Belfast born Cardinal: PM tax stance ‘immoral’; UK’s richest ‘getting wealthier’; Royal hopes and fears laid bare in papers and prayer books display; Gay marriage: Pope’s representatives calls for Catholic alliance with Muslim and Jewish groups; Iain Duncan Smith defies Catholic Church to back marriage for gay couples; School gay marriage stance probed; EU aid ‘going to richer nations’; Church statues covered in knit-wear
Cardinal: PM tax stance ‘immoral’
BBC – Scotland’s most senior Roman Catholic accuses David Cameron of immorality over tax policy and calls for more aid for the poor.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17878806
UK’s richest ‘getting wealthier’
BBC – The UK’s richest people are getting even wealthier despite the recession, according to the 2012 Sunday Times Rich List.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17883101
Royal hopes and fears laid bare in papers and prayer books display
Guardian – On 2 May 1923, the future George VI wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury from his borrowed honeymoon home, Polesden Lacy in Dorking: “I hope you did not think we were too nervous.”
The handwritten letter, on display for the first time in an exhibition at Lambeth Palace, thanks Randall Davidson for conducting his grand wedding at Westminster Abbey, and apologises for taking so long to write – the ceremony was all of six days earlier.
The 27-year-old groom, only accepted by Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on his third proposal, may have been nervous – but other documents in the exhibition suggest the archbishop was just as anxious about getting things wrong.
For last year’s wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, his successor Rowan Williams’s copy of the service was carefully marked up for him in green ink: “C’s r/h to you, you to PW”.
In 1952, archbishop Geoffrey Fisher had an even more terrifying ceremony to lead: the coronation. His order of service is covered in a blizzard of notes in his own writing. He was clearly particularly apprehensive about the actual moment of placing the heavy crown on the new queen’s head: “I put the crown on a piece up above the eyebrows‚” he wrote, making sure to get it the right way round, then press down firmly from the back. And if the queen gave him an eye signal that it still felt unsteady, he should apply “a slight pressure at the front”.
The exhibition celebrates both the Queen’s diamond jubilee and the long history of the Book of Common Prayer, including the copy used at the wedding of Queen Victoria. It brings together a remarkable collection of objects with royal connections – not all of them happy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/27/royal-papers-prayer-books-milestones?newsfeed=true
Gay marriage: Pope representatives calls for Catholic alliance with Muslim and Jewish groups
Telegraph – The Pope’s representative in Britain has urged Roman Catholic leaders to form a united front with their Muslim and Jewish counterparts to oppose gay marriage. Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Apostolic Nuncio, called for closer co-operation with other faiths as well as Christian denominations to put pressure on the Government over its plans to allow same-sex couples to marry.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9232269/Gay-marriage-Pope-representatives-calls-for-Catholic-alliance-with-Muslim-and-Jewish-groups.html
Iain Duncan Smith defies Catholic Church to back marriage for gay couples
Pink News – The most senior Catholic in the British Government, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, has confirmed that he will be supporting Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge to introduce equal civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples. In what appears to be an apparent remarkable evolution of his own personal approach to LGBT rights, he pointed out that in a country where so many heterosexual couples are breaking up, marriage equality is a positive method of creating a more stable society.
Mr Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, is considered by many to be the cheerleader of the socially conservative wing of the party. While leader of the party, he made it party policy to oppose gay couples being given equal rights to adopt children and opposed the repeal of Section 28, which more or less banned discussion of homosexuality within schools. This led to a rebellion by prominent liberal Tory MPs including former party chairman Francis Maude and former Defence Secretary Michael Portillo.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/04/28/iain-duncan-smith-defies-catholic-church-to-back-marriage-for-gay-couples/
School gay marriage stance probed
BBC – Claims that the Catholic Education Service has encouraged school pupils to sign an anti-gay marriage petition are to be investigated.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17883093
EU aid ‘going to richer nations’
BBC – More than half of Europe’s development aid budget is going to “relatively rich” countries like Turkey and Serbia, MPs warn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17861510
Church statues covered in knit-wear
BBC – Residents of Portishead woke to find familiar statues dressed in woolly scarves, hats and garments.Angels and statues at St Nicholas’ and St Peter’s churches were subjected to “yarn bombing”, also known as guerrilla knitting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17868230