Category: Campaigns

Homily by Archbishop John Wilson for Racial Justice Sunday

Bishop John Wilson, delivering Racial Justice Sunday homily, 13th February 2022 – Photo: Marcin Mazur

The Archbishop of Southwark, Most Rev John Wilson gave the following homily in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark during the Racial Justice Sunday Mass on 13 February 2022.

Dear brothers and sisters, I don’t know who is more excited about today – me or Father Victor. I hope we’re all a little bit excited about this great celebration of the Holy Mass, but also with a focus today on our unity in Christ, our oneness in Christ.

It is an absolute joy to be able to welcome you to our cathedral today. our cathedral. It belongs to all of us.

We are people of different nationalities, people of different heritage together and only together we form parts of that wonderful mosaic that God has created, which we call humanity, which in the church we call the body of Christ.

We are one in Christ and one with each other.

You are my brother and my sister. We are brothers and sisters of each other.

And so on this Sunday when we focus especially on racial justice, we give thanks first to Almighty God for the rich and beautiful diversity of peoples and cultures which make up our world which make up our communities which make up this Archdiocese. I am proud to be the Bishop of a diocese that is so diverse and so rich.

Today, we affirm and celebrate the gift of every human life. Every human life, from its first moment in conception to its natural end at death. When the Lord Jesus commanded us to love one another he made no exceptions.

And neither can we. Neither should we.

When the Lord Jesus speaks about God’s kingdom in the Gospel we heard today, he announces a radical inversion of values.

Those who are poor, hungry, sorrowful, those oppressed. Those who so often in our world, have no value and no voice. These are the ones who are great in the kingdom of God.

What an important lesson this is for us to learn and to keep learning for how we live, the weakest, the poorest, those the world thinks as nothing. These are the ones who are great in the kingdom.

Our archdiocese is marvellously diverse. People in our parishes and schools represent a rich variety of culture of ethnic and racial backgrounds, from every country across the world.

There is a place for everyone in our church. And if you don’t like that, there’s the door.

You might think I’m joking. I’m not – there is a place for everyone in our church.

The diversity that we are is a gift.

The Catechism teaches us every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental rights on the grounds of sex, race, colour, social conditions, language or religion must be eradicated as incompatible with God’s design, to put it straightforwardly racism is incompatible with our faith.

There is and they can not be any place for racism, no place. But our faith does more than this. Our faith calls it calls us to be prophetic in our world.

To speak out with the values of God’s Kingdom to challenge racism, to eliminate its causes to heal the wounds it brings. And we each of us my brothers and sisters have a place to play in this, by making sure we think of every other person as someone worthy of respect by holding the rights and the equality and the sanctity of every human life and it is with great joy that in our diocese, we established our commission for promoting racial and cultural inclusion with Father Victor as its Episcopal vicar and it’s already working. It’s already making a difference to our parishes and our schools to challenge racism in all its forms.

Dear friends, if we think that racism is a thing of the past, then suddenly we need to think again.

It’s a present reality in our communities.

I was shocked the year before last I met with a group of young women young students from a school in our diocese, and I was shocked to listen to their experience of racism.

Through comments through insults through slurs through discrimination, alive and present today.

Racism is not a thing of the past, and therefore we cannot be silent about it. We cannot be silent about its existence, and we cannot be silent about its causes.

We must unite in Christ with other people of goodwill. We must unite in Christ, to work for justice. To speak out for equality for every person no matter what the colour of their skin is, no matter what language they speak. No matter where they come from, no matter what they look like.

My friends, it is our mission to continue to make our parishes and schools places where the gifts and the skills and the experience and the heritage of all people of every background honoured and valued and cherished and celebrated.

We will work to make our parishes and communities places where everyone is welcome where everyone is affirmed where everyone is encouraged. Where everyone is respected for the person God has created them to be and the person God is calling them to be.

We have in our church some inspiring examples of people who have spoken out, spoken out against slavery and work to overcome the sufferings of those enslaved. I want to name just two today. There are many others we need to learn of them because they’re truly inspirational.

The first is perhaps more familiar to us.

Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese woman sold into slavery and eventually brought to Rome where she was cared for by a community of religious sisters.

And she developed her own Christian faith and joined a religious community. She was such an outstanding example of what it means to live the values of the kingdom that in the year 2000 She was made a saint – Saint Josephine Bakhita.

I think of someone perhaps very few of us maybe only one other in this church today will know the name of Sister Dorothy Stang.

