September 2025 Update

Srs. Helen Burke, Eleanor O' Gorman and Jacinta McKillion of the UK Province at the National Justice and Peace Conference in Swanwick.

Dear Sisters and Friends,

I warmly welcome you to the September Justice Desk Update and invite you to explore the content below. While there is much to share, I trust that something will capture your interest. If you find anything of value, may I kindly ask that you pass it on to those who may not have access to the internet.

Thank you to those who reached out following the last update—it is always encouraging to hear from you. We would also love to receive your contributions: if you are aware of events, reports, photos, or news that may be of interest to the Sisters in Ireland and England, please do send them on so that we can share them with all.

This month’s update includes:

Mission House Visit, Lucan
I had the privilege of visiting the Mission House in Lucan, where I met with Sr. Flora Mary (a former IPA Justice Contact) and her Sisters as they embarked on their Irish Pilgrimage.
RENATE
As part of our ongoing commitment, we are pleased to share RENATE’s Summer Newsletter.
Coalition 2030
Ahead of the High-Level Political Forum, Coalition 2030 (of which we are long-time members) sought to bring renewed urgency to the Sustainable Development Goals. This included a photo shoot outside the Irish Parliament to highlight the importance of implementing Agenda 2030.
Article: UK Crime and Policing Bill
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has proposed a new clause to the Bill, which would prohibit third-party facilitation of sexual activity in exchange for payment.
Altogether in Dignity Ireland
We continue our proud collaboration with ADI, who have produced a unique budget submission—their “Wall of Issues”—prepared by activists with lived experience of the challenges they hope to see addressed in the upcoming budget.
Article from CONCERN: Refugees
With myths and misinformation surrounding refugee populations, this article explains why the number of displaced people continues to rise: “Why are there so many refugees?”
National Justice and Peace Conference
I had the honour of attending and presenting at this conference. On the final day, I facilitated a workshop, gathered weekend reflections, and coordinated the drafting of a Conference Statement for publication in the media.
Irish Network Against Racism (INAR)
We continue to engage as members of INAR, particularly with the important concept of Allyship.
AMRI Publication
We contributed to this publication and are pleased to share it with you.
Central Statistics Office
New and relevant details for consideration.
Sustainable Development Report 2025
Reflecting on Laudato Si – Ten Years On
Marking both the anniversary of Laudato Si’ and this year’s Season of Creation.
Sr. Eleanor O' Gorman PBVM (England) draws our attention to the resources that have been produced by the Dioceses of Birmingham for the Season of Creation.
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
Observing the concerning weakening of this directive.
Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights
I recently attended a particularly insightful webinar at their invitation, where they launched an important new report. I have already drawn upon its findings in several spaces, and I commend it to your attention.

Thank you, as always, for your kind support, encouragement, and solidarity.

With every good wish,
Brian

My lovely Sunday morning visit with Sisters Flora, Gladys and Arul Selvi, who were on Pilgrimage with the Sisters from South India staying in the Mission House in Lucan for a few days before they headed for home.

RENATE

As part of our ongoing commitment to RENATE we share their Summer Newsletter below:

70 RENATE 2025 Summer Newsletter.pdf

You can also find the RENATE Summer Newsletter HERE.

Coalition 2030

In advance of the High Level Political Forum Coalition 2030 (we are long time members) met to try to bring to Irish parliamentarians a new sense of urgency to the Sustainable Development Goals with a photo shoot outside the parliament to highlight the importance of the implementation of Agenda 2030.

You should also know that he OECD recently completed a policy scan of Ireland to examine its policy coherence in achieving the SDGs. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment commissioned this report as a tool to ensure more SDG policy coherence across Government Departments.

The report can be found here.

In summary, the report recommends:

Embedding PCSD into the Third National Implementation Plan with clear mandates, responsibilities, and accountability structures.

Align policymaking tools (Cabinet Handbook, regulatory impact assessments, budgeting processes, infrastructure guidelines) with SDGs.

Strengthen local implementation by clarifying roles, providing funding, and building capacity for local authorities.

Improve data systems to map policy synergies, trade-offs, and transboundary impacts; develop national SDG indicators alongside global ones.

Enhance stakeholder engagement through structured, inclusive, and transparent mechanisms, possibly involving parliamentary SDG committees or rapporteurs

On September 9th next we will be attending the National SDG Stakeholder Forum, representing the Presentation Sisters in Ireland and England and the topic on the Agenda is the preparation of the 3rd National Plan for the implementation of the SDGs at home and abroad. As part of Coalition 2030 we have a number of key asks:

Government urged to revive draft law requiring all policies to plan for futureA group of non-profit organisations is urging the Government to revive a draft law that would require all policies to plan for decades beyond the present time.

