What is modern slavery? The UK introduced the Modern Slavery Act into legislation in England and Wales in 2015, partly in response to the growing referrals of suspected cases into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The Act defines slavery as servitude and forced or compulsory labour. This incorporates a broad range of situations, including forced criminality; sexual exploitation; removal of organs; and securing services by force, threat or abuse, including from children and vulnerable people.
Read more >>Category: Human Dignity
World Day of the Poor
This week’s blog post is an extract from Pope Francis’s message for the World Day of the Poor on 4th November 2022. The full message can be found at: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/papal-message-world-day-of-the-poor-2022/
Read more >>The elderly – the roots of our society
Every year on the third Sunday of June, The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales invites people to celebrate a Day for Life. Its primary purpose, as outlined by St John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae, is “to foster in individual consciences, in families, in the Church and in civil society a recognition of the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition”. Building on last year’s theme of “care at the end of life”, this year, the bishops are inviting the faithful to reflect on protecting and valuing old age.
Read more >>Ukraine and self defence in Christian teaching
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has posed great challenges to Christian teaching about the waging of war and the insights of Catholic Social teaching, issues such as the immorality of an aggressive war, international relations and the welcoming of refugees. However these is one issue which is not met by a straightforward moral response: self-defence.
Read more >>Depression, suicides, deaths of friends – prisoners tell their stories to the Cardinal
There are some who worry that prison is like “a holiday camp” these days, although maybe this sentiment will be less prevalent given what so many have been through during the pandemic.
Read more >>Is the technocratic paradigm our new religion?
Some of you may be familiar with the phrase “technocratic paradigm” from Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato si’. But what is he talking about? I define it as an all-encompassing expression of a technical way of thinking.
Read more >>Is there a right to die? Assisted suicide, assisted dying and changing the law
‘To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it’. These words from G.K. Chesterton’s A Short History of England are a salutary reminder to those who claim certain rights. And now, not for the first time, a new right has been proposed: the right to die. Over the last few years a number of bills advocating for a change in the law to allow for assisted dying or a right to die have been brought before Parliament. All have so far failed. Yet, the assisted suicide campaign continues.
Read more >>Healing the wounds of modern slavery
St. Mary’s University has been a leader in research in the area of modern slavery for a number of years, especially through the work of the Bakhita Centre.
Read more >>A Review of ‘Refuge Reimagined – Biblical Kinship in Global Politics’ by Mark R. Glanville and Luke Glanville
In ‘Refuge Reimagined – Biblical Kinship in Global Politics’ Mark R. Glanville and Luke Glanville have created an innovative inter-disciplinary way to rethink conversations surrounding refugees and displaced people. Drawing on both theology and the subject area of international relations, each discipline representing the authors’ separate academic fields, Mark Glanville and Luke Glanville challenge us to rethink and re-imagine current arguments as individuals, as church communities, as a nation and as a globe, proposing instead a more compassionate response grounded in the notion of a biblical ethic of kinship.
Read more >>The Common Good: What does it Mean?
This article by Jenny Sinclair is a summary of her remarks at the first of a series of events on the common good hosted by St. Mary’s University, Caritas Social Action Network, Together for the Common Good and the Centre for Social Justice.
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