Catholic Parliamentary Interns

Great Expectations (or Hard Times)?

2012-02-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

As the winter’s biting chill braces the Big Smoke, the Catholic Parliamentary and Public Policy interns continue on their merry journeys towards fulfilment (which we are told will occur on 31^st July 2012).

The applications having been flooding in from aspiring students hopeful to visit 39 Eccleston Square on the 28^th or 29^th March, with the opportunity to join an elite club, a people set apart, a coterie of excellence.

What next year’s applicants will not be doing is applying for an internship in the European Parliament, as this has unfortunately been omitted from the programme. However this has led to an exciting development; 5 interns will be placed in the Houses of Parliament, 2 with CAFOD/Caritas and another one that I can’t quite remember, something to do with press I think? Nevertheless, good luck to those applying and remember ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ (oh and ‘image is everything’)!

After a somewhat baron few weeks in terms of post-work events, the social calendar is hotting up for the current crop. After a delightful meal out for Daniel’s birthday, Stephen’s quarter century is almost upon us I’m sure the celebrations will match the unrelenting enthusiasm that Stephen has for all things Labour.

In an academic sense interesting debates held by Catholic Voices, as well as the Margaret Beaufort lecture series, and Catholic Social Teaching Seminars promise to make the next few weeks both informative and engaging.

On a lighter note, CAFOD began their 50^th anniversary celebrations on Saturday with a hugely well attended Mass in Westminster Cathedral. Marie and Dominic were up until the early hours celebrating their employers’ anniversary with a bottle of bucks fizz and a game of Jenga.

It is approaching the time when interns start looking towards next year and what jobs they could/should be applying for. It gives me great satisfaction to offer wholehearted congratulations to Matthew Carson who has secured a job with a Management Consultancy firm, starting at the end of the internship – it should be noted that Alpen and fruit smoothies do not constitute as celebrating this achievement (see above for an alternative). To everyone else there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel - as the old Chinese proverb goes, “if Matthew can get a job………!”

And so to conclude these ramblings, let us take inspiration from our supreme leader Kim Il-Davies; “VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD.”

Olympic Park

2012-01-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

One of the first things I see every morning when I wake up is the BT Tower. The 177 meter tall structure has displayed various messages since I moved into the top floor of Newman House – one morning I woke up to see Pudsy the Children In Need mascot peering in, the week before Remembrance Sunday the tower looked as though it was adorned with poppies and fireworks kept exploding around New Year. Apart from these special occasions the screens on the tower display a countdown to the Olympic Games, which happens to coincide with end of my internship.

So, the Olympics is always on my mind – well once a day anyway – and it was therefore a fantastic opportunity for me to have a tour of the Olympic park today. Such is the nature of this internship that I thought nothing of jumping on the DLR with the Archbishop of Westminster and trundling off to East London to meet a group of priests from the neighbouring diocese of Brentwood.

Plenty of the priests were reminiscing about past sporting achievements at school or uni and challenging each other to 100m sprints as we set off on a bus around the Olympic park.

Velodrome

Less than 200 days to go and the park’s resemblance to a building site is still uncanny. Hundreds of men in high-vis jackets waved as we went past. The shells of all the major buildings on site are nearly complete. The Velodrom is a beautiful structure and stands in stark contrast to the ‘Copper Box’ which will house the handball tournament and be raized to the ground after the Games due to a lack of interest in the sport in the UK.

The Olympic Village looks like a new university halls complex and is the first of its kind as all athletes regardless of when their event is will be able to stay on site. The 2012 London Olympics will also be the ‘greenest’ Games yet as the site will be powered by gas and wood-chip burnt as biomass. 800, 000 spectators will travel to the park by public transport and the only car park there is for media trucks and disabled visitors.

Olympic Village

Faith will literally be at the heart of the Olympic park in the Faith Centre that will accommodate five of the world’s main religions. The Christian section has been split in two and as Catholic’s we get our very own space. Twenty-four chaplains will be assigned to work at the Games, providing 24/7 pastoral care to visitors, staff and athletes alike.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols in front of Olympic Stadium

As the park will go into ‘lock-down’ in May until the day before the Opening Ceremony, this was a great time to see it all coming together. Check out the links below to see related Catholic initiatives.

More Than Gold: http://www.morethangold.org.uk/

100 Days of Peace: http://www.peacelegacy.org.uk/

John Paul 2 Foundation for Sport: http://www.johnpaul2foundation4sport.org/

Moules et Frites

2012-01-17T05:48:00.000-08:00

A visit to the European Parliament kicked off the events calendar for 2012, as the interns found themselves in Brussels last week.

After checking in at a very well located hotel near the Place du Luxembourg we took a deep breath and dived into the first meeting of thirteen that would take place before we departed for London the following evening. Although the schedule of meetings was intense everyone we met was extremely accommodating and pleased to talk to us about their work.

The list of people we met with is as long as it is diverse and each one gave us a different insight into the ‘Brussels bubble’. The institutions of the European Union are often portrayed as vast monoliths, unintelligible to anyone who has not worked there since their inception and who doesn’t speak ten languages. But the reality of working in or with the European Parliament and all of the associated bodies and agencies is quite different, we discovered.

Interns with Gay Mitchell MEP

Gay Mitchell MEP was especially compelling, talking to us about how he reconciles his faith and political work. Mr Jorge Nuno-Mayer, Secretary General of Caritas Europa, gave us a unique insight into the work of a major NGO working with the EU and Fr Frank Turner SJ shared some radical views about clericalism. Hans-Gert Poettering MEP, who was President of the European Parliament 2007-2009, was one of the most charismatic men we met, his passion for the EU and all he believed it could achieve clearly coming through in the way he spoke about the challenges it both faces and has those it has managed to overcome.

Stephen with Hans-Gert Pottering MEP

Love it or hate it, the EU is here to stay. The people we met showed us that it is the individuals who make up the institutions of the regional body that keep the momentum of positive change going, most of whom are determined to better the lives of those living within the member states.

After a couple of weeks apart it was fantastic to spend some time together as a group. We are very fortunate that visits such as this are included in our internship and can’t wait until the next overseas trip –to Rome in May!

Festive Fun

2011-12-23T03:19:00.000-08:00

As Christmas is upon us and (most of) the interns have finished work for the festive period, September and our first nights at Newman House, all the induction days, meetings and nerves feel like a long time ago. Since then we have celebrated three birthdays (or twenty six – if you include all of Edward’s impromptu birthday cakes), attended twelve receptions and ten lectures, visited a mosque, been to Oxford and completed one retreat.

Ice skating at the Natural History Museum
(Matthew, Michaela, Fiona, Dom, Lucy, Catherine and Stephen)

2012 doesn’t look as though it will be any less busy. Having properly settled into our jobs and routines, it is safe to say we are embracing the London lifestyle and trying to make the most of all the opportunities that come our way.

As the applications for the 2012/13 internship are now open, with our ‘testimonies’ on the Bishops Conference Website, it has made us think about how the actual experience of the internship compares with our expectations of it. For many the responsibilities and range of work we’ve been given has far surpassed what we had imagined out day to day work may involve. Others have found that they have developed knowledge and skills in areas they had previously not engaged with.

As Daniel has said (much more succinctly), “I have realised that no name or description could take in the multitude of opportunities and experiences which we have already enjoyed.”

We have all learnt from mistakes and been given credit for achievements in the workplace and have plenty of stories to tell as we head back home this Christmas.

Our next adventure is to Brussels in the new year, where we will be meeting with an array of MEP’s and the director of Caritas Europe.

Faith in action

2011-12-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went on another ‘visit’ with Bishop Alan Hopes - who’s stalking who is as yet unclear!

This time we were at Whittington Hospital in North London. Bishop Alan met with the Board of Trustees before celebrating Mass in the hospital’s chapel. The Mass included a special blessing of the new Tabernacle and was attended by around thirty people, including staff, a few patients, volunteers and local people who had heard the Bishop would be presiding.

Fr Mark Smith, who is the full time chaplain to Whittington hospital, invited everyone to stay for a buffet lunch that had been put on in honour of the Bishop’s visit. Over a plate of picnic food I chatted to Fr Mark about his day to day responsibilities at the hospital and how he manages to stay so positive when a lot of the time he is ministering to people who are terminally ill. It is clear that Fr Mark is sustained by his faith, which motivates him to comfort the sick and lonely every day.

Bishop Alan and I then accompanied Fr Mark, Fr Peter Scott (who co-ordinates all the healthcare chaplains for the diocese) and Sr Aideen on their daily ward rounds. Fr Mark and Sr Aideen visit the intensive care unit every day but take it in turns to visit other wards, along with the Anglican chaplain. The Bishop seemed to have taken on celebrity status in the hospital and people’s faces visibly lit up on seeing him. He spoke with junior doctors, ward sisters and volunteers, congratulating them on their hard work as well as speaking with patients, many of whom were emotionally overwhelmed by the genuine interest he took in their suffering.

Fr Mark with patient Michael, Bishop Alan, Sr Aideen and Fr Peter

The hospital had a wonderfully festive feel to it, with fierce competition between the staff to win the ‘best dressed ward’ prize of a box of biscuits and bottle of Champagne. Fr Mark, Fr Peter and Sr Aideen are obviously very highly respected and well liked around the hospital, but told me of the difficulty in having a purposeful presence on the wards whilst not getting in the way of the staff.

Hospital chaplains, they said, have worked hard to improve the image of priests on the wards over the last ten or twenty years as people use to be quite fearful of them – assuming someone was about to pass away. Now, however, people recognise the priest as someone there to offer pastoral care, to have a friendly chat with or confide in.

On the drive back to Archbishop’s House, Bishop Alan said that the visit had left him energised – a feeling that I’m sure was shared by everyone who met him throughout the afternoon. I feel very privileged to witness the churches faith in action and to have experienced its positive effects.

Acts of Random Kindness

2011-12-16T03:58:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night the interns turned out in force to charm donors to Catholic schemes and programmes, such as this internship. We met with a wide variety of people, from retired bankers to journalists, theatre fund-raisers and doctors, all of whom expressed a keen interest in the internship.

The quality of the invitations was reflected in the canapés, which were circulated by some of the most enthusiastic waiters we’ve encountered. The Archbishop of Westminster chatted with us about how all of our internships are going. He later addressed the room, thanking everyone for their on-going support and asking for their prayers that the good work carried out as a result of their contributions may long continue.

In his address, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, spoke of a recent visit to a primary school where the children told him they were building the ark. Presuming the children were referring to Noah’s Ark, the Archbishop asked what they were building the ark from. However he had misunderstood as the children went on to explain that the ARK they were building was one of love and respect through ‘Acts of Random Kindness’. This had touched the Archbishop and struck a chord with those listening too, as it is the same altruistic spirit the children were engaged in promoting that had led many of the people at the reception to be there.

The Archbishop called for us all to embrace this spirit of love and generosity by performing more ‘random acts of kindness’ this Advent.

Not 24 hours had passed until we were gathered together again experiencing – and not performing – an act of random kindness as we were treated to a delicious dinner by a friend of the scheme, whom we had met on the retreat back in October.

We all had a lovely evening at a beautiful Italian restaurant where we were thoroughly spoiled. The same lady has been extremely generous with her professional expertise these past few months too.

It is amazing to meet people who are so supportive of what we are all doing this year and to know we are being given countless unique opportunities because of their selfless acts of random kindness.

Tom Clarke MP

2011-12-09T02:39:00.000-08:00

Tom Clarke, MP for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, kindly agreed to be interviewed after I met him at CAFOD's parliamentary reception last month. This interview touches on aspects of all our internship roles, as he is the Chairman for the Parliamentary Friends of CAFOD group, has a keen interest in media and is an MP...

Tom Clarke

Next year will mark the 30^th anniversary of Tom Clarke’s election as MP for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, making him one of the longest serving MP currently in the House of Commons. This in itself is remarkable. It is also rather intimidating. Surely, I thought as I sat preparing my questions, this must be a formidable man, not to be crossed or challenged too much? Surely someone who has lasted in Whitehall for three decades is a hardened politician, measured, manipulative.

This preconceived idea seemed to be at odds with the man that warmly greeted me into his office at Portcullis House, offering me a seat and a coffee before answering every one of my questions in unexpected detail.

As he is the chairman of the Parliamentary Friends of CAFOD group, I began by asking Tom about where his interest in development had stemmed from.

LJ: You have a strong track record of championing development and overseas aid, where did this interest stem from?

TC: My earliest memory of CAFOD is from primary school and my teacher, Mrs Dunn. She use to show us a magazine called ‘Far East’ produced by the Columbian Mission and the picture on the front of the magazine was always the same, a little boat moored to the side of a jetty in some far off place.

Years later when I was shadow secretary for development, I was visiting the Philippines and saw a boat just like the one I remembered from the Far East magazine. I wrote to tell Mrs Dunn that I had found her boat. It was Mrs Dunn who really first sparked my interest in development then, all be it inadvertently.

LJ: In light of all the spending cuts do you think that there is a case for deprioritising development spending?

TC: Absolutely not. I feel very strongly about Britain continuing to support countries deemed rich enough to help their own people but that are unlikely to, such as North Korea. Yes, we are in tough economic times but the suffering we are going through is only magnified in the developing world. The more we suffer, the more people in developing countries suffer.

LJ: Are there any CAFOD campaigns in particular that really resonated with you?

TC: The Make Poverty History campaign in 2006 was especially poignant for me personally as it happened around the time of the Private Members Bill I introduced being divan royal assent. It is extremely hard to get a Private Members Bill passed, so it feels like a massive achievement.

The International Development Bill came into effect in July 2006 and means DFID has to report to the government on all their spending, so that they are accountable and transparent. It was also the first time that the Government’s commitment to give 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) in overseas aid by 2013 was enshrined in law, and tracks the progress of Government policy towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

LJ: Have you had any particularly profound experiences of development in action?

TC: I visited a refugee camp in Uganda as Shadow Secretary for Development and on Social Services, during the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. Bodies were literally floating down the river and people couldn’t dig mass graves fast enough before the bodies had piled up again. The rivers had become so polluted that the fish all dies, and as they were the local people’s main food source this caused further problems of malnutrition and increased tensions that were already running very high.

LJ: Coming back to Britain, you have been an MP for the best part of three decades, what are a couple of the biggest changes you have seen in your constituency in that time?

TC: Having been the MP for Colebridge for nearly 30 years, there have been lots of changes. The biggest has to have been Thatcherism and the closing of the mines. It had a terrible effect of the communities in my constituency but there has been good to come out of the hardship we initially faced. It taught us not to put all of our eggs in one basket and there had been a fantastic regeneration period that has seen many more people owning their own homes, going on holiday and generally having a better standard of living than before. Of course the recession has meant that some people have come unstuck again though...

I really admire the regeneration that has occurred across the whole of the North of England, entire cities that were devastated by the one government have been totally redeveloped in brilliant vibrant prosperous places. I’d like to think this happened as a result of many of the policies and programmes the last Labour government put in place, and, credit where it’s due, the new coalition has carried on with a lot of the more positive aspects of these urban-planning schemes.

LJ: How do you manage the potential conflict between your religious and political convictions?

TC: I don’t let my job compromise my beliefs, but at the same time I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve. I always vote with my conscience.

Caritas Reception and Allen Hall

2011-11-24T07:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday lunchtime the other interns got a chance to see one of the many things Dom and Marie have been working on. As we squeezed our way into Caritas’ (very well attended) Parliamentary Reception, held in the House of Commons, we were greeted by MP’s, Peers and people working for various charitable organisations that come under the Caritas Social Action Network umbrella.

The reception was a chance for all supporters of Caritas to mingle and exchange ideas and experiences, as well as hear the Archbishop of Westminster speak. The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols highlighted the need to “foster the common good” that existed between those in attendance and the work that they do, echoing advice given by the Holy Father on his visit to the UK last year.

