SCMO | 20th January 2016 | Christianity
Pope Francis has been officially invited to visit the Pontifical Scots College in Rome to help mark this year’s 400th anniversary of its founding as a seminary.
“The Pontifical Scots College has a truly remarkable history and, so, it would be wonderful if Pope Francis could join us as we celebrate that past with pride while looking to the future with great confidence and trust in the Lord,” said Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh 20 January.
The Pontifical Scots College in Rome was founded in 1600 by Pope Clement VIII to provide an education for young Scottish Catholic men who, due to the laws against Catholics, could not receive a Catholic education at home.
Inspired by the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie, the sixteen students studying at the College vowed on 10 March 1616 to return to Scotland as priests, just one year after the saint’s execution at Glasgow Cross.
“It would be a great honour for the College and for all the young men studying with us if the Pope Francis is able to join us to mark 400 years of priestly formation,” said Fr Daniel Fitzpatrick, Rector of the Pontifical Scots College.
“I am sure the Holy Father’s presence would be a great blessing to the College, a source of encouragement for our seminarians and an inspiration to other young men to join them here in Rome to continue the long tradition of the Pontifical Scots College.”
Archbishop Cushley issued the invitation on behalf of the Bishops Conference of Scotland and the Pontifical Scots College during a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace 18 January during which the two men discussed a wide range of issues.
“It’s now over two years since the Holy Father sent me to Scotland to bring the joy of Christ’s gospel to all those who live within the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh – so I wanted to brief him on how our Archdiocese is progressing with that important mission he has entrusted to me.”
During their 40-minute discussion, Archbishop Cushley gifted the Pope a copy of the 2015 pastoral letter “We Have Found the Messiah” in which the Archbishop sets out a vision of how the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh can better evangelise the communities within its bounds.
“Pope Francis has such a warm, kindly and supportive personality and he was clearly very informed and interested in how the Catholic Church in our part of Scotland is fairing as we attempt to preach the Gospel to our contemporary society.”
“In short, Pope Francis was Peter – the rock – such that during our discussion he continually confirmed my faith of by his words and by his example.”
ENDS
Peter Kearney
Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
07968 122291
mail@scmo.org
www.scmo.org
NOTE TO EDITORS:
1. For more information contact David Kerr, Director of Communications at the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh, on 0131 623 8900 or David.Kerr@staned.org.uk
2. Photographs of Archbishop Cushley meeting Pope Francis on Monday 18 January are available from David Kerr, Director of Communications at the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh, on 0131 623 8900 or David.Kerr@staned.org.uk
3. Archbishop Cushley was visiting Rome en route to a meeting of the Bishops Conference of Scotland at the Royal Scots College in Salamanca, Spain.
4. Archbishop Cushley was Head of the English Language Section at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State from 2009 to 2013 where he worked for both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
5. Archbishop Cushley also attended the Pontifical Scots College from 1979 to 1987....
SCMO | 28th December 2015 | Christianity
Pope Francis has today appointed Monsignor Brian McGee as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles. The diocese has been vacant since April 2014 when Bishop Joseph Toal became the Bishop of Motherwell. Mgr. McGee is currently Vicar General of the Diocese of Paisley and Parish Priest of Holy Family Parish, Port Glasgow.
Reacting to his appointment, Bishop-Elect McGee said:
“It was very humbling, and indeed frightening, to be informed by the Papal Nuncio that Pope Francis had nominated me to be the new bishop of the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles. However, after reflection and prayer I now face this mission with quiet but definite confidence. Yes, I remain aware of my limitations but I am even more aware of the power of God’s grace which, with our co-operation, overcomes our shortcomings. Experience has taught me that positively answering God’s invitations is always to our own advantage.”
