religious congregation to establish a house within his jurisdiction, or if he approaches the religious congregation himself, he must adhere to the universal law governing these matters, and be aware of the Particular Law governing the congregation (cf CIC nn681; 678 §2,3).

4. Members of new religious congregations should be encouraged by the local Ordinary to become members of the Conference of Religious of England and Wales (CoREW)

5. The members of the religious congregation coming to England and Wales must have appropriate letters of Good Standing and if appropriate, Testimonial of Suitability for Ministry, from the legitimate major superior of the congregation.

6. All new religious congregations coming to England and Wales must align themselves with a Safeguarding Commission before they begin any ministry. All members of the community must undergo a recognised training course for Safeguarding principles in England and Wales and subsequent Vetting and Barring disclosures. CSAS will be able to support the new community in this work.

7. The Diocesan Ordinary has the responsibility for ensuring the significance of Safeguarding and the requirements to follow the National Safeguarding Procedures of the Catholic Church in England and Wales is clearly understood by the members of the new religious congregations. He, or his recognised delegate, will ensure that all necessary safeguarding checks, including those in para. 5 above, are implemented.

8. No member of a religious congregation of any type should undertake any pastoral work in the dioceses of England and Wales until they have completed the formal Safeguarding protocols.

9. Diocesan Ordinaries are responsible for ensuring that the Guidelines for Welcoming Priests from Overseas are followed.

10. Canonical agreements made between the Diocese and the religious congregation are not binding in civil law unless the parties expressly agree a provision which is binding.

11. The Diocesan Ordinary should ensure that the agreement with the religious congregation covers any conflict resolution, termination of ministry, time limits, renewal, amendments, holiday provision, retreats, numbers of religious in houses, liaising with Vicars for Religious, financial arrangements with the Diocese and fundraising activities.

The agreement should state clearly, either within it or as an annex to it, the scope and parameters of the apostolic work to be undertaken by the religious congregation. The agreement should state within it the necessary provision of insurance to be taken out for the religious congregation whilst working in this jurisdiction. Help for this can be obtained from CoREW or the local Diocese.

The agreement should also state the necessity of being aligned to a Safeguarding Commission (diocesan or otherwise) and which Commission.

Signed copies of this agreement should be lodged with the Diocesan authorities and the religious congregation.

12. If a new religious congregation seeks to enter England and Wales and there already exists within the jurisdiction a house of that congregation, there has to be a formal relationship with the local major superior who must be party to these deliberations.

For individual members of religious congregations

1. Any member of a religious congregation entering England and Wales from overseas must abide by the Immigration Law of the UK. This is especially important for non-EU nationals who arrive on Tier 2 and Tier 5 visas. They are particularly bound by the legal restrictions of those visas and it is the responsibility of the local superior to ensure there is no violation of those provisions.

2. Any member of a religious congregation entering England and Wales for pastoral ministry of any kind must be aware of and complete appropriate Safeguarding training in this country. This will include the presentation of a Testimonial of Suitability for Ministry from his legitimate major superior, the undertaking of some form of local formation on the Church in England and Wales, and submission to a Vetting and Barring disclosure before any pastoral ministry begins. The local major superior must be party to these deliberations.

3. The local superior should, with reference to the general provisions laid down in the agreement with the Diocese on the scope of apostolic work, ensure that a proper induction of any new member of the community, priest or otherwise, is taken place within a month of arrival.

4. The Local Ordinary must consult the Major Superior who is already present in the territory of England and Wales, so that those invited are in compliance with the particular law of the congregation.

General Provisions

1. This protocol is in addition to the existing agreements with dioceses and any Particular Law of the dioceses regarding apostolic work of religious.

2. This protocol should be read in conjunction with the structures and procedures already agreed by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales for the Polish Mission and the Italian Catholic Mission within their jurisdiction.

Guest User 3/1/19 Guest User 3/1/19

Celebrating a women’s centre in Birmingham founded by Sisters decades ago

Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8th, Sisters who founded a women’s centre in Birmingham over a quarter of a century ago have been reflecting on their work.

Anawim provides a holistic service to women across the city and its drop-in centre supports over 700 women every year struggling with issues such as homelessness, domestic violence and sexual exploitation. International Women’s Day will be celebrated all day at the centre, with extra activities being laid on, including an empowerment and self confidence class. The group ‘Women in Prison’ will also be going in to give a talk about campaigning and lobbying.

Sisters of Our Lady of Charity started Anawim back in 1986 with two Religious beginning the project, reaching out to the sex workers on the streets of the Balsall Heath area. One of the first Sisters to be involved was Sr Enda Gorman who now heads up the counselling service and street outreach work: “We currently have 10 counsellors, six of whom are trainees doing their placements with Anawim one day a week. We offer counselling to women who attend the services at the centre; some of the needs the women who attend Anawim present with are emotional traumas from early childhood, experience of prison, domestic violence and loss of children into care, suffering trauma from mental health issues.”

Sr Enda added: “It has been a privilege to work with Anawim over these decades, watching the organisation blossom and grow into a brilliant centre for so many women who have benefited greatly from the service. I am pleased to see more outreach work taking place in the local community, there are still so many women out there in need and Anawim has always known the best way to engage with these women by offering the right support and friendship.”

Sr Marie McGrogan added: “My role as a volunteer Chaplain is to be a caring and sensitive presence among the many vulnerable women who use the common room at Anawim. Hospitality, eg., making sandwiches, provides the ideal setting for ‘encounters’ with women from different social, cultural and faith (or no faith) backgrounds. I believe, it is important for the women, especially those on their initial visits, to be ‘received’ into a friendly and safe space and for them to ‘receive’ me too; at times this requires patient waiting as building trust, for them, can be slow and painful….When a woman arrives in the common room in a low place emotionally, anxious or fearful, a listening ear, a non-judgmental attitude, a friendly face, acceptance and assurance of confidentiality can diffuse the emotional pain at least temporarily. As Chaplain on such occasions, it is often about being in the right place at the right moment to ease that stress or emotional or spiritual pain.”

“For me, being a Chaplain, is about ‘service of the heart’ as it involves compassion, and being with the women in their vulnerability. It is a privilege to be allowed access to the sacred space of these women. As a Sister of Mercy, Anawim provides me with the context to live out my own Mercy calling. For this I am grateful.”

Sr Margaret Breen added: “My role as a volunteer at Anawim is supporting the mental health team, mentoring clients, bringing women to the Centre who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access the services and supporting women to attend hospital and benefit assessment appointments.”

Several sisters from other Congregations also volunteer regularly at the project.

Anawim became an independent charity three years ago, but the Congregation retains three Sisters on the Board of Trustees and still offers central support with budgets and accounts. The project has grown hugely over the three decades since it started and now has a team of around 30 staff including specialists in prison work and mental health as well as many volunteers.

Anawim comes from the Aramaic word meaning the poorest, the outcast, the persecuted - those with no voice.

http://anawim.co.uk/

Guest User 2/20/19 Guest User 2/20/19

Work underway to build on the meetings for Religious involved in anti-trafficking

The ‘brainstorming’ around anti-trafficking that took place at two large meetings in January, in London and Manchester, is being followed by further research on how best to bring Religious together for the purpose of anti-trafficking work.

Nearly seventy attended the London meeting and forty met in Manchester, with intensive interactive discussion at both meetings, to explore how Religious and CoR can respond to the challenges. One attendee said it felt like a flame was being reignited. The meetings follow on from the Arise foundation questionnaire sent out to all congregations last year, which, for the first time ever, mapped the huge scale of work in this field.

At the two meetings, three themes were selected for the main speakers to address : advocacy, frontline work and prayer. In London the keynote speakers on the topics were, respectively, Sr Patricia Mulhall CSB, Brothers from the Hospitaller Order of St John of God and Sr Sheila Barrett DMJ. In Manchester, the three presentations were given by Sr Isabel Kelly FMSJ, Brother Francis – Chair of the Medaille Trust & Fr Terry Madden.

At both meetings Luke de Pulford of the ARISE foundation gave a talk on the power and purpose of networks of Religious, drawing on international models as examples, particularly India, where Sisters are engaged in the full range of anti-trafficking endeavours, from preventative work to advocacy, to rescuing & rehabilitating victims, to prosecutions; a number of Sisters are trained lawyers specialising in anti-trafficking. One attendee commented: “It was an inspirational & challenging presentation from Luke - we need more of this.”

