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Hospices - places you go to die, right? Horizontal in a bed for the last months of your life? Decades ago, perhaps, but the modern hospice offers a wide variety of services - all designed to provide high quality, compassionate care for the dying person.

In fact, around 50% of people that use the facilities and treatments go home at the end of the day. It's time to challenge the stereotypes, bust the myths and go behind the scenes to find out just how hospices work and how they are the jewel in the crown when it comes to end of life care.
 
Produced in partnership with the Centre for the Art of Dying Well, this special podcast sends us to a truly remarkable place - St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, East London.



Most people want their death – or that of a loved one or friend – to be comfortable and reconciled. A dignified death. At St Joseph’s Hospice the dying person always comes first so why not listen to find out more?



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For this special Catholic News podcast, we take a look back on Bishop Declan Lang’s twenty-three years as Bishop of Clifton. Let me set the scene for you…



It was the evening before his successor's episcopal ordination, and we were fortunate to side-step all the intense planning and preparation for the day to come, in order to sit down in the garden of the retiring Bishop of Clifton as the Spring sun gave out its last.



Metaphorically, the sun was setting too on Bishop Declan’s years of ministry as the ninth Bishop of Clifton – it was just a matter of hours before his handover to the incoming Bishop Bosco MacDonald. So, for this podcast, it seemed apposite to take a stroll with Bishop Declan to look back over almost a quarter of a century shepherding the diocese.



In this 'Catholic News' podcast we discuss:



His upbringing on the Isle of Wight
The call to the priesthood
Being both a seminarian and a university student
A meeting with the Apostolic Nuncio - Pope John Paul II's representative in the UK
A pastoral plan from bottom to top for Clifton
What it's like being a bishop
How the episcopal ministry comes full circle
Young people - the Church for today and tomorrow
National and international work
The challenge of living with Parkinson's



Poignantly, when discussing his health challenges, he said:



"It has strengthened my trust in God - that God knows what He's doing. I'm not saying that God sent me Parkinson's, but I am saying that you can live through Parkinson's.



"The Christian message is about life. It's about death, but it's about life coming from death. We are people of hope, and we can find God. We might think Parkinson's is totally destroying lives, but actually God can be found in illness, sickness and vulnerability, and it has made me more vulnerable in some ways."



Listen to our full podcast interview with Bishop Declan Lang - his last as Bishop of Clifton.



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Father Gabriel Romanelli is the parish priest of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. He had to watch from a distance as the horrors of the 7 October Hamas attack unfolded, before Israel's bombardment of the Strip led to the humanitarian crisis and suffering we now see in this torn land.



Father Romanelli spent a week in the UK, in London and Glasgow, from 22 - 27 April, meeting with Christian leaders and politicians to highlight the plight of the near 500 people still sheltering in the compound of the Holy Family Church.



For this Catholic News podcast, we again partner up with Middle East Analysis - a podcast strand that emanated from the Bishops' Conference 15 years ago and features our former Middle East North Africa (MENA) consultant Dr Harry Hagopian.



Dr Hagopian, an International lawyer and analyst who has long worked for peace between Israel and Palestine, joins Fr Romanelli in conversation for this special podcast.



We discuss the current plight of the parish community in the north of Gaza, the lack of food, water and medicine, the Pope's daily phone calls and pastoral concern for the people, the need for a lasting peace, what Catholics in England and Wales can do, the light of faith in the darkness, and much more.



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This Catholic News podcast looks at AI and Pope Francis' message for World Communications Day.



Bishop John Arnold, Lead Bishop for Communications here at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, talks about how the technology can make information accessible and support the common good but we should make sure that it is carefully regulated.



"Let's use machines to assist us in what we're doing to make our world a better place, to enhance the way we live. But let's not allow machines in any way to think for us or to make decisions which are not appropriate."



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We keep our firm focus on the Holy Land and whilst we continue to weep as we look on at the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the suffering of all civilians caught up in this conflict, we're joined by Fr Fadi Diab to discuss the lived realities of the Palestinian people in the West Bank as well as in the decimated strip.



Fr Diab is from Ramallah and is the rector of St Andrew's Episcopal Church and also minister at St Peter's Church in Bir Zeit.



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Bishop Declan Lang, Chair of our International Affairs department, recently joined former Middle East North Africa advisor to the Bishops' Conference, Dr Harry Hagopian, on a special podcast to discuss the tragic events playing out in the Holy Land as the conflict continues to rage in Gaza.



Five long, painful months after the Hamas terror attack of 7 October and the subsequent bombing and ground offensive that has reduced Gaza to rubble and led to several thousand deaths and a humanitarian disaster of the most tragic proportions, this 'Middle East Analysis' special asks the question: Is there a road map to peace in the Holy Land or are we eternally to walk the path of violence, revenge and hatred?



Dr Harry Hagopian, an international lawyer, commentator, and MENA region analyst, joins his old friend Bishop Declan for a 30-minute podcast that we have, with permission, uploaded to our 'Catholic News' channel.



They look for any signs of light in the darkness, and mourn decades of failure when it comes to securing a lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis.



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