The Archbishop went on to praise the work of member organisations of the Caritas network in helping those who are marginalised in society. He alluded to the current economic and social challenges that include; the effects of cutbacks, the repercussions of the summer riots, and the growing pressure upon families and young people.

Later the same day, we met each other at Allen Hall in Chelsea and joined Mgr Mark O’Toole and the seminarians in the chapel for Adoration. We were given a brief history of the seminary, which has been in existence in some form for over three hundred years, before being split up amongst those who live at Allen Hall for dinner. This enabled/ forced us to talk to the seminarians and priests, all of whom seemed delighted to have guests (if only for the wine this had prompted the Rector to buy).

Allen Hall Seminary, Chelsea

All of the interns appreciated a good home cooked meal with pumpkin pie for dessert to acknowledge the American tradition of Thanksgiving, being celebrated today. After dinner we were taken on a tour by Mark, one of the seminarians at Allen Hall. On the tour, Mark referred to what seemed like the majority of the rooms as, “the least used room in the building,” which left us slightly puzzled as to where the seminarians spend their time. Nonetheless, we left well fed and well informed having had a lovely evening with interesting people.

CAFOD's Annual Pope Paul VI Memorial Lecture

2011-11-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Fr Christopher Jamison delivered CAFOD's annual Pope Paul VI Memorial lecture last Friday at St Mary and St Michael's Church in East London.

In his lecture, entitled ‘Charity begins at home: but what is charity and where is home?’ Fr Jamison said, “We need a William Wilberforce of the banking world [to] bring about the abolition of immorality that will not weaken our economy, only strengthen it.”

Speaking in the ‘Cathedral of the East End’, Fr Jamison was quick to point out the dire financial juxtaposition between the borough of Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest in the entire country, and the square mile of the City that is right next door – possibly the most wealthy area in the UK.

Council flats in Tower Hamlets overlook the City's financial district

People from these areas have more in common than anyone might think though as they both caused a media storm in the form of the financial crisis and summer riots. Fr Jamison blamed these events on the ‘loss of purpose’ people have suffered from. The bankers and the rioters must, according to Fr Jamison, rediscover their purpose in life, before establishing their rights over their responsibilities.

People often turn to the Church to find this lost sense of purpose, Fr Jamison noted. He urged the Church to be more proactive in practicing the values it preaches, playing a positive role in reclaiming local communities by addressing the needs of those closest to home. The places people live need to become places where they feel they belong, and have that sense of purpose.

Fr Jamison also called for a renewed sense of conscience and morality in the financial sector, suggesting a compulsory 'Ethical Training' course for those working in investment banks. He called for bankers to realise that their career is also a vocation and they need to the ethically sound foundations of their profession.

Extracts from the lecture can be read on the CAFOD website, by following the link.

The lecture was extremely well attended and everyone quickly made their way from the chilly church into the school hall next door to investigate the rumours of hot drinks and nibbles. Many of the canapés flew in the face of Friday Penance but by 10pm on a cold Friday evening the Bishop’s were willing to offer us special dispensation. As the crowd thinned, the music was turned off and the wine had run out, we all went our separate ways to revive ourselves over the weekend and regain some energy for the week ahead, featuring Catholic Voices and dinner at Allen Hall.

http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2011/11/18/we-need-a-fair-banking-movement/

Inter-faith Day

2011-11-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

The annual Inter Faith Day organised by Katharina Müller, Interreligious Adviser to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, was one which was highly illuminating and engaging for all concerned.

The day began with glorious sunshine, bathing the interns with its mid-November warmth, as we made the short walk to the Al Manaar Islamic Centre. We were greeted by a very welcoming and jovial member of the community, called Fahim, who was to be our guide for the visit (He was called Fahim). We were shown into the Centre and were given a tour around the entire facility, including the mosque area.

The tour allowed the group to see the inner workings of a mosque and the various elements to it including; a carefully monitored library, a crèche, toilets with extensive ablution facilities in line with Muslim practices. The carefully sculpted furniture and décor was all embossed with Arabic script from the Quran.

(Lucy, Stephen, Dominic, Matthew, Fahim and the Imam)

On completing the tour we then had a spot of traditional mint tea and baklava whilst Fahim answered some questions that the interns had. We were then guided to the Friday prayer ceremony, the girls to the balcony which had screens so that their view was restricted, and the men to the mosque itself. The imam began with a sermon in Arabic that lasted over half an hour and then gave a brief story in English. At this point the male interns were asked to leave the room so that the congregation could complete their cycles of prayer. The numbers present at the ceremony were vast and the 3 rooms in the mosque could not accommodate all of the men.

Afterwards the women were allowed back into the company of the men and the Director of the mosque came to say a brief hello and offered a warm welcome to us. The misconception was that we were all on a “Bishops Training Scheme”, something which we were quick to point out was against the laws of the Church and utterly absurd!

We were then given Fahim’s email address, mobile number, BBM code, Facebook, Twitter and other such means of communication if we had any further questions.

On leaving the mosque we made our way across London for a deliciously pescatarian lunch in the company of our mentor and guide Edward Davies (unfortunately on this occasion Julia was otherwise engaged).

This was swiftly followed with a rather unique tour of religious artefacts in the V&A museum which was an experience not to be forgotten easily. The amount of artefacts shown and the extremely thorough explanations of each one’s origin, purpose, potential owner and star sign engaged the interns for over two hours. We all had a marvellous time.

Annual Theos Lecture 2011

2011-11-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

General Lord Richard Dannatt last night delivered the Annual Theos Lecture, entitled “The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Morality and Warfare Today”.

The lecture was a mixture of practical aspects of military ventures as well as reflections on how changes in society have affected the attitude of the men and women who serve in the armed forces, referred to by Dannatt as the “raw material”.

The lecture was littered with references to recent alarming activity including the summer riots, the phone hacking crisis and MP’s expenses scandal to name but a few. Dannatt contended that the public outrage at these incidences was based on moral objections, even more so than legal or financial grievances.

This is interesting given that if you only read the tabloids, you would think that 90% of society was involved in all these wanton activities, not opposing them. Dannatt noted that the decline in moral standards is something that the army cannot accept but it is not the job of the military to enforce morality in society at large. This would lead us down a very slippery slope.

Lord Dannatt also spoke of good leadership qualities and the way in which these should be cultivated. He believed that it is farcical to say people are either born natural leaders or not, although of course there are certain innate tendencies that can be of great help. This was a thought provoking point for those interns wishing to enter public life.

This internship, in fact, epitomises many of the ways the Church is able to have a positive influence on young people, especially those entering public service. The “social and economic liberalism” blamed by Dannatt for the descent of moral standards can be combated in many ways by a holistic approach to the individual, such as this internship provides. Not only are we expected to take on professional responsibilities, but to explore ethics at an academic level at Heythrop and develop a better understanding of ourselves in relation to our faith through spiritual direction.

After the lecture we descended into a beautiful marble reception room and spoke at length to the Bishop of the Armed Forces, Richard Moth, pictured with us below. We also met Caroline Wyatt, the BBC’s long-standing Defence Correspondent, who had chaired the question and answer session following the lecture.

Attending all these after-work lectures has had the indirect effect of making us all experts on canapés. The ones on offer last night were the best yet, with a selection of sweet and savoury mini delicacies. How will the canapés at the CAFOD memorial lecture next week compare...?

CAFOD Reception at Speakers House

2011-11-08T04:01:00.000-08:00

Last night, three of the interns attended the CAFOD MP Correspondent reception, held in Speakers House.

The MP Correspondents are a group of loyal CAFOD supporters who take it upon themselves to write to their MP’s with different ‘campaign actions’ suggested by CAFOD. The MP Correspondents are asked to write to their MP three times a year and are supported by CAFOD with sample letters and briefs, as well as opportunities to share ideas with other MP Correspondents.

The reception last night was one such occasion where MP Correspondents met with one another, along with MP’s and CAFOD staff involved in furthering CAFOD’s cause in parliament. Thanks to the pure persistence and dedication the MP Correspondents have shown to CAFOD campaigns over the years, some real advancements have been made in passing proactive legislation designed to help those most vulnerable in the developing world. More recently, supporters have secured tough climate change laws, and seen billions of pounds of debt cancelled.

Speakers at last night’s reception included Tom Clarke MP, Chris Bain, director of CAFOD, Bishop John Arnold, who is now the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and pictured above, and Baroness Stowell. All spoke of their gratitude for the support MP Correspondents give to CAFOD and the necessity of keeping up the good work, helping politicians to make tough decisions by showing that the public believe in bettering the lives of those still living in unimaginable poverty.

It was an interesting opportunity for the interns to meet with people working in development and for Dominic and Marie to see another side of work they are involved with. Tonight we are all off to the Theos Annual lecture, to be given by General Lord Richard Dannatt on, “The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Morality and Warfare Today”, watch this space for our verdict...

Out and about with Bishop Alan

2011-11-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

I’ll admit that before going to the Westway Travellers site my only knowledge of the travelling community had been gained from watching ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ last year whilst still at uni, probably in bed with a hangover, sipping a black coffee and mustering the energy to lift a spoon full of cereal to my mouth as it gaped open at the ten year olds gyrating in brightly coloured mardi-gras style outfits.

What a misconception.

The Travellers I met at the Westway site this week were some of the most friendly and hospitable people I’d ever encountered, not to mention religious. Everywhere I looked pictures and statues of saints, Jesus and the Virgin Mary adorned doors, walls and car rear-view mirrors. Sr Petronia, who had organised the visit, also told me about the travelling community’s generosity in giving to the Church and charities.

The excitement of the Bishop’s visit was palpable in the crowd that had gathered to greet him, as we got out of the car and began shaking hands with young men and women, small children and older members of the community.

Not everyone was as keen on meeting the Bishop face to face, but as we made our way through the site pristine net-curtains twitched in the front of caravans veiling those inside too shy or suspicious to come outside.

Mass was held in a porter-cabin that is normally used as a crèche or nursery. Around twenty people were waiting for us, having set up a small table as an altar. Generations of the same family sat side-by-side with grandmothers cooing over newborn babies and young mothers fussing over toddlers. Heavy gold jewellery clinked against each other as late comers hurried in and by the end of Mass the congregation had almost doubled.

After Mass, Bishop Hopes went to see each family and blessed their homes, cars, pets, children, unborn babies and religious figurines. As we got in the car to leave he turned to me and said, with a smile, “That’s what it’s all about, Lucy, you can’t be a Bishop from behind a desk.” I am really glad my first encounter with the travelling community was such a positive one.

The Inaugural Newman Lecture

2011-10-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

On a mild morning in late October, as leaves littered the pavements of Berkeley Square, the interns made their way to Farm Street for Mass and a thought provoking discussion with Fr James regarding the nature of the human person. This was a good opportunity to reflect on the week ending and discuss some areas of Catholic Social Teaching that are central to our daily work.

Following from these discussions the interns then prepared for the inaugural Newman Lecture, organised by the Catholic Bishops Conference. The evening promised to be an interesting and humorous affair, Frank Cottrell Boyce (who delivered the lecture) did not disappoint. The author, screen writer and co-organiser of the Olympic 2012 Opening Ceremony, was on fine form. In a well-attended Notre Dame Lecture Hall, Frank (author of “Millions”) had the audience captivated with witty quips about the nature of Saints and Sainthood, as well as providing an interesting glimpse into some of Newman’s life and work. The lecture was followed by a brief question and answer session where Frank was asked about his life and work, as well as questions regarding Newman himself.

The reception after the lecture was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The interns mingled and met with many different people, as well as enjoying the refreshments which were all the more satisfying given the plague of food poisoning that was an unfortunate consequence of cold fish fingers the week previously.

The opportunity to listen to speakers such as Frank and to meet new people, both in the clergy and laity, was one which the interns found most rewarding. We will now look forward to the “Inter-Faith Day” which is due to be held in two weeks time.

2011-10-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

This week has been another busy one for the interns. On Thursday night we attended the Tablet’s annual lecture, this year given by the Right Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. The title of the lecture was 'Holiness Today: The Formation of the Human Heart'. The Archbishop spoke of how we are all on our own pathways to finding God and understanding His presence in our lives. Not only did he speak for over an hour but also answered a question and answer session on a variety of points people had picked up on his lecture. Having heard a lot of politicians speak over the past few weeks, we all admired how genuine and honest the Archbishop appeared to be when he spoke and told him so when we met him after the lecture.

After our meeting with Fr James the next day, we took a train to Oxford to attend the Anscombe Memorial Lecture. Professor Robert P George, from Princeton University, gave this year’s lecture, entitled "Science, Philosophy and Religion in the Embryo Debate.” Although none of us have a special interest in medical ethics, the lecture was very thought provoking.

We took advantage of the drinks reception after the lecture (some more so than others) and the opportunity it gave us to talk to other people who had attended the lecture. We then went for dinner at Oriel College, where Cardinal Henry Newman was a fellow, and is commemorated with beautiful stained glass windows in what was his personal Oratory.

As everyone has been so busy settling into their new jobs and routines, we haven’t been together as a group for a fortnight. It was great to catch up with everyone on Friday and hear about what we’ve all been up to.

From left to right: Michaela, Daniel, Dominic, Stephen, Matthew, Lucy and Marie (and Edward Davies)

Catholic Parliamentary Interns 2011/12: Retreat to Drumalis

2011-10-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

As temperatures in London soared to record heights for this time of year, the 2011/12 Catholic Parliamentary Interns zipped up their jackets, grabbed their umbrellas and headed out for a bracing walk along the coast of East coast of Northern Ireland. Ignoring texts inviting us to bbq’s back home, we made (yet another) cup of tea and tried not to think about the last burst of summer we were missing out on.

It was easy not to dwell on this, however, as we navigated our way through Morning Prayer, informal discussions led by Fr James Hanvey, Mass, Adoration and, of course, meal times, during the first of our retreats this year.

We stayed at Drumalis, near Larne in Northern Ireland, which is a beautiful retreat centre with everything you need for a peaceful weekend including beautiful grounds, a small yet striking chapel and comfortable accommodation.

Having had an intense week of meetings and induction days, Drumalis allowed us to stop and take stock of the incredibly fortunate position we find ourselves in. The tranquillity experienced at Drumalis standing in stark contrast to the hectic lifestyles we’ve thrown ourselves into in London.

We shared personal experiences and opinions about prayer and faith, what we hoped for this year and how we feel about being young Catholics in today’s increasingly secular society.

We also shared a couple of cheeky Chinese take-aways and got to see people in different lights. As we will be spending a lot of time together this year it was important for us to find common ground, other than our faith.

The time we spent in Drumalis has given us a solid foundation for the journey we are all about to embark on as we take up our placements, a journey that is bound to be both professionally challenging and spiritually rewarding.

Back from Brussels

2011-07-12T02:51:00.000-07:00

We're back from Brussels after an intense few days learning about the EU, how COMECE works and...forestry!

The trip provided us with a unique chance to understand the EU - love it or hate it - as well as see how the European machine all fits together. We saw how different groups view each other and what they do, and interestingly what the EU sees as religions role in the greater running of the European Parliament, Commission and Council.

For me one of the most fascinating chats we had was with the man responsible for religious dialogue at the European Commission - he say it as his job to let them all have a chance to contribute and air their problems. This was good. However, he also noted that they weren't allowed to talk about contentious issues such as abortion, euthanasia - as 'the EU knows their stance on these issues', I found this a bit more disheartening, that religion didn't get to logical explain our stand points.

Thankfully, the World Youth Alliance are there to fill this gap. I really enjoyed our talk by the WYA, where the members explained what they do, how they campaign and how they lobby Parliament. This direct tactic and the conviction they had was impressive and inspiring. It made me believe that Youth have a voice at the European stage on life issues.

Although we only had two days of meetings we packed a lot in!

Next we're off to visit a Prison with Fr Malachy.

Off to Brussels!

2011-06-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

European Parliament

The interns are off to Brussels tomorrow to learn about the EU parliament, COMECE and see where our fellow Brussels intern has been living.