The President of CoR, Fr Paul Smyth CMF, facilitated the interactive aspect of the day, with people talking in pairs and then small groups, building up to an afternoon of people moving around in a ‘café’ style setting, with different themes set out at different tables. All the feedback and suggestions that this process gave rise to will be used to plan the foundations of the network and to think about next steps. Some of the suggestions can be categorised as follows:

WHAT CAN RELIGIOUS DO?:

· Create contacts list. Get out information about available bed spaces. Conversations to be held at different levels: multi-faith / or no faith, to broaden it out. Run livelihood projects. Think big.

· Establish a network of Religious Orders who wish to receive victims and care for them in a ‘trauma informed’ way until they’re ready to rejoin their communities and break the re-trafficking cycle.

· Create a database for volunteers. The list could include: languages spoken other than English / holistic therapies / Counsellors /Creative activities / fundraising experience / IT skills /accompaniment eg., befriending, shopping / English & Maths teaching

ADVOCACY:

Interactive discussion & feedback at London meeting

· Raise awareness at local authority level. Challenge council representatives to do something practical about human trafficking

· We need a common voice (speaking, writing). Need a mechanism alerting Religious to upcoming legislation so that we can lobby MPs. Could CoR organising training in advocacy and awareness raising?

· Need to link up with organisations who can campaign on our behalf – a reputable body, recognised by CoR. Get ideas from other countries where the above has already been done – eg., Acrath in Australia, Ruhama in Ireland.

· Work through MPs & solicitors.

· Prayer circle.

Bro Francis of Medaille addressing Manchester group

· TRAINING to recognise signs of trafficking : Contact regional or local anti-slavery experts / Antislavery Commissioner / Medaille Trust / Stop the Traffik / Clewer / The Passage / Salvation Army / TRAC / St Mary’s University Centre for Study of Modern Slavery

WHAT CAN CONFERENCE OF RELIGIOUS DO?

· Establish means of collaboration and develop closer, constructive links with politicians. CoR to invite people qualified in legal advice / social workers / counsellors etc, to inspire ways of providing support to people who are trafficked. Speak to congregations and make a compendium of information for local groups to use.

· Set up a campaign regarding ‘the hostile environment’ erected against refugees.

· Use CoR website to influence. Need to contact politicians to help them know CST & what religious congregations are doing.

· To gather information. Speak more confidently.

· Provide information for those who want to offer spiritual / financial support: prepare prayer initiatives and circulate through CoR.

SHARING OF INFORMATION ABOUT DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING:

One website? Or part of CoR website? With info / links / updates etc,.

CoR to organise a day where organisations (eg RAHAB, TRAC, Medaille) can share what they are doing and explore possible linking and volunteering opportunities.

Regional conferences

Share how congregational overseas links have been availed of building relationships with organisations that CoR members are not involved in, eg., Red Cross, Salvation Army, Quakers

RENATE as cross border support resource / Spot where the gaps are

· Organise awareness days eg., database of people involved in specific geographical areas.

· “Keeping the flame alive to keep us pro-active.”

· Offer guidance about insurance when offering vulnerable women accommodation. Use the expertise among ourselves. CoR can encourage Religious.

· Plan/offer training & awareness raising across the country, not just in London.

· Raise awareness at national level; this will help Religious at local level

· Write articles for external news outlets / websites, to keep the subject in the public domain.

· Regularly formulate petitions for Religious to send out to MPs

· Encourage members to keep ‘knocking on doors.’ Be involved in local initiatives – intercongregational & interfaith, interagency

· Co-ordinate training in advocacy and campaigning

· Feed info & experience into CoR so that it can be shared with members

· Have meetings eg., at diocesan level – and share with other dioceses

· CoR to inspire, give insights into & develop collaborative models of action which can be used more locally than nationally

HOW TO ACT MORE LOCALLY THROUGH COLLABORATION:

· Find out what is happening locally & get involved. Network to create awareness.

· Make it personal rather than general. “Many tiny drops of water blending make a mighty sea.”

· Try to come together and create awareness in the same locality

· Rethink our days together as Religious of the diocese to include issues such as anti-trafficking

· Refocus on the prayer aspect

· Be interested and supportive of local initiatives in the area of trafficking generally – inter-congregational & otherwise

· Invite people to participate in local groups offering the gifts they have to offer

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO ENGAGE WITH POLICY CREATION AT THE LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT?

· An online campaign to strengthen the voice for a platform, leading to a petition for government action.

HOW TO MANAGE THE TENSION BETWEEN ACCOMPANIMENT AND MONEY:

· Pray. Probably have to live with it to some extent. The disadvantage of getting big grants is you have to comply with the expectations of the funder. You are freer when you are a charity and rely on the good will of volunteers. Money can enable you to do outreach work and expand.

· Recognise and support those among us who are good at fundraising and/ or accompaniment – both are necessary and valuable.

· Accompany by volunteering – funding may be for others

HOW TO SHARE EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING:

· Write to external publications. Raise awareness in parish / diocese / via CoR website.

· Have regular speakers – monthly – in different areas. It could be a rolling programme, so re-useable information.

Guest User 2/20/19 Guest User 2/20/19

Pressure on investment managers to move congregations away from fossil fuels

“We’ve got an AGM shortly and I’m going to make sure we encourage our investment company not to invest in fossil fuels….Today was very inspiring. We need to take a serious look at our own investments as a congregation.…My congregation is already affected by climate change. I’m off to Kenya shortly and in the past it was always clear when the rainy season was expected ; now it’s unpredictable.”

Members of religious congregations pledged to speak urgently to their investment managers after attending a conference hosted by the Mount Street Jesuit centre to promote ‘clean’ energy as a way of tackling climate change; Catholic orders’ combined UK investments are estimated at over £2 billion. The Conference of Religious was a sponsor of the event along with Operation Noah, Cafod, the Global Catholic Climate Movement, National Justice & Peace Network and the Association of Provincial Bursars.

More than 1,000 organisations around the world including Caritas Internationalis, the Passionists in England & Wales, and the Columban Missionaries internationally have taken the step of divesting from fossil fuel companies in response to the global threat of climate change. Fr Martin Newell of the Passionists and Ellen Teague, a Columban co-worker presented examples of the divesting process. Both stressed the tension between the urgency of the environmental crisis and the slow process of divestment, which should be completed within five years of the initial announcement. Charting the effects of climate change is increasingly falling to overseas missionaries, for instance, documenting the effects of salination of soil in the Pacific islands due to increasing typhoons.

The meeting heard that the Irish Bishops’ conference divested last August; sixty orders in Ireland and all 26 dioceses are now on a path to follow suit. Keynote speaker Lorna Gold, Coordinator of the Laudato Si' Project at the Irish aid agency Trocaire and Vice-Chair of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, called on the Church in the UK to take similar action. Edward de Quay of the Bishops Conference Environmental Advisory Group was questioned over the lack of divestment commitments by dioceses in England & Wales. He responded: “We are aware of the work going on in dioceses to encourage divestment from fossil fuels and we hope these conversations are constructive. We are pleased that investment in renewable energy through the Churchmarketplace and Interdiocesan Fuel Management groups has been so successful, with 20 dioceses now buying green energy together.”

Sr Sheila Kinsey FCJM, Executive Co-Secretary of the JPIC Commission of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome, spoke of the new UISG campaign 2018-2020, 'Sowing Hope for the Planet'. A key element will be promoting divestment from fossil fuels by religious orders and supporting Pope Francis in his mission to "hear the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." She spoke of the importance of responsible stewardship, that "it is not enough to do good things by ourselves; we need to do these things with others,” adding “We need personal conversion & community conversion.” Sr Sheila Kinsey made an urgent appeal for congregations to consult a website that has been set up: www.sowinghopefortheplanet.org.

A Cafod representative told the conference that it wouldn’t succeed in ending poverty if climate change isn’t tackled and gave examples of the daily struggles people already face, eg., mothers in low lying areas having to rush to put babies in buckets to protect them when waters start to rise.

