This initiative aims to address the country's urgent need for medical professionals while integrating Catholic values into medical education.

"The need for medical professionals in the UK is enormous" a university spokesperson acknowledged.

As London's Catholic university, St Mary's says the school will prioritise ethics-based education and focus on compassionate, patient-centred care.

"Our Catholic mission is integral to our values. We will ensure that our students can flourish with the best possible support" said the spokesperson.

The university aims to produce "ethically discerning" graduates in their medical practice, reflecting its Catholic identity.

Founding Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor Michael Bewick, added "Complemented by the existing successful Allied Health and Sports Science provision, St Mary's is the natural place to establish a forward-thinking centre of medical training".

Cornerstone of the University's plan

In a press release regarding the new Catholic medical school, the university said it had received assurance that it is "on track and making good progress toward required standards for medical education".

According to the release, the university is currently ranked in the country's top 10 for student experience. It is also ranked in the top 5 for teaching quality.

St Mary's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Anthony McClaran, said "The launch of a School of Medicine is a cornerstone of the University's plan for strategic growth and is in keeping with our tradition of delivering a sustained, positive impact on society.

"The school will contribute to the workforce development demands in the UK for more doctors and medical professionals. And it will also train global professionals able to work anywhere in the world" McClaran claimed.

"Our approach to developing the whole person during students' time at SMU will mean medics of the future will leave this university with the technical and personal skills they need to deliver truly holistic, compassionate, patient-centred care" McClaran said.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

St Mary's University

Back in February, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a weary populace that, all being well, the country could look forward to the end of a nationwide lockdown on June 21.

But all wasn't well. With the third wave of COVID-19 spreading across the country, Johnson announced that the easing of restrictions in England would be delayed to July 19.

But with "Freedom Day" tantalizingly in sight, CNA spoke with pastors across England about the pandemic's long-term impact on their parishes.

The conversations revealed that the coronavirus had not only hit parishes hard but also exacted a deep toll on priests.

Parishioners lost

All of the pastors acknowledged that a significant number of parishioners had vanished during the crisis — and were unlikely to return.

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, pastor of St. Peter's, Hove, a seaside town in East Sussex, said that numbers were now about 60% of what they were before the pandemic, though giving was at around 70%.

He said: "The money situation is not as catastrophic as we thought it was because the people who disappeared tend to be those who were least committed and giving least money. They also tend to be the young."

He explained that some young families were wary of bringing their boisterous children to Mass at a time of tight sanitary regulations.

"It's not just in this parish, but in many parishes, this is the case," he said. "This is going to have a knock-on effect also on the Catholic schools. Many of the Catholic schools are Catholic in name only. They've got declining numbers of Catholics in them. And I think that will carry on."

"What's going to happen in five, 10, 20 years' time is that a lot of churches are going to close, simply because the money is not there to maintain these very expensive buildings."

Conscious of the need to reconnect with parishioners, Lucie-Smith has visited local Catholic schools every week to talk to students and parents. His parish is also hosting a number of social events over the summer, including concerts and an initiative modelled on the Courtyard of the Gentiles.

Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, pastor of St. Patrick's, Soho, said the pandemic's impact was so profound that it was possible to speak of "a pre-COVID and a post-COVID Church."

Throughout the crisis, his parish in London's West End has engaged in a remarkable outreach to the local homeless population, offering not only food, but also adoration, access to sacraments, and the rosary.

"The pandemic has obviously been a time of purification," he said. "Certain people have fallen by the wayside. Others have remained faithful. But those who have remained faithful have really drilled down in their faith in certain key areas."

"First of all, our volunteers — there are a good 150 of them — have developed a deep personal relationship with the poor. And so there's a real sense of community, of mutual belonging."

Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, pastor of St. Patrick's, Soho, said the pandemic's impact was so profound that it was possible to speak of "a pre-COVID and a post-COVID Church."

Throughout the crisis, his parish in London's West End has engaged in a remarkable outreach to the local homeless population, offering not only food, but also adoration, access to sacraments, and the rosary.