Bishop-Elect McGee added:
“I am excited about coming to the diocese of Argyll and the Isles. It has an ancient and proud heritage whose roots stretch back almost one and a half thousand years preceding even its spiritual father, Saint Columba. Since then, the consistent witness to Christ and the contribution to the National and Universal Church have been immense and I pray that it will continue to be so. I am also mindful of the diocese’s rich Gaelic character and I, although not yet a Gaelic speaker, will endeavour to promote its rightful use in the worship of God.
We have entered into the Year of Mercy. I am inspired by this Jubilee’s ethos and I hope to be a bishop that has an unshakable trust in God’s mercy, unafraid to acknowledge my own need of God’s mercy and one who shows mercy to all, especially those who are most in need. Pope Francis wrote of our Faith Communities being oases of mercy. Please God, as individuals, as parishes and the diocese as a body will be a constant oasis of mercy to all.”
“I cannot deny that it is a wrench for me to leave the Diocese of Paisley. This was where I wanted to minister from my youth and I have always been very happy there. I would like to thank Bishop John Keenan, and his predecessors, as well as the clergy, religious and lay faithful of Paisley Diocese for their encouragement over many years. I recognise that I have much to learn about the diocese of Argyll and the Isles and I hope to be a good listener. It is an area I already love. I grew up in Greenock daily enjoying beautiful views of the Cowal Peninsula, Bute and Arran and I still savour them from my parish in Port Glasgow today. I have holidayed and trekked throughout the diocesan boundaries from my earliest childhood to the present day. I have made several pilgrimages to Iona. I already look forward to living within what will be my new diocese and I sure that I will naturally come to love its people.”
Bishop John Keenan of Paisley said:
“Many congratulations to Bishop Elect Brian on his appointment by Pope Francis to the See of Argyll and the Isles. I am not at all surprised that he has been chosen for this important office. Since appointing him as my Vicar General and getting to know and see him at work I have been highly impressed by his wisdom about the ways of the Church, his personal commitment to living the Gospel and his sense of service to the clergy and people of the diocese. He is loved and respected dearly by his own parishioners in Holy Family, Port Glasgow, who will miss him, and his elevation leaves big shoes to fill in the diocese of Paisley.
“I can assure the clergy and people of Argyll and the Isles that they are getting a Pastor who will give his all to serving them with justice and who will lead them with energy and vision. He will be a valued member of the Bishop’s Conference which will benefit from his fresh perspective and ...
SCMO | 15th December 2015 | Christianity
Bishop Stephen Robson, the Bishop of Dunkeld, delivered the Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament today (Tuesday 15 December) at 2pm.
In his address he said that cultural change has arguably been Scottish Society’s greatest challenge in the last decade. He called on legislators to “be compassionate about the effects of change” as not everyone can absorb it at the same rate – with some changes having left many people, including the elderly, straggling behind.
The full text of Bishop Robson’s comments are shown below.
ENDS
Peter Kearney
Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
07968 122291
pk@scmo.org
www.scmo.org
My father was 90 yesterday. He has been badly traumatised by many of the developments in the world around him. Like so many of the elderly, he is ill at ease with modernity; he has had enough of drastic change in his life. So sadly, on his 90th birthday, he said to me: ‘Son, I’m glad to be on the way out.’
But it wasn’t terrorist violence or the threats of war that caused him to feel like this, but rather the endless cultural changes in contemporary society. It brought home to me that my father, and countless others like him, are in culture shock.
Sociologists tell us that ‘Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person feels when experiencing a trauma caused by a clash between unfamiliar world-views’.
In the last decade, cultural change has arguably been Scottish Society’s greatest challenge. And it is not so much social changes as such that are the problem, as rather the increased pace of those changes - that have left many people, and not only the elderly, straggling behind. The result is cultural disorientation.
Furthermore in a highly globalised world when all the world’s social challenges and cultural problems appear as if they are in sprouting in our own back yard we just can’t tackle them all at once; we need time to absorb change, if culture shock is to be avoided.