Fr Tom O’Brien of the Augustinians of the Assumption described the conference as hugely informative: “We’ve got an AGM shortly and I’m going to make sure we encourage our investment company not to invest in fossil fuels.” Sr Anne Hogan of the Sisters of St Gildas observed : “Today was very inspiring. We need to take a serious look at our own investments as a congregation.” Sr Elaine Kelly of the Helpers of Holy Souls added: “My congregation is already affected by climate change. I’m off to Kenya shortly and in the past it was always clear when the rainy season was expected ; now it’s unpredictable.”

As for the Jesuits’ own ethics, Brother Stephen Power SJ explained: “We do not invest in any company with more than 10% involvement in thermal coal or oil from tar sand. Our ethical investment committee regularly reviews this position and I would expect movement towards divestment unless progress towards sustainable business models are adopted by fossil fuel companies in the near future.”

One of the speakers at the conference, Fr Martin Poulsom SDB, senior lecturer in theology at Roehampton University added: “Religious congregations can play an important, prophetic role today, showing that they care for our common home – not just by the lives that their members lead, but also by where they invest their money. By divesting from fossil fuels and re-investing in zero-carbon energy generation, they can be signs of hope for our world, making possible the brighter, cleaner future that is needed for all who live on this earth that we share. The time to act is now.”

Additional summary from Lorna Gold of Trocaire:

L to r: Sr Sheila Kinsey, James Buchanan of Operation Noah, Lorna Gold of Trocaire

Over the last two years Trócaire has been on a journey with the Irish church to examine how we can put Pope Francis’ encyclical ‘Laudato Sí’ into practice. This has been a wonderful, inspiring journey, which has involved working on many fronts. Laudato Sí opens our hearts to a new vision of what it means to be a Christian on a precious, but fragile planet. It requires responses both on an individual level, but also a communitarian conversion experience. Many things need to change! An early part of this journey involved establishing a Laudato Sí Committee under the auspices of the Council for Catechetics, which is part of the Irish Bishops Conference. Through this diverse group comprising scientists, pastoral workers, eco-theologians, campaigners, and education advisors, amongst others, we were guided by the Spirit to come up with a number of key actions. These involved asking the bishops to endorse the global “Season of Creation” in Irish churches, to divest their resources from fossil fuels, as well as including care for creation in RE curriculum and Adult Faith Development. Very soon on our journey we realised that the biggest obstacle to ecological conversion was perhaps a serious lack of knowledge about the crisis we face today and how it connects with faith. In fact, we soon realised that if we were to have an impact on implementing Laudato Sí we needed to start first with filling basic knowledge gaps. For this reason, the Laudato Sí group offered to host in-service retreats and trainings for the bishops and their employees. The bishops accepted this offer and last February we spend a day in Knock up-skilling the bishops on ecological issues, including the climate crisis. It was a wonderful and engaging experience for all – and particularly for the clergy, who saw perhaps for the first time, the profound connection between our faith and our planet. Since then, the work of the group has grown and through it many initiatives have been successfully introduced. During the World Meeting of Families in Dublin the group organised a whole project on sustainability which included a beautiful pop-up Laudato Sí garden and a new holy well. This highlight of this journey to date, however, happened on the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland last summer. In front of a packed inter-faith gathering in Christchurch Cathedral, the bishops made a bold decision and announcement – to divest from fossil fuels. In doing so, they recognised that they were taking a step to address the unsustainable nature of fossil fuel extraction and the need to shift financial resources into climate solutions. The work to implement Laudato Sí continues. Whilst much has been achieved in two years, we still feel we are at the beginning. In the next two years we hope to see a blossoming of Laudato Sí in many dioceses and parishes across Ireland.

Guest User 2/8/19 Guest User 2/8/19

Religious aim to speak out more forcefully on social issues after media training

Full house for the inaugural session at the CoR office in Ealing

Religious have responded in their droves to the inaugural sessions of media training being offered by CoR. In the first three weeks of sessions being laid on, thirty-five Religious have attended the one day of training, in both Ealing and Manchester. Twenty more Religious are booked in for training days in February and March but there are still plenty of spaces available for anyone who’d like to sign up.

The next workshop is taking place on February 19th and then every Tuesday in March – all in Ealing. The same training is on offer during each session; it is being repeated to maximise the number of people who can attend. Further regional sessions are being arranged for March/April; the dates will be confirmed shortly. The training covers:

Sr MaryAnne Francalanza & Sr Brenda Makokha in Manchester

1) Creating engaging content for websites (editorial, visual, audio).

2) Best use of social media - the risks and the opportunities

3) How to get noticed – press releases & publicity

4) Media relations

5) Practical training in preparation for broadcast interviews

The inaugural session resulted in some particularly strong video clips which can now be viewed on the CoR website.

Some of the answers given to the evaluation feedback have included:

Q: Why did you come today? A: “I wanted to know advantages and disadvantages of social media.” / “Because I wanted to learn more about Twitter in order to raise awareness about certain issues eg., refugees and asylum seekers, people who are trafficked and also climate change.” / “To learn about new ways to communicate.”

Q; What were you most interested in? A: “To find out that many Religious have embraced new technology & social media to reach a much wider audience than has been possible previously.” / “All the new ways of communicating. I am on Facebook a bit – but the other social media channels not at all.”

Q: Have you learned new things? A: “Yes – how social media can be used effectively, to spread the word of God in an interesting and more engaging way. Also the Church’s recognition that there is a necessity to move with the times and embrace the digital world.” / “Yes the use of media as a way of hearing of the love of God – to reach the end of the world.” / “Yes, not to feel so scared of the thought of using Twitter & Instagram.” / “Yes, understanding Twitter. How to make ourselves, as Religious, more visible.”

Details for all three days. From 1030 to 1600. £15 to include lunch. Booking essential to secure a place – by sending an email to: communications@corew.org

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"Be lighthouses in rocky places!"

Homily by Cardinal Nichols at Mass for the World Day of Celebration for Consecrated Life at Westminster Cathedral on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2nd February 2019:

It is a real pleasure for me to see so many women and men in Religious and consecrated life here in the cathedral today.

As I thank you for your presence, I thank you too for all that you do in the service of Jesus Christ and his Church. Today’s feast does much to enrich our understanding of both. The infant Jesus, one of so many who would have been presented in the Temple every week, was picked out by Simeon as the Saviour, bringing light and glory both for those who know God, and those to whom the Good News must still be brought. Through your commitment to consecrated life, you too have seen in the infant Jesus a Saviour and you too have been chosen by God to play your part in spreading the message of salvation.

This theme of light is most characteristic of the Feast of the Presentation. The symbolism is rich indeed. And I should like to reflect on this now.

I was recently given a card with a picture of a lighthouse on the front, offered to me as an image of my ministry. My first thought: a lighthouse is no use without the light! There would be no lighthouse without the light at its heart. There would be no Church without Christ. It is through Christ that we can come to see the face of the Father; it is in Christ that we seek to live; it is with Christ that we walk, each day of our lives.

Then a second thought: The effectiveness of a lighthouse depends to a great extent on what surrounds the light: the mirrors and how the mirrors that reflect the light are arranged, where the lighthouse is placed, how well it is looked after.

To see the Church as being like the mirrors in a lighthouse, reflecting the light of Christ, is to recall an image of the Church that dates from the Fathers. The prophet Malachi speaks of the ‘Sun of Righteousness’, a phrase that maintains its familiarity for us through one of our best-loved Christmas carols. Christ is indeed that Sun from which the Church derives a certain ‘borrowed splendour’, just as the moon borrows its light from the sun. This is not just a nice image from an ecclesiology textbook. It is helpful in grounding us in our purpose, in acknowledging our utter dependence on Christ for all we do, as we seek to live out the promises we have made. Without him, without his light we are useless. When our faces are turned towards him, then we may just reflect his light more fully, despite the faults that mark us and distort his light.

A third thought: The placement of a lighthouse is critical. If it is in the wrong place then its effectiveness is compromised, and ships may flounder on unmarked rocks. For people who have consecrated their lives, being in the right place to shine the light of Christ for others is so important. In the Church of today, it is so often Religious sisters and brothers who have the gift of knowing where that is. You often know the rocky places on which you must make your presence visible.