"The pandemic has obviously been a time of purification," he said. "Certain people have fallen by the wayside. Others have remained faithful. But those who have remained faithful have really drilled down in their faith in certain key areas."

"First of all, our volunteers — there are a good 150 of them — have developed a deep personal relationship with the poor. And so there's a real sense of community, of mutual belonging."

In Fr Stephen Pritchard's parish, Our Lady of the Assumption, Gateacre, a suburb of Liverpool, a team has made hundreds of phone calls to parishioners throughout the pandemic. Despite these efforts to reach out, the parish has lost about 25% of Mass-goers.

"We're trying to connect with a group of 100 people to see what situation they're in, individually," he said.

"They've all got different scenarios in their lives. So we have a group of people working on that now, ringing all those people up."

"I think that for some Catholics this is the exit moment and they will have disaffiliated," he said, stressing that it is vital for the Church to "know who people are" and not "break the thread with people." Continue reading

At least 21 priests have been convicted, charged or sued for sexual offences in the diocese.

The diocese has paid counselling bills for years because, when it first started settling lawsuits against its priests, it refused to pay lump sums for counselling to victims.

Instead, the diocese insisted the church look after their care, lawyer Rob Talach says.

That worked well when the diocese was paying psychologists $250 an hour - similar to the rate suggested in 2015 on the Ontario Psychological Association website.

However, after Fr John Comiskey was named as a bishop's delegate and moderator of the curia to administer the funding, the rate reduced to $120 an hour.

At the same time, former victims were granted five additional counselling sessions.

Payment for additional treatment would be considered after psychologists submit assessments about each patient and how much longer they would require therapy.

One former victim, who was abused by a priest as a child and later created the first Canadian chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says the new rules are a "disgrace."

Victims might find a therapist willing to provide care for $120 an hour, but not one with the specialised knowledge and experience needed to help those sexually abused by priests, she says.

In a written statement, the diocese says:

"In line with the expectations of the College of Psychologists of Ontario, the diocese seeks to ensure that any of the victims will receive only evidence-based treatments.

"In addition, the Diocese of London seeks to assure that the duration and frequency of treatments are also in accord with the guidelines set by the same college.

"The diocese takes sexual abuse seriously and is complying with its legal settlements reached with victims.

"Sexual misconduct is a sin and a grave tragedy.

"We choose to respond with justice and compassion toward all those persons involved.

"The Diocese of London continues to meet its legal obligations to victims as set out in settlements."

Comiskey believes the level of funding for victims of sexual abuse by the church has not changed.

"The only changes that we have made is that we have asked those who are giving counselling for complainants and those who have received settlements from us that they're going to be using evidence-based counselling," he says.

"We are asking in advance for a protocol."

"We have a right to know what the fees are going to be and that we agree on those fees and services before those services are provided," Comiskey said.

Source

• CBA
• The Sudbury Star.com
• Image: Vancouver Sun

Students will spend the first term on a grand tour of Italy and will learn the "canon of western thought" at the university.

The institution, named Benedictus after St Benedict of Nursia, will charge students NZ$25,000 a year.

The university will be open to 50 students next year, who will study, among an exhaustive list, Galileo, Descartes, Leonardo, and Chaucer, as well as Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas.

They will also study the Bible and Homer.

Benedictus will be the fourth Catholic university in England.

Continue reading

A raid is about to take place on a brothel whose inhabitants, the police believe, include women who have been trafficked into Britain from eastern Europe.

The nun is an integral part of the police operation.

It could be a storyline from a film, but there isn't a camera in sight.

This is real life, part of the UK's imaginative and innovative approach that has made it a frontrunner in the battle against human trafficking; and the scene explains why London will this week host the second meeting of the Santa Marta international consortium to stop the trade.

Home secretary Theresa May, Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and Cardinal Vincent Nichols will join police chiefs, victims' organisations, ambassadors and church leaders from 27 countries for the conference, taking place at Lancaster House on Friday and Saturday.