An American Sister of Notre Dame, who was martyred 17 years ago yesterday, the 12th of February 2005.

Why was she martyred? Because she upheld the rights and the dignity of indigenous peoples in Brazil.

The voices of all those in our church who have defended and protected people of different racial and cultural backgrounds, those voices must be alive in us. They must be.

Dear friends,

Are we one in Christ? nGive me some nodding heads please.

Are we one in Christ? We are one in Christ who is risen. Christ who is risen, who has overcome death, who has conquered sin and therefore we are people of hope. Are we not – people of hope? And as people as hope, one in Christ, we are committed to working side by side to consign racism to history.

And so, we pledge today, to continue journeying together into the future.

One in Christ and one with each other.

Amen.

Watch the homily: www.facebook.com/ArchdioceseOfSouthwark/videos/1104318056808474

Watch the Mass on Southwark Cathedral Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=62sIuHPSbIU

Westminster Justice & Peace representatives attending the Racial Justice Sunday Mass at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark

An Appeal for Prayer for Peace in Ukraine – Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, Duke Street, London, 26 January 2022, 4.30pm

His Holiness Pope Francis and His Beatitude Patriarch Sviatoslav, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, have appealed to everyone of good will to participate in prayer for peace in Ukraine on Wednesday 26 January. 

Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral on Duke Street and Weighhouse Street in London W1K 5BQ will be holding a special prayer service for peace in Ukraine at 4:30 pm on 26 January. 

Everyone is welcome to join us.  It is part of a 12-hour marathon of prayer in Ukrainian Catholic Cathedrals and parishes throughout the world.  The marathon of prayer for peace in Ukraine will be live broadcast beginning at 07:00 – on the Ukrainian Catholic TV YouTube channel (above).

Christian Climate Action Campaigners Not Guilty of Obstruction

Fr Martin Newell, and Rev Sue Parfitt outside Inner London Crown Court after the verdict
Fr Martin Newell CP and Rev Sue Parfitt outside Inner London Crown Court after the verdict

Source: Independent Catholic News

Well-known Catholic activist Fr Martin Newell, a Passionist Priest currently based in the Diocese of Westminster, was among a group of three people cleared in a court case on 15th January 2022.

Three Christians, including an Anglican Priest and a Catholic Priest, who stopped a DLR train at Shadwell station in London in 2019 in protest at inaction on the climate emergency, were lawfully exercising their right to peaceful protest, a jury has found.

Rev Sue Parfitt, 79, Fr Martin Newell, 54, and Phil Kingston, 85, all members of Christian Climate Action, were found not guilty of obstructing trains or carriages on the railway under the malicious damages act. Sue and Martin stood on top of the train and Phil glued himself to the outside of it then prayed with other members of Christian Climate Action. They told the jury at Inner Court London that they took the action in desperation after trying everything else they could think of to draw attention to the climate emergency.

Speaking outside court after the verdict, Fr Martin Newell said that while he is delighted with the verdict he is still willing to take action that risks a prison sentence, adding: “I’m very grateful to the jury for acting on their conscience and hearing the issues that we wanted to raise in the original action two-and-a-half years ago. The climate emergency is the biggest issue facing the human race in our time and nothing is more important than dealing with that. Despite the words that many governments have said about it being urgent, they’re just not doing it.”

Zoë Blackler from Extinction Rebellion. said: “When a jury hears the truth about the escalating climate crisis, with the depth and seriousness they won’t get from the government or the media, they understand the urgent need to act. The real criminals here aren’t three committed Christians risking their liberty to sound the alarm on a threat of existential proportion, but a government failing to do what’s necessary to safeguard the future of the human race.”

All three defendants told the jury they were compelled by their faith to take action to protect God’s creation and prevent run-away climate change. Kingston also said he was taking action “for the future of my grandchildren and for the future of yours.”

During the trial the jury was presented with a set of facts, agreed on by both the defence and the prosecution, about the escalating climate crisis. These agreed facts included that: “Climate change is a clear and imminent threat to human civilisation. It has become increasingly widely recognised that immediate substantial action needs to be taken in order to stabilise the climate at a temperature in which we can avoid massive and widespread loss of life”.

This trial follows the acquittal by a jury in December of six people, also all members of Christian Climate and known as the DLR ‘Canaries’, who were charged with the same offence during an action at Canary Wharf station in April 2019.