There are no lighthouses in the amusement arcades of Great Yarmouth! The outstanding witness and work of Religious in the fight against modern slavery is just one example. The most recent edition of Oremus, the cathedral magazine, contains an article about the unique role of Religious in fighting human trafficking in the UK. It tells how the Religious are involved in direct, front-line ministry to those who have fallen victim to traffickers. How grateful I am to all those who are responding so generously to this need in our diocese today.

Thought number four: A lighthouse can be technically brilliant and perfectly placed, but if it is not maintained then, sooner or later, disaster will strike: the light will go out. All Christian people must take the time to maintain their faith, but it is a special priority for those who are committed to Christ in the ways that you are. That work of maintenance is expressed, certainly, in our commitment to our communities. Charity in a community can sometimes be a raw thing; it often has to be an act of the will; but we cannot do without it as we seek to conform ourselves more closely to Christ, day by day. But above all, our work of maintenance stands or falls in our life of prayer: an essential and indispensable component of our relationship with God. Temptations to cut corners are everywhere: there are so many needs, important ones, that must be met; there are any number of people who need our help, or administrative tasks to be done. But we must never let the good prevent us from seeking the perfect. Today, as we renew our commitment to consecrated life, let us renew, in particular, our commitment to prayer; let us commit ourselves afresh to conform our lives, through prayer, to the ‘compassionate and trustworthy’ Christ of whom the Letter to the Hebrews speaks.

One final thought: When the lighthouse has done its work; when it has guided the ship safely to harbour, what will those who disembark find? Some of you may have visited the tidal island off Newborough on Anglesey: ‘the island of the blessed’, some call it. There the lighthouse is dwarfed, at the highest point of the island, by a towering cross. The island is associated, too, with a patron saint of lovers. Our works of witness and faithfulness cannot be separated from the Cross, for us, or for those we serve. But our work can, and must, be underpinned by love. Love for one another, expressed not least in the charity of community living; love for those to whom we minister; above all, love for Jesus Christ, the light that darkness cannot overcome, whose Presentation we celebrate today.

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A gathering for troubled times - come and recharge batteries at JPIC Links conference

“Signs of Hope” (Seeking life in troubled times), is the title of the forthcoming JPIC Links conference, to be led by an Anglican vicar, the Revd Dr Al Barrett. It’s taking place from 5 - 7 April at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

Organiser Sr Gillian Price FC said: “It really is a great support network for religious and associates. This year’s conference follows on from Brexit (or not) so we reckoned it was a good time to 're-group' for support and encouragement for each other.”

The Reverend Al Barrett is Vicar in Hodge Hill, East Birmingham, where he has been involved in grassroots community-building since 2010 and is seeking to develop ‘a radically receptive political theology in the urban margins’.

In his keynote address to the 40th annual gathering of the Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales last year, Revd Barrett called for a radically receptive solidarity with the poor and marginalised.

In a talk entitled 'Can anybody hear me?' : Christian discipleship in Brexit Britain in the shadow of Grenfell Tower,' he noted how his own vision chimed with that of Pope Francis's preaching of 'encounter' in genuine, mutually nurturing relationships.

Revd Barrett suggested that these are times of 'profound fragmentation' - generational, ethnic, socio-economic - and he identified an underlying post-imperial melancholia, in British society. Revd Barrett argued that our entrenched and widening class divides - our structural inequalities - were the effects not just of current austerity policies, but also 'the longer-term legacy of Thatcherism, deindustrialisation and the rise of the super-rich.'

He summarised precarity as 'the lack or loss of employment (or insecure, zero-hours contracts); poor quality, overcrowded and inadequately available housing; unyielding and punitive welfare regimes; and variable and uncertain access to food and healthcare; coupled with a lack or loss of voice in politics' - all making for a perfect storm. 'Many people have to deal with a hell of a lot more precarity than others.'

More information on the conference can be found here.

Applications for the April conference can be downloaded by clicking here.

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Religious relish the chance to share ideas to step up the battle against human trafficking

One attendee at January’s meetings for Religious involved in anti-trafficking said it felt like a flame was being reignited. The Conference of Religious held two large gatherings in January, in London and Manchester, to bring Religious together for the purpose of developing a network of those involved in this struggle. Nearly seventy attended the London meeting and forty met in Manchester, with intensive ‘brainstorming’ and interactive discussion at both meetings, to explore how Religious and CoR can respond to the challenges. The meetings follow on from the Arise foundation questionnaire sent out to all congregations last year, which, for the first time ever, mapped the huge scale of work in this field.

At the Manchester meeting, there was an additional contribution from retired Detective Chief Inpsector with Lancashire Constabulary, Sion Hall, who has become a committed campaigner against modern slavery. He told the meeting about some of the victims he has assisted and described seeing young women who are branded with tattoos to indicate ‘ownership.’

WHAT CAN RELIGIOUS DO?:

ADVOCACY:

· Raise awareness at local authority level. Challenge council representatives to do something practical about human trafficking

· We need a common voice (speaking, writing). Need a mechanism alerting Religious to upcoming legislation so that we can lobby MPs. Could CoR organise training in advocacy and awareness raising?

· Work through MPs & solicitors.

· Prayer circle.

WHAT CAN CONFERENCE OF RELIGIOUS DO?

· Set up a campaign regarding ‘the hostile environment’ erected against refugees.

· Use CoR website to influence. Need to contact politicians to help them know CST & what religious congregations are doing.

· To gather information. Speak more confidently.

· Provide information for those who want to offer spiritual / financial support: prepare prayer initiatives and circulate through CoR.

SHARING OF INFORMATION ABOUT DIFFERENT ORGANISATIONS AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING:

One website? Or part of CoR website? With info / links / updates etc,.

CoR to organise a day where organisations (eg RAHAB, TRAC, Medaille) can share what they are doing and explore possible linking and volunteering opportunities.

Regional conferences

Share how congregational overseas links have been availed of Building relationships with organisations that CoR members are not involved in, eg., Red Cross, Salvation Army, Quakers

RENATE as cross border support resource.

Spot where the gaps are

· Organise awareness days eg., database of people involved in specific geographical areas.

· “Keeping the flame alive to keep us pro-active.”

· Offer guidance about insurance when offering vulnerable women accommodation. Use the expertise among ourselves. CoR can encourage Religious.

· Plan/offer training & awareness raising across the country, not just in London.

· Raise awareness at national level; this will help Religious at local level

· Write articles for external news outlets / websites, to keep the subject in the public domain.

· Encourage members to keep ‘knocking on doors.’ Be involved in local initiatives – intercongregational & interfaith, interagency

· Co-ordinate training in advocacy and campaigning

· Feed info & experience into CoR so that it can be shared with members

· Have meetings eg., at diocesan level – and share with other dioceses

· CoR to inspire, give insights into & develop collaborative models of action which can be used more locally than nationally

HOW TO ACT MORE LOCALLY THROUGH COLLABORATION:

· Find out what is happening locally & get involved. Network to create awareness.

· Make it personal rather than general. “Many tiny drops of water blending make a mighty sea.”

· Try to come together and create awareness in the same locality

· Rethink our days together as Religious of the diocese to include issues such as anti-trafficking

· Refocus on the prayer aspect

· Be interested and supportive of local initiatives in the area of trafficking generally – inter-congregational & otherwise

· Invite people to participate in local groups offering the gifts they have to offer

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO ENGAGE WITH POLICY CREATION AT THE LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT?

· An online campaign to strengthen the voice for a platform, leading to a petition for government action.

HOW TO MANAGE THE TENSION BETWEEN ACCOMPANIMENT AND MONEY:

· Recognise and support those among us who are good at fundraising and/ or accompaniment – both are necessary and valuable.

· Accompany by volunteering – funding may be for others

HOW TO SHARE EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING:

· Write to external publications. Raise awareness in parish / diocese / via CoR website.

· Have regular speakers – monthly – in different areas. It could be a rolling programme, so re-useable information.

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Fossil fuel divestment for a zero carbon future: A conference for religious

By Fr Martin Poulsom SDB

On Thursday 14 February, at Mount Street Jesuit Centre in London, a day conference for religious is taking place, at which we can hear about how Catholic institutions are responding to the urgent call on climate change launched by Pope Francis in Laudato Sì. The conference, co-sponsored by Operation Noah, CAFOD, the Conference of Religious, the Association of Provincial Bursars, Global Catholic Climate Movement and the National Justice & Peace Network, will take place from 11am to 4pm, including a Laudato Sì Mass at 3.30pm celebrated by Rev Dr Dominic Robinson SJ.

