The Bishops of England and Wales held a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in Tunisia on 26 June ahead of the Episcopal ordination of Mgr Pat McKinney in Nottigham on 3 July. The Bishops were joined by his Excellency Antonio Mennini, the Apostolic Nuncio, some of Bishop McKinney’s family along with the people and priests of the Nottingham Diocese.
Bishop McKinney becomes the 10th Bishop of Nottingham and was ordained Bishop by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. In his homily, Cardinal Nichols said:
'Today we ask God to raise up for us a bishop who will always proclaim the Gospel truth that is much needed in our troubled world.
'It calls us to proclaim fundamental values which have to be found at the heart of the kind of society to which we all aspire. These are the values, the principles, of a transcendental humanism. They both underpin and reach beyond the pragmatic values of today and rest on a hope that we of ourselves cannot fulfil. Jesus is the vision of this humanism for he is the one human being who has reached fulfilment and who makes that fulfilment attainable for every person. In the face of all the threats we face, this is our salvation. The forgiveness shown by the Christians of Charleston, Alabama, robs terrorism of its power. The mercy of Christian humanism, a mercy to be shown to all, shows up the darkness of ideologies of death and why they are to be rejected by all who believe in the mystery of God at the heart of life. These are difficult days, yet our message of mercy and of eternal life, and our witness to them, has never been more relevant.'