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi proposed a new clause two to the UK Government's Crime and Policing Bill , which would prohibit a third party from assisting someone in engaging in sexual activity with another person in exchange for payment.

Calls for Crackdowns on "industrial scale' online 'megabrothels' and sex trafficking. (UK) (Click to read the full text)

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has argued that buying a cappuccino is not the same as "ordering a woman online" for sex, as she called for a crackdown on "online megabrothels".

She urged lawmakers to "confront the adult sexual exploitation being perpetrated on an industrial scale by pimping websites and men who pay for sex, both of whom currently enjoy near-total legal impunity".

Antoniazzi proposed a new clause two to the Government's Crime and Policing Bill , which would prohibit a third party from assisting someone in engaging in sexual activity with another person in exchange for payment. She also advocated for a ban on individuals paying for sex, either for themselves or others, through a proposed new clause three.

A new clause four would repeal parts of the 66-year-old Street Offences Act, so that "loitering or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution" would no longer be considered a crime. "Pimping websites which function as massive online brothels operate openly and freely, supercharging the sex trafficking trade by making it easier and quicker for exploiters to advertise their victims," Ms Antoniazzi informed the Commons The Gower MP continued: "These online megabrothels make millions of pounds every year by advertising thousands of vulnerable women across the world for prostitution in the UK, and sadly, our legislation allows this.

'Let's pass laws to put pimps and traffickers out of business'

"The notion that paying someone for sex acts is a normal consumer activity, akin to ordering a coffee, is a damaging and misguided myth. Prostitution is a form of violence against women. Let's pass laws to put pimps and traffickers out of business."

Ms Antoniazzi debunked another "myth", that a ban would drive "pimping" onto the dark web, telling MPs that accessing such platforms would "require significant technical expertise to post as well as locate and access prostitution adverts".

Regarding her bid to decriminalise soliciting, the backbencher warned that the existing offence was "counter-productive and a barrier to seeking help and exiting this ruthless trade". She said: "For most of these women, their record of convictions is a record of their exploitation and abuse, and they live in fear of having to disclose this history when applying for jobs or volunteering."

Ms Commons Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Karen Bradley said she backed a plan to ban images and videos depicting non-fatal strangulation , by expanding the definition of "extreme pornographic images" which are illegal to possess.

The former culture secretary and Conservative MP, Dame Karen, weighed in on the proposed new clause 121, stating: "This is not impacting on what people may wish to do in their private lives, but it does mean that those images would not then be available to be seen in pornographic films."

She further highlighted the importance of protecting children, saying, "And it means that there's protection for children who may be looking at this pornography. We don't want them to look at it, but we're realists, we recognise this happens, and it would mean that this doesn't normalise something which is a really dangerous act and really should not be being promoted in any way."

Dame Caroline Dinenage, chairwoman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee and the one who proposed the ban on certain images, expressed her concerns, saying: "We need to send a signal that strangling your partner in bed is not safe. It can be a precursor to coercive, abusive behaviour."

'UK is a large porn consumer - one in 10 children have seen it by the age of nine'

She added context to the issue by mentioning the UK's consumption of adult content: "The UK, as we know, is a large porn consumer. In any given month, over 10 million adults in the UK will access online porn, and the vast majority of them will be chaps."

Dame Caroline continued without judgement but with concern: "That's up to them. We don't judge. But we also know from research that online porn is so widespread that one in 10 children have seen it by the age of nine."

Highlighting the potential influence of such content, she said, "Unfortunately, it is the guide that many young people use to learn about sex, and that is why I'm extremely worried that non-fatal strangulation has been found to be rife on porn sites.

"Evidence has shown that it's directly influencing the sexual behaviour of young men, who are non-consensually strangling young women during consensual sex. Recent polling has suggested that 17% of 16 to 34-year-olds have been strangled without giving consent during consensual sex. We aren't being prudes in calling for this misogynistic act to be banned in online porn.

We continue our proud work and association with Altogether in Dignity Ireland who have prepared a unique budget submission entitled their 'Wall of Issues' and this was prepared by those activist with lived experience of the issues they would like to see addressed in the forthcoming budget. You can see their message for the world above!