Speakers will include Lorna Gold, Coordinator of the Laudato Si' Project at Trocaire and Vice Chair of the Global Catholic Climate Movement; Sr Sheila Kinsey FCJM, Executive Co-Secretary of the JPIC Commission UISG-USG in Rome; and Rev Dr Martin Poulsom SDB, Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of Roehampton. There will also be an opportunity to learn more about fossil fuel divestment that is already taking place, and about how religious communities can get involved in supporting the clean energy transition to ensure a brighter, cleaner future for everyone.

Religious have long been at the forefront of engagement in the areas of justice, peace and the integrity of creation, and this Conference will allow us to reflect on investment decisions that are being made by our sisters and brothers and to discern a way forward for ourselves. Responsible and ethical investment is now something that every religious order and congregation takes account of, and we will hear from investors who have discerned that investment in energy production and storage is an ethical issue, which requires action. In doing so, they are responding to the call of Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ to care for ‘our common home … which we all share’ (§ 13). Francis also points out that we ‘now know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels needs to be progressively replaced without delay’ (§ 165).

This message, that the time to act is now, is also supported by many other voices around our common home. A scientific study published this month in the journal Nature Communications indicates that the Paris target of 1.5oC is attainable, if a phase-out of carbon-intensive energy use and transition to clean energy begins immediately. This supports the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which spoke of the enormous benefits of aiming for the ambitious 1.5oC target, and of the need to act quickly to make it possible to attain.

Large numbers of organisations, both religious and secular, are already responding to these calls to action. More than 1,000 institutions around the world, including the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference, Caritas Internationalis, the Passionists in England & Wales, the Columban Missionaries and the Franciscan Sisters of Mary in the USA have taken the step of divesting (disinvesting) from fossil fuel companies, in response to the global threat of climate change. New York City, the Royal College of GPs and the Church of Ireland were also among organisations to divest in 2018.

By announcing divestment commitments publicly, religious orders and congregations respond to our prophetic call, to be voices that speak in favour of those who are ignored and disregarded, to be people who put our words into action in our lives. In this way, we become prophetic witnesses of possibility, seeking to welcome in a future that God calls us to make a reality in our common home. As we discern the direction that God is calling us to take, we can take encouragement from Pope Francis, who encourages us to walk lightly together on the earth: ‘May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope’ (Laudato Sì, § 244).

The conference is free of charge, and participants are invited to bring something to share for a vegetarian lunch. Places are limited, so please book by Friday 8 February to avoid disappointment, by contacting James Buchanan at james.buchanan@operationnoah.org or calling 07801 570653.

Bright Now - the campaign for Fossil Free Churches www.brightnow.org.uk

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Sister Imelda Poole calls for unity & action to tackle child trafficking

The anti-slavery network RENATE has hosted a parliamentary reception in the House of Commons to launch its new mapping exercise on child trafficking.

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Hogan-Howe, sponsored the event, with contributions from Iain Duncan-Smith MP, Commons sponsor of the Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill and Maria Miller MP, co-chair of the Independent Review into the 2015 Modern Slavery Act.

There were two purposes to the reception. First, to help close the gap between frontline anti- slavery groups throughout Europe and lawmakers by bringing the two together. Second, to launch new research commissioned by RENATE Europe, undertaken by Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford, Director, Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Human Trafficking (CCARHT) and Research Associate with the Centre for Global Migration (Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge), with assistance from desk-researchers and RENATE members in the field.

The researchers behind the report undertook painstaking work in seven European countries (Albania, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, The Netherlands and Ukraine), setting out to document and analyse responses to the problem of child trafficking. Its findings are a wake- up call. The report authors conclude:

“...in none of the countries studied were the measures of protection comprehensively adequate to the special needs of unaccompanied minor migrants.’’

Lord Hogan-Howe, trustee of anti-slavery charity and co-sponsor of the event, the Arise Foundation said:

“I am delighted to play a part in bringing the voice of frontline anti-slavery activists to parliament. Westminster can be a bubble, and this often brings about a disconnect between what is happening on the ground and what policy-makers are discussing. Modern slave-traders are organised criminals. They quickly and cleverly adapt their methods. We need frontline intelligence on the true picture of what slavery looks like, not just for our benefit, but to raise awareness among the general public who often feel far removed from the world of slavery, but in reality, are not. I commend the superb work of RENATE in bringing this invaluable knowledge to the fore.”

Sr Imelda Poole, IBVM, MBE, founder of RENATE said “The next step is to translate the findings from the report into concrete policy recommendations. It is hoped that this mapping of child trafficking will lead to more action on the part of all the specialists in the field. RENATE calls on them to work more closely together and to heed the advice given in the many reports quoted in this document and in the research conducted in the field, over the last year. The aim of RENATE, as with the SDGs and Pope Francis in Rome, is to ‘Rid the World of Human Trafficking by 2030’. Let us unite to achieve this goal.’’

Further information: www.renate-europe.net

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Two Sisters reflect on years of campaigning against human trafficking

By Sister Marie Power HFB:

The campaigning group that I am a part of, TRAC (Trafficking, Raising Awareness and Campaigning), for me, “does what it says on the tin.”

Although I was not in at the founding of TRAC, I very quickly joined enthusiastically when I returned to live in London. At that time it was chaired by a dynamic and wonderful woman, Theresa Helm, who sadly died about two years ago. I began to chair the meetings while Theresa was ill and I am still in this role.

The work of TRAC is fundamental to fighting trafficking because it addresses the causes, namely demand. While it is necessary, of course, to help the victims it is also necessary to try to prevent them becoming victims in the first place. I began work in anti-trafficking in the mid 1990s and working all over Europe, it became clear to us at that time that the demand for sexual services in the West of Europe fuelled the rise of trafficking of women and children from Eastern Europe; it is this that TRAC is still trying to raise awareness about - although we now know that trafficking is worldwide and is internal as well as external to most countries.

While we in TRAC are mainly concerned with the exploitation of women and children in prostitution there is now growing awareness of the labour exploitation of men and women. However we are now concentrating on the abolition of prostitution in the UK. This is an enormous task but we are committed to establishing the “Nordic Model” here, which criminalises the buyers of sex and decriminalises the women in prostitution. This must come with realistic exit strategies for those who depend on prostitution for their living.

This is a complex and difficult task but it has now become law in many countries including Ireland and Northern Ireland - and we have many allies so we are not working alone.

By Sister Isabel C Kelly FMSJ:

Most people on approaching their 70s are winding down but I was just about four months off 72 when I was asked to be the Justice & Peace Co-Ordinator for the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph with a focus on human trafficking!

I had no idea what the two words meant but when we voted on this appointment, I had no doubt that the Sister who had met the Franciscan International leader on human trafficking would be chosen to do this work. So I got the shock of my life when I received the letter asking ME to do it. I had a very good look at the letter, read it several times, and decided that there was nothing in it that could inspire me to refuse!

A few days after saying YES, I received the minutes of the first meeting of religious before the Medaille Trust was initiated. Nobody knew me at that meeting, none of our Sisters were there, so to get those minutes, for me, was a miracle in itself. I wrote for permission to be an observer at the next meeting in Southampton and everything blossomed from then.

Before that meeting, which was in February 2006, I had booked myself into a two-and-a-half day workshop/conference with Franciscans International in New York at the beginning of March plus a week with another organisation in New York. I stayed with the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Manhatten and travelled on two tubes to the venue – starting at 0730 and returning around 2030. I went to all the workshops which mentioned prostitution, human trafficking, paedophiles etc,. We had no break for lunch or coffee so I just went from one workshop to another sipping a cold drink and nibbling at a sandwich while I waited for the workshops to begin.

All I have done ever since is mention human trafficking to anyone I meet – on train platforms, at bus stops, on the bus and even to my hospital patients in my chaplaincy work. In fact, one patient told me her son had mentioned that there would be a lap dancing club opening at a location near to where I live. I went to the police station to ask if they knew about it, if police would be there, in uniform or in civvies? They knew about it, police would be around both in uniform and in civvies! The lap dancing club was closed within three weeks.

