Papal Nuncio celebrates historic Catholic Mass in Canterbury Cathedral

Jubilee Year

Papal Nuncio celebrates historic Catholic Mass in Canterbury Cathedral

Tuesday, July 8th, 2025 @ 8:57 am

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The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, Pope Leo’s representative to the Church in Great Britain, has celebrated a historic Catholic Mass in Canterbury Cathedral to mark the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury.

The saint, more commonly known as Thomas Becket, was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He was killed by followers of King Henry II having quarreled with the monarch over the rights and privileges of the Church, and is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church. He was canonised by Pope Alexander III soon after his death.

In 1220, Thomas Becket’s body was translated, or moved, from Canterbury Cathedral’s crypt to the shrine behind the main altar, where it remained until 1538 when Henry VIII ordered the crypt be destroyed. Once a year, on 7 July, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral allow the Catholic Parish of St Thomas of Canterbury to celebrate Mass in honour of St Thomas Becket.

Although many Catholic Masses have been held at the famous Anglican cathedral, this was a historic ‘first’ in that it was the first time a papal nuncio had celebrated Mass there. It is particularly significant as a papal legate was said to have been present when the saint’s body was moved.

Preaching a homily on the feast marking the ‘translation’, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía said:

“This Mass of pilgrimage takes place within the context of the Jubilee Year. It highlights the Christian life as a spiritual journey, moving through life’s trials and joys with hope anchored in Christ. Having travelled as pilgrims today, we do more than just honour a figure from history. The stained glass windows all around us illustrate the many miracles attributed to St Thomas in the medieval period. This should be a living story, too. Our world, today as then, is in need of hope. We come in this Jubilee Year as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ to be inspired by St Thomas’ holiness and his courageous witness to Christ and His Church.”

 

Third of all pregnancies in England and Wales end in abortion, figures reveal

Simon Caldwell

July 11, 2025 at 1:33 pm

Almost a third of all conceptions in England and Wales now end in abortion, official figures have revealed.

In 2022, 29.69 per cent of all conceptions in England and Wales ended in abortion, up from 26.54 per cent a year earlier, , according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

The figures represent a huge increase in abortion over the space of a decade, with 20.84 per cent of conceptions – a fifth of all pregnancies – ending in abortion in 2012.

Between 2020, when pills-by-post at-home abortion schemes were first introduced, and 2022, there has been a 19.61 per cent increase in the number of conceptions leading to abortion.

The ONS figures show there were 834,260 conceptions for women resident in England and Wales in 2022, and 247,703 of these conceptions led to abortion.

The figures show that the number of conceptions leading to abortion in 2022, was 13.15 per cent higher than 2021 when there were 218,923 abortions.

The number of conceptions ending in abortion in abortion in 2022 has increased by 34.31 per cent since 2012 when 184,420 conceptions ended in abortion.

The total number of conceptions has fallen since 2012 and the total number of abortions has risen over the same period, so the percentage of conceptions ending in abortion has increased by 8.85 percentage points, from 20.84 per cent in 2012 to 29.69 per cent in 2022.

Between 2020 (the first year in which the pills-by-post scheme was made legal) and 2022, there was a 19.61 per cent increase in the number of conceptions leading to abortion.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion was lowest among women aged 30-34, but still sharply increased from 13 per cent of conceptions ending in abortion in 2012 to 20.53 per cent in 2022.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion among those outside marriage or civil partnership increased from 29.4 per cent in 2012 to 36 per cent in 2022.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion among those within marriage or civil partnership increased from 7.6 per cent in 2012 to 11.1 per cent in 2022.
The percentage of conceptions leading to abortions were highest in Liverpool (40.3 per cent), Brighton and Hove (40.3 per cent), Lambeth (38.4 per cent); Halton, Cheshire (38.1 per cent), and Knowsley, Liverpool (38 per cent).

Catherine Robinson of Right to Life said: “Almost 1 in 3 of all conceptions now end in abortion. This is a national tragedy.

“The dramatic rise in the reported percentage of conceptions ending in abortion has accompanied the second full year that abortion services outside of a clinical setting through pills by post schemes have been operating in England and Wales.

“The vote to make at-home abortions permanently available passed by just 27 votes. A large number of MPs had serious concerns about the negative impact these schemes would have on women.”