On Wednesday (22 June) we'll meet Michael Kuhn,Deputy General Secretary, Advisor for Education and Culture at COMECE along with Johanna Touzel, Press Officer for an introduction to the programme, religious organisations in Brussels and how COMECE interfaces with the EU.

After lunch at the COMECE Secretariat we grab a coffee with Wendelin Gravenreuth, Project Manager, Confederation of European Forest Owners. Then we meet Tim Foley (2md Secretary, Press and Information)

Then it's off to European Parliament where we're meeting a former intern - Rhiannon Price, who is currently working for Kay Swinburn MEP.

Afterwards we'll meet with Jacek Sariusz-Wolski, EPP followed by a tour of Parliament with a visit to a mini Plenary session.

To give us a flavour of a typical EU parliamentary meeting we'll attend a hearing "Connecting Europe's transport and energy infrastructures".

Lastly we'll meet Andrew Hollingsworth, Public Affairs Manager, Novartis.

On Thursday we're off to meet Fr Frank Turner, at the Jesuit European Office followed by Iris Reinmidl, World Youth Alliance (WYA).

In the afternoon we'll off to the European Commission to discuss Dialogue with Religions, Churches and Communities of conviction, with Mr Jorge César das Neves, Adviser, Bureau of European Political Advisers (BEPA).

The day ends with the Council of the European Union where we'll meet Mr Guy Milton who is responsible for relations between the Council and the European Parliament.

Mass ends our intern trip to Brussels, and a busy few days!
I've been to Brussels once before - as have the others - but none of us has seen the EU parliament. For the parlimentary interns this should be particularly illuminating - comparing the EU to our own parliament. Having worked so closely to our system I wonder what they will think of the EU? We'll let you know how it goes when we get back next week!

A different point of view - literally!

2011-06-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

It was clear that throughout our visit to the Vatican we'd gained a greater understanding the way things work. But, while we'd changed our point of view on a lot of old myths surrounding the Church's home in Rome we also had a different point of view more literally!

Take a look a the stunning view from the Secretariat of State - impressive, no?

Jo-Anne
Media Intern

A sneak peek at News.va website!

2011-06-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

We were extremely lucky during our Rome trip as we were given a sneak peek of the news.va website - the new Vatican website that's to be launched this June (2011).

Here's a rather cloak and dagger style film preview of the new website!

Video: Fr Lombardi chats to the Interns

2011-06-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

During our trip to Rome we were lucky enough to meet with Fr Lombardi, who deals with all the press at the Vatican. We spoke about the importance of diocesan meeting, the recent bloggers meeting (2 May), what our role is in spreading the good news and how we can react responsibly when it comes to using social media and blogging. Fr Lombardi allowed us to video some of his answers which you can watch below.

Jo-Anne Rowney

Media Intern

Interns visit Roma! Pontifical Academy of Sciences

2011-06-02T01:28:00.000-07:00

Chris, Brussels Intern, shares our experience at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

On a hot early summer afternoon the interns were saluted by the Swiss Guards as we made our way into the Vatican. With Mr Edward Davies of Eccleston Square as our escort, we were taken through the immaculately kept gardens, to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences where Archbishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo was awaiting us. He gave us an introduction to the operations of the Academy of Sciences, which had been founded by Pius XI, with the aim of promoting the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of epistemological problems. The Academy itself comprises of eighty women and men from all over the globe who have made outstanding contributions in their fields of scientific endeavour. To obtain a seat in the Academy they are nominated by the Pope after being elected by the body of the Academicians.

Steven Hawkins is one of the members of the Academy

We were made aware of one of the most recent works of the Academy vis-à-vis the fate of mountain glaciers in the anthropocene, a report which draws on various research sources to inform all people on the potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The report concluded that by acting now, in the spirit of common but differentiated responsibility, we can accept our duty to one another and to the stewardship of a planet blessed with the gift of life (to access the report click here).

We met Archbishop Sanchez who explained what the Academy does

During the remainder of the tour we were given a very thorough explanation of the actual building in which it is housed- the Casina Pio IV, which was built in 1561 to serve as a summer residence for Pope Pius IV. The stunning Casina is a well-preserved building, covered in sixteenth century frescoes, stucco reliefs, mosaics and fountains.

Staying in Rome with the Hot Cross Bun Sisters

2011-05-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Whilst in Rome the interns stayed in the beautiful and very welcoming Casa Santa Brigida, located on Piazza Farnese in the heart of the historical centre of the city, and a few metres away from the English College. The Casa itself is a XV century building, in which the Sisters of the ‘Brigidine Order’ work tirelessly to make the stay of their guests a pleasant one. In the first floor of the house it is possible to visit the three rooms where Saint Bridget lived and died; other perks included the view from the roof terrace and the friendliness of the other guests.

The 'Hot Cross Bun' Sisters! Can you see why?

For more information about this hotel and other hotels of the Brigidine order click here

Chris

Brussels Intern

Accommodation in Rome, Casa Santa Brigida, Piazza Farnese

Visit to Rome

2011-05-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

Early on Monday morning, the interns will be on their way to the airport for a once in a lifetime trip to Rome.

The visit is packed full of exciting meetings with important people in the Vatican, Mass in St Peter's Basilica, a tour of the Vatican Gardens and some free time to explore this beautiful city.

Casa Santa Brigida - our accommodation in Rome

After arriving mid-morning and settling into our accommodation for the three days we are in Italy's capital city, we will meet Fr John Paul Leonard who is the Pastoral Director of the Venerable English College which is next door to Casa Santa Brigida for a tour of the College and Mass.

After lunch we have a meeting with Lesley-Anne Knight who is the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis. Prior to her appointment, she was International Director of CAFOD, the Caritas member in England and Wales and in the course of more than 25 years in international development, she has also worked with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Oxfam, and HelpAge International. As Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, Lesley-Anne Knight manages the General Secretariat in the Vatican City, and the confederation’s delegations to the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

Following this, we are meeting Monsignor Philip Whitmore from the Secretariat of State. The Secretariat of State is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia and is the pre-eminent department of the Vatican. Cardinal Bertone, the current Secretary of State is seen as the Prime Minister of the Vatican, the deputy to the Pope and is in charge of the political and diplomatic activities of the Holy See. Mgr Philip Whitmore is a priest of the Westminster diocese and works on translation and papal speeches within the Secretariat.

We are planning to meet up with Peter Stoddart, Catholic Parliamentary Intern last year, who is in his first year training for the priesthood at the Venerable English College, for dinner in the evening.

The stunning Vatican Gardens

After Mass celebrated by Fr John Paul Leonard first thing on Tuesday morning, we have more meetings lined up. We are meeting Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office and Irish priest, Mgr Paul Tighe, who is the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication. In the afternoon, we are walking through the beautiful Vatican Gardens to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to meet the Chancellor of the university, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo. In the evening, we have been invited to dinner at the British Embassy to the Holy See hosted the Deputy Head of Mission.

Early on Wednesday morning we are going to Mass at St Peter’s Basilica followed by meetings at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas. After some free time on Wednesday afternoon, sadly we have to return to London.

St Peter's Basilica

I am incredibly excited about our visit to Rome. This really is a breathtaking list of inspiring people that we are meeting. We are extremely grateful for the unique opportunity we have been given as Catholic Parliamentary and Public Affairs interns to do this and I sincerely hope that we the make the most of it.

During our time in Rome we will be interviewing some of the people we meet and taking lots of pictures – so watch this space when we get back!

Naomi Brandon

Public Affairs intern

A busy bank holiday

2011-05-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Not being one to let a Bank Holiday go to waste, my past three days have been pretty busy. Some of the interns, staying in Newman House for our 11 day holiday (or 7 for those with those three days working!) were perfectly placed to get a spot for the Royal Wedding. Danny, ever the early bird, bagged a good spot as a reward for his 3am start. I headed down a bit later but still got near the Abbey on Parliament’s Square. We didn’t have a TV near, but had a lady with a radio, and listened to the vows being said over the large speakers in the Square. I normally hate jostling to get a space within huge crowds, but the day was exciting and we got quite into the party spirit! After getting back to Newman House we re-watched the whole days’ events on TV, spotting ourselves behind Fiona Bruce! We had been behind the BBC cameras, spotted Bruce, Andrew Marr and some sky reporters as well as some celebs as they entered the Abbey.

Sunday saw the Beatification of John Paul II. Attending Mass in the morning, I skipped watching the coverage online, but headed down to Westminster Cathedral in the afternoon for the special screening of the Beatification Mass. There was a polish choir – it was set up by the Catholic Polish Mission - as well as the Cathedral community.

There was an emotional documentary on John Paul II, then the re-transmission, with prayers from Bishop Stack (Archbishop-elect), and a Polish Rector. After toasting JPII in the pub we headed back to Newman House.

Following the Beatification there was a lot of discussion on twitter debating miracles and the process of beatification, which led to me being able to write a few articles on the topic. I submitted a blog post for the Youth Blog too, which hopefully should be available soon.

On Monday I got up early to travel to Southwark Cathedral, south of the River, for the Mass for Migrants. The Mass was colourful, the hymns were sung joyously and there was a great celebratory mood! The procession saw people of many different nationalities celebrate their diversity, representing migrants across London.

Afterwards the groups processed across Waterloo bridge to the London Assembly marking 10 years since London Citizens launched a campaign for a fair wage. Over 2000 people attended the Mass, and many continued on for the procession. It was great seeing the work people do, to help others – and in this case – while also celebrating their roots.

All in all a very busy bank holiday! Next stop Rome…

'Universal Catholicism' in the Maghreb and the Mashriq

2011-04-20T01:27:00.000-07:00

Brussels Intern, Chris shares his experience of a COMECE conference.

Recently COMECE held a two day conference on the decades of diplomatic deadlock and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. The various speeches and debates were dedicated to Christian Churches in Maghreb and Mashriq, with COMECE Bishops warmly encouraging the citizens to continue their commitment towards the establishment of fundamental rights and democracy in the affected regions.

Seeing as the revolutions, or rather uprisings (the word revolution was concluded to insinuate the over-use of violence) were launched by the younger generation, the conference took time to pay special tribute to them, who in all the countries concerned played a leading role by initiating and organising this uprising in a courageous, peaceful and ecumenical way.

Despite their minority population, Christians in these countries share a common citizenship with their fellow citizens from other religions; each religion forms an integral part of their societies. After having had the benefit of hearing from several experts from the Arab world and

from the EU institutions, the following recommendations to were made to the EU:

- How more and concrete solidarity among the Member States of the EU is urgently needed in facing the inflow of migrants and refugees from North Africa and the Middle East.

- How the EU should help in improving the deplorable situation in these countries by developing new tools to efficiently foster modernisation and democratisation in their societies

- In the context of changes in the Arab world, how the EU should stress the importance of granting equal rights to all citizens of those countries, irrespective their ethnic or religious origin.

Throughout the conference the importance of inter-religious dialogue was clearly placed in the limelight. Dialogue should be a two-way communication, which implies speaking and listening, giving and receiving, for mutual growth and enrichment. Under the often overly brandished-about umbrella term of inter-religious dialogue is included the witness to one's own faith as well as an openness to that of the other. It was made clear how it is not a betrayal of mission of the Church, nor how it should be a new methodology of conversion to Christianity.

Finally, comments were made to the insecurity and threats that Christian minorities are ever more having to put up with in the Arab World. COMECE expressed similar concern about the way religious minorities are sometimes treated in Europe and therefore called upon all citizens, especially Christians, and the political leaders in Europe to assume their responsibilities for promoting dialogue between cultures and civilisations in Europe as well as in the rest of the world.

Catholic social action conference

2011-04-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Archbishop of Westminster makes the opening speech

On Wednesday 6th April, we attended a conference entitled 'Building a New Culture of Social Responsibility' hosted by the Caritas Social Action Network and the Catholic Bishops Conference held at 1 Birdcage Walk. This was a conference on the subject of the contribution of Catholic Social Action in the changing economic and social context and amid the Big Society rhetoric.

We got there early to help out with the registration of the conference participants. We recognised lots of names and faces including colleagues from the Bishops Conference, people we have met before from CAFOD, the Cardinal Hume Centre and other conferences we have been to, as well as political legends such as Baroness Shirley Williams, BBC Radio 4 Today programme's Ed Stourton who chaired the whole event, and Philip Blond, the thinker behind the Big Society philosophy.

After coffee and registration, Archbishop Vincent Nichols made some introductory remarks, welcoming the conference participants and setting the conference in the context of the bishops' work on deepening social engagement, the conference in Liverpool in February 2011 and the seminar held at Archbishops' House on 9th February 2011.

Helen O'Brien, Chief Executive of CSAN, spoke about Caritas in the UK, before Christoph Petrik-Schweifer, Secretary General for Caritas Austria, gave some input on Social Action and Caritas' structures abroad. Caritas Austria is a well established network, and many felt it was one to be aspired to. Interestingly he described Caritas Austria as a service provider to local authorities.

Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, set the day's discussions in their economic context. He explained why we are facing the biggest fiscal deficit and the largest period of cuts in sixty years, which he predicts will have "immense and immediate consequences". Paul's talk explained clearly what the cuts will mean for charities and community groups.

The Rt Hon Baroness Warsi

After mingling with the attendees over a coffee, The Rt Hon. the Baroness Warsi, Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without portfolio gave an address on the 'the Government Perspective' focusing on the contribution of Catholic Social Action in the changing economic and social context.

Her talk centred on four points of social responsibility. Firstly as a massive change in how we think about Government and society, learning from the work that faith communities are doing both at home and abroad, an opening of opportunity to unlock new civic energy through public service reform and finally a need to understand that these priorities are intrinsically linked. You can read her talk online, and watch the video to hear about her concept of the Big Society, her praise of Catholic endeavours and the need for change. While her talk was biased towards a Conservative perspective, it was still interesting to see what a Minister thinks about the work Caritas is doing and where it fits in.

The Panel takes questions from the attendees

Delegates then took the opportunity to raise their concerns and begin a debate during a panel discussion with Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Jon Cruddas MP, Joanna Killian, Chief Executive of Essex County Council and Bridget Doogan Chief Executive of St. John of God Hospitaller Services.

The discussions revealed the views of the charities, the point-of-view of the MPs, as well as helpfully setting Catholic Social Teaching in context of society today.

Archbishop Peter Smith ended the conference with a summary of the day’s events, thanking all who attended and spoke. He even dabbled in some 'political discussion' himself.

Jo-Anne Rowney & Naomi Brandon

Public Affairs Interns

Within the bowels of the Catholic Herald offices...

2011-04-14T05:05:00.000-07:00

Jo-Anne shares her two days experience at The Catholic Herald offices.

The Bishops meeting

Last week I found myself at 15 Lambs passage. Now if you Google that it’ll come up with Ballroom Dancing in London and Cambridge – I can assure you I wasn’t prancing around in sequins trying out for Strictly Come Dancing! I was, instead, visiting the Catholic Herald, as they had kindly agreed for me to join them for two days work experience.

Their offices are in an old building next to St Joseph’s Church, near Bunhill Row. Or so I found on my first day, trying to follow my Google map through the winding streets. Promptly arriving at 10, I was buzzed in, and after climbing quite a few stairs was met by Luke Coppen, Mark Greaves, Anna Arco and Ed West – who maybe you’ll recognise the names of from Twitter.

The first job of the day was the News List, searching for interesting news items to include. Trawling through blogs like I do at Archbishop’s House and news sites for an article that would catch my eye, a list was compiled. A meeting followed deciding who would write what and which stories would go where in the newspaper. I hadn’t seen this process before so I found it quite interesting.

Having been given the Cardinal pub story I tried to find out what was going on and where things stood. Half way through the day Independent Catholic News started up a petition, which changed my article.

It wasn’t until the next day that the news bustle really kicked off. Tuesday was News Day, so Simon Caldwell, News Editor, was in distributing the articles. This is something I love - being given a piece to write, collecting the information and quickly writing it up, then the next one and so on. I got to write a few during the day, which was a great experience.