I went to the bi-centenary of the Abolition of Slavery in Hull and as I sat at my table for lunch, I heard someone say, “I got into this because of a nun!” It was a policeman I had spoken to in 2006 after my short spell in New York, to ask if they knew anything about human trafficking and if they were doing anything about it!!

I have raised awareness of human trafficking to a number of groups – all by word of mouth! I have never advertised myself. It has just happened. Maybe not everyone can raise awareness through talks but we can tell others the little we know and pray. Never say “ I am too old” to do that!

Just do it!

“Please do whatever you can to raise awareness on this worldwide evil and pray for those who are trying to eradicate it.”

Sister Marie, far left & Sister Isabel, far right at a TRAC meeting

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Blessing by Papal Nuncio of ‘Homeless Jesus’ aims to raise awareness of and support for destitute people in London

An open invitation is extended to the formal blessing of the new statue ‘Homeless Jesus’ at Farm Street Church of the Immaculate Conception, London, on Tuesday January 15th 2019.

The sculpture, by Canadian Timothy Schmalz, represents Jesus lying on a park bench with all but his feet with crucifixion wounds obscured. It has been installed in various locations in North America and the UK and, through the support of Pope Francis, at the Vatican. This is the first Homeless Jesus in London.

The evening begins at 6pm with the celebration of Mass presided over by Archbishop Edward Adams, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, including the blessing of the statue. The homily will be given by Rev Dr Paul O’Reilly SJ, a GP at the medical practice for street homeless people at the Cardinal Hume Centre.

The service will be followed by short presentations from the sculptor Timothy Schmalz, George O’Neill, CEO of the Cardinal Hume Centre and Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Light refreshments will be served in the church hall from 7.45pm. There will be a collection in aid of Jesuit Refugee Service and the Cardinal Hume Centre.

RSVP by 2nd January 2019 to Scott McCombe, Farm Street Parish Administrator, on 020-7529-4829 farmstreetoffice@rcdow.org.uk

HOMELESS JESUS by Timothy Schmalz depicts Jesus as a homeless person, sleeping on a park bench. His face and hands are obscured by a blanket, but crucifixion wounds on his feet reveal his identity. The statue, which has been described as a visual translation of Jesus’ admonition, “as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, so you did it to me,” can now be found in Farm Street Jesuit Church.

This central London base aims to challenge perceptions and spur people to put faith into action for the most vulnerable. The statue is located inside the church before the altar in the side chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours.

Parish priest Fr Dominic Robinson SJ said, "It is fitting to place the Son under the protection of His mother depicted in grief where the crucifixion wounds and Mary’s pierced heart are so close together. The permanent home here for Homeless Jesus allows its message to ring true and reflect the core beliefs of the congregation and may inspire all those who see it to thoughtful consideration and action in the community."

The church has a footfall of between 2000 and 3000 per week, representing a very broad and transient mix of people with a stable and lively faith community at its heart. People come for private prayer, public worship and also for its beautiful art and architecture. It is one of the few central London churches which stays open all day. It is accessible and welcome to all who treat it with quiet respect.

Fr Dominic added, "Jesuit commitment to faith and justice in action finds expression here as a sign of welcome to all, a challenge to a culture of exclusion and judgement."

Homeless outreach at Farm Street

Farm Street Church is the perfect location in the centre of London for Homeless Jesus because the parish has ministered to homeless people in a very practical way for the last four years as an active member of a consortium of faith organisations who provide food and accommodation to street homeless people for eight months of the year. Parish administrator and project co-ordinator Scott McCombe explains: “Here at Farm Street we host fifteen homeless people on Monday nights during four months of the year. Volunteers from the parish have organised a rota for setting up the church hall, welcoming the guests, eating a hot meal with them, tidying up and setting up the hall as a dormitory.”

The guests are referred by the West London Day Centre, a charity which supports homeless people from a base in Marble Arch; and food is donated by a range of Mayfair businesses. Contributing local businesses include:

· The Connaught

· The Stafford

· Claridges

· Delfino’s

· Fortnum and Mason

· Daylesford Organic

· Hoares Bank Catering

“Most of the businesses we ask respond positively and are very generous,” Scott commented, “and we are lucky in our very enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers. We all get great satisfaction, not just from putting our faith into action in this practical way, but also when we hear about how people have managed to turn around their lives, secure permanent accommodation and find work.”

Sculpture and sculptor

The Homeless Jesus project originated with the Jesuits in Canada: the first cast of the statue is located at Regis College in Toronto. The most famous is outside the Vatican’s charity offices in Rome, blessed by Pope Francis on its installation in 2016.

Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz describes his purpose, “I am devoted to creating artwork that glorifies Christ, because, apart from my Christian belief, an artist needs an epic subject to create epic art. Christian sculptures are like visual sermons 24 hours a day. Creating art that has the power to convert, creating sculpture that deepens our spirituality, this is my purpose as an artist.”

There are now at least a dozen casts in the United States, as well as in Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester. Westminster City Council turned down an application to install a cast outside Methodist Central Hall in Westminster.

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An appeal to members of Religious Congregations to come together in the battle against modern slavery

Members of religious congregations in England & Wales are being invited to join a new network that is being set up to strengthen the fight against human trafficking. Two meetings are being held in January – one in London and one in Manchester – to lay the foundations of the network.

Organised by the Conference of Religious (the umbrella organisation for congregational leaders), the network aims to draw together the many members of religious institutes who are engaged in anti-trafficking work, as well as others who’d like to offer support & increase their understanding.

Those already involved are active in a plethora of ways, from preventative efforts to awareness raising, protection and assistance of victims. Some congregations have opened their homes to victims and a number of Religious work closely with the police, including Sisters who tip police off and also go out on raids to properties to help support those who are rescued; the help is immediate on the day with the most basic of requirements – clothing, food and accommodation - and can often continue for a lengthy period afterwards as the person attempts to rebuild their life.

The January meetings follow on from the recent major research conducted by the Arise Foundation which revealed the scale of the contribution, by Religious, to anti slavery. Arise sent a questionnaire to all Congregations in England and Wales, in the first ever attempt to map the work that is taking place. The report was launched, to much acclaim, at a well attended event in November. The Prime Minister sent a message to the Arise Foundation, praising the “extraordinary global contribution of Religious Sisters to the anti-slavery movement.”

Sr Jane Maltby RSCJ addressing the audience at the launch of the Arise report

The Vice President of the Conference of Religious, Sr Jane Maltby RSCJ explained how this area of apostolic work has grown: “The development into anti-trafficking work of sisters and brothers in the UK has been influenced by pastoral needs on the ground which members of religious institutes were encountering in their ministries. The commitment of Religious is long-term, is inspired by traditions of service to those in need, and is an integral part of their spirituality. An important section in the report speaks about the intangible aspects of anti-slavery accompaniment. Aspects like love and trust which are so critical to this work, and yet feature so rarely in policy conversations on this subject. Love and trust take time to build and to make manifest. It is the core strength of the work of Religious in this area.“

The research revealed that 172 members of Religious Institutes – 144 women and 28 men - are providing frontline services to people who have fallen prey to traffickers. There has also been a huge contribution to the struggle in the very tangible contribution of properties and money. Sixteen Congregations have provided 29 properties at a book price of nearly sixteen-point-four million pounds- which is highly likely to be an underestimate of the value of these buildings. Some of these properties are used as safe houses where victims of modern slavery, including women with children, can find refuge. In addition, Congregations have donated more than £10 million pounds to anti-trafficking in the last five years.

Twenty-two Religious have been involved in founding antislavery organisations; they represent the full range of antislavery service provision: from prevention work to rescue, shelter and on-going accompaniment.

Image from a property donated to the Medaille Trust by the RSCJ Congregation

Sr Jane Maltby added: “Speaking from a personal perspective, my Congregation owns a property that we no longer need, and, rather than sell this commercially, we undertook extensive research and consultation in order to make the best decision we could, that would be in line with our priorities for mission. In the past, we ran schools and projects around the welfare of women and children, with others collaborating with us. Today, we are delighted to be able to turn that around, and we collaborate with others. In gifting the property and enabling women and children survivors to be cared for in a safe environment, we have entered a partnership which expresses the gospel values of tenderness and mercy, so much a part of our charism.”

