Withing the bowels of 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 dayIndependent 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!

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Posted in: cardinal pub,catholic herald,intern,journalism,newspaper,work experience

Caritas 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 theCaritas 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 ondeepening 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.  

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Posted in: archbishop nichols,baroness warsi,bishops' conference,caritas,conference,intern,internship,social responsibility

How does the Vatican decide what a miracle is?

On May 1 we saw the beatification of John Paul II; this means he’s performed at least one miracle. If he is found to perform another miracle, he will be canonized a Saint. But how does the Vatican decide what a miracle is? Jo-Anne Rowney takes a look at the meticulous process.

What is a miracle?

Miracles can be of any kind, but the majority of cases have been miraculous healings from terminal medical illnesses and conditions. Political accomplishments don’t tend to come under miracles, so John Paul’s role in the downfall of Soviet Communism won’t get him canonized.

The meticulous process

John Paul’s first miracle recognised by the Vatican concerns a French Nun who was cured from an aggressive form of Parkinson’s after writing John Paul’s name on a piece of paper. The Pope had just died two months earlier of the same disease.

The actual process the Vatican undertakes can be lengthy. The ‘miracle’ has to be proved using various steps before someone can be named a saint. Mother Theresa and John Paul II may be the most famous recent beatifications, but they are far from the norm. The Vatican actually carries out about 30 beatifications per year, and few are similar to the global blessed cases.

Grassroots movement

Firstly, a grassroots movement is ideally started by people that believe the person has led a saintly life. The local Bishop then opens a “Cause for Canonisation” and begins the investigation. If this proves fruitful then the case is referred to Rome.

Silvia Correale, Postulator says: "It's that sense from the people of God, who believe a person was a saint. Today, we would refer to it as public opinion. That common sense of everyday people is a sign. The number of spiritual graces are also taken into account. "

The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints is the Vatican Office which deals with these sort of queries. They are tasked with “approving miracles, martyrdom and heroic virtues of various Saints of God.”

Heroic virtue

The Congregation undertakes a complete investigation into the person’s life. A file known as “positio” is collected for review. Special attention is given to whether the candidate followed Christian virtues to a heroic degree.

Card. José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, had said: "These documents are reviewed by experts in history, by theologians and cardinals. Afterward, all the documents are sent to the Pope, who then approves the heroic virtues. The case of John Paul was approved by the pope on December 19, 2009.”

Scientifically inexplicable

First, the Congregation seeks the advice of a panel of doctors from around the world, who are not connected to the Vatican. For a recovery to be declared miraculous, it must be "complete," "instantaneous," and "durable" , this means the cured condition doesn't return,  as well as scientifically inexplicable. Interestingly developments in Science don’t seem to have slowed down the amount of beatifications.

Card. José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for Causes of Saints: "If the doctors say there is no scientific explanation in the light of modern medicine, the healing goes to the theologians, so they can see if there's a relationship between the alleged miraculous healing and intercession of the candidate to the altars."

God’s work?

Once the ‘miracle’ has passed the doctors test and is signed off a panel of theologians have to judge whether it is the sort of thing God would do.

Then the Cardinals and Bishops of the Congregations have to ensure that the beatification is in the Church’s best interest – some beatifications may offend politically, or be insensitive for example.

Lastly, it is referred to the Pope who has the final say. If the miracle passes all of this then the person is beatified. To begin the process for canonization another process is initiated with a second miracle.

The waiting game

The Congregation keeps a file of all those considered for beatification on record in the Vatican archives, but the vast majority of those who are beatified will never become saints. There are six new Saints, including the first ever Australian. There are currently over 10,000 named saints. 

Usually people are only considered for beatification after they’ve been dead for five years, but in the case of John Paul, due to overwhelming public opinion he was ‘fast-tracked’. There was no reason to wait for support to build, as he was so well loved.

In John Paul II’s case, the first miracle was the healing of the French nun Marie-Simon Pierre. She suffered from Parkinson’s but found herself cured once she prayed to John Paul after writing his name down on a piece of paper. Now he needs a second miracle to become a saint. This could take longer that his faster beatification process. At least three/four years have to pass to show the miracles are permanent and complete. However, there is already a list on the Vatican website of the alleged miracles that are under investigation.

In the mean time, the number of saints continues to grow. There are currently more than 2,000 open cases for canonization.

Did you know?

Martyrs are considered a special case in which the most important thing is to prove that they died for defending God's name. If that’s the case, a miracle is not required for beatification, only to be canonized.

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Posted in: beatification,feature,jpii,pope,pope john paul,rome,saints,vatican

Media training day

All the interns were at Eccleston Square today for a bit of media training. We were off to a good start, as we began with Mass with Mgr Andrew Faley. 


The first session saw Maggie Doherty and Alexander de Forges, from the Catholic Communications Network gave us the inside track on the papal visit, they described what their average day was like and how they dealt with hot topics like the Ordinariate, the new Missal and World Youth Day. Alexander gave us some tips on how to be effective communicators.


Jack Valero popped in too after our coffee break to give us a taste of Catholic Voices training - it was actually quite hard to succintly present the Church's stance on an issue and remain positive. 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. 


Next we had a go at listening to James Abbot in the radio studio, followed by political communications expert and Professor in the subject from Madrid, Karen Sanders. We discussed how we use media, the 
purpose of it and the relationship between politicians and the media.


We ended with a session on social media, taking a look at what more we can do as interns to share what we do. More tweeting and blogging me thinks! 

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Posted in: bishops' conference,catholic voices,ccn,communications,eccleston square,intern,media,media training,professor,training