Each one of us constructs our reality from the building blocks that our parents, families, communities and society provide us with. Of course, there are times when our understanding of reality must be challenged. But please may you as legislators be compassionate about the effects of change; not everyone can absorb it at the same rate. There will always be the wayfarers, the stragglers and the reluctant and the downright stubborn: win minds and hearts first rather than coerce by force of law.
May legislators be mindful that for believers, man-made positive law, such as made in this chamber, can bind bodies, but not souls. For if, perchance, positive law is found to be in serious opposition to God’s Law, or to the natural Law written on human hearts, then God’s laws will always trump man’s. This is the first lesson in religious freedom. ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his soul?’...
SCMO | 14th December 2015 | Christianity
The Catholic Bishops of Scotland have launched a new website to support the work of the Scottish Catholic Interdiocesan (SCI) Tribunal.
The launch coincided with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, when recent innovations introduced by Pope Francis into the Church’s marriage law begin to take force.
The website provides information aimed at helping those you want to petition the Church for a marriage annulment.
Monsignor Peter Magee, SCI Tribunal Officialis said:
“The website is intended, firstly, to help people better understand what the Catholic Church teaches to be the beautiful and solemn reality of marriage as willed by God. Secondly, it tries to help explain why marriages can be invalid, or null, under what conditions, for what reasons.”
“In consequence, what the website does is to try and offer some idea of what a Church Tribunal is and does in regard to these most difficult matters for it is the Tribunal which processes and judges marriage nullity cases, except those reserved by law to the diocesan Bishop himself.”
ENDS
Peter Kearney
Director
Catholic Media Office
5 St. Vincent Place
Glasgow
G1 2DH
0141 221 1168
07968 122291
pk@scmo.org
www.scmo.org
Notes to editors:
Earlier this year, Pope Francis made a number of changes to the way the Church deals with annulments. Importantly, he reaffirmed traditional teaching on the “indissolubility of marriage”, while reaching out to many Catholics alienated from the Church because of broken marriages, which can be proven to have been invalid from the start.
For more information about these changes and the work of the SCI Tribunal visit www.scitribunal.org.uk
...
SCMO | 08th March 2024 | Blogging
Ordination of new Bishop of Galloway
8 March 2024
The Episcopal Ordination Mass of Fr Frank Dougan as the ninth Bishop of Galloway will take place on Saturday 9th March at the parish of St Peter in Chains, Ardrossan at 11,00am.
Fr. Dougan was appointed on 22 December 2023, by Pope Francis as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Galloway. He succeeds Archbishop William Nolan who was Bishop of Galloway from 2014 to 2022 when he became Archbishop of Glasgow.
The bishops ordaining Fr. Frank on 9th March are Archbishop Leo Cushley, Archbishop William Nolan, and Bishop Joseph Toal. Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía the Apostolic Nuncio will be present both at the ordination and at the Mass of Reception in St Margaret's Cathedral in Ayr on Sunday 10th March at 15.00 when Fr. Frank will take possession of his cathedral.
The ordination will be livestreamed on YouTube (@RCGalloway) and Facebook (/GallowayDiocese). The stream will begin at 10.30 am, with the Mass beginning at 11.00 am. To watch the livestream online, click here or use the embedded player.
Bishop Dougan will formally be received into St Margaret's Cathedral on Sunday 10th March. The Mass of Reception will be livestreamed on YouTube (@RCGalloway) and Facebook (/GallowayDiocese). The stream will begin at 2.30 pm, with the Mass beginning at 3.00 pm.
ENDS
Peter Kearney MA (Hons)Director Catholic Media Office0141 221 116807968 122291 pk@scmo.org www.scmo.org
Note to Editors:
Photographs will be available from Paul McSherry on 07770 393960
...
SCMO | 02nd February 2024 | Blogging
Pope Francis appoints new Bishop of Dunkeld
2 February 2024
At 12 noon today (2 February 2024) in Rome (11am GMT) it was announced, that Pope Francis had nominated Fr. Martin Chambers as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Dunkeld. He will succeed Bishop Stephen Robson who was Bishop of Dunkeld from 2013 to 2022 when he retired on health grounds, since when it has been administered by Fr. Kevin Golden.