In that case, as in this one, the jury was directed by the judge to decide whether a conviction was “necessary in a democratic society” or whether it would be a disproportionate interference in the defendants’ human rights. The ‘Canaries’ jury returned a unanimous Not Guilty verdict in less than an hour.

The issue of proportionality – arising from the Supreme Court’s recent Ziegler ruling – was also one of the defences used by the ‘Colston 4’ – who toppled a statue of a former slave trader – in their trial which concluded last week. The four were acquitted by a jury in Bristol after removing a public statue of the slave trader Edward Colston.

LINKS

Christian Climate Action – https://christianclimateaction.org/

A blog published at the time of the action: https://christianclimateaction.org/2019/10/17/a-catholic-and-anglican-priest-climb-on-top-of-train-destined-for-the-city/

Peace Sunday 2022, 16th January

Pax Christi England and Wales (Catholic movement for Peace)

Each year on Peace Sunday we promote the Pope’s World Day of Peace message (available here); this year it is entitled: ‘Dialogue between generations, education and work: tools for building lasting peace’. Pope Francis highlights how education is fundamental for peace.

Peace Sunday is promoted with the support of the International Affairs Department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Pax Christi’s work is inspired by our Christian faith; but is open to all who support its values. We strive for a world where people can live peacefully through reconciliation, justice and non-violence.

Pax Christi depends very much on financial contributions we receive from Peace Sunday parish collections.  In the present circumstances we would be extremely grateful for anything you can give towards events and campaigns.

GOD OF LOVE
Show us our place in this world as
channels of your love for all the
creatures of this earth, for not one of
them is forgotten in your sight.

Enlighten those who possess power and
money, that they may love the common
good, advance the weak, and care for
this world in which we live.

The poor and the earth are crying out.
O LORD, seize us with your power and
light, help us to protect all life, to
prepare for a better future, for the
coming of your Kingdom of justice,
peace, love and beauty.
PRAISE BE TO YOU! AMEN.

Pope Francis (adapted from Laudato Si’)

There will be an online reflection at 4pm on zoom, organised by Pax Christi members from Wrexham Diocese. Click here to register. All welcome, once registered you will receive an email with information on how to join.

Pax Christi Website

Next Monthly Prayer Vigil outside the Home Office – 17 January 2022, 12.30pm

The next monthly prayer vigil at the Home Office, Marsham Street, SW1, calling for Safe Passage for refugees and mourning those who have died trying to reach a place of safety, will take place on Monday, 17 January from 12.30-1.30pm.

In a leaflet for passers-by, the organisers, Westminster Justice and Peace and London Catholic Worker, say: 

‘We hold this prayer vigil every month in memory of all the men, women and children who have died in their attempt to reach Europe and the UK, as they fled from war, poverty and persecution. We are here because we believe in the human dignity and freedom of movement of all people and God’s commandment to love and welcome our brothers and sisters. We respect refugees as fellow children of God, not as aliens.

‘According to UNHCR there are currently 60 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, including 20 million who are refugees in other countries. The majority are hosted in neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan and Ethiopia. Developing countries host 86% of the world’s refugee population.

‘Even though the UK is one of the world’s richest countries and its foreign interventions are arms trade help perpetuate the wars from which so many people are trying to escape, our government is refusing to welcome refugees. Instead, increasingly severe border controls are forcing refugees trying to reach Europe or the UK to take dangerous routes via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and the English Channel, thus causing their deaths.

‘Meanwhile, in the UK, refugees fleeing violence and persecution are frequently detained in inhuman conditions, and more recently, housed in substandard accommodation such as decommissioned barracks. The process of claiming asylum can be highly arduous and frustrating and little support is provided, leaving people even more vulnerable and alienated. Many refugees and migrants living in the UK have no recourse to public funds, and are completely destitute.

‘We call on the UK government to create safe passage for refugees in recognition of their human dignity and the fact that asylum should be extended to them. We prayer that more and more people across Europe will stand up in solidarity with refugees and migrants. We pray for an end to the arms trade, militarism, and neo-colonialism that cause the conditions of poverty and conflict forcing millions of people to flee their homes.’

For more information or to join the group please contact Barbara Kentish, Migrant and Refugee Lead for Westminster Justice & Peace Commission: barbarakentish@talktalk.net

Launch of the Southern Dioceses Environment Network – Monday 10th January 2022, 12.45pm

Everyone with a heart for the environment is welcome to join us for the first online meeting of a new network of Catholics in the South of England committed to the care of our common home.