By the end of the day I’d finished off all my pieces; had rung Alexander de Forges, CCN to talk about the Bishops meeting, contacted the Jesuits about their Superior General’s upcoming visit and followed the Cardinal pub story as it began to take off.

It would have been good to have seen the full journey of the newspaper from Monday to Friday (The Catholic Herald comes out Thursday), but instead I settled for waiting to see what and where my articles would be when I picked up the Catholic newspapers on Thursday.

The Cardinal Pub in the Herald

My Cardinal pub piece was front page down right, and the other pieces had been put in page 2 and 3. A good result for my portfolio! Even funnier, I had tweeted live from the Social Responsibility conference on the Wednesday morning. When the Archbishop told the attendees to sign the petition away I tweeted – Mark Greaves updated my story online and I watched as people RTd an article I had written. Even better, a certain reporter at the conference told me that hadn’t thought anything of the comment until I tweeted it and the headlines all changed from ‘Petition to save The Cardinal Pub’ to ‘Archbishop urges MPs etc to sign petition to save Cardinal pub’ – woopsie!

Since then the Archbishop has been busy on BBC radio, TV, news and being interviewed about it. I am absolved from blame here! The petition had already taken off - it now stands at 650 signatures.

All in all a successful two days work experience, though it’d be great to pop back in to The Catholic Herald offices to see what happens the rest of the week. My journalist’s curiosity has gotten the better of me already!

Jo-Anne Rowney

Archbishop's House, Public Affairs Intern

Media training day

2011-04-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

On Friday 1st April, the five London based interns took part in an engaging, entertaining and enlightening day of media training.

The day started with Mass in the chapel in Eccleston Square celebrated by Monsignor Andrew Faley.

The first session was presented by Maggie Doherty and Alexander DesForges who run the Catholic Communications Network (CCN). As well as leading the CCN team, Alexander is also Archbishop Vincent Nichols’ Press Secretary. Maggie, who has a background in PR, is a senior member of the CCN team as well as Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's Press Secretary. They explained the role of the CCN particularly in relation to the massive media operation that was the Papal Visit. They described their day-to-day work and told us that the current hot issues are the Ordinariate, the new translation of the Missal and World Youth Day in Madrid. As Public Affairs and Parliamentary interns we are frequently asked to use various forms of traditional media, new media and social media in order to get a message across, Alexander gave us some tips on how to be effective communicators in these mediums. He also highlighted one of the most successful messages that the Church put across during the Papal Visit that was often quoted in the mainstream media that religion is not a problem to be solved but a gift to be rediscovered.

After a quick break for coffee, Jack Valero told us about his highly successful Catholic media organisation, Catholic Voices, which he set up in advance of the Papal Visit. Described as a revival of apologetics for the 24 hour media era, Valero's Catholic Voices has a refreshingly positive approach to the most controversial issues associated with the Catholic Church and the Church's teaching. He asked us to pick one of these 'neuralgic' issues and come up with a short speech to portray the Church's point of view in a positive way. Most importantly he told us to know our faith inside-out so we could take part in informed debates about the contentious issues.

Following that, we went up to the Bishops' Conference radio studio for an experience of radio interviews. We are arranging to have some practical experience with them soon - so watch this space to hear about that!

After lunch we heard from political communications expert and Professor in the subject from Madrid, Karen Sanders. We talked about the functions of the media and their power of agenda-setting and framing stories. In the context of our own work, she reminded us that politicians need the media in democratic societies, she describes this symbiotic relationship between politicians and journalists in her work as a 'tense tango'. I particularly enjoyed this part of the day because my dissertation was on the subject of the influence of political public relations in modern democratic societies. This time last year when I was writing my dissertation there was very little research and literature on this specific area, but in the last twelve months, Karen told us, there has been more work done on it and a couple of books published including one of her own! At the end of her session, she split us into two groups to write the ten commandments of a media relations office, we then compared these to those written by Christopher Meyer, who was John Major's Press Secretary.

Social media was the subject of the final session of the day. The Pope has described facebook as 'a truly human form of communication' but has also warned young people about the possible pitfalls of using social networks. We talked about the strengths and weaknesses of using social media tools such as facebook, blogs, twitter, youtube, flickr and so on both in a professional capacity and in our personal lives. We also discussed how the internship could benefit from a better social media profile. If you have any ideas, please comment on this post and let us know!

We are tremendously grateful to Maggie Doherty for organising the training day for us and to the speakers for making time to talk to us. We all learnt a lot and I can't wait to put everything I learnt into action as soon as possible. We gained so much knowledge and practical tips; I hope it will come in use in our current jobs as well as in the future.

This has been one of so many great opportunities that the Catholic Parliamentary Internship has given us. Next week we are going to a conference hosted by the Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Catholic Church's presence in our society today as it looks to foster a culture of greater social responsibility.

Naomi Brandon

Public Affairs intern at CESEW

The Robin Hood Tax debate

2011-03-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a panel debate about banking, taxation and the Robin Hood Tax organised by CAFOD, St Paul’s Institute, Tearfund and the Salvation Army, held at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The event, expertly chaired by Today programme presenter and former BBC economics editor Evan Davis, was attended by several hundred people all keen to hear what the panellists had to say about whether banks have a responsibility to contribute to the common good and if the proposed Robin Hood Tax is the solution.

The Robin Hood Tax campaign has over a quarter of a million supporters in more than 25 countries worldwide and proposes:

· A tax of 0.05% on financial transactions such as stocks, bonds, foreign currency and derivatives.

· Raising up to £20 billion a year in the United Kingdom.

· Spending 50% of the money on fighting poverty in the United Kingdom, 25% on fighting poverty overseas and 25% on mitigating the effects of climate change around the globe.

Baroness Shirley Williams, prominent Catholic member of the House of Lords and co-founder of the Liberal Democrats, kicked off the debate by putting forward the moral case for the Robin Hood Tax. She pointed out that the argument has existed far longer than the Robin Hood Tax campaign as the idea of the Tobin tax, put forward in the 1970s by the Nobel award winning James Tobin, has been around for a long time. She said that this kind of tax could be the ‘sand in the oyster’ that helps to produce a purer, clearer and fairer banking sector. She lamented the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the unequal society in which we live now and the scandalous bonus culture of the banks, which, she argued, have already gone back to their bad ways. She showed the audience how much money could be raised to alleviate poverty in the UK, could be spent on international aid and to solve international crises such as climate change.

The next speaker presented a contrasting view of the Robin Hood Tax. Michael Green, an independent economist and co-author of “The Road from Ruin: A New Capitalism for the Big Society” and “Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World”, began by saying that he is ‘deeply disturbed by the Robin Hood Tax’. He outlined his opposition to the Robin Hood Tax saying that he believes that a tax on banks would be passed on to the customers like you and me. He added that his ‘greatest concern is that the Robin Hood Tax is a distraction from the fundamental reform that global capitalism needs.'

Michael Izza, Chief Executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, was next up in the Robin Hood tax debate. He advocated a currency transaction levy and explained that we have the technology now to make this possible. Izza explained that in real terms, this currency transaction levy would take £5 from every £100,000 transaction, not a huge amount. He concluded by highlighting that the foreign exchange markets are an area of concern: ‘The Foreign Exchange markets are starting to show a lot of ‘bubble-like' characteristics.'

Former Anglican Bishop of Worcester, Rt Revd Peter Selby, concluded this section of the debate with a moral perspective on the financial industry. Although he agreed with the concept of taxing the rich to help the poor, he pointed out that 'taxation doesn't make something that isn't right alright’. He believes that the financial industry needs far more radical reform to serve the common good.

After the speeches, the panel took questions from the floor. There were some fantastic questions including one from Gavin Shuker MP about the possible international implications of the Robin Hood Tax and a question about whether the Robin Hood Tax is revenge for the financial crisis to which Shirley Williams responded that it is not but that it is an act of justice.

Evan Davis, who was chairing the debate, asked the audience a couple of questions about their attitudes to the Robin Hood Tax. He asked us whether we would prefer reform of the banking sector or the Robin Hood Tax, to which the overwhelming proportion preferred the former option. Many of us also said we would like to see both. At the end of the evening, however, the vast majority of the audience attending the debate said they were in favour of the Robin Hood Tax.

The Robin Hood Tax debate was very well organised by the four hosts and took place in a beautiful venue, the standard of debate was high and the arguments compelling, all in all, a very enjoyable and interesting evening.

Naomi Brandon

Public Affairs Intern at CESEW

Inter-faith day: Visit to a synagogue and discussing interreligious dialogue

2011-03-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged so here I am! We've been very busy recently, meeting new people and learning new things so expect a few blogs explaining what we've been up to.

Meeting God in Friend and Stranger

Last Friday we spent the day with Katharina Muller, who is involved with interreligious dialgoue at the Catholic Bishops' Conference in Eccleston Square. The day began with a session on Meeting God in Friend in Stranger, which is a document put out by the conference on inter-faith dialogue and issues arising from this. During the session we broke down each section dealing with a variety of issues including inter-faith marriage, dialogue between religions and the importance of lay people engaging in dialogue.

The MGFS document was released in 2010 by the Conference, to remind Catholics that we are all called in our Baptism to engage in dialogue with others, even those of other faiths.The document particularly stresses the importance of the lay people, the grass roots, to enter into talks with other faiths and that dialogue can occur in everyday life - not just in Church or between religious leaders.

We also touched on Nostra Aetate, a Vatican doument from 1965. The document is the Church's declaration on the relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, which we were directed to if we wanted to read more on the topic.

Bevis Marks Synagogue

After the enlightening discussion we hopped on the tube to Liverpool Street, to the Bevis Marks Synagogue (1701), the oldest synagogue in the UK and home to a Spanish and Portugese Jewish community.

At the synagogue we were given a talk on the history of the community and the building. The man giving the talk (he sounded like Alan Sugar!) explained how the community had mostly moved away now to Maida Vale, but that Bevis Marks had a growing service attendance, mostly young professionals, due to its central location.

He gave us a potted history as well as the architectural facts about the building. The architect, Joseph Avis, a Quaker, designed the building around the same time as the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire. His Quaker background seemed evident from the hard pews! There was also an impressive ornate Ark, which contains the Torah scrolls, and seven candelabra (one for each day of the week). The man created a lovely image of the synagogue lit by candle light alone for weddings during the winter months.

Pointing out a roped off seat the man explained it was for Sir Moses Montefiore. I knew only a little about him before the talk, so it was interesting to hear about his good works. The seat is kept free in tribute to him, and only when there is a Jewish London Mayor - who is 'blessed' at the synagogue rather than St Paul's Cathedral - is someone allowed to sit in it. Prince Charles had the honour for their tercentenary service and Tony Blair for their service marking the 350th annivesary of the settlement of the Jews in Great Britain.

It sounds silly but I hadn't really thought about how other religions also have different strands. Just as Christianity has Catholics and Anglicans, Methodists and so on, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam have separate strands too. It was apparent by the end of the day how different these strands can be, and I found this an important lesson to take away in how I view other faiths. Our experience at the synagogue was an enlightening one, and I found it strange why I hadn't really ever visited another religions place of worship before.

Over a fish lunch (inspired by the Archbishop's pastoral letter) we discussed what we'd learnt, while lamenting our Lenten abstinences - although I did shamelessly enjoy a rather nice piece of fish. Katharina suggested perhaps we could have another inter-faith day, and next time visit a mosque. If the inter-faith session is anything to go by it should be an interesting experience! I'll look forward to it.

Until next time!

Jo-Anne

P.S The Conference's website has some links if you're interested in reading more about interreligious dialogue...

Interns in the City Day 3: The insiders view with Bill Moyes and Francis Campbell

2011-03-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

Sadly today was the end of the three day City intern experience. We ended on a high, meeting Bill Moyes, former Executive Chairman of Monitor - an independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts, and Francis Campbell - former ambassador to the Holy See.

We had a change of scenery today, as we spent our morning at Eccleston Square. First up was Bill Moyes. We had done a little research on Bill before our chat, so our questions stemmed from his time as a civil servant, his work with Monitor and what he felt needed to be done with the NHS now. Bill was open with his suggestions and his criticisms of what the government are doing and gave praise to policy where it was deserved. He gave us lovely anecdotes from his time in the civil service as well as an insight into Margaret Thatcher's time, which he spent at Number 10, as well how the focus changed from parliament to Number 10 during Blair's reign. Our time with Bill was over too quickly, but we were left with a great insight into the world of parliament and practical tips on how to get things done.

Next was Francis Campbell. I'd been dying to have a chat with the former ambassador since we saw him give the Tablet lecture last year and I wasn't disappointed. Campbell explained honestly how he couldn't answer everything for various reasons, but would answer what he could as fully as possible. That he did. A particularly inspiring and touching moment was when he was talking about his new posting to Pakistan, following the death of Bhatti for his faith. We asked if he was worried about going out there as a Catholic. He spoke of his determination to attend Mass while in Pakistan, and his discussions to ensure this happens, he humbly said he realised the threat to his life and was willing to go out there, referring to providence and God's will. Campbell came across as a humble and brave man and I think we all got a lot from our session.

Following our meeting we attending Mass in the chapel at Eccleston Square - a perfect end to an intense, interesting and enlightening three days!

Until next time

Jo-Anne

Interns in the City Day 2: Economic explanations with JP Morgan, and sharing stories with Ruth Kelly

2011-03-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Day two began with a brisk walk to JP Morgan in the City of London for a series of presentations. If the flavour of the previous day had been living your faith in the workplace, today was exploring and understanding how London works and learning about the economic crisis.

Malcolm Barr gave the first presentation which was about the UK following the Economic Crisis. I found this talk really helpful as we constantly are told what to think about the current economic climate by the media, but too often the facts are confusing and just make my head spin! Malcolm made the situation easy to understand, explaining the finer details for the 'economic novices' like myself.

Then it was over to Guidhall, which houses the City of London Corporation to meet Tony, Head of Public Relations. With a huge map behind the meeting room table we were able to see the breadth of London, and all the jobs the authorities do to keep the city going, as well as learning the difference between the City - big C, with the city - small c! I've not been able to visit a park without checking who runs it since!

After an interesting talk on the history of London in a nutshell from Tony, it was back to JP Morgan for a presentation by Sam Panda on the relationship between the City and the Regulators. Sam works in the Government Relations department so he works closely with MPs informing them about how the City and banks work to inform their decision making. His job proved interesting to the interns placed in parliament as well as those interested in policy and influencing MPs' opinions.

To end the day it was a quick tube ride to St James' Street, stopping for a nice lunch with the gang before meeting Rt Hon. Ruth Kelly. Now Head of Client Experience, Wealth and External Wholesale for HSBC (say that more than once!) she spoke about her time in the Cabinet, the problem of conscience in parliament and how she made decisions when it posed a challenge to her career and faith. Ruth shared her experiences with us comparing her experiences of Tony Blair in comparison to Gordon Brown and how things are changing in parliament today.

After over-running on most of our talks we'd soon reached the end of day two in the City. Tomorrow we meet with Bill Moyes, the former Executive Chairman of quango Monitor, the NHS regulator and Francis Campbell, former ambassador to the Holy See. Can't wait!

Until then!
Jo-Anne

Interns in the City Day 1: Lord-ing it up!

2011-03-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

All of us, including our Brussels intern - Chris, have just finished the first of our three days of intense talks and meetings in the City. Today we met two Lords - Lord Griffiths and Lord Alton.

Our three day stint began with a meeting with Lord Brian Griffiths, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs. Lord Giffiths kindly gave us his time to talk over what he thought Christian teaching was on wealth and private property, he also entered into a debate over the bonus culture of the banks and the place faith has in the City along with the challenges this presents.

We all found Lord Griffiths' discussion interesting, whether we agreed with all his points or not. It was particularly fascinating to hear the other point of view - hearing what a man from inside the machinations of the City says in defence of bonuses and high spending of the banks. What was especially interesting was Lord Griffiths justification of wealth and private property using the old testament and passages to highlight his points.

