Two Catholic cathedrals are to receive renovation grants from the First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund.
The Cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface in Plymouth, which dates to 1858, was designed by Charles and Joseph Hansom, of Hansom cab fame. It will receive £644,000 towards restoration and weather-proofing.
Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth said: “It is a wonderful legacy to mark the centenary of the First World War that our cathedrals – important ‘sermons in stone’ in the life of the nation – are getting these much-needed funds for essential repairs and work. It was very moving recently to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme with Mass in our cathedral. I am delighted that the Catholic cathedral in Plymouth has been awarded this grant so that it can continue to be a beacon of worship and praise to God for many generations to come.”
St Barnabas’s Cathedral in Nottingham, which was designed by Augustus Pugin and built in the 1840s, will receive £115,000 on top of a grant of £150,000 awarded last year. The grants are helping towards improvements to drainage and rainwater management, and to stem damage that has been caused to the cathedral interior.
Further work will be needed to restore the Pugin paintwork in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
The First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund was announced by the Chancellor in 2014 for essential repairs to Catholic and Anglican cathedrals in England and Wales.
Doctors who refuse to take part in abortions are suffering increasingly from harassment and discrimination at work, the British Medical Association (BMA) has told MPs.
Healthcare professionals are complaining to the union that they are facing pressure to take part in abortions and confronted with glass ceilings to advancement when they refuse, a new report has disclosed.
The BMA highlighted the problem in written evidence submitted to a parliamentary inquiry into the working of the conscience clause of the 1967 Abortion Act.
The BMA said in its evidence that it “supports the right of doctors to have a conscientious objection to termination of pregnancy and believes that such doctors should not be marginalised”.
“Some doctors have complained of being harassed and discriminated against because of their conscientious objection to abortion,” it continued. “The BMA abhors any instances of harassment or discrimination of doctors on the basis of their views on abortion.”
The inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group (APPG) received evidence from hundreds of individuals and institutions, including abortion providers.
In its report, it concluded that the conscience clause was not being upheld and that medical professionals with a moral objection to abortion were vulnerable to victimisation.
Fiona Bruce, a Conservative MP and the chairman of the group, said action must be taken to protect such workers.
“This report reveals concerning evidence of doctors and other healthcare professionals being harassed, abused and denied career choices, as a result of seeking to exercise their legal right to conscientiously object to being involved in the abortion process,” she said. “This must stop.
“Our All-Party Parliamentary Group calls on Government and all those involved in overseeing healthcare provision to take steps to ensure that the conscience clause is fully respected and observed in practice.” This clause in the 1967 Abortion Act states: “No person shall be under any duty, whether by contract or by any statutory or other legal requirement, to participate in any treatment authorised by this Act to which he has a conscientious objection.”
The new report, entitled “A Report into Freedom of Conscience in Abortion Provision”, found “inadequate observance” of the law and in some cases a total “disregard of the conscience clause”.
“This means that, in practice, there is inadequate accommodation for healthcare professionals with a conscientious objection to abortion, contrary to the protection which the 1967 Act is intended to provide,” the report said. “In particular, the treatment of such individuals is far too dependent on the individual attitudes and discretion of their personal line managers or colleagues.”
As a result, pressure was increasing on pro-life doctors to refer women who wanted abortions to colleagues willing to authorise them.
Promotion is sometimes denied to pro-life doctors, while specialisation in obstetrics and gynaecology is ever more difficult for pro-life students, the inquiry found.
Scotland’s bishops’ conference has announced the appointment of Anthony Horan as the new director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, president of the conference, said: “Together with all the bishops I look forward to working with him in future as he represents the Church in the political sphere. Anthony’s demonstrable knowledge of and commitment to his Catholic faith will be a tremendous asset to the office.”
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