All Together in Dignity - ATD Ireland welcome the opportunity to make a #Prebudgetsubmission for #Budget2026 written in consultation with those with lived experience of #poverty & socio-economic #discrimination discrimination.

This was done as part of our new ‘Wall of Issues’ participatory project funded by Irish Coalition 2030

https://www.atdireland.ie/.../atd-ireland-2026-pre.../

Click through these images below.

Now all that his outstanding is to Add 'Socio Economic Discrimination as the 10th ground. To find out more click below.

www.atdireland.ie/wp/socio-economic-discrimination-add-10th-ground/

Article From CONCERN

There are plenty of myths and misinformation around the refugee population. Here, we explain why the number of displaced people is on the rise.

“Why are there so many refugees?”

“Why are there so many refugees?”The number of refugees globally is on the rise, but there's many reasons for that. We explain why ahead of World Refugee Day.

National Justice and Peace Conference: I attended and presented at this conference on the final day. I had the job of listening to all the weekends inputs and then to coordinate a Sunday Morning Workshop in order to be able to produce a conference Statement that would be published in the media.

This Statement can be read below.

National Justice and Peace Network

Media Release

28 July 2025

NJPN Conference 2025: “We can tip the scales in favour of Peace”

This year’s annual National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) Conference on 25-27 July in Derbyshire, took the theme: ‘Towards a Just Peace - Challenging the Inevitability of Violence.’ In the final session on Sunday led by Brian O’Toole, Director of the Presentation Interprovincial Justice Desk, he suggested that “we must build a new narrative, based on the common good and common sense,” and that “we can tip the scales in favour of peace.”

Among the 160 participants, who shared this view of prophetic peacemaking, were Justice and Peace representatives from 17 dioceses in England and Wales, Justice and Peace Scotland, and religious orders, including Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ), Srs of St Joseph of Peace (CSJP), Presentation Sisters, and Mary Ward Loreto UK. Organisations running stalls included CAFOD, Catholic Social Action Network, Laudato Si Movement, Archbishop Romero Trust, Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology and Christians Aware. Peace groups included Pax Christi, Christian CND, and Peace Pledge Union. Petitions were signed on tackling international debt, dismantling nuclear weapons and the Big Bank Switch towards greener banking.

The 47th annual conference opened on Friday evening with a Litany of Peace by Dan Shutte with the chorus ‘Let us be your peace,’ led by Sheena, Anna, Eleanor and Andrew Marshall. Then Anne Peacey, the NJPN Chair, introduced the conference as an opportunity “to commit to becoming peacemakers in our troubled world.” She said, “we thank God for the witness of Pope Francis and now Pope Leo.”

Gospel Nonviolence was explained in an opening dialogue between Sr MaryAnne Francalanza FCJ, of the Centre for Faith and Ecological Justice in North London, and Sr Katrina Alton CSJP, the National Chaplain to Pax Christi England and Wales. Katrina said Jesus’ way is a way that combines a rejection of violence and a focus instead on the power of love and truth in action for justice, peace and integrity of creation. Katrina told of her experience at a protest vigil at an arms fair at the Excel Centre in London where, as she knelt in prayer, a delegate whispered in her ear, “I fear you are right.” She pointed out how most casualties in modern warfare are civilians and that combatants are young people.

At a panel discussion on ‘Just Peace’ on Saturday morning, chaired by James Trewby of the Columbans, Andrew Jackson, CEO of Pax Christi England and Wales, highlighted the “deep spirituality in a commitment to nonviolence”. Bokani Tshdizu of Operation Noah spoke of her commitment to fly less and reduce her carbon footprint to try and protect “our beautiful world.” She felt, “we must do more in the community – such as vigils, street protests, being active in our churches,” to build peace. She asked, “are we doing enough on racial climate justice?”

Speaking during the conference Mass, celebrated by Westminster priest Fr Joe Ryan, Ann Farr of Pax Christi International called for a Just Peace for Gaza. Particular concern for Gaza was expressed in a public ‘Red Line for Gaza’ where many participants wearing red lined up for a photo to urge decision-makers to end the killing of children in Gaza. In messages written on red paper, they joined thousands in similar protests across the world, a striking symbol of how many red lines Israel and its Western backers have crossed. The creation of mass starvation of Palestinians by deliberately blocking food deliveries and shooting unarmed civilians at distribution points was singled out for condemnation.