After a very tempting buffet lunch including dinky little fish and chips (Ash Wednesday!) we rushed over to the Houses of Parliament to see Lord Alton. Known for his cause driven nature, he spoke of his change from Liberal to an independent due to the difference between the party view and his own on certain issues as well as the importance of making a difference however small.

After a far too short time with Lord Alton (though we covered a lot of ground!) we meandered around parliament with the boys giving us a mini tour. Chris got to properly have a look around for the first time since he'd been in Brussels and we all got to see the amazing view from Andrew's office!

Then it was off to Canary Wharf for Ash Wednesday Mass. Archbishop Vincent Nichols was presiding at a Mass in Barclays Bank plc, which I felt ws an opportunity not to be missed. Arriving early we took a look around the banking district before the start of Mass, and indulging in a snack and tea before Mass (lenten resolutions permitting of course!).

Mass was in the large refectory a few floors up, so after registering and being herded into a huge lift we arrived and were seated. It was nice to have a fellow Newman House resident playing the piano for the Mass as well.

Wednesday was soon over, tomorrow JP Morgan and the City Corporation!

Until next time

Jo-Anne

European Intern: "Jasmin leaves EU between a rock and a hard place"

2011-03-02T01:39:00.000-08:00

Madame High Representative Ashton

Half way through the internship with the European Parliament, Chris shares the latest news from Brussels.

The past few months have proven extremely interesting, as far as the diplomatic outreach of the European Union (EU) is concerned (or the lack thereof!). Seeing as my MEP presides an EU Delegation to Northern African countries, the recent developments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, to mention but a few countries involved, have meant that my work has largely focussed on research and analysis of this 'Jasmin revolution'. In addition to this responsibility, I have also been made in charge of providing briefing notes for the higher than usual concentration of media interviews, and even playing a role in preparing parliamentary speeches on the issue.

The amount of heavy criticism for the relatively slow and staggered reaction of EU officials (are you reading Madame High Representative Ashton?) resulted in numerous member states finding themselves 'on the wrong side of history': Sarkozy offering to send riot police to Tunisia to control the uprising for example. The upcoming weeks and months will be crucial in the fruitful democratisation of the region, and in the unfolding of whatever this revolutionary incertitude still has in store politically and economically, namely in reference to the repercussions on Israel and the cost of oil.

All in all, it just goes to show how the life of a political assistant in the European Parliament is one of great variety!

Report from Caritas conference: A Common Endeavour

2011-02-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

All the interns took part in the recent Caritas conference in Liverool to examine how the Church engages with the Big Society, Jo-Anne reports on how they got on.

Archbishop Patrick Kelly and Archbishop Vincent Nichols

There was a great amount of expectation surrounding the Caritas conference in Liverpool, where charities and agencies from across the UK had travelled to have their voices heard and to tackle the way we as a Church approach the Big Society.

Over 180 delegates from across the dioceses as well as independent thinkers and projects interested in social action joined the discussions on various themed topics such as Youth, the Elderly, Theology of the Big Society and Volunteering. Each group had a chance to reflect on the work they do in relation to catholic social teaching, identifying opportunities and challenges they are facing in the current social and economic situation.

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, called on Catholic’s to take a lead in standing in solidarity quoting from the Pope’s address to the Bishops of England and Wales at Oscott during the Papal Visit to the UK: "The prophetic voice of Christians has an important role in highlighting the needs of the poor and disadvantaged, who can so easily be overlooked in the allocation of limited resources.”

The conference was a response to this call, and has been heralded as the first step in a project to ‘re-invent and re-imagine’ the work of the larger Catholic Community.

Archbishop of Liverpool, Most Rev Patrick Kelly opened the conference with an address looking at Liverpool’s past, present and future. He spoke fondly of the conference's host city explaining its history in trade and industry. Archbishop Kelly compared today’s situation to Liverpool’s past, centring on the fact that once 80% of the world's trade came through Liverpool's port, the foundations of wealth, but with a human cost.

Archbishop Nichols continued the discussion, focusing on the urgency of social action saying: “If it is to succeed this project must be taken beyond party politics to become a common endeavour owned by society as a whole”. The Archbishop spoke of a yearning for a richer community life, and need for “stronger social bonds”, emphasising the importance of “mutual responsibilities”.

He said: "Our Church is present throughout the country, and Catholic social action takes place quietly and on a much greater scale than many realise. We have at the heart of our theology a word which beautifully describes this practical expression of Christian love - Caritas.

“My hope and prayer for the work we are doing together today and in the coming months is that this idea of Caritas will become more visibly the shared inspiration for Catholic social action in England and Wales. For it is a common endeavour at the service of those in need, and always to the glory of the One in whose name we are called to that service."

CSAN’s Chief Executive, Helen O’Brien presented some facts and figures presenting the picture of social action that Archbishop Vincent had highlighted. The figures were surprising, allowing us to see the amount of work the charities and agencies do on relatively little funding. It was a great aid to demonstrate the work Caritas and the charities do, as well as useful to guide discussions on what would be a realistic step forward for Social Action in terms of the Big Society.

After table debates and a chance for Exposition with Archbishop Kelly, former MP John Battle and Rev Dr James Hanvey, theological adviser to the Bishop’s conference, addressed the conference summarising what they believed the concept of the ‘Big Society’ was. Rev James Hanvey spoke about the need to move with social chance, leaving us with the thought: “We need to think less in terms of ‘me’, and more as ‘we.”

The Church now plans on carrying out a survey to gather information about emerging social needs within local communities, and the contribution currently being made by the Church. Caritas will lead the practical action to identify ways in which the Church can better assist local initiatives and promote the further engagement of the Catholic community at every level. There is also going to be a major conference to draw together the results of this work, the progress made, and the challenges then facing us. There is a lot of work to be done but ‘A Common Endeavour’ was a step in the right direction.

The Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Southwark, gave the closing address drawing together the themes of the day and sending everyone away with a newly invigorated motivation towards social action.

A shorter version of this article appeared in March issue of the Westminster Record, the Diocese of Westminster newspaper which is available in parishes and Westminster Cathedral now.

A historic conference for CESEW

2011-02-02T01:31:00.000-08:00

Last week, as the Public Affairs Intern for the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales (CESEW), I attended the joint CESEW / CATSC (Catholic Association of Teachers, Schools and Colleges) National Catholic Secondary School Conference at Hotel Russell in central London. This conference formed part of the Year of Catholic Education.

It was a two day conference, to which we were welcomed by Bishop Malcolm McMahon, who is the Chairman of the Catholic Education Service as well as Bishop of Nottingham. Father Jim O’Keefe who has a wealth of experience working in education and with Cafod gave a passionate speech reminding the conference of the theological context of their work.

Lord Hill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State from the Department for Education (DfE) addressed the conference offering the perspective from the DfE. He spoke about our shared purpose in seeking to promote the Common Good. He also said that “Catholic schools have a long and proud tradition of transforming lives” and that Catholic schools do a “fantastic job”. I spoke to his private secretary who sent me Lord Hill’s full speech, so you can read it here.

His main responsibility at the DfE is academies. He spoke at length about the Government’s innovative plans for academies. He made it clear that he is keen that faith schools should be free to become to academies but he also emphasised that he has “no wish to undermine the special status, values, freedoms, assets or anything else that is part of being a Catholic school”.

Bishop Malcolm at the Big Assembly

The Children’s Commissioner, Maggie Atkinson, also addressed the conference with a fervent speech urging the attendees, many of whom were headteachers or deputy headteachers of Catholic secondary schools or colleges as well as diocesan education representatives amongst others, of the need to consider the human rights of children in everything they do.

The final part of the conference involved two former headteachers as they explored the theme of the conference “Stewards of the Common Good”. They showed how excellent leadership of Catholic schools contributes to the common good in their communities.

The moment the conference had all been waiting for finally came when Chief Executive and Director of CESEW, my boss, Oona Stannard took to the stage. She started off by talking about the rapid pace of political change that is taking place in the area of education. There are a number of challenges and opportunities arising for the Catholic education sector as a result of Michael Gove’s frenetic activity in the DfE. Many of the attendees expressed their dismay that RE hadn’t been included as a Humanity subject in the new English Baccalaureate. However, when she read out Bishop McMahon’s statement about academies there was an audible gasp and a tangible sense of excitement in the room. The announcement could plausibly change the shape of Catholic education provision for years to come. The statement, which opened the way for Catholic schools to become academies, reflected the work of most of my CESEW colleagues in recent months in preparing the ground for this decision.

I enjoyed attending this conference, it was fascinating to meet some very interesting and inspiring people who are leading Catholic schools into the future as well as learning a lot about education in general.

Naomi Brandon

Public Affairs Intern at CESEW

An update from Parliament

2011-01-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

Nick is one of the Catholic Parliamentary interns this year. He is working with the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party and the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, Simon Hughes.

It's been a busy few months in the office of Simon Hughes, with the consultation on housing benefit, votes on tuition fees and EMA, as well the haranguing of ministers by the Daily Telegraph, things have never been busier! Added to this Simon has been appointed a special advocate for access to higher education following on from the tuition fees vote. In his new role he is to promote the entry to university of all students from a variety of backgrounds who feel they have the potential to better themselves through a university education. I have also been lucky enough to attend several meetings with Simon. Things including promoting diversity within the Lib Dems, information on the Localism Bill and the reform our voting system have all came up. All in all a varied and diverse experience!

Mentoring with the Cardinal Hume Centre

2011-01-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

As part of the Catholic Parliamentary Internship this year, some of the interns are taking part in the mentoring programme with the Cardinal Hume Centre.

The Cardinal Hume Centre works with homeless young people, badly housed families, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants helping them to obtain employment and break out of the cycle of homelessness and exclusion.

Homelessness was one of Cardinal Hume's priorities both as a diocesan bishop and as a Church leader. Early in his time as Archbishop, he became President of Shelter, and he was also President of the Catholic Housing Aid Society for 23 years. He was actively involved in both supporting and starting many homelessness initiatives in London. He often spoke out on the moral obligation to reduce homelessness, particularly when the problem of street living began to escalate in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The aim of the mentoring programme at the Cardinal Hume Centre is to provide the clients with additional one-to-one support and encouragement in working towards improving their 'employability'. As mentors, we will be helping our client develop aspirations, identify obstacles to progression and help them to set and work towards achievable goals.

We had a training day back in October when we were told what to expect from the scheme. And today I finally met my ‘client’. I will be mentoring a lovely, shy girl from South America who is planning to improve her English and go to college. I will be meeting her once a week over the next few months and helping her turn her life around and eventually to get into university to study Medicine. I am really looking forward to getting to know her and helping her achieve her aspirations.

The Cardinal Hume Centre is always looking for more people to volunteer so click here to find out more about them and how you can help.

Naomi Brandon
Public Affairs Intern at CESEW

Saturday's ordinariate ordinations - the press perspective

2011-01-19T02:52:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been hiding under a rock recently, you will be aware that last Saturday Church history was made as we saw the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham set up and Fr Keith Newton named as the first Ordinary for England and Wales.

I was lucky enough to be helping out with press at the Ordination Mass at Westminster Cathedral thanks to my internship with Archbishop's House. My day began like a normal work day, with an early start, though the roads and streets are definitely a lot quieter on a Saturday! I helped sort out the press packs, making sure there were press releases and an order of service in each press pack before the media turned up (a lot later than we had to!).

I had never been to an ordination before so that was an experience in itself, its hard to convey how many momentous things occurred in such a short space of time; that the ordinariate was set up, that we have a named Ordinary now, that the three former Anglican Bishops were ordained opening the way for many more to come across is all important and slightly overwhelming in its magnitude.

Positive press

Some press got this, some press didn't - there were plenty of press to herd around that turned up to cover the Mass, probably unsuspecting that two and a half hours later they'd still be standing in the cold Cathedral! It was great to see the amount of coverage and interest there was, and to be a part of that.

Over the past week, I think it has become clearer to me that there is a need to help the press understand occasions such as this one, so the right information can be shared with the public. In helping the press cover the ordinations on Saturday the press office did a great job at aiding this. It is enlightening and equally revealing to hear some of the questions journalists and press ask, and helped me see what is hard to understand about the Ordinariate, and the process they're going through. it was even more interesting to see the newspapers the following day and the range of articles resulting from the ordinations - including some very strange takes on the proceedings it must be said! I'd recommend the press releases that were put out, especially the informative Q&A, to anyone who was still unclear as to what "all this Ordinariate business" was about. They've all been uploaded to the Diocese of Westminster website - http://www.rcdow.org.uk/ as well as the CBCEW's website.

I was left extremely tired after the busy day we had, but I found it fascinating. Now, following on from my involvement with the Papal Visit and the 'Ordinariate experience', I would say it's safe to say that this is a very exciting time for the Catholic Church. I can only imagine what's to come next!

Jo-Anne Rowney
Archbishop's House Public Affairs Intern

A photo gallery of the ordinations

Audio of Archbishop Vincent's Homily

Personal Ordinariate Information

Our correspondent from Brussels: "Caritas in Veritate" takes on the European Parliament

2011-01-13T02:58:00.000-08:00

Chris is now three months into his internship in the European Parliament in Brussels. He has written a piece about a conference he attended about the Pope Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Veritate and the implications of modern day life and the influence they have in the political sphere.

One of my first experiences in the European Parliament was a conference co-jointly organised by the European People's Party (EPP) and the European Bishops Conference (COMECE). The recently adopted Lisbon Treaty actually provides for a permanent dialogue between the EU and the Church, but along with much of the eurocratic rhetoric it doesn't actually go into any detail as to how this should be implemented.

One year after the publication of Pope Benedict's (BXVI) third encyclical, this conference was to examine the social, economic and environmental implications of modern day life, and the resulting interplay they may have in the political realm. From the outset we heard of how the recent financial crisis doesn't limit itself to mere economics, but rather to a crisis of values. BXVI makes the point that since modern-day society is so geared toward materialistic needs and monetary profit, we lose sight of the real human needs, which sooner or later will provoke a societal crisis.

Commentators on the Encyclical pointed out that the continent we live in today, where an abortion takes place every 27 seconds and 10 million divorces weigh heavily on 15 million children, gives rise to a conception in which the hope of building has been lost: there is nothing that makes life worth living, and there is no truth to which to be committed. The consequence of this is apparent in today's generation which lacks reasons to make a home, to form a family and to bring children into the world.

The discourse continued, debating that it is religion which provides many of the values on which the EU is based- one of which being solidarity, currently put to the test with the controversial measures being taken to bail out less well off member states.

Caritas in Veritate picks up where Paul VI left off in Populorum Progressio, namely in underlining politics as the highest form of charity and how truthful politics can prove to be a formidable instrument for promoting the human person. It was this idea of truthful politics being the highest form of charity as well the concluding remarks by Mario Mauro which have been resounding in my head ever since this inspiring conference: “It is the person that becomes the protagonist of his time, of his country, who perhaps is martyred by the economic difficulties but who, thanks to education in which faith has a relevant function, has the strength to address the problems.”

A busy start to the New Year - the opening of the internship scheme, Heythrop and careers advice!

2011-01-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New year!

I thought I'd touch base with a round up blog before we plough ahead with the internship and 2011.

Apply for the internship

The internship is now open again for this upcoming September, all the details can be found on the CBCEW website. All our little pieces about how we are finding the scheme are there too, as well as the photos from the mini photo shoot we did before Christmas in the freezing cold Westminster Hall - I think I look rather worse for wear! There is also a video about the scheme on the site.

Careers coaching

As part of the internship, every intern can meet up with Elizabeth Warmsley from Praesta. The aim is to help us get a job by guiding us through the process, highlighting our skills to us and determining what we really want to do. Knowing already what that is - journalism - I went to Elizabeth last week to get some help on the 'how'. The meeting lasts a few hours and goes through every facet of your work and life you can think of. I found the whole think very intersting, intense and informative - in a good way! Now we have all met with Elizabeth we can chose to meet her again and pick her brains. This addition to the scheme is a great opportunity and benefit, especially since it's always been hard to get a job, and now it is becoming even harder.