The new network will be affiliated to similar international groupings like Talitha Kum - a network which facilitates collaboration and the interchange of information between consecrated men and women in 76 countries. Founded nearly a decade ago, it arose from the shared desire to coordinate and strengthen the already existing activities against trafficking undertaken by consecrated persons in the five continents.

Many respondents to the Arise research said that they would like the Conference of Religious to play a role in assisting Religious engaged in anti-slavery work. The new network aims to give support, resources & training, better communications and a stronger voice.

A key principle is that the network will be by Religious, for Religious.

Details of the two meetings:

LONDON MEETING: JANUARY 19th 2019, 10.30-16:00. Holy Apostles Church, Pimlico (47 Cumberland St, Pimlico, London SW1V 4LY, [Church Hall]).

MANCHESTER MEETING: JANUARY 26th 2019, 10.30-16:00. Manchester Universities’ Catholic Chaplaincy (Avila House, 335-337 Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PG).

Those wishing to attend are asked to register their interest at this link by the 10th January 2019. There is no charge to attend. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

NB! Please note that each individual needs to register. (Those unable to fill out the link are asked to contact Sr. Dominica Popach O.P. directly on: 07880 771 707 or send an email to : arise@corew.org).

Guest User 12/20/18 Guest User 12/20/18

Formal launch in Ireland of a new group to advance the mission of Women Religious

Sisters in Ireland are celebrating becoming an established regional group of ‘Communicators for Women Religious’ – an international network offering professional support and resources for outreach and engagement with the media. CWR, which originated in the US a quarter of a century ago, now boasts more than 200 members in numerous countries.

The launch of the Irish branch took place at the headquarters of the Religious Sisters of Charity at Sandymount in Dublin with Sisters from several Congregations having travelled across Ireland to be there; Sisters from other countries took part in the launch via an internet link up. The Irish group has already secured charitable funding for media training and the members are enthusiastic about engaging more pro-actively to tell their story and having a framework for greater collaboration.

A pilot group has been meeting in Dublin for over two years to plot the way forward; participants have been mandated by a variety of Congregations to be communicators of the religious life stories of their institutes. Several are also lay women already working in communications for Congregations or in vocations promotion. In October the Executive Director of CWR, Nicholas Schafer, travelled from Chicago to join the pilot group for a two day conference in Dublin. An invitation was extended to other Religious to find out more about CWR. Sr Thomasina Finn RSM observed: “The negative story in Ireland started 20 years ago and has prevailed now for at least nine years as the established narrative. There is still no countervailing public voice. The positive stories are told only in private.”

Sr Patricia Lenihan RSC talking to the Sisters who participated from other countries in the Zoom link up

Sr Patricia Lenihan is on the Board of CWR, having been involved with the network for eight years: “I am very happy that we have reached this stage. It has been wonderful to have such a committed and enthusiastic core group who have been a source of energy and support to each other since we began. My hopes for the group are that it will develop and grow and be a resource for the women’s religious congregations in Ireland. A place where sisters/communicators can go to get help with media training, whilst supporting each other and helping with issues that are particular to the way women religious are portrayed in the national media.”

CWR holds an annual conference in the United States with a broad range of speakers and workshops. Members of CWR, internationally, represent over 150 congregations and individually serve in communication ministry, leadership teams, mission advancement (fund raising) and vocation ministries.

Group facilitator Sr Marie Stuart RSM said the October conference was a key step in the development of the Irish group: “Nick Schafer listened as the story of CWR in Ireland unfolded through the voices of those who had been present from the beginning, two and a half years ago and from new voices interested in being a part of the venture. He gave the assurance that CWR is committed to the empowerment of its members and how funding could be made available for CWR training projects.”

l to r: Srs Una Agnew, Suzanne Ryder, Attracta Tighe, Catherine Lennon, Patricia Lenihan & Margaret Cartwright (Vocations Director), Sr Marie Stuart, Sr Marie Dunne, Michelle Robertson (Communications Officer, Srs of Our Lady of Apostles)

Sr Una Agnew SSL, another group member, recently experienced media engagement, having responded to an article in The Irish Times which posed the question: “Just what is the nuns’ side of the story?” In the wake of the distressing revelations of recent years about mother and baby homes, the author of the newspaper article – Professor of History at University College Dublin, Diarmaid Ferriter, argued that Congregations need to be much more open about the past, but also that “we have not got enough sense of the perspective of the religious sisters involved in running institutions” and “we certainly need more balance and the avoidance of cartoon depictions of any Congregation.”

The article also referred to a recent edition of the Jesuit quarterly ‘Studies’ which reported on a conference last year on the history of women involved in religious life – emphasising the need to establish “foundations for a fuller narration” of the nuns’ stories: “The terrible damage that was done by some nuns purporting to act in the name of the gospel is acknowledged, but it is argued that those failings have been “allowed to become the whole story” and UCD’s Deirdre Rafferty, a historian of education, highlights a “vast, and largely undocumented legacy” in the fields of healthcare, education and the missions.”

Sr Una, who is Professor Emerita of Spirituality at the Milltown Institute in Dublin and also an expert on the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, felt a gauntlet had been thrown down. She responded with an immediate letter to The Irish Times in November: “Damage done by a few must be acknowledged and repented but cannot be allowed to become the whole story. It’s already a hopeful sign when Dr Ferriter’s female academic colleague from UCD, with her positive story about women religious, is given prominence in the press and that Studies dedicates a full edition to “the nuns’ story”. It is also healthy for the reputation of all academic work that “fuller narration” is requested so that bias might be challenged.”

“It is important too that changing “contexts” might be considered essential to research. The contexts of our lives as religious over the years have changed enormously, a fact not easily grasped even in the academic sphere, where context is crucial to authentic research. “

Sr Una added: “Many religious today are witnesses to many different contexts, political, social and religious, that could scarcely be fully understood by modern generations…..If history is to be written correctly, it must embrace all narratives and contexts which will allow posterity to make a fair assessment of the services religious and their lay colleagues have given, (with many happy memories), to shape the heart and soul of our country.”

CWR website : https://c4wr.org/

To contact the Irish group, email: cwr.ireland@gmail.com

Guest User 12/14/18 Guest User 12/14/18

Sisters versus human traffickers

Religious Sisters from rural Assam: long-term, community-based work

By Sr Lynda Dearlove RSM and Luke de Pulford

Here’s an interesting experiment: next time you are in a group of people – Catholic or not – ask them to name two anti-slavery organisations. Chances are that they won’t be able to think of any. But if they can, you can be pretty sure that the work of Religious Sisters won’t come up. It’s a scandal, really. Sisters (and it is overwhelmingly Sisters as opposed to male Religious or secular clergy) are doing this work in at least 80 countries – including all the areas most plagued by modern slavery. If they were united in a single NGO, they would be by far the world’s largest.

Yet they remain the best-kept secret of the anti-slavery movement. The reason? In short, Sisters don’t boast, as anyone who has worked on the front line of the Church’s poverty relief, education or HIV prevention efforts will confirm. As wave after wave of abuse scandals dominate the headlines, it is all too easy to forget that the Catholic Church has hundreds of thousands of women Religious devoting their lives to serving those on the margins in every part of the globe. Rarely, if ever, have they gone in search of recognition.

So it is not surprising that when Prime Minister Theresa May paid tribute to the “extraordinary global contribution” of Religious Sisters to anti-slavery work recently, it wasn’t the result of a lobbying campaign run by Religious, but in a letter to John Studzinski, Chairman of the Arise Foundation, a charity based in London and New York working to end slavery and human trafficking.

In the fiercely competitive world of international NGOs, the Sisters’ humility is extremely unusual. It is both their strength and their weakness. It is their strength because their low profile means that they are less reliant on Western organisations for funding. This means that they are less tethered to the heavy bureaucracy associated with keeping funders happy, leaving them more free to focus on the individual dignity and complex needs of the person in front of them. It is their weakness because reluctance to crow about their achievements makes their work almost invisible to the funding and policy communities.