Reacting to his appointment, Fr. Martin said;“One of the catchphrases of Pope Francis is that, as Christians, we are called to be ‘Missionary Disciples’. The Pope reminds us that, yes, we are all called to take our part in the mission of spreading the Good News in our families and within our local community. However, the Pope reminds us that, first of all, we must sit as disciples at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him and letting Him guide our steps.”
“As I set out on this new Mission as Bishop of Dunkeld, I pledge to sit in prayer as a Disciple at the feet of Jesus, listening to his voice calling me forward in faith. Together, with Christ’s strength and inspiration, we will all be able to continue to build the Kingdom in the Diocese of Dunkeld.”
Fr. Martin added;
“I am also conscious that many years ago, I was accepted into seminary by Bishop Joseph McGee. He was the Bishop of Galloway who had started off as a priest of Dunkeld Diocese. In a strange way, I am returning a compliment in faith for, having started as a priest of Galloway, I am now becoming Bishop of Dunkeld.”
Responding to the news Diocesan Administrator Fr. Kevin Golden said:
“The whole community of the Diocese of Dunkeld will rejoice with me today at the appointment of Father Martin Chambers as our new Bishop. We assure him of a warm welcome as he comes among us and offer him our prayers and a steadfast commitment to working with him as he shepherds our Diocese into the future, inspired by the vision of our Holy Father Pope Francis. We renew our appreciation of the sterling work of our Bishop Emeritus, Stephen Robson.”
Welcoming the appointment of his successor, Bishop Robson said:
“I have known Fr Martin for many years since he was in the Sixth Form of Blairs College in 1981. Since then, I have followed with great admiration his journey in the priesthood thus far. He was educated in the Royal Scots College in Spain, and he has had great experience in Ecuador as a missionary priest. Various appointments as pastor, school chaplain and diocesan responsibilities in Galloway diocese then followed. All this previous experience will stand him in great stead going forward as bishop here in Dunkeld.
Personally I am delighted for Martin, and I know that the people, priests and religious of the diocese will welcome him with open arms.”
ENDS
Peter Kearney MA (Hons)Director Catholic Media Office0141 221 116807968 122291 pk@scmo.org www.scmo.org
Notes to Editors:
Images of Fr Chambers can be downloaded here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBcG9V
The date of the Episcopal ordination will be announced in due course.
Biography: Fr Martin Chambers
Born: 8th June 1964Baptised: St Paul’s, ShettlestonSchools: St Mary’s Primary, Irvine Guardian Angels Primary, Bury
St. Vincent’s College, Langbank, St Mary’s College, Blairs
Senior Seminary: Royal Scots College, Valladolid (1982-1988) & Salamanca (1988-1989)
Ordained Priest for the Diocese of Galloway: 25th August 1989
Priestly Ministry:Assistant Priest St John’s, Stevenston (1989-1993)Parish Priest St Thomas’, Muirkirk (1993-1996)
Parish Priest St Bride’s, West Kilbride (1996-1997)Parish Priest St John’s, Stevenston (1997-2004)Served with the Missionary Society of St James in Ecuador (2004-2009)
Parish Priest St. Matthew’s, Kilmarnock (2009-2023)Administrator St Sophia’s, Galston & St Paul’s, Hurlford (2013-2015)
Parish Priest Our Lady of Mount Carmel (2015-2023)Parish Priest St Sophia’s, Galston (2017-2018...