Heythrop restarts

All of the interns are now back for the new year, and ready for work again. Our first Heythrop lecture in Ethical Issues Today is tonight - so my first week back at work is a rather long one! Most of us are studying Ethical Issues Today this term, so can start putting into practice some of the ethical theory from last term.

Bye for now - Jo-Anne

The Nativity

2010-12-21T08:34:00.001-08:00

Just a heads up to watch The Nativity on BBC One this week. Having started last week I'm a little late in letting you know!

Its on 7pm BBC One from Mon 20 Dec, for four consecutive nights.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols recommended The Nativity on the Diocese website.

It's a touching interpretation of the love between Mary and Joseph - Mary played by Tatiana Maslany, who I hadn't heard of before, captures Mary's purity and calm. Joseph at first comes across as a honest, sweet man - slightly bumbling, but always sincere. If the story were told in a modern drama outside of the Bethlehem setting - it would be akin to a contemporary romance.

There's a sense that a dramatic licence has been taken with some elements of the tale, which is expected. Though Tony Jordan (Hustle, EastEnders,Life on Mars), the scriptwriter, doesn't let the story descend into a EastEnders style family scandal which was some people's worry.

All in all its a cheerful, human portrayal of a familiar story.

Hopefully it'll be a great portrayal of the Christmas story too!

Jo-Anne

Life in Newman House

2010-12-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

As we are drawing close to Christmas and we have been on the Catholic Parliamentary Internship Scheme for almost three months, it is a good time to give you a taste of life at Newman House.

The five of us on the London based internships live at Newman House, which is the Catholic chaplaincy centre for the students in Central London. Sixty-two students live there as well as the chaplain, Fr Peter Wilson and the Pastoral Associates, Chris and Kate.

The interns are fully integrated into life at Newman House. We take part in house duties which include singing and reading at mass, preparing coffee for after mass, cooking Sunday lunch, maintaining the blogs and serving behind the bar.

Andrew can often be found playing some tunes on the guitar or the piano and starting a spontaneous sing-a-long. You might find Danny arguing over some details of Conservative Party policy at the bar. Jo-Anne can often be found watching Corrie or Eastenders whilst simultaneously taking part in a theological debate with another member of the community. You will find Naomi, with a glass of wine in her hand, cooking dinner to share with hungry Newman House inmates. And Nick, if he isn't still at work, you will be sure to find him watching Question Time on a Thursday evening.

We are very fortunate to be living at Newman House and very grateful to everyone for making us feel so welcome.

Please join us at Mass which is at 10.30am every Sunday and talk to us at coffee after Mass if you would like to find out more about living at Newman House and the Catholic Parliamentary Internship Scheme.

Naomi Brandon
Public Affairs Intern at CESEW

Photoshoot in Westminster Hall

2010-12-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday we popped over to meet up in Parliament for our 'photoshoot'. The scheme is about to open applications for next year (you can find the links here) so after writing our quotes on what we think of the scheme we posed in the freezing cold in Westminster Hall for the CBCEW photographer.

While some of us seemed more at home in front of the lens than others, it was an experience we all seemed to enjoy - and we're all now well practiced in the art of prolonged smiling!

Hopefully you'll see the fruits of our labour on the website soon!

After the 'shoot it was time for a warm tea in the House of Commons cafe, and then Mass in the small chapel off Westminster Hall. Rubbing shoulders with the MPS for a lovely sung Mass was an enjoyable end to our Wednesday.

Until next time.
Jo-Anne

Catholic Parliamentary Interns Retreat

2010-11-25T15:33:00.000-08:00

Danny Howard reports on the retreat to Drumalis

On a dreary November morning we left behind the frenzied months of work we have undergone in the capital for our much anticipated (and much needed) retreat. A short flight over the Irish Sea took us to Drumalis; a religious retreat centre overlooking Larne on the County Antrim coast.

The crisp country air, with its splendid view of the pale winter morning was a welcome transformation from the pollution and dreariness we have grown accustomed to in London. The aesthetic beauty of Drumalis was coupled with dedicated service from the wonderful staff. Alongside their faithful dog - Scotty - Sisters of the Cross and Passion; Sr Anna and Sr Margaret Rose, led a small but devoted team who catered to every need and ensured our short stay was a happy one.

The purpose of the retreat was to take a step back from our busy weekly schedules, and to observe and reflect what we have experienced, and how by strengthening and deepening our faith, we might prepare ourselves for the future.

Directing this core spiritual element of the retreat was Father James Hanvey SJ, who we have been fortunate enough to have had guiding us these past few months. The essence of this retreat was one of reflection and development; of how we converse with God and how we might strengthen this bond through the ever deeper use of scripture and prayer.

This enrichment took a number of forms throughout the three days, including the study of scripture, regular conversations with Father James, group meetings and the use of prayer. Furthermore, Sr Anna was kind enough to guide us through the extensive collection of religious art within Drumalis. As evening drew in we would retire to the beautiful oratory to celebrate mass and observe the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. We also enjoyed long walks along the beautiful coast line.

As the third day drew to a close, we all observed how enlightening and rejuvenating the retreat had been. Though sad to leave the tranquillity of Drumalis and the company of those who had joined us, we travelled back to London fully refreshed, confident in our Catholic faith and ready to take on the rest of what this year may bring.

Theos annual lecture 2010: Ex-police commissioner says we must all "doubt" our faith

2010-11-17T02:35:00.001-08:00

Myself and Naomi attended the Annual Theos Lecture - this year delivered by Lord Blair. It provided an interesting talk, despite the fact I disagreed with his main point that we cannot have a true faith - that there must be doubt. Alternatively I would have argued that we cannot have faith without enquiry, questioning it in its application to our lives - though his points on social cohesion were spot on and publicising religion's good works more to bring religion back into a positive light. Below I have written up a report covering most of his points/topics that may be of interest.
Jo-Anne

Ex-police commissioner says we must all "doubt" our faith

Lord Blair, ex police commissioner who led the police service during the 2005 July bombings, delivered the Theos Annual Lecture last night. In his personal testimony, entitled ‘Religion and Public Order’, Lord Blair highlighted the pitfalls of religion as a source of intolerance and violence in society but said he believed that religion was “simple” and a “force for good”.

Lord Blair said: "All religions have, as their core belief, the need for love, for respect for others, for tolerance….The greatest achievements and ambitions of human social history, such as the abolition of slavery and the provision of universal education or free health care for all have had their origins in religious impulse."

"Religion should be the most peaceful of all the agencies of social cohesion," he said.

Good acts

"Its infinite number of unseen and unsung acts of charity and love are not known individually but in total they are part of public consciousness.

"They should be and remain the glue that permits modern society to exist, particularly in an increasingly urbanised age - in other words, they are a bulwark of public order, in the sense of orderliness and tranquility."

A religious babel

He admitted: "This is not the image of religion in this past century or this past decade."

Adding he was confused by how this had happened: “I wonder how we got to here, this religious version of Babel.”Lord Blair, a practicing Anglican, spoke of his own faith journey saying he “wrestles” with his own faith and citing the Acts of the Apostles as the reason he believed the Bible was true.

However, he shared his confusion over the “obsession” with the ordination of women clergy in the Anglican Church and why it was “tearing itself apart” over homosexuality”, he also said he did not understand the Catholic Church’s need for priestly celibacy, and the Muslim arguments over Mohammed’s successor.

Old-fashioned and violent

He continued: "The horrors of clerical child abuse and the arguments over homosexuality ... are obscuring the basic decency that comes from the commandments to peace contained in all religions, a commandment which in the Christian church, for instance, requires each member of a congregation at every service to greet his or her neighbours with the words 'Peace be with you.'"Lord Blair argued that to most people faith looks "irrelevant, clannish, prejudiced, old-fashioned and violent".

He stressed the importance of doubt in religious belief: "Doubt is part of the mortar of a building faith," he said.

Doubt in faith

"Unless your faith has been tested by doubt, it is not faith but just an attitude, a retreat from the modern world.

"Doubt in the very nature of faith can surely be a useful companion to a necessary lack of shrill conviction that our own faith is more valuable than that of another."

Lord Blair suggested that to move forward that people of all faiths should move "beyond arguments between and within different religions and recover their confidence in the beneficial nature of religion per se."Concluding the lecture, he said "We should be aware of the horrors which organised religions have inflicted on the world, we should respect the views of others without faith but be unapologetically confident that, now, in our society, the religious impulse provides goodness in a manner unequalled by any other aspect of our communal life."

Biography

Lord Blair was made a cross-bench life peer in Gordon Brown's Dissolution Honours List earlier this year. He previously held the top policing job in the country from 2004 until his resignation in 2008. Five months into the role the London bombings of 7 July took place.John Humphrys, writer and broadcaster and star of Mastermind chaired the talk. The lecture was held at One Birdcage Walk, it was well attended with notable attendance by MPs, peers, academics, business people and religious leaders.

CAFOD's annual lecture

2010-11-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

On Friday 12 November, Andrew, Nick, Danny and Naomi attended Cafod’s annual lecture which took place at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster.

The lecture, an annual event for Cafod’s supporters and staff, is inspired by the late Pope Paul VI’s landmark encyclical letter, Populorum Progressio, published in 1967, in which the Pope urged people to work for a better world through an active spirit and the practice of global solidarity.

The lecture, entitled Life to the full? Development in solidarity was given by the General Secretary of Pax Christi and former Prime Minister of Haiti, Claudette Werleigh.

In January, a devastating earthquake forced Haiti into the international spotlight. In her lecture, former Haitian Prime Minister Claudette Werleigh explored the deeper issues behind the headlines when she discussed how true development, based on peace and justice, can enable all to live life to the full.

About 400 supporters attended the event, including Bishop John Rawsthorne, Bishop of Hallam and Chair of CAFOD, Bishop Patrick Lynch, Auxiliary Bishop in Southwark, and Bishop William Kenney, Auxiliary in Birmingham. The evening was chaired by Channel Four news presenter Jon Snow. Reflecting on her recent visits to Haiti, Werleigh spoke of the need for NGOs to work in partnership with local institutions, empowering the people of Haiti to participate through Consultation, in the decisions that determine the country’s recovery and development. Demonstrating trust, Werleigh says, plays an important part in recognising the dignity of others, and is a key factor in the international development process. Greater consultation will allow a more sustainable, deeply rooted process of recovery.

She draws on rich experience: “I have been blessed to have worked both in rich countries and one of the most impoverished ones, at grassroots level and at top level. I have learned that we all need to acknowledge our differences, to accept the other as equal and to cooperate in order to improve life.”

Naomi Brandon

Public Affairs Intern at CESEW

Open House - Serving the Homeless

2010-10-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

Andrew reports on his evening at St Anne's Church, Soho

Today after work I popped along to St Anne's Church in Soho to do a spot of volunteering. Having connections with the church, students from Newman House can go every week and help out. I really enjoyed it, even after a day in Parliament. It definitely pops the Westminster bubble and bring you back down to earth.

From 5.30-6pm I helped set up tables and chairs with cutlery and condiments. Our customers queue from 5pm (or earlier) for the food, drink and hospitality on offer. After some prayers, food is served. It's good grub, cooked by some amazing chefs in advance, and much better than my solo gastronomic efforts!

My job as a first-timer during the meal-time was to serve milk to those drinking tea and coffee, not all too easy as demand was high this late October evening.

I was really impressed by the volunteers who turn up every week to make the operation happen - it's quite a sight to see so many people fed in a fairly short turn around period of under 90minutes (although a lot of preparation time is needed).

I'm definitely planning to make it a regular part of my time during my internship to go work at Open House. It's enjoyable volunteering with others from NH and others in the community. I just hope I have the stamina to keep it up with my other internship commitments - Heythrop, Cardinal Hume Centre, Newman House... oh and Parliament!

Catholic Parliamentary Interns 2010-2011

2010-10-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Andrew Duncan

I'm very much looking forward to the CPI. After the election it's an interesting time to be working in Westminster in a period of transition. I'm keen to see the process of law-making in action and learn how politicians work together, elements perhaps not always picked up in the press. To continue living in a student environment at Newman House and study at Heythrop College is very much welcomed too, this perhaps will release me gently into the "real world"!

Chris Morillon

Having known past interns, to various degrees, I witnessed first hand how the experience of the CPI helped them to develop themselves spiritually, personally and professionally. As a fresh-graduate everyone is on the look out for as inspiring a position to kick-start their post-uni career as possible; after much research into various graduate schemes, I believe this is the best one out there (and I'm not just saying that!). This year I'll be working in the European Parliament in Brussels with a French MEP; I'm expecting to learn more about economics and I look forward to gaining familiarity with how it is applied in practice, particularly to help the disadvantaged. Time to get stuck in!

Daniel Howard

I’m very excited to be on the CPI scheme this year. Having previously studied Politics and International Relations at University, it is a great honour and privilege to immerse oneself in the mother of all Parliaments, working for a Conservative MP after 13 years on the opposition benches shall surely prove a unique and exciting experience.
The CPI scheme incorporates so many elements of both public and religious life, and studying at Heythrop College will surely add to this education. In addition, I am eagerly anticipating life in Newman House; living in London for the first time, in a friendly and communal environment will not only help the transition from university to work, but also help foster a strong friendship between all of this year’s interns.
I am greatly looking forward to playing my part in helping my MP in her duty of public service, whilst applying Catholic principles to the everyday business of government.

Jo-Anne Rowney

I'm very excited to finally be started the internship, especially since I'll be based at Archbishop's House, working with the Public Affairs Office. I recently graduated from the University of Hertfordshire, after reading English Literature, Journalism and New Media Publishing for the past three years - so it'll be great to put my training into practice! I start work just before the Papal Visit so I plan to fully immerse myself in the excitement and media bubble. With working in the PA Office, studying at Heythrop and living at Newman House I'm sure we'll all be very busy!

Naomi Brandon

I'm incredibly excited about working as a Catholic Parliamentary Intern for the Catholic Education Service. I was absolutely thrilled to be selected and I can't wait to start. I think the multidimensional quality of this internship, combining the political work placement, spirituality and academic study, makes this internship really special and unique. I have just graduated from Manchester University having studied Politics and International Relations, so I am looking forward to putting my politics and my faith into action and to getting a grip on the complex and fascinating policy area of Catholic education. This year is going to be busy, challenging and lots of fun and I can't wait for it to begin!

Nick Keilty

I've been excited about coming London to start the Catholic Parliamentary Internship, so now it's actually happened I can't quite believe it! I'm working in Parliament for Simon Hughes MP, who is currently deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons. The first few weeks have been really intense with the coalition government's comprehensive spending review providing all of us who are working in Portcullis House with a varied but very busy time!

I'm looking forward to incorporating elements of my faith such as Catholic social teaching and spirituality into my everyday work and then taking a retrospective look at how this affects my decision making. This will hopefully be propagated by living in community at Newman House and by the education we are receiving via our MA in Contemporary Ethics at Heythrop College.

Tablet Lecture 2010

2010-10-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

Now well into our respective internships, on Thursday we met on a nippy October evening to hear Francis Campbell speak about his time as Ambassador to the Holy See in the Vatican.

While doing the best we could to bring the average age of the audience down, we listened with great interest to the outgoing ambassador's personal take on the Holy See and its external operations, relations with the UK - and what lies ahead for British-Vatican ties after a successful Papal visit in September.

Of particular interest was how small the Vatican press office is, and yet conducts clear and strong communications with over a billion Catholics and heads of state across the world.

Campbell contrasted the Holy See's operations with conventional foreign offices, and conveyed how decentralised many decisions were, instead of power being wielded at the centre and delegated outwards to the periphery.