Last month the House of Commons voted for abortion up to and during birth when a hijacking amendment at Report Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill to decriminalise abortion was passed by 379 votes to 137, a huge majority of 242.

The Bill was introduced principally to combat violence, especially against women, and to halt the scourge of knife crime but has been amended to allow abortions for any reason whatsoever and at any point in pregnancy.

But Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower and a Catholic, introduced the amendment to decriminalise abortion so women who undertook late-term pregnancies with such pills would no longer be sent to jail.

She said: “Let’s ensure that not a single desperate woman ever again is subject to traumatic criminal investigation at the worst moment in their lives.”

Dr Caroline Johnson, the Conservative MP for Sleaford, failed to pass an amendment that would have reinstated in-person consultations and halted the “pills by post” scheme that has been criminally abused.

Crossbench Lord Alton of Liverpool, a Catholic, said: “This hasty change will have profound implications for the way that longstanding law in this country will operate.

“We know that there are potential real risks for the safety of women in particular who will be encouraged towards DIY abortions.

“I expect that colleagues in the House of Lords will wish to scrutinise its provisions very closely and to amend it as necessary to make it safe.”

Twelve other Catholic MPs voted for abortion up to birth.

They included Dan Aldridge, Labour MP for Weston-super-Mare; Kevin Bonavia, Labour MP for Stevenage; David Chadwick, Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe; Colum Eastwood, the SDLP MP for Foyle; Florence Eshalomi, the Labour [Co-op] MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green and Claire Hanna, SDLP MP for Belfast South and Mid Down.

They also included Rebecca Long Bailey, Labour MP for Salford; Dame Shiobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden; Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby; Pat McFadden, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East; Oliver Ryan, Independent MP for Burnley, and Dr Ben Spencer, Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge.

Almost a third of all conceptions in England and Wales now end in abortion, official figures have revealed.

In 2022, 29.69 per cent of all conceptions in England and Wales ended in abortion, up from 26.54 per cent a year earlier, , according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

The figures represent a huge increase in abortion over the space of a decade, with 20.84 per cent of conceptions – a fifth of all pregnancies – ending in abortion in 2012.

Between 2020, when pills-by-post at-home abortion schemes were first introduced, and 2022, there has been a 19.61 per cent increase in the number of conceptions leading to abortion.

The ONS figures show there were 834,260 conceptions for women resident in England and Wales in 2022, and 247,703 of these conceptions led to abortion.

The figures show that the number of conceptions leading to abortion in 2022, was 13.15 per cent higher than 2021 when there were 218,923 abortions.

The number of conceptions ending in abortion in abortion in 2022 has increased by 34.31 per cent since 2012 when 184,420 conceptions ended in abortion.

The total number of conceptions has fallen since 2012 and the total number of abortions has risen over the same period, so the percentage of conceptions ending in abortion has increased by 8.85 percentage points, from 20.84 per cent in 2012 to 29.69 per cent in 2022.

Between 2020 (the first year in which the pills-by-post scheme was made legal) and 2022, there was a 19.61 per cent increase in the number of conceptions leading to abortion.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion was lowest among women aged 30-34, but still sharply increased from 13 per cent of conceptions ending in abortion in 2012 to 20.53 per cent in 2022.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion among those outside marriage or civil partnership increased from 29.4 per cent in 2012 to 36 per cent in 2022.

The percentage of conceptions ending in abortion among those within marriage or civil partnership increased from 7.6 per cent in 2012 to 11.1 per cent in 2022.
The percentage of conceptions leading to abortions were highest in Liverpool (40.3 per cent), Brighton and Hove (40.3 per cent), Lambeth (38.4 per cent); Halton, Cheshire (38.1 per cent), and Knowsley, Liverpool (38 per cent).

Catherine Robinson of Right to Life said: “Almost 1 in 3 of all conceptions now end in abortion. This is a national tragedy.

“The dramatic rise in the reported percentage of conceptions ending in abortion has accompanied the second full year that abortion services outside of a clinical setting through pills by post schemes have been operating in England and Wales.

“The vote to make at-home abortions permanently available passed by just 27 votes. A large number of MPs had serious concerns about the negative impact these schemes would have on women.”

Last month the House of Commons voted for abortion up to and during birth when a hijacking amendment at Report Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill to decriminalise abortion was passed by 379 votes to 137, a huge majority of 242.