SCMO | 26th January 2024 | Blogging
58th World Day of Social Communications
In his message for the 58th World Day of Social Communications, Pope Francis has urged humanity to cultivate wisdom of the heart in the age of artificial intelligence. AI is “radically affecting the world of information and communication, and through it, certain foundations of life in society,” says the Pope in his Communications Day message, adding that “these changes affect everyone.” Commenting on the dangers of referring to “machine learning” as “intelligence” the Pope explains that it is not enough to be able to store data, like machines do, but that this data must be made sense of, and “human beings alone” are capable of this. The Pope notes that the technology of simulation behind AI algorithms can be useful in certain specific fields.
The full text of the Pope’s message is shown below.
Communications Sunday will be on 12 May 2024
Peter Kearney MA (Hons)Director Catholic Media Office0141 221 116807968 122291 pk@scmo.org www.scmo.org
Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart:
Towards a Fully Human Communication
Dear brothers and sisters!
The development of systems of artificial intelligence, to which I devoted my recent Message for the World Day of Peace, is radically affecting the world of information and communication, and through it, certain foundations of life in society. These changes affect everyone, not merely professionals in those fields. The rapid spread of astonishing innovations, whose workings and potential are beyond the ability of most of us to understand and appreciate, has proven both exciting and disorienting. This leads inevitably to deeper questions about the nature of human beings, our distinctiveness and the future of the specieshomo sapiensin the age of artificial intelligence. How can we remain fully human and guide this cultural transformation to serve a good purpose?
Starting with the heart
Before all else, we need to set aside catastrophic predictions and their numbing effects. A century ago, Romano Guardini reflected on technology and humanity. Guardini urged us not to reject “the new” in an attempt to “preserve a beautiful world condemned to disappear”. At the same time, he prophetically warned that “we are constantly in the process of becoming. We must enter into this process, each in his or her own way, with openness but also with sensitivity to everything that is destructive and inhumane therein”. And he concluded: “These are technical, scientific and political problems, but they cannot be resolved except by starting from our humanity. A new kind of human being must take shape, endowed with a deeper spirituality and new freedom and interiority”.[1]
At this time in history, which risks becoming rich in technology and poor in humanity, our reflections must begin with the human heart.[2]Only by adopting a spiritual way of viewing reality, only by recovering a wisdom of the heart, can we confront and interpret the newness of our time and rediscover the path to a fully human communication. In the Bible, the heart is seen as the place of freedom and decision-making. It symbolizes integrity and unity, but it also engages our emotions, desires, dreams; it is, above all, the inward place of our encounter with God. Wisdom of the heart, then, is the virtue that enables us to integrate the whole and its parts, our decisions and their consequences, our nobility and our vulnerability, our past and our future, our individuality and our membership within a larger community.
This wisdom of the heart lets itself be found by those who seek it and be seen by those who love it; it anticipates those who desire it and it goes in search of those who are worthy of it (cf.Wis6:12-16). It accompanies those willing to take advice (cf.Prov13:10), those endowed with a docile and listening heart (cf.1 Kg3:9). A gift of the Holy Spirit, it enables us to look at things with God’s eyes, to see connec...
SCMO | 26th January 2024 | Blogging
Scotland’s Bishops welcome release of Nicaraguan clergy
Friday 26 January 2024
The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has issued a statement, following the release of Bishop Rolando Alvares and 19 others by the Government of Nicaragua.
“Following the condemnation of Scotland’s Bishops in February 2023 of the unjust sentencing of Bishop Rolando Alvares to 26 years imprisonment in Nicaragua together with other clergy, we welcome the news that Bishop Alvares, together with 2 other bishops, 15 priests and 2 seminarians have been released.
Although the clergy concerned have been released, it is a matter of great sadness that they have been exiled from Nicaragua by the regime of President Daniel Ortega. We welcome the diplomatic efforts of the Holy See, which has allowed them to travel to the Vatican.
Scotland’s Bishops join with Pope Francis in praying that “that the path of dialogue will always be sought to overcome difficulties” and that the persecution of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua will end.”
Peter Kearney MA (Hons)Director Catholic Media Office0141 221 116807968 122291 pk@scmo.org www.scmo.org
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