To the dismay of some (particularly journalists in the audience) Campbell's talk did not linger near controversial topics or reveal more sensitive ambassadorial work. However, this kind of diplomacy has contributed greatly to Britain's excellent relations with the Holy See.

Campbell leaves big shoes to fill, whoever his successor may be.

Catholic Parliamentary Interns 2010-2011

2010-10-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

We have been in London for almost a month now. We love living in Newman House. We have all started our jobs in Parliament, the Archbishop of Westminster's Public Affairs Office and the Catholic Education Service. We have also started our ethics lectures at Heythrop College which have been intellectually challenging. Our spiritual direction with Father James Hanvey has commenced and our mentoring training session with the Cardinal Hume Centre has taken place. The first month has gone so quickly but there is still lots to look forward to.

Danny, Nick and Andrew outside the Palace of Westminster

Profiles and pictures coming soon - watch this spot!

It begins…

2010-01-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

Or rather it began! Three months into the internship we thought it was about time we posted something, so that this year’s applicants know what they’re letting themselves in for! The first term’s been hectic but we’ve all learnt a lot and are really settling into our jobs and life at Newman House. Now the first term is over this is a natural point to reflect on what has gone by.

The first two weeks were a series of induction events; by the end of it we had introduced ourselves to many of the movers and shakers in Catholic London, ranging from Cafod through to Archbishop Nichols. It was immediately off to St Bueno’s in rural north Wales for our opening retreat. Silence at mealtimes was only punctuated by the light fizzing of Frisbee through the cold Welsh air. The full complement of interns (those based in London and in Brussels) drank tea with James Hanvey SJ, who led our retreat, walked through the beautiful countryside and enjoyed the peace and quiet away from London. We shared our faith journeys, explored different types of prayer and walked through the dark to the local pub.

This jetsetting life continued as we represented the Bishops’ Conference at the first Catholic Social Days for Europe in Gdansk, along with Philippa Gitlin, the Director of Caritas Social Action. At 4 in the morning, with a taxi driver only staying awake thanks to copious amounts of Red Bull, ‘To Luton airport please?’ said Will. The driver blinked thrice and moved into second gear. Highlights of the conference included a lecture by Professor Gosta Esping-Andersen on solidarity in the family and a German MEP falling asleep whilst taking part in one of the panel discussions. We also took a trip to the Westerplatte where World War II began, participating in a service of remembrance, and touring the important historic location. We also experienced an evening in a Gdansk parish, enjoying the hospitality of a very kind priest.

As soon as we returned back from Poland, the House returned from the summer recess and we swiftly settled in to the routine for the next nine weeks. It was also an opportunity to get to know the rest of the Newman House community a bit better. Part of last term’s excitement in Parliament included tickets to PMQs, seeing the Queen in all her robes and finery at the State Opening of Parliament and the Parliamentary Carol Service sitting two benches along from David Cameron, John Bercow and Jack Straw! We went to lectures, hearing the Chief Rabbi, John Varley, and Baroness Shirley Williams. Other highlights included a visit to the Cardinal Hume Centre and meetings with Catholic journalists.

Our lectures at Heythrop College in a Masters in Contemporary Ethics are challenging and interesting. We all passed the first piece of coursework and are looking forward with trepidation to completing two end of year essays during a general election campaign!

Having enjoyed the build-up to Christmas together, including a Christmas meal at Newman House and various Carol services in and around Westminster, we went our separate ways for a well-deserved Christmas break!

Stay tuned for the next instalment!

2009-10 Interns

2009-11-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

Now well into the fray, meet this year’s interns. These short pieces were written whilst they were preparing to begin the scheme.

Anna Matus

'My CPI experience involves a year working for the Catholic Education Service, particularly in public affairs. Alongside the numerous and diverse elements of the CPI scheme including masters study, work, spiritual growth, community and trips here, there and everywhere, this particular placement also enables me to pursue my interest in contemporary education issues. Having spent my gap year doing youthwork in secondary schools across the country and just finishing my degree in Geography at the University of Leeds, I am looking forward to this exciting next step which combines so many of my interests!

Feargal McGuinness
I think this is a very exciting time to be working in parliament, in a general election year and at a time when the House of Commons is considering electoral and constitutional reform. Working for Steve Webb, MP for Northavon and Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, I'm anticipating learning more about economics. I'm looking forward to gaining familiarity with how it is applied in practice to help the disadvantaged. What excites me most however is that the CPI shows us many different ways in which particular groups are working to improve society, so giving us the chance to see the bigger picture of how all these activities fit together.

William Redfern

I’m William and I’m greatly looking forward to working as an Intern with Don Touhig MP, the Labour MP for Islwyn. Mr Touhig is the Chair of the Committee on Members’ Allowances and as such, given the high profile nature of expenses and allowances at the current time, is in a very important and high profile role. I’m really looking forward to being at Westminster and working at the heart of the political establishment, especially in the run up to the next general election. Having just spent three years studying law it will be very interesting to see how laws are made in practice and to see how politics functions in reality. Therefore, I anticipate having a very exciting, interesting and informative year as an Intern!

Hannah Mills

I am really looking forward to starting my Catholic Parliamentary Internship. It is a scheme I have been interested in for quite a while, with its unique combination of political work, study and living together, so I am eagerly awaiting September! I will be working for Conservative MP Damian Green, who is Shadow Minister for Immigration so there should be an interesting range of issues to get involved in. I am also looking forward to the chance to study at Heythrop College and to continue being a student. As an economist, studying ethics and theology will be completely new to me and I am looking forward to the challenge. Finally the prospect of being involved and living in the chaplaincy at Newman House should be a fantastic experience – I cannot wait to get started!

Peter Stoddart

It is a great privilege to be on this unique scheme, working in the Houses of Parliament and in a Catholic context. I will be working for John Battle, the member for Leeds West which will introduce me to important issues such as international development, poverty and housing. Living in Newman House promises to add further enjoyment to this year, with its talented residents and many social activities. I would advise any young Catholic with an interest in public affairs to think about applying for this internship. For me it has just begun, but it has already been well worth it!

Hello!

2008-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to this year’s Catholic Parliamentary Interns’ Blog!

First of all, some introductions. There are seven interns this year. Olivia and Oliver are working with MEPs in Brussels, whilst Alison, Laura and Luke are with MPs in the House of Commons in London. Amanda is working at the Catholic Education Service and I (Maeve) am in the Cardinal’s Public Affairs Office.

We’ve just spent the last two weeks being inducted into the scheme. This began with a four-day retreat at St Beuno’s in Wales, which was a great opportunity to pray, unwind and get to know each other. Upon our return, we spent a week visiting various different departments in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, as well as spending a day at CAFOD. Having been thoroughly inducted, we are now settling into our day-to-day roles. You’ll be hearing from the others over the next few weeks, so for now I’ll just update you on what I’ve been up to since I started work.

As the Public Affairs Intern, I work in Archbishop’s House. I’m involved in lots of Diocesan-based communications and so I attend many of the events that occur within Westminster Diocese. Recently these have included the Red Mass (the annual Mass for Catholic lawyers) and a Mass to mark the 80th anniversary of Opus Dei. I write press releases, update the Diocesan website (http://www.rcdow.org.uk/ – put it in your favourites now!) and partake in various meetings in connection with the Cardinal and the Diocese.

I think I speak on behalf of all us when I say that we’re really looking forward to everything this year has to offer, and for those of us in London, this includes immersing ourselves in Newman House life and studying Christian Ethics at Heythrop College. All in all it’s going to be a busy year, but one that is already shaping up very well indeed!

Maeve.

Catholic Parliamentary Interns 2008-9

2008-08-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

The Internship Programme has expanded to include another intern who will be working with the Catholic Education Service, and another, in the Public Affairs Office at Archbishop's House, Westminster.

Amanda Brennan

I was immediately drawn to the Catholic Parliamentary Internship scheme with its unique combination of work, study and community life. I’m anticipating all sorts of new challenges and opportunities, and the distinctively spiritual context of the scheme makes it particularly appealing. Rather than a parliamentary placement, I’ll be spending ten months with the Catholic Education Service, an exciting prospect given the highly topical nature of their work and my own longstanding interest in education. I’m also looking forward to studying Christian Ethics at Heythrop College and living at Newman House which, from what I’ve seen, seems a vibrant, friendly place. Altogether it’s a wonderful program and I’m really looking forward to getting started.

Alison Potter
I am really looking forward to starting the Catholic Parliamentary Internship in September. I am really excited at the prospect of working with an MP and also the chance to study at Heythrop College. It will be wonderful to live with the other interns in such a vibrant Catholic Community as Newman House. I shall be interning with the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East, Sarah Teather; and I am sure I shall learn a great deal working in her constituency office as well as in Parliament. I am very grateful to be given this opportunity and can’t wait to begin!

Maeve McCormack
I’m going to be working in the Archbishop’s Public Affairs Office in Archbishop’s House. I’m really looking forward to getting out and about and seeing what’s happening in Westminster Diocese as well as helping to publicise everything that’s going on. It’s great to be a part of this scheme and to get the opportunity to see how this vibrant and important department operates. Living in Newman House is a very exciting prospect – I’ve been living in Nottingham University’s Newman House for the last year so I’m keen to get stuck into chaplaincy life and all that it involves. It should be a year full of interesting challenges and new experiences and I can’t wait to get started!

Luke de Pulford
I had been researching various internships when I heard about the CPI scheme and could hardly believe it – the opportunity to combine political work with spiritual development in such a stimulating programme is a rare one – I jumped at the chance. From late September, I will be shadowing Nigel Waterson, Conservative MP for Eastbourne, under whom I stand to learn a lot about the ins and outs of Westminster. I can't wait to get my teeth in to the challenge of juggling a hectic job, evening study at Heythrop, and an active social and spiritual life at Newman House. I feel truly privileged to be an 2008-09 intern – roll on September!

Laura O’Hagan
My name is Laura O’Hagan and I’m really looking forward to working with John McFall MP (Lab) when I start on the parliamentary internship programme in September. John McFall is often a spokesperson for financial issues and I haven’t done a lot of economics before so it will be good to get my teeth in to something new especially as the economy is such a relevant political issue just now. It will be great to work in Westminster and be at the centre of everything. I’m looking forward to the study side too. I’ve been working for the last year, but I’m a bit of a book worm at heart so it will be nice to be a student again

Visit to Goldman Sachs

2008-04-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, apologies that it has been such an age since I last posted - the three interns have had a couple of weeks break over the Parliamentary Easter recess which was very welcome I must say. A good opportunity for some R&R and to squeeze in a couple of job interviews I found!

Today, all of us, including the Brussels interns, were invited to the London office of Goldman Sachs by Lord Brian Griffiths to attend a forum with himself, Archbishop Kelly of Liverpool, and Peter Sutherland, the Chairman of Goldman Sachs international. We had a very productive morning which featured a series of presentations - the first being an overview of the global economy and its trends and developments over the past few years, which was delivered by one o the many talented GS staff. Then we heard another presentation from a member of the Government Affairs team, about the influences and interactions of the Westminster Village and the Square Mile of the City of London. And finally, it wrapped up with a thoughtful discussion by Lord Griffiths on the place of faith and spirituality in the City, and the challenges that this can present.

We all agreed how valuable and informative this session was - I found it particularly impressive to be in the heart of the GS operation and with such senior figures from the financial world. It was also somewhat of a crash-course in financial affairs and basic economics - I personally find the business section of newspapers very challenging in getting my head around, and although we throw about phrases like "credit crunch" and "global recession" all the time here in politics, sometimes I'd be under a bit of pressure to define exactly what they mean!

Next week we're off to Brussels with Charles for a couple of days, which will include visits around the European Parliament and its associated departments. I personally am very much looking forward to making my maiden voyage out from the newly-restored Victorian masterpiece that is St Pancras International!

Will

Post-Easter Greetings

2008-03-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted, so another update from the Catholic Parliamentary world well overdue...

We've all returned to work after a very pleasant Easter break, and all the interns have been up to various bits a pieces in the last few weeks.

Dom had a cracking time in the European Capital of Culture that is Liverpool for the Lib Dem Spring Conference, staying with the Pughs - apparently there was a great party atmosphere and he even came back with somewhat of a scouse accent!

My Spring Forum travails took me to Glorious Newcastle-Gateshead in the luxurious surroundings of the Sage Conference Centre, which boasts fabulous views along the redeveloped quayside. Having visited the area a while ago it was great to be back, and I have to say the area was looking great, with all the redevelopment agencies and money really having paid off - many new businesses and redesigns of the area have made Newcastle a clearly dynamic and vibrant city, and one certainly able to cope with conferences and events much larger than the Spring forum! I even met a local celeb at one of the receptions - one sir John Hall, former owner of Newcastle FC - who was very pleased to see a mainstream political party engaging with an area which has for too long been forgotten by Governments of all varieties in the past; let's hope the latest regeneration is a sign of things to come for the city and the wider area.

Ms Groom has just returned from her band's 2008 St Patrick's Day tour of New York, which apparently went down a storm - I do hope her hand held out for it though!

All in all, we've been getting around! Next big, or rather, grim, event is my birthday on Thursday - the interns, colleagues, friends and myself will be having a few in the appropriately named "Cardinal" pub behind Westminster Cathedral on Thursday - do pop in if you're around!

Will

Marching on to Easter

2008-03-04T08:43:00.001-08:00

Been a couple of weeks since my last blog, and a fair bit has been going on here in Westminster.

I've been motoring through the casework (I wish!), although the pile is regularly topped up with the latest constituency issue - all very good experience though and interesting to discover more and more about aspects of everyday life that I have so far not encountered - such as the intricacies of local policing and anti-social behaviour initiatives relative successes or failures.

The ID cards research continues and it's all very interesting watching the roll out of this new initiative and monitoring the response from the media and public opinion. I've also just begun a new project monitoring the progress of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which has raised a lot of concerns both amongst the Church and many parliamentarians, of whom Im glad to count our Catholic Intern MPs for this year!

This week we welcome Adrian and Rhiannon from Brussels, and meetings have been arranged for us with Ruth Kelly, the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Secretary, which should be very interesting and a welcome enrichment to our internship experiences. Then Dom is jetting off to stay with his MP and his wife in Southport, before heading on to the Lib Dem Spring Conference in Liverpool - his first trip to that part of the country. If it's anything like my experience in Blackpool, he'll have a great time!

Finally, I had a brilliant evening with Father Peter, Chris and others a week ago yesterday at the Desert Island Disks dinner - a really enjoyable evening with some very interesting choices of tracks. I found it most difficult deciding on one which said something about me, but I opted for the uplifting and inclusive "One Vision" by the legends that are Queen.

Will

Constituency week over, roll on Spring...

2008-02-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well, the three of us having greatly enjoyed a pleasant, if rather random bit of time off with "Constituency Week" last week, it's back to the coalface today! Last week basically involved the house rising for a week so MPs can (in theory) spend a bit more than the customary long weekend in their constituency and the many issues it involves. Damian returned to Ashford a week ago last Thursday and I headed home for a few days for a bit of R&R.

Dom and I particularly enjoyed our jaunt over to Berlin - definitely the home of the best kebabs in the world - so much so that I even spotted a few sober people eating them! I explored a fair bit of the city's communist past, with many an example of soviet-era high rise housing and office blocks, complemented by some particularly chilly communist weather. In fact, great though the city was next time I book a holiday I think I'm going to try and head somewhere just a touch warmer! But particularly nice to be in a city that is very clean, doesnt seem too busy or congested, and where a 45 min train journey from the airport costs 2 euros (compared to £25 for in the UK on the Stansted Express)!

Coming up in this stretch of half term we have a visit of the two Brussels interns, Adrian and Rhiannon, to the UK, where we shall be hosting them in Westminster, and the trip will involve visits to the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office - coming up in early March. And hot on the heels of these events are the Lib Dem and Tory Spring Conferences - which both Dom and I shall be attending. Both have a northern theme, perhaps in solidarity with the poor plight of Northern Rock (nationalised today by the Chancellor) - the Lib Dems will be partying in Liverpool, and the Tories hit Newcastle-Gateshead, the latter an interesting choice given the scarecity of Tories in that area. We hope all this will change soon though...