It is likely to be followed by announcements next weekend of projects aimed both at more effective policing and education campaigns to raise public awareness of trafficking.

On Saturday the Home Office said therecould be as many as 13,000 slavery victims in the UK.

"It's a terrible crime that wrecks people's lives, and it goes on in the midst of ordinary life - on ordinary streets in cities and towns across Britain - yet many people know nothing about it," said Kevin Hyland, newly appointed as the country's anti-slavery commissioner, who will play a leading role at the conference.

"We need to tell people what they need to look out for, the signs that someone might be being coerced into living a life they don't want to lead, so that they can help in the fight against trafficking." Continue reading

Article and Image:

• The Guardian
• See also: articles in The Sydney Morning Herald and Catholic Herald

Ingrid Loyau-Kennet, who formerly lived in Auckland, told the Daily Telegraph: "I live my life as a Christian. I believe in thinking about others and loving thy neighbour. We all have a duty to look after each other. A whole group of people walking towards those guys would have found it easy to take those weapons out of their hands. But me, on my own, I couldn't."

Mrs Loyau-Kennet was travelling on a bus through Woolwich in south-east London when the bus stopped because of a body on the road and a crashed car.

Thinking there had been a road accident, she immediately got off the bus to help.

A Caribbean woman tending to the man on the ground told her he was dead.

Mrs Loyau-Kennet said: "I took his arm to feel his pulse. There was blood on the pavement where he had been dragged and blood was pouring out of him.

"Suddenly this excited black man came up to me and said: ‘Get away from the body; don't touch it.' I looked up and I could see red hands, a bloodied revolver, bloodied meat cleaver and a butcher's knife. OK, I thought, this is bad."

As she waited for the police to arrive, Mrs Loyau-Kennett tried to reason with the two men.

"We want to start a war," one of them told her. "I will shoot the police when they come. I want to kill them." Looking them straight in the eye, she replied calmly: "That's not going to happen. I am here and I am going to listen to you."

Mrs Loyau-Kennet remained with the soldier, later identified as Drummer Lee Rigby, despite an onlooker advising her to move away.

She said: "I told her I wasn't leaving; as long as I don't see professionals here, I'm staying. He knows me; he knows I'm calm. I'm not afraid whatsoever. I'll stay until something happens."

In Britain, Mrs Loyau-Kennet is being regarded as a national hero, even Prime Minister David Cameron praising her courage.

Sources:

Catholic Herald

The Telegraph

NZ Herald

Image: The Times

This small, red, leather-bound volume with its beautiful calligraphy is now on exhibit and is reputed to be the oldest intact book in all of Europe. The library purchased the volume from the British Jesuits for the equivalent of $14 million.

The origins of these two English national treasures lead one far from the bustle of London to Northumbria, hemmed in by Scotland to the north and the turbulent sea to the east. It was in the early seventh century that the Anglo-Saxon King Oswald invited Aidan, a monk from the island of Iona, to evangelize his people.

Aidan, later called the "Light of Northumbria" founded a primitive Christian community of monks on a small island in the North Sea. Their island, some three miles in length and a mile wide, is Lindisfarne, later called Holy Isle, a place of retreat, a haven in a brutal world. From this outpost on the edge of the civilized world these monks spread the Gospel among the ancestors of the English people.

A journey to Lindisfarne is neither easy nor simple. To get there today one can travel by rail some three and a half hours north of London, skirting the walled city of York, bypassing the cathedral city of Durham to the west, calling at the coal-rich city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and disembarking finally at the seaside town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, three miles south of the Scottish border. From there it is another eight miles to the island by any form of transport one can find. This rural countryside is green and lush. Sheep are ubiquitous and castles dot the landscape, reminders of the warfare that was for centuries endemic to this borderland.

