Bishops issue statements after Autumn Plenary 2025

The dignity and protection of human life was central to the bishops’ discussions during their plenary week, particularly parliamentary moves to legalise assisted suicide and decriminalise abortion up to birth in some cases.

Archbishop on the Crime and Policing Bill: “Pregnant women need compassionate support”

Archbishop Sherrington urges peers to support the amendment to overturn clause 191, which would allow women to perform abortions at home, up to birth, regardless of the circumstances. "Such a law places the health of women at greater risk as well as placing them at risk of coercion... and threatens the lives of many more children, who could be aborted after the current 24-week limit."

On Remembrance Day

Fr Paul McCourt, an army chaplain and a priest of the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, reflects: There’s something particularly special about the morning of the 11 November, the day we call Armistice Day. Here is the day when at the very hour of 11 o’clock, the nation pauses to do something unique and deeply