Bishops' Conference of England and Wales
Starting on the First Sunday of Advent, 'Wave of Hope' offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season - one a day - as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
The Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome have announced the formal recognition of the Francigena Britannica from London to Canterbury.
On 18 October 2024 a meeting was held at Monte Sant’ Angelo in southern Italy to make a final presentation of the case for the Francigena Britannica to be formally recognised by the General Assembly of the European Association of the Vie Francigene (EAVF).
The vote to approve the Francigena Britannica as the Via Francigena link between London and Canterbury was unanimous and permission has now been granted for it to be marked with Via Francigena signage.
The synodal process, encouraged by Pope Leo XIV, is continuing to take root and steadily progress across the universal church. In his concluding homily at the recent Jubilee of Synodal Teams, Pope Leo said:
“Synodality is about synodal teams and other participatory bodies working out of a logic not of power but of love. It is about … everyone listening to the other.”
In this spirit, at the recent autumn plenary meeting of the Bishops of England and Wales, a synod update was given by the three bishops who attended the two sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality – Archbishop John Wilson, Archbishop of Southward, Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Bishop of Plymouth, and Bishop Marcus Stock, Bishop of Leeds.
The bishops also discussed the Synod document ‘Pathways for the Implementation Phase’, which offers a suggested framework for this stage of the Synod process, to be examined by local Churches according to their various and diverse contexts.
Following an official “Farewell Ceremony” at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV concluded his Apostolic Journey to Türkiye and Lebanon on Tuesday, highlighting a vision of fraternity and peace for the entire region.
“We hope to involve the entire Middle East in this spirit of fraternity and commitment to peace, including those who currently consider themselves enemies,” the Pope said, bringing his 6-day apostolic visit to a close.
The Right Reverend Nicholas Hudson was installed as the Bishop of Plymouth at the Cathedral Church of St Mary & St Boniface, Plymouth on the Patronal Feast Day of St Cuthbert Mayne, Saturday 29 November 2025.
Senior Catholic clergy, including His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Most Reverend John Wilson, Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark, and archbishops and bishops from England and Wales attended the Installation Mass.
There’s a slightly different feel to November’s At the Foot of the Cross podcast. As well as being a month of remembrance and prayer for those who have died, both on the November lists in our parishes and in the World Wars and other conflicts, it’s also a time when the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales gather at Hinsley Hall in the Diocese of Leeds for their autumn plenary meeting. This podcast consists of four episcopal audio interventions giving a flavour of the Bishops’ meeting. We also catch up with Fleur Dorrell, our Biblical Apostolate Manager, to look at what Scripture says about death and dying.
Members of the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, will be asked to decide whether Wales should give its consent to Westminster’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill — a law that would legalise assisted suicide. This would be a profound change for Wales and would mean that, for the first time, doctors could be asked to assist a patient in ending their life intentionally.
If enacted, this bill would put the most vulnerable in our society at risk of coercion. The conscientious objection clause for doctors is inadequate. Furthermore, parliament has explicitly rejected an amendment whereby care homes and hospices could opt out of facilitating assisted suicide on their premises and yet many care homes and hospices will want no involvement. Even with stricter rules, experience from other countries shows that once assisted suicide is introduced, the safeguards soon loosen and those who are elderly, disabled, or feel they are a burden begin to feel subtle pressure to choose death.
Write to a Member of the Senedd
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has passed through the House of Commons and is now with the House of Lords. Our clear principled objection to the Bill remains. The House of Lords has a responsibility to scrutinise the Bill in depth and reject it if necessary.
Unlike MPs, Members of the House of Lords do not have constituents, meaning there is not a Peer whose job it is to represent you based on the area of the country in which you live. For this reason you should take some time to think about which Peer you will write to and why, such as whether you have a personal or professional connection with them, or you have professional expertise in medicine or healthcare.
Please visit this link for full guidance to help you write to a Peer.
Stop the 'Up to Birth Clause (191)' in the Crime and Policing Bill that seeks to fundamentally change our laws on abortion. Please take action and make your voice heard. In June 2025, pro-abortion MPs, led by Tonia Antoniazzi MP, hijacked the Crime and Policing Bill to rush through the abortion up to birth clause (191) after just 46 minutes of backbench debate – there was no prior consultation with the public, no Committee Stage scrutiny and no evidence sessions.
The Antoniazzi clause would make it more likely that healthy babies are aborted at home for any reason, up to birth. The clause would change the law so it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason, and at any point up to and during birth.
If this amendment becomes law, it would likely lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women.
Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. It marks the start of the Church’s liturgical year. In 2025, we enter Cycle A.
Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning ‘arrival’ or ‘coming’. It’s a key time in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Lord coming into the world as the incarnate God of love.
The liturgical vestments priests wear during the season are purple, matching the candles lit on each Sunday of Advent. Purple is a colour typically associated with penance. The exception is the third Sunday – Gaudete Sunday – when priests wear pink vestments – the colour of rejoicing.
Starting on the First Sunday of Advent, 'Wave of Hope' offers 25 short multimedia reflections for the season - one a day - as our contributors share a moment in 2025 that has led them to a place of hope.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, through its Biblical Apostolate, and Birmingham Newman University are conducting research into neurodiversity and our faith. If you're an adult neurodivergent Catholic or a caregiver of a neurodivergent Catholic, we want to hear from you. Your experiences will help us to become more aware of and responsive to your needs. Please complete our short surveys.
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