Throughout 2021 a group of Catholics from London and the South-East met on Zoom every Monday lunchtime for prayer, sharing, discussion and mutual support on the Care of Creation in preparation for COP26 which took place in Glasgow, 1-12 November.

We are now moving into a new phase with a new name for 2022.

The Southern Dioceses Environment Network plans to meet monthly online on the second Monday of the month and also organise in-person events when possible during the year.

We will also be liaising with the Northern Dioceses Environment Group and other ecumenical, interfaith and civic groups as we all work together to animate action to tackle the climate crisis and address other environmental concerns in the run-up to COP27 in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, 7-18 November 2022 and beyond.

Participants to date include CAFOD staff and volunteers, Justice and Peace, Caritas, clergy, religious, parishioners, Laudato Si’ Animators, Journey to 2030, Christian Climate Action (XR), environmental charities, activists and interested individuals, young and old. You are most welcome to join us or attend as a one-off to find out more.

Register in advance with Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/220575847297

Prayer Vigil Outside the Home Office – Monday 13th December 12.30pm

London Catholic Worker and Westminster Justice and Peace invite you to join in our Prayer Vigil outside the Home Office, 2 Marsham St, London SW1P 4DF on Monday 13th December 2021, 12.30pm – 1.30pm 

On Wednesday 24th November, 27 people died when their boat capsized in the English Channel.  These numbers are shocking, but the people who died were not numbers. They were human beings, with a name, a face and a story.  We will read out their names  and the names of others who have died trying to reach the UK and Europe, thanks to the lack of any safe process.  We will pray for them, for their families and all of those who are still attempting this terrible journey. 

We will pray for those who profit from their desperation, and those who create the policies that give them little option but to embrace these dangers.  Since 1993, nearly 50,000 people have died either at sea or in tragic circumstances on their journeys, seeking safety in Europe. 

Bring your prayers, your pain and concern to the vigil, where we join in spirit with thousands who want to see an end to such suffering and tragedy.  

There will be prayers outside the Home Office on the third Monday of every month in 2022, that these deaths may not have been in vain, and serve instead to bring justice for people seeking sanctuary.  

Contacts for more information: Barbara Kentish, Westminster Justice & Peace Lead for Migrants and Refugees barbarakentish@talktalk.net  and Johannes Maertens from London Catholic Worker johanmaertens@hotmail.com   

Safe Passage – Sign the Petition

Join the charity Safe Passage in appealing to the Home Secretary for more safe and legal options to be made available for people seeking sanctuary in the UK from France.

To: Priti Patel, Home Secretary

On November 24th, at least 27 men, women and children tragically lost their lives seeking safety in the UK.

The appalling truth is that these deaths could – and should – have been prevented.

We need to make sure this tragedy is never repeated, so we’re calling on you and the Government to open safe routes now rather than repeat failed policies.

In the wake of this terrible tragedy, we need safe routes now.

SIGN THE PETITION

Drownings in the English Channel

Prayer outside the Home Office

By Barbara Kentish, Westminster Justice and Peace lead on Migrants & Refugees

Published on Independent Catholic News

Like many, I saw tonight on Channel 4 News, a distressed woman, knee-deep in sea waves, shouting to the reporter that there had been no water or milk in their camp, despite the presence of babies, and that was why she was taking to a precarious Channel crossing. Yet again, however, we were told that smugglers were to blame for their problem.

The drowning of 30 migrants off the coast between Dunkirk and Calais is a tragedy that should surprise no-one. Having visited Calais and Dunkirk over six years, I have become more and more appalled that thousands have been trapped in this area not only because of the iniquitous French-British agreement to close their borders, but also because of the hostile policies of other European countries. Many in Northern France have tried their luck and failed, in Germany, Switzerland and Eastern Europe, only to conclude that England is their only hope of survival.

Jesuit Fr Philippe Demeestre has just finished a month-long hunger strike in Calais, to ask for practical immediate humanitarian treatment of migrants with care and courtesy, so that the migrants can eat, drink and sleep without harassment. The smugglers are merely a phenomenon generated by their existential dreadful dilemma. It is clear that safe and legal processes would start to alleviate the immediate problem. More radical solutions, just, and long lasting, though certainly not easy, can then be sought. Even before the political steps, humanitarian treatment of the migrants needs to be implemented.

