'Universal Catholicism' in the Maghreb and the Mashriq

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



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...

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

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

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

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

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