On Sunday, Joanna Frew of Rethinking Security - a network of organisations, academics and activists working together for security based on justice, cooperation and sustainability - explored what real security looks like today. She suggested root causes of global insecurity, such as the climate crisis and extreme poverty, should be addressed. An alternative vision of security should be considered, based on Gospel values of loving enemies, welcoming the stranger and Earth care as stewards of creation, for “there is no security without a viable planet.”

Workshop contributors include Richard Solly of Jesuit Missions and Ellen Teague of the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team who explored links between violence and environmental problems. Bokani Tshidzu of Operation Noah looked at ‘Investing in Peace through Climate Action.’ Quakers in Britain explored how local interfaith and intercommunal relations in Britain are impacted by international conflicts.

In this Jubilee Year 2025, the NJPN invited all to join them as ‘pilgrims of hope’.

Link:

Videos from the conference available at:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4HAuivOZMEXP59V6429gmpA8DEhaV_f6

You can check through some of the photos of the conference below.

Irish Network Against Racism

Solidarity is more than welcome — it's action. World Refugee Day reminds us not only to welcome — but to stand with people seeking safety and belonging in Ireland.

Many people new to Ireland, including refugees, may not yet know their rights or how to report racism when it happens. That’s where 'allyship' begins.

Solidarity is more than welcome — it's action.

We had some input into the AMRI publication below: Room at the Inn - A Welcome for the Stranger

Central Statistics Office: Some details worth considering:

𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
Recreation in Nature - A Visit to the Ecosystems.
Labour Force Survey
Increase in Electric Car Usage.

Some key findings from the SDR:

Global commitment for the SDGs remains strong: 190 of 193 UN Member States have participated in Voluntary National Reviews.
Progress is lagging: Only 17% of SDG targets are on track for 2030, hindered by conflict, vulnerabilities, and fiscal constraints.
Top performers: Nordic countries again top the Index – Finland (#1), Sweden (#2), Denmark (#3), Germany (#4), and France (#5).
Fastest progress: Since 2015, East and South Asian countries show the most improvement – Nepal (+11.1), Cambodia (+10), the Philippines (+8.6), Bangladesh (+8.3), and Mongolia (+7.7).
Commitment to multilateralism: Barbados leads again in UN-based multilateralism commitment, while the United States ranks last.
Financing the future: The GFA must be overhauled to fund global public goods and sustainable development.

The full report can be downloaded HERE

Reflecting on a Decade of Transformation: CIDSE and the Legacy of Laudato Si’Ten years ago, as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, CIDSE organised a conference in Rome with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace titled “People and Planet First: the Imperative to Change Course”. The conference aimed to amplify the importance of Pope Francis’s landmark...

As ever, the Season of Creation offers a time for connection with creation, and reflection on our part in caring for creation. The Season begins on 1st September, and lasts until 4th October. There are lots of resources online with suggestions of activities and prayers for the Season. Here are some of my favourites:

For younger activists: A Rubbish Graveyard - a creative visual way of showing how long particular items of rubbish take to biodegrade. With thanks to An Tairseach.

A simple indoor/outdoor activity: Ribbons of Peace - where messages for peace are written on ribbons and attached to a tree, in the style of devotion familiar at Holy Wells around Ireland.

Prayers from around the world: The Laudato Si' Movement Prayer Book, featuring more than 100 pages of prayers from across the globe for creation, for peace, for justice.

The full list of Season of Creation resources can be accessed here.

Sr. Eleanor O' Gorman PBVM (England) draws our attention to the resources that have been produced by the Dioceses of Birmingham for the Season of Creation.

Season of Creation

The Season of Creation 2025: Peace With Creation

More HERE

Editorial - Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in IrelandTen years ago, Pope Francis gave the Church and the world a great gift. Laudato Si’ was not just an encyclical. It was a turning point: a summons to conversion, a prophetic warning, and a charter for a new way of inhabiting our common home. The former Minister for the Environment and leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan, summarised it well when he declared that it “was of historic significance.”

Economists across the EU warn of the deep costs of weakening sustainability regulationsPRESS RELEASE, 19 May 2025 PRESS RELEASE STATEMENT 90 prominent economists from the EU have issued a warning regarding the European Commission’s Omnibus I package, claiming it poses a significant setback that could jeopardise the EU’s global leadership in sustainability and human...

At the invitation of the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights I attended this really insightful webinar to launch the report below. Well worth a look. I have used the detail of this in many spaces.

GICA-ThrivingCommunities-MessagingGuide-Webv2.pdf

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