The Bill was introduced principally to combat violence, especially against women, and to halt the scourge of knife crime but has been amended to allow abortions for any reason whatsoever and at any point in pregnancy.

But Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower and a Catholic, introduced the amendment to decriminalise abortion so women who undertook late-term pregnancies with such pills would no longer be sent to jail.

She said: “Let’s ensure that not a single desperate woman ever again is subject to traumatic criminal investigation at the worst moment in their lives.”

Dr Caroline Johnson, the Conservative MP for Sleaford, failed to pass an amendment that would have reinstated in-person consultations and halted the “pills by post” scheme that has been criminally abused.

Crossbench Lord Alton of Liverpool, a Catholic, said: “This hasty change will have profound implications for the way that longstanding law in this country will operate.

“We know that there are potential real risks for the safety of women in particular who will be encouraged towards DIY abortions.

“I expect that colleagues in the House of Lords will wish to scrutinise its provisions very closely and to amend it as necessary to make it safe.”

Twelve other Catholic MPs voted for abortion up to birth.

They included Dan Aldridge, Labour MP for Weston-super-Mare; Kevin Bonavia, Labour MP for Stevenage; David Chadwick, Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe; Colum Eastwood, the SDLP MP for Foyle; Florence Eshalomi, the Labour [Co-op] MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green and Claire Hanna, SDLP MP for Belfast South and Mid Down.

 

The Fallacy of Private Religion

BETHEL MCGREW JULY 9, 2025

Catholic Twitter recently enjoyed a rare moment of unity when Labour MP Chris Coghlan used the platform to announce his own excommunication. The politician had been warned by his priest, Fr. Ian Vane, that a vote in favor of the U.K.’s assisted suicide bill would remove him from a state of grace in the eyes of the Church. Coghlan ignored the warning, and Fr. Vane accordingly denied him the sacraments. The priest rebuked Coghlan by name before his congregation, which provoked this much more public counter-announcement. At the top of Coghlan’s mind (apparently much higher than any thoughts of self-examination or repentance) was the fear that Fr. Vane would no longer sign off on his children’s Catholic education. But he wished to assure everyone that “My private religion will continue to have zero direct relevance to my work as an MP representing all my constituents without fear or favour.” 

If Coghlan was expecting sympathy from the public, he was sorely disappointed, though it appears his bishop has gone into damage control mode. Not much has changed since 2014, when the English and Welsh bishops’ conference scrambled to reassure parliamentarians that there were no plans to deny the Eucharist to any MP voting in favor of same-sex “marriage.” In an ideal Britain where the Church had its house in order, Fr. Vane’s decision wouldn’t have made news. 

What does “private religion” consists of in Coghlan’s mind? Clearly it does not extend to the defense of such complex doctrines as “Don’t poison the terminally ill.” Coghlan also chose to abstain from voting altogether on a bill legalizing abortion up to birth, which was apparently just too knotty for him to work out a firm position either way. “Religion,” for Coghlan, appears to be little more than aesthetic window dressing around his true identity: a politician who tells people exactly what they want to hear.

But this is perfectly consistent with liberal individualism, which, as Conservative MP Danny Kruger has observed, is now England’s de facto “governing faith.” Kruger provides an apt contrasting case study with Coghlan, as an adult convert to evangelical Christianity whose “private religion” very much has “direct relevance” to his work. From the beginning of his career, which began only after years spent running a charity for ex-prisoners, Kruger accepted matter-of-factly that he would be “unfashionable.” He has even faced public ridicule for being at odds with his own mother, Great British Baking Show judge Dame Prue Leith, on assisted suicide. Such is the price of carrying a fully integrated faith into the public square.

Coghlan’s hackneyed relegation of religion to the “private” sphere implies that religion is fundamentally irrational, its moral strictures purely arbitrary. If a Christian MP like Kruger takes a stand against abortion or assisted suicide, it is presumed that he has allowed his faith to blind his reason. Politicians like him are thus placed under pressure to “come out” and admit this, as if it constitutes a damning conflict of interest. But as Kruger wrote in an eloquent short reflection for the Spectator, the reasons for his pro-life stance are, as it were, open-access. It’s not difficult to form a natural law argument against euthanasia, and Christians shouldn’t make it so by causing the good sort of atheist humanist to second-guess himself. And indeed, some atheists have ironically seen the argument with clearer eyes even than some faithless clerics.