Will

February at last

2008-02-05T04:07:00.000-08:00

It is certainly with a great deal of joy that I now walk to work in noticeably more clement weather, and a fair bit of sunshine as well. Indeed, it does appear that after the bleak January, Spring is truly bouncing onto the scene this month!

The business of parliament is slowing a little at the moment, as MPs prepare for "constituency week" which begins when the house rises on Thursday. For Dom, John and myself, this means a very welcome breather! Im heading home for a few days, which will be great to chill out, catch up with some old friends, and see my dogs again. Plenty of walks out in the fresh air of rural Dorset required methinks - im afraid I dont believe the London version of "fresh air" is up to much!

Dom and I are then heading off to Berlin for a few days, and John is jetsetting through the brand new St Pancras Eurostar terminal for a break in the city of lurve, gay Paree.

I am very keen to see the new terminal actually, and must confess that its relaunch has forced a bit of the closet anorak out in me - Damian went to the grand opening a few months ago, and i am very keen to check out the building restored to its Victorian splendour. Apparently, the inspiration for the shopping concourse is inspired by features of New York's Grand Central Terminal, which i have visited, and is staggering in its scale and grandeur - like Grand Central, St Pancras will soon be boasting a Farmer's Market!

Before I sign off for my half term break, I feel that the Newman House 1st XI Footie Squad deserve a mention on their glorious first victory on Sunday afternoon, featuring the CPI's very own Clare Mary Groom and Dom Berner, who acquitted themselves very well Im told! I shall leave the post-match analysis for another day... im certainly no Alan Hansen.

Will

Casework madness

2008-01-29T03:22:00.001-08:00

As we near the end of a rather challenging January, us interns are starting to look forward to the sunnier, more cheerful climes of springtime. The half term parliamentary recess is just over a week away now, so we're certainly looking forward to a bit of a break from the challenges of the internship - I am particularly chuffed at the moment on a couple of counts. One is my ability to get a bit of a bargain train ticket home to Weymouth for the end of next week - making me a saving of over £11 - which will certainly come in handy for the months ahead!

The second is an email I received from a constituent yesterday thanking me personally for all the help I had given her in resolving a very longstanding dispute with the Tax Credit Office. I shalnt bore you all with the details of the casework, but suffice it to say that MPs are often approached by people who have run into severe difficulties and delays with various government agencies, whose vastly complicated and enlarged bureaucratic systems mean that many cases - eg chasing up maintenance payments through the CSA or obtaining benefits from HMRC - are simply shunted from one office to another without resolution, or are simply lost somewhere in the system. Needless to say these delays are usually very frustrating for those affected, and can lead in many cases to acute distress, especially for those living on or close to the poverty line - £40 or so a week really can be the difference between affording school uniform, decent food, and furnishings for one's home.

This "casework" MPs or their staff undertake can also be very frustrating as it usually takes a while to get the case prioritised - it requires a lot of patience, attention to detail, and a determination to keep the pressure on to see the case resolved. But eventually, after many phonecalls, emails and plenty of delays, these cases can be cracked, and receiving the thanks from those you have helped really does give an immense feeling of satisfaction and achievement.

Team Intern is off to Brixton Prison on Friday, the oldest gaol in the country, and currently serving as a remand prison for the area. Let's hope none of us are detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure... more details to follow.

Will

Return of the bar

2008-01-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Another mid-week post from me - live inside the corridors of power (well, at the time of writing anyway!) A fair bit of news from the interns coming up...

I appear to be on the road to recovery, after a protracted length of abstinence from alcohol, which shows that the powers of detox are obviously something to be reccommended. Although not for too long.

Dom has some very exciting news - he played in his debut match this morning for the Parliamentary 1st 11 football team, joining IDS and the lads in a 5-1 thrashing of the opposition! Sounds very much like a session at PMQ's these days. His boss, John Pugh, was so impressed with his intern's achievement, that he offered to videotape the match - so watch this space for CPI Match of the Day!

A few of us are hoping to visit John's home in the rural bliss of Buckinghamshire this weekend, which will be a welcome break from the city. I am also very much looking forward to meeting the goats...

And finally, all the interns are very pleased indeed to see the return of the Cardinal's Arms to fully operational status - Dom and Clare are particularly enjoying contributing to the team, and Im sure the bar will act as a real social magnet within the house.

Will

January blues

2008-01-16T07:16:00.000-08:00

A post from a distinctly grotty-feeling and rough-sounding Will here. Have been labouring for two weeks under what feels like the worst bout of man-flu I have ever experienced... nasty cold and headache, but alas not nasty enough to keep me from work! I must confess to only having come across this concept of ailment in the last year or so, and was initially sceptical, but I can honestly say it's as bad as it sounds - must have something to do with my age.

Anyhow, we've all settled back into the swing of things now, returning to work and play with renewed vigour after our break. Seems like I havent been away though - have been ploughing through a fair bit of casework recently, learning in depth all the various problems of the Child Support Agency! It is time consuming, but actually very inspiring to take on cases of people who are at their wit's end, and have turned to their MP as their last hope of resolving some particularly pressing and unpleasant issues. It doesnt happen often, but it is also a fantastic feeling to receive a letter from a constituent thanking us for our time and dedication to resolving their problems. Go interns!

The parliamentary term is a rather odd one this term - we have a half term recess in about a month's time, which makes for a lovely antidote to any new year blues one may be feeling (mainly due to the austere regime of cold showers we've been experiencing recently), and some of the interns are planning a little jaunt abroad for a few days to make the most of the break. And we're all looking forward to future trips to Brussels and Rome in the coming months! Quite the jet-setters aren't we!?!

2008 begins!

2008-01-07T15:34:00.001-08:00

First post of the new year - all four of us have returned to Newman House fully refreshed after a Christmas break and a fair bit of rest, relaxation and perhaps a little too much over-indulgence... well, on my part at least!

Here we go for another parliamentary session - the house returned today and we're back into the thick of it. Dom's MP John Pugh was moved the to the treasury team by new Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg today, from the health team, which means Dom has a fair bit of reading to do to familiarise himself with the new brief!

Looking forward to a trip to the Westminster Children's Society on Friday - our fully rounded experience continues!

Great to be back in Newman House - lots of friendly faces to catch up with, and we're all looking forward to a big, beginning of term night out on Friday hopefully!

More from me soon...

Will

2007-12-17T14:10:00.000-08:00

Just another quick post from me - now in our final week, us interns are finding the pace slowing down a bit... with the exception of poor old Clare, who went into hospital today for an operation on her hand - hopefully by the time this post is published she will be well on the way to recovery!! (Just dont ask her how it happened...)

I had my team Christmas lunch today with colleagues, in the swanky "Adjournment" restaurant, and Damian spoilt us with a bottle of champagne! Christmas cards exchanged, we all feel very festive!! The work however, continues apace - lots of letters still to deal with, seemingly as the government lurches from one crisis to another!

All the interns are hoping to get together for a dinner sometime this week to have a good opportunity to come together and review the term, hopefully Clare will be back on her feet by then!

Christmas approaches

2007-12-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Now we're into Advent the end of a very long term is in sight for the Parliamentary Interns - im having difficulty getting used to not having 8 week terms as at Oxford - all my friends still back there finished a week ago, and we've all still got 2 weeks to go...!

The pace in parliament hasnt slowed at all - all of us have been kept very busy with various duties - im working hard on a project on the NHS "Spine" for Damian - a database that holds all NHS patient's medical records in England. This project, which is in the process of being implemented, has understandably raised quite a few concerns amongst many people in the light of the HMRC "Datagate" scandal of a few weeks ago. Many are concerned that no matter how strict the security of such IT systems, the risk to people's personal data whilst stored on a national database will never be completely diminished - all it could take is a simple human error and your entire medical history could be exposed to hackers. Or, as in the case of one campaigner, such an error could actually incorrectly label you as having a medical problem you have never suffered from - eg schizophrenia or alcoholism. I often find with these research projects Im undertaking that, the more i read, the more I realise quite how in the dark the population really is about what the state is doing - potentially very concerning!

All the interns and a contingent from Newman House attended the funeral of Tim Berner, Dom's dad, on Thursday down in Wimbledon. It was amazing to see a church so full of people from so many different aspects of Tim and his family's life. We were all glad to be there to support Dom, and despite the great sadness everyone felt for the family's loss, I felt an immense power from the service and the community that was gathered there, despite the torrential rain outside. It's times like these that the support of friends and family really are seen to be an amazing and divine gift.

The Newman House Christmas party was very well attended last Friday evening. Sadly I was not able to make it, as I was at a ball in Bayswater, but from what I heard it was a spectacular event, all the more important given that many house residents will soon be heading off for the Christmas vacation.

I know for a fact that us interns are eagerly awaiting the end of our term - an amazing term in so many ways - but very challenging in other respects. Here's to the last few weeks- will post another update before too long!

Will

Conferences and sheep

2007-11-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

This week has seen the parliamentary interns very busy indeed - with lots of events, courses, conferences, and I went on a constituency visit to Ashford in Kent!

Life in Damian's office continues apace - my colleague was away for much of this week so i was required to step up to the challenges of taking on some extra work, keeping me busier than usual. I attended a Library presentation on UK population and migration statistics, which was very helpful for Damian's immigration work, and I attempted to summarize the details in a short briefing note for him.

On Wednesday I managed to obtain a ticket to watch Prime Minister's Questions from the public gallery which was great fun - a real experience. We were all sat behind a giant security screen so that did take away some of the atmosphere, and my eyesight not being great it wasnt as clear as watching it on TV - but great to have a view of the whole chamber and hear the roar of the debate. Also very interesting watching the key players assemble in their places just before the session started.

Friday involved a 6:30am start to catch a train from Charing Cross down to Ashford to accompany Damian on some constituency duties - involving visiting a charity organisation, a local business (making unmanned drone aircraft) and a skipping event at a local primary school - I managed to escape having to skip, but Damian wasnt so lucky! He also drove me around the constituency, which outside Ashford town itself, is very rural - it was a lovely sunny day and we saw the countryside at its best, complete with many flocks of sheep! Great to get out of London for a bit, and get a better sense of the area and the people we are working for up in parliament.

Yesterday we had a very interesting conference at Notre Dame University on "Faith in Your Future" featuring many impressive speakers from a variety of backgrounds, including the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, and the editor of the Tablet. It was very refreshing to see such prominent public figures willingly discuss their faith, what it meant to them, and how it influenced their careers.

Will

Winter sets in...

2007-11-19T02:17:00.000-08:00

The unusually warm and pleasant winter we've all been experiencing over the last few months unfortunately appears to be at an end - I was forced to put my umbrella to good use on my walk to work this morning, a particularly dark and damp November day - and my shoes got wet!

At least the world of politics isnt anywhere near as depressing as the weather - had an absolutely manic fw days last week, with lots more immigration stories to deal with here in the Green office - such as the Home Secretary's announcement on the illegal security workers, which caused quite a stir! One of the team is away at the moment, so I have taken on a lot more responsibility than I've been accustomed to so far, but which is keeping me busy and it's very stimulating work. However, spending 3 hours making very slow progress with telephone calls to the Child Suport Agency chasing up constituent's cases is a bit waring...!

This weekend, John and I were joined by the Brussels interns Adrian and Rhiannon, at a conference at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, entitled "The Ethics of Climate Change". It promised to be a very valuable event, especially given the prominence of climate change in current and political affairs. The conference was well attended and featured many distinguished academics, politicians, and clergy, and was an effective general summary of the current climate situation, and suggestions for how to deal with the problem, and some speakers argued the case for Christian Ethics underpinning our responsibility and response to the issue of climate change. It was lovely to get away from London for a bit as well!

Lots on this week - I have a lecture to attend on UK population and migration, and am hopefully going to be visiting Ashford in Kent (Damian's constituency) on Friday - involving a "skip to keep fit" event at a school which I have apparently been drafted in to do on Damian's behalf. Oh dear...

Will

1st month completed...

2007-11-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

Well, after 4 weeks in parliament, we're all starting to settle into the new roles. All three of us have been kept busy with various different jobs and responsibilities by our respective MPs.

This week was particularly exciting for me as I accompanied Damian on a "media round" over the road at Millbank, where all the main news agencies (ITN, Sky, BBC etc) all have mini studious so as to conveniently interview westminster figures. Then later that day I helped him prepare for an appearance on Question Time, held in Swansea, and spent the evening watching it on TV and cheering him on!

Weekend now, so a good opportunity to catch up on sleep, work, laundry, and Im starting to update my CV with a view to putting in applications for various graduate recruiters in London - seems a bit premature perhaps, but the last month has gone by so quickly I know that the year will be concluded all too soon...!

A belated blog...

2007-10-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

Good Lord, it has been a long time since I've posted on here - well overdue for an update into the crazy world of the Catholic Parliamentary Interns!

All four of us have had a very busy few weeks, and now we're almost in November and approaching the completion of our first full month in Westminster - it's absolutely flown by! For me, working in Damian's office has been very varied and hugely rewarding. As Shadow Immigration Minister he has a lot of work to deal with, especially given the recent focus on asylum and immigration issues, on top of his constituency work from Ashford.

I have been focusing on a research project on Identity Cards, Biometrics and Information databases held by the state - the Government's ID Cards Act of last year is in the process of being implemented, and I've been gathering as much information as possible on all the issues and debates on the subject, to inform Damian, and assist the Conservative Party's ongoing campaign to oppose the introduction of this absolutely awful idea! Still... I ought to try and keep political points to a minimum on this page!

In addition to that I have been doing a fair bit of first response to constituent's problems and questions, which involves getting details of their issue so that Damian can better respond to it, as well as more detailed constituency casework. I really enjoy this aspect of the job - talking with members of the public about such a massive range of issues, and attempting to resolve their problems - hugely rewarding.

I will post back with another blog on Friday - to make up for the lack of posts recently (!) - after I get back from a constituency visit to Ashford, in Kent, where I'll be accompanying Damian on visits around the constituency as well as assisting him in his regular surgery at the constituency office. Really looking forward to the visit - i've only ever seen Ashford from the window of the Eurostar - although the 7am train from Charing Cross is going to be a challenging start to the day!

Will

Manic Beginnings!

2007-10-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hi - this appears to be the first blog post from the Catholic Parliamentary Internship Scheme 2007-08, so, bearing in mind I am an absolute blogging novice, here goes...!

All 4 interns working in parliament have now settled into Newman House, although Clare has been here a little while longer than Dom, John and myself (who are going to be working for MPs), labouring away in the office of Lord Dan Brennan QC - so im sure she'll have much to say on that front in due course! It's certainly been a very hectic couple of weeks for us all, and the MP interns havent even started yet - we kick off on Monday 8th October.

The first weekend, joined by Adrian and Rhiannon (our Brussels interns) and Fiona (our Archbishop's House intern) we jetted off to north Wales to a beautiful Ignatian Retreat Centre just outside Rhyl, to begin the scheme with some very welcome prayer, reflection, and a bit of peace and quiet away from the hustle bustle of central London life! Then we were back for a few days of conferences and meetings at the Bishops Conference and CAFOD, learning about the operations of the various Catholic agencies across England, Wales and the wider world. Following this, I set off to Blackpool to participate in the Conservative Party Conference, and soak up the northern seaside and atmosphere, and not a little alcohol along the way...!

Now the four of us are all back full time in Newman House and about to embark on the next stage of the scheme, we're very much looking forward to getting more involved in the life and community of the house, which on behalf of all of us, I would like to say has been fantastically welcoming and so much fun. I personally am looking forward to the opening of the bar shortly! We hope to play an active role in the house over the course of this year, all assuming an election isnt called and we are summoned away to our MP's constituencies to help fight their campaigns...!

Will Blair