One approaches Lindisfarne with caution. Much like Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, it is the sea that rules here. It is perilous to ignore its tides. Twice a day the fast-rising waters of the North Sea flood the mile and a half causeway that joins the island to the mainland. Tide times and the corresponding crossings are posted everywhere, and locals in Berwick and the 150 permanent residents of the island organize their lives around them. Read more

Sources

• Dana Greene in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Wikipedia

Two Christian groups announced on Thursday that they had booked advertising space promoting the idea that people can become "post-gay" through therapy.

Anglican Mainstream, a traditionalist Christian coalition, and Core Issues Trust - a counselling group which practices controversial "reorientation" therapy - wanted to place full-length banners reading: "Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get Over It!" Continue reading

Costa, a former chairman of UBS Europe and Lazard International, spoke out after being appointed by Bishop of London Richard Chartres to lead an initiative aimed at "reconnecting the financial with the ethical."

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Costa asked how the market has managed to slip its moral moorings.

"For some time and particularly during the exuberant irrationality of the last few decades, the market economy has shifted from its moral foundations with disastrous consequences."

While still regarding financial incentives as "both valid and effective," he said there was a need to "rebalance the equilibrium between risk, responsibility and reward."

On Sunday, leader of the opposition David Miliband entered the fray, writing in the Observer: "You do not have to be in a tent to feel angry.

"Many of those who earn the most, exercise great power, enjoy enormous privilege — in the City and elsewhere — do so with values that are out of kilter with almost everyone else."

"Only the most reckless will ignore or, still worse, dismiss the danger signals," Miliband said.

A new survey showed that Britain's top company directors received a 50 percent average pay rise while the majority of Britons are having to endure a pay freeze during a period of austerity imposed by the government to reduce high debt.

Sources

• Reuters

Hawking, diagnosed with Motor Neurone disease at 21, is now aged 69.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he told the Guardian newspaper. "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

Hawking's comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, "The Grand Design" which provoked a backlash from religious leaders for arguing there was no need for a divine force to explain the creation of the universe.

Hawking joined others including the chancellor, George Osborne, and the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, at the Google Zeitgeist London event where he addressed the question: "Why are we here?"

His talk was focussed on M-theory, a broad mathematical framework that encompasses string theory, which is regarded by many physicists as the best hope yet of developing a theory of everything.

M-theory demands a universe with 11 dimensions, including a dimension of time and the three familiar spatial dimensions. The rest are curled up too small for us to see.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: Sound on Sight

Amidst high security for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Public and Commercial and Services union was outside the gates of Buckingham Palace from 12 noon to 2pm on 28 April 2011 with a giant 'fair pay for royal cleaners' card for members of the public to sign.

PCS General Secretary, Mark Serwotka commented: "While the royals were preparing for the prince's lavish wedding, our members were and are being treated like paupers."

The London living wage is paid to cleaners in the houses of parliament. However cleaners in Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace and Clarence House are paid just £6.45 an hour. They are looking a £1.40 an hour increase to match the the 'London living wage'.

The royal cleaners are employed by two private contractors, KGB Holdings and Greenzone, but the union believes ultimate responsibility rests with the Royal Household, which receives around £30 million a year from taxpayers - half of which is for upkeep of the occupied palaces.

"The royal family is seen as a major contributor to the tourist industry and many people visit London specifically to see the palaces. We'll be asking them to show their support for the people on poverty pay who keep these palaces clean." Serwotka said.

The union has also launched an online petition.

Sources

• Public and Commercial Services Union
• Ekklesia

Many training events are planned to show churches how they can put on simple events that build community spirit and demonstrate the Gospel.

Australian organisation Fusion Youth and Community festivals director, Marty Woods, has moved to the UK to share his expertise with churches looking to do something similar.

"Community festivals can position a church at the heart of community life in a highly strategic way", Woods said.

Organisers are hoping churches will work together to run a festival in their community in the run-up to or during the Games.

The training events are being coordinated by More than Gold, the charity overseeing church outreach during the 2012 Olympic Games.

"Athletes around the world are in training, the UK public are thinking about which events to attend, and it is time for churches to be making their own plans," David Wilson, chief executive of More than Gold said.

Source

• Christianity Today
• Image: etravelblog.com