Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Chairing his first Holy Land Co-ordination, spoke to us on the eve of his return home from Amman, the capital of Jordan. He had just spent five days leading a pilgrimage of Bishops from 11 countries around the holy sites of Jordan, as well as visiting some of the Catholic parishes and […]

“In one way it was a very straightforward celebration of a Funeral Mass as would take place at the deathof any Catholic in any parish church. And yet in another way it was a uniquely historical event and an event of great emotional depth and stature. “I think we can say it’s the first time […]

Shortly after arriving in Rome the day before Benedict XVI’s funeral, Cardinal Vincent Nichols spent some time in prayer and quiet contemplation before the body of the late Pope Emeritus Lying in state in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict was visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims who paid their final respects and offered prayers […]

Our final ‘At the Foot of the Cross’ podcast of the year features a whistle-stop review of the year with our General Secretary, Canon Christopher Thomas. As we move prayerfully through the final octave of Advent, and with our O Antiphons audio series live and online, in this podcast, we look towards Christmas and the […]

November’s ‘At the Foot of the Cross’ really is pushing its luck, coming in on the last day of the month. Profound apologies, but, hopefully, it’s well worth the wait. Canon Christopher Thomas, General Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference joins us and kick-starts the podcast by reviewing elements of the Bishops’ November plenary meeting at […]

Audio taken from a virtual press conference in which four Catholic bishops from England and Wales discussed their autumn plenary meeting. Bishop Paul Mason, who chaired the press conference, spoke about the Church’s safeguarding work, Bishop John Arnold discussed four resolutions concerned with environmental matters, Bishop John Sherrington addressed the issue of buffer zones around […]

Patrick O’Dowd, the director of Caritas Salford, spoke to us recently to give an overview of what the charity is doing to ease the burdens of struggling families in the north west of England. Patrick relayed some shocking statistics about the devastating effects of the crisis, with hundreds of thousands of children lacking the bare […]

We have two interesting years ahead of us in the life of the Catholic Church. 2025 is a Jubilee Year where the theme is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. In the lead-up, not only do we have a two-part Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome in 2023 and 2024, we also prepare for the Jubilee with two […]

Every year, millions of pilgrims from around the world visit the foothills of the French Pyrenees to walk in the footsteps of Saint Bernadette at Lourdes. It’s one of the world’s busiest Catholic pilgrimage sites with around five million pilgrims visiting each year. It’s estimated that over 200 million people have visited the Marian shrine […]

As the Social Justice department of the Bishops’ Conference launches a new revised edition of the Bishops’ teaching document on the environment The Call of Creation, Bishop John Arnold, our episcopal lead for environmental matters, has been speaking to us about the current ecological crisis, our responsibilities as Catholics and custodians of the created world, […]