But so what? Why should these communities listen to Sisters? What, if anything, makes their work distinctive? If they were heard, what difference would it make? It might be better to attempt to answer through a story. Recently we were in India visiting members of Amrat, the huge anti-slavery network of Sisters covering the entire country. About 100 had turned up for their annual meeting. The gathering was held in a well-maintained but sparse seminary building hidden in a vast leafy plantation on the outskirts of Pune, near Mumbai. It was a sweltering day. The meeting gave occasion for many jaw-dropping conversations about the sheer depravity Sisters were having to confront on a daily basis.

One such conversation was with two Sisters from rural Assam (pictured). They were candid about their work. They told us how hard it was to get the indigenous children to stay in school because the attraction of smartphones and other modern luxuries offered by traffickers were a greater lure than the help they could afford to provide. They told us about how it would often take a decade to see any marked improvement in a traumatised survivor to whom they were offering loving accompaniment (together with the necessary services such as shelter, counselling and skills training). They told us about the physically punishing journeys they had to undertake on a daily basis to get to the most vulnerable villages, where the poverty is so crushing that some parents will sell their children to escape it.

The work they described was thankless, self-emptying and demoralising. But it was also full of hope, purpose and even progress. Their story would be typical of the work of any abolitionist Sister anywhere in the world. But it is also helpful to highlight the distinctive character of Sisters’ anti-slavery work. These two Sisters were engaged in work that was very rural, long-term and directed by a spirit of loving accompaniment. In these three respects, at least, Sisters are different.

International NGOs tend, for the most part, to be concentrated around major cities. It is simply too expensive to attempt to maintain offices in rural areas, especially in a country the size of India. Sisters, by contrast, have community houses and anti-slavery projects throughout the country.

This year, Sister Annie Jesus spoke on this subject as Arise’s guest at the United Nations. She said: “I work in a very rural area of India, Chhattisgarh, among tribal people who are very vulnerable to this exploitation. My location, and so many other rural locations like it, are the origins of the sex trade supply chain. The people I serve have very little. They have very little money. The standard of education is very poor. Access to sanitation and healthcare is sparse. They are hundreds of miles from the nearest city. There are no NGOs in
the vicinity.”

The Assamese Sisters also spoke of working for decades, often feeling as if their uphill battle didn’t yield much of a reward. Those considering investing in anti-slavery work don’t want to hear this kind of thing, and so they don’t donate to it. They want to hear about how many thousands can be saved, and about the high ideals of “systemic change” and slavery abolition. Fair enough. But once someone has been raped, they are never “un-raped”. They have to learn to live with the trauma, and some cope better than others.

The Sisters do not make their help for such people contingent on whether they check the right boxes. They will stick with them, through thick and thin, for as long as it takes. In short, they make a priority of accompaniment – being with those who have suffered. They won’t allow their work to be subverted by the economics of maintaining a successful charity.

So the Sisters are more rural, their commitment is longer-term, and they are often from the communities that they serve with love and faithfulness. On top of this, their standing in the community often means that they are trusted more readily. Still now, in an India increasingly defined by Hindu nationalism, the police ask Sisters to accompany them on anti-slavery raids because their testimonies are considered more credible in court and are more likely to secure a conviction.

These are precious jewels to be coveted and preserved at all costs. They are the fruit of generations of service and give Sisters a unique perspective which deserves to be heard and appreciated.

This isn’t to canonise the Sisters. They make mistakes. Some of their work could be more strategic. But for anyone who is serious about sustainable development there is simply no comparison between the grassroots, vocationally driven, long-term, community-based work of Sisters and that of so many of their secular counterparts.

So what difference would it make if Sisters were more a part of the policy conversation around modern slavery? It would bring the voice of long-term, self-sacrificial accompaniment to the table – a voice insistent that almost all meaningful anti-slavery work relies upon love and trust, however difficult it might be to measure.

And when future generations look back upon the abolition of modern slavery, maybe, just maybe, the names of the Sisters will be remembered in the tradition of William Wilberforce, with the reverence their sacrifice deserves.

Sister Lynda Dearlove RSM is CEO of women@thewell and Luke de Pulford is the co-founder and director of the Arise Foundation

This article first appeared in the Catholic Herald and is reproduced with kind permission

Guest User 12/12/18 Guest User 12/12/18

Religious Sister calls on government to devote more overseas aid money to healthcare

By Sister Gillian Price FC, on Universal Health Coverage Day (12/12/18)

Harry Leslie Smith (who died 28 November, aged 95) often spoke of his childhood. Born in 1923 he said: "My childhood, like so many others from that era, was not an episode from Downton Abbey.

"Instead, it was a barbarous time. It was a bleak time. It was an uncivilized time because public healthcare didn't exist.… No one in our community was safe from poor health, sickness and disease. In our home, TB came for my oldest sister, Marion, who was the apple of my dad's eye. Her sickness and his inability to pay for medicine broke his heart."

Marion died in the workhouse infirmary and was buried nameless in a pauper's grave.

Harry said: "My family's story isn't unique. Rampant poverty and no health care were the norm for the Britain of my youth….Today my heart is with all of those people from my generation who didn't make it past childhood, didn't get an education, didn't grow as individuals, didn't marry, didn't raise a family and didn't enjoy the fruits of retirement. They died needlessly and too early."

This year the UK celebrated 70 years of the NHS. Today we benefit from the decision of the government of the post war generation to provide a National Health Service which provides healthcare to all permanent residents of the United Kingdom that is free at the point of use and paid for from general taxation.

Essential health services encompass everything from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care throughout the course of a lifetime. The sad reality of the present time is that at least half of the world's population does not have full coverage of essential health services, and each year about 100 million people are pushed into "extreme poverty" (defined as living on US $1.90 or less a day) because they have to pay for health care. Fragile and conflict-affected states have seen the resurgence of diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Struggling health systems, insufficient progress on malnutrition, and high disease burdens remain serious challenges, and many of the most marginalised and remote communities are still denied effective health services.

5.6 million children still die before reaching their fifth birthday.

The international community has set itself ambitious targets to ensure healthy lives for all, aiming for 'Universal Health Coverage' (UHC) by 2030, and to deliver the promise of the Global Goals to 'leave no one behind'. Wednesday 12th December is Universal Health Coverage day. Universal health coverage is defined as where 'every person, no matter who they are, where they live or how much money they have should be able to access quality health services without suffering financial hardship.'

On May 23rd 2018 Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, the Vatican observer to the United Nation agencies in Geneva spoke at a meeting of the member states of the World Health Organisation gathered to set WHO policies and programmes. The need for universal health care coverage was a major topic at the May 21-26 meeting, and Abp Jurkovic thanked the UN leadership "for keeping it as a top priority on the agenda of the World Health Organization." "For many poor communities, families and individuals, access to the much-needed health care services remains an unachieved objective" he said, adding that, "Progress on universal health coverage requires a strong political will and a commitment to concrete steps that improve health for all people."

The UK has long been a leader on global health, for example, as a leading donor to organisations such as Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. It funds extensive nutrition and food security programmes around the world. And Dfid's support helps countries to strengthen and increasingly take ownership of their own health services.

However, UK aid priorities appear to be changing to focus more on security and economic development, creating a real risk that human development programmes - such as those that fund health and education - will be reduced. In August the Prime Minister, Theresa May said that aid must be in the UK's national interest, helping countries grow their economies, create jobs and fight insecurity. She called these new priorities "a fundamental strategic shift in the way we use our aid programme".

While economic development has been a major factor in more than halving poverty rates since the 1990s, evidence shows that countries that provide health and education services improve their economic development. When people are healthy families, communities and economies can reach their full potential.

It is essential that the British government’s Department for International Development’s spending on global health is increased as a proportion of its overall budget, with UK spending on global health rising to 0.1% of Gross National Income (GNI). The stakes are high for the world's poorest. Failure to focus UK aid spending sufficiently on global health risks a reversal of the progress that has been made.

"Justice requires guaranteed universal access to health care," said Pope Benedict while Pope Francis has said that 'health care is denied to too many people" in too many places "it is not a right for all, but rather still a privilege for those who can afford it".

The theme for the 2018 Universal Health Coverage day is: 'Unite for International Health coverage day: Now is the time for collective action'. Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic put it another way when he said: "Since everyone should have the possibility of benefiting from necessary health services without falling into poverty, the virtue of solidarity urges us to work toward this goal."

Sr Gillian Price tweets : @GillianFC