But what is epistemically open to the atheist may still depend on theism for its ontological grounding. And when that religious foundation is removed from under a society, abandoned even by its men of the cloth, the house collapses. Hence, Kruger’s warning about what is being irrevocably lost as England wanders ever further from its Christian mooring posts. It is possible for someone of no faith to swim against the current and choose life, but it requires levels of toughness and intellectual integrity that are in scant supply, as Coghlan’s case illustrates. When liberal individualism becomes the state religion, few people will be motivated to defect unless they can link arms with a large body of fellow defectors. This was why Michel Houellebecq found himself almost exclusively in the company of Christians when he made his own iconoclastic case against euthanasia. There is only one Michel Houellebecq, but there are many Christians.

Siding with Coghlan’s priest, Melanie McDonagh writes that “any conscientious individual” could have pushed back against the suicide bill “on prudent and rational grounds, without any spiritual motivation whatever, unless we are to assume that concern for vulnerable people is a Christian prerogative.” It may not be a Christian prerogative, but it is often the purview of Christians in practice. The uncomfortable question asks itself: Why? Apparently not a question that will trouble the bureaucrats potentially in charge of shutting down Britain’s Catholic hospitals that defy the secular state’s holy writ. 

“Here is our enemy,” Kruger writes in an echo of Evelyn Waugh, “all disguise cast off.” Here now is the politics of “progress” come to full fruition. Against this new creed, only the old creed will suffice.

 

Pope Leo’s favorite dish: cabrito chiclayano

© Shutterstock

Daniel Esparza - published on 07/09/25

Cabrito chiclayano exemplifies Peruvian gastronomy at its most authentic: simple ingredients transformed by careful preparation and regional pride.

Pope Leo XIV spent nearly four decades living in Peru before his election to the See of Peter in May 2025. Arriving in 1985 as an Augustinian missionary, he taught canon law, served remote rural parishes on horseback, and became Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. Known as a defender of human rights and a voice for the poor, he spoke out during the Fujimori era and supported refugees from Venezuela. His decade in Chiclayo led locals to adopt him as one of their own — now calling him the “Pope of Chiclayo.”

It was in Chiclayo’s bustling markets and simple eateries that Prevost discovered a dish he’d come to favor: cabrito chiclayano.

As CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon reports, the Pope continued returning to this regional specialty until as recently as 2023 (that we know of).

What makes cabrito chiclayano special

Cabrito chiclayano is a hearty goat stew central to Lambayeque-region gastronomy. Young goat — tender and milder than mature meat — is marinated with garlic, cumin, local yellow pepper, and lime juice. It simmers slowly with onions, cilantro, and a splash of chicha de jora (a fermented corn beverage), until the meat practically falls off the bone.

The dish is traditionally served with white rice, cancha (toasted corn), and sometimes yuca or sweet plantains. The result is a blend of savory, tangy, and subtly sweet flavors with a rich broth that speaks to both Indigenous and colonial culinary roots.

Peruvian gastronomy: A global standard

Peru’s food culture is a layered tapestry of history and innovation. Indigenous heritage appears in maize, potatoes, and peppers dating back millennia. The arrival of the Spanish introduced meats and spices; subsequent waves — from African and Asian (notably Japanese and Chinese) immigrants — enriched the culinary mosaic further.

Today’s chefs fuse these traditions, giving rise to celebrated dishes like ceviche, lomo saltado, and ají de gallina.

Lima’s restaurants routinely rank among the world’s best, but excellence thrives beyond the capital. In the north, flavors echo local ecosystems — coastal seafood, mountain tubers, and forest fruits — celebrating regional identity. Many argue that the best Peruvian restaurants aren’t just in Lima, but in places like Chiclayo, where authenticity and freshness meet a living cultural heritage.

Cabrito chiclayano exemplifies Peruvian gastronomy at its most authentic: simple ingredients transformed by careful preparation and regional pride.

It isn’t haute cuisine but instead the soul of everyday dining — just what drew the future pope back again and again. Whether enjoyed in a family-run eatery or shared among pilgrims visiting Peru’s many Baroque churches, cabrito chiclayano is a taste of community, faith, and history.