IN BRIEF
Judge rejects right-to-die plea A brain-damaged, minimally conscious woman should not be allowed to die, a High Court judge ruled this week. The 52-year-old woman’s relatives brought the case because they want her to be able to end her life. Mr Justice Baker said an English court had never before had to rule on withdrawing life-support treatment for someone who is minimally conscious rather than in a permanent vegetative state. He said the case raised “very import - ant issues of principle” but that the preservation of life was the important factor. A “do not resuscitate” order will continue to remain in place.
Guidance on lead roofs Churches will be allowed to replace stolen lead from their roofs with alternative materials under new guidance issued by English Heritage as insurers face record claims for thefts this year. They said it would consider supporting the replace- ment of stolen lead if it is satisfied that security measures are unlikely to prevent further attacks, and the alternative material is suitable.
DRC exploitation warning Foreign companies are exploiting the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an English bishop has warned. Bishop John Arnold, an auxiliary in Westminster, returned earlier this year from a trip to the African country – and neighbouring Rwanda and Kenya – on behalf of Cafod, the Church’s overseas development agency.
New Catholic college to be set up Plans are under way for a new independent Catholic university college in London offering a traditional liberal arts programme. The college, called Benedictus, is expected to be modelled on similar Catholic institutions in the United States. The Benedictus Trust, which is behind the proposal, said the college would be “faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church while welcoming students from all backgrounds”.
Defend the faith says Widdecombe Ann Widdecombe has urged lay Catholics to speak up for their faith. During a lecture in Bath to mark the first anniversary of the papal visit to Britain, the former Conservative MP and Catholic convert told her audience: “We now live in a coun- try where we can put over the [Christian] message so as long as we have the courage … We are not here for any other reason than to make sure that the message is available to all.” She was delivering the “One Year On” lecture at St John the Evangelist Church.
36 | THE TABLET | 1 October 2011
Amnesty says child abuse was torture
Sarah Mac Donald In Dublin
MUCH OFthe abuse inflicted on children in Ireland’s residential institutions and recorded in the Ryan report constitutes “torture” under international human-rights law, according to a report by Amnesty International Ireland. The group’s executive director, Colm
O’Gorman, who was abused as a child by the notorious Fr Sean Fortune, described the abuse as “perhaps the greatest human-rights failure in the history of the state”. He was speaking at the launch of “In Plain Sight: Responding to the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne Reports”, a response prepared for Amnesty by Dr Carole Holohan. Its publica- tion comes a few days after abuse victims lodged a complaint with the International Criminal Court accusing the Vatican of crimes against humanity for what they say has been a cover-up of the abuse of children. Mr O’Gorman said there had been little justice for the victims while those who had failed as guardians, civil servants, clergy, gardaí and members of religious orders had avoided accountability. The report underlined how the Ferns, Ryan,
Murphy and Cloyne reports had highlighted the deferential relationship shown by the Irish state authorities towards the Catholic Church. The state authorities had failed in their duty to monitor residential institutions effectively or to act appropriately when abuses came to light, the report concluded. Another key finding underlined the fact that despite the severity of the crimes revealed in the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy (Dublin) and Cloyne reports – ranging from assault to rape – very few perpetrators had been convicted. Sr Marianne O’Connor, director general of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), said that she accepted the report’s key findings as “an effort to analyse the causes of what happened” and as something needed in order to move forward although the attempt to apply an analysis to the four reports had resulted in “very broad brushstrokes”. The report was launched in the presence of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, and the Children’s Ombudsman in Ireland, Emily Logan. The Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, said in her address: “Members of congregations knew of fellow members who were assaulting or depriving or exploiting those in their care. Dioceses knew of accusations against clergy, communities knew of deprivation and servi- tude in industrial schools, the courts knew of families torn apart and children wilfully insti- tutionalised ... It is clear that the apparatus of the state was also aware and complicit. At every turn, Irish people kept their mouths shut out of deference to state, system, Church and community.”
Most British adults say they are Christian
JUST OVER half of British adults say they are Christian, according to a new poll, but 40 per cent have no religion at all, writes Christopher Lamb. The figures suggest a decline in interest in religion over the last 10 years; the national census in 2001 found that 71 per cent of people identified with Christianity. More than 64,000 people were inter-
viewed online for the research, which was conducted by the polling organisation YouGov and Cambridge University and pub- lished last week. The results showed that of those who described their religion as Christian, 61 per cent said they were Anglicans and
■Catholic agencies must become better at promoting their work if they want to be taken seriously when seeking government funding, the head of a Catholic prisons charity has warned, write Sam Adams andPaul Donovan. Andy Keen-Downs, director
of the Prison Advice and Care Trust, said the Church had “sometimes been caricatured as naive” by decision-makers,
18 per cent said they were Catholics. Among those aged 55 and over, two-thirds described themselves as Christian, but this figure dropped to 38 per cent among the 18- 34 age bracket. The findings also show that 8 per cent more women than men are Christian. Elsewhere, the research examined the level of churchgoing in Britain. 10,400 people were asked how often they attended a place of wor- ship, excluding family celebrations. Of these, 5 per cent said they attended once a week while 27 per cent said less than once a month. However, half of people interviewed felt that children should be brought up with a faith.
although Catholic agencies had an “excellent record” of delivering services at low cost to the vulnerable in society. Addressing a Caritas Social
Action Network seminar on criminal justice at Allen Hall Seminary, in London, last Wednesday, Mr Keen-Downs said that “our faith isn’t enough if we want to run services which make a difference. We need funds,
and we need to be taken seriously by the state”. He said the challenge for the Church and Catholic charities was “seeking public funding from a secular, utilitarian and competitive system, increasingly dominated by corporate giants who see imprisonment and offender management as an opportunity for profit and market share”.
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