There will be a Prayer Vigil outside the Home Office on 13 December, from 12.30 to 1.30, hosted by the London Catholic Worker and Westminster Justice and Peace, This has been run for several years and the practice has been to read out some of the names of the thousands who have lost their lives trying to reach the sanctuary of the UK. If the names of those who died today, November 24th, are known, we will certainly be praying for them. All are welcome to join us. The Prayer Vigil will be held next year from January at 12.30pm on the third Monday of the month, also at the Home Office.

A further service will be held in due course on the seafront at Dover. at the two plaques commemorating migrants who have died trying to reach the UK. For further information contact barbarakentish@talktalk.net

Young Adult Report – COP26 – A Missed Opportunity

Some of the CAFOD youth delegation outside the SEC. Caitlin is front row, third from left.

Source: Caritas Westminster

From 5-7th November 2021 Caitlin Boyle from the Diocese of Westminster joined CAFOD as part their COP26 youth delegation in marching, campaigning and praying for climate action and justice in Glasgow. Over 30 young adults were part of CAFOD’s COP26 youth delegation who travelled up to Glasgow to apply pressure on world leaders attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be bold and ambitious in their attempts to tackle the climate crisis. 

Caitlin also works as the Information Officer for Caritas Westminster and here gives her report on the experience of campaigning for climate justice.

The CAFOD delegation were able to visit the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), where the COP26 talks and negotiations were taking place, to hear from different scientists, activist groups and indigenous people from all around the world about the effects the climate crisis is having globally and what measures need to be in place to help mitigate them. On Saturday 6th November, despite inclement weather, the CAFOD delegation joined other faith groups (including SCIAF, Jesuit Missions, Islamic Relief, Tearfund and Christian Aid), local organisations and climate activists in marching through the centre of Glasgow, as part of the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, with around 100,000 people attending in Glasgow alone!

cop26
Photo credit: Thom Flint

Whilst in Glasgow, Caitlin and the CAFOD youth delegation were campaigning for global leaders to commit to plans to limit global temperature rises to no more than 1.5 degrees; deliver the money promised to low-income countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change; and to consign fossil fuels to history. 

Speaking about why she went to Glasgow, Caitlin says: 

‘Climate change is affecting us all, no matter where we are in the world, though it is most adversely affecting people in poorer countries, costing people their livelihoods, their homes, and even their lives, despite these countries contributing least to the crisis. Even here in the UK, however, where the effects will be much less severe, floods and heatwaves are likely to disproportionately affect more deprived communities.


‘The Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated and compounded social, economic, and environmental inequalities, with poorer communities again more susceptible to their effects – something I have seen through my work at Caritas Westminster. The pandemic has put further strain on communities ill-equipped to deal with these crises.


‘As the host of COP26, the UK government had a really crucial role in setting the tone for how the world emerges from the pandemic, ensuring that a post-Covid world is one which is equitable – it should not be another missed opportunity.’

The two-week climate conference ended this past weekend (Saturday 13th November). Despite progress in agreeing to phase out fossil fuel usage and investment as part of the Glasgow Climate Pact – the first COP agreement which specifically talks about fossil fuel divestment – world leaders failed to act with the courage and immediacy needed to effectively support those on the front line of the climate crisis. They delayed action on limiting temperature increases, and did not deliver the climate finance that is urgently needed.

Speaking about the decisions made at COP26, Caitlin says:

‘It is disappointing that once again, world leaders failed to place those who are most adversely affected by the climate crisis at the heart of their discussions. As Catholics, it is our duty to work for the common good, and speak out for the poor, the marginalised and the voiceless, and so it is essential that we engage with and campaign on issues relating to social and climate justice. We are called to be stewards of God’s creation, and to protect it. 

‘Despite government inaction at this COP, we as young Catholics must continue to campaign for our common home; the eyes of the world now need to be firmly focused on those who are actually feeling the effects of the climate crisis first hand.

‘Pope Francis said at the start of COP26 that, “The political decision-makers who will meet at COP26 in Glasgow are urgently summoned to provide effective responses to the present ecological crisis, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations.” Whilst the decision makers may not have provided the effective responses needed this time, I can certainly draw hope from the amazing campaigners I got to work with as part of the CAFOD delegation, and their commitment and enthusiasm has emboldened and mobilised me to continue to speak out about climate injustice!’ 

Caritas Westminster is working with the Westminster Justice and Peace Commission to encourage local action against climate change, and supporting Westminster Diocese’s plans for decarbonisation.