📸 A look back on 2024 at Justice & Peace Scotland...

✨Our highlight of the year is of course "Hope For Peace For Gaza: A Conversation with Fr Gabriel Romanelli". Alongside SCIAF and the Archdiocese of Glasgow we were honoured to host Fr Gabriel in Scotland in April 2024. Thank you to all who joined us at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for the talk, at St Andrew's Cathedral for the mass, or who shared the joint declaration for peace issued by Archbishop Nolan and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to mark the occasion.

✝️In August we coordinated a Christian Peace Witness vigil at Faslane Nuclear base where Archbishop Nolan was joined by leaders from the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church to voice our joint opposition to the existence of nuclear weapons. The event coincided with the commemoration of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings - the 80th anniversary of which we will mark in 2025.

💰Our ongoing Fair Work in Social Care campaign in collaboration with the Church of Scotland took us to Holyrood in September, where we met with Michael Matheson MSP and put forward our case for better pay and conditions in the social care sector.

🚌Alongside Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees we have lobbied the Scottish Government throughout the year to uphold their commitment to provide free bus travel for people seeking asylum. A highlight of this campaign was our joint parliamentary briefing sent to MSPs ahead of a debate on the budget in December, from which our reminder that the holy family were once refugees was directly referenced during the debate by seven MSPs in the Chamber.

🪧We have been present at many peaceful demonstrations in 2024 including those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, an interfaith vigil at the Scottish Parliament during COP29, and various solidarity gatherings outside Dungavel Detention Centre.

⛪And finally we have travelled to numerous schools and parishes across the country to talk with young people and parishioners about Catholic Social Teaching, human dignity, and our mission to build up God's kingdom of love, justice, and peace by putting the principles of CST into action.

🕊️"If you want peace, work for justice." - Pope Paul VI

✨O Holy Night✨

🚨NEWS: Justice & Peace Scotland together with the Church of Scotland urge MSPs not to penalise vulnerable groups for political gain ahead of a planned debate today in the Scottish Parliament.

🚌Debate is expected this afternoon on the 2025-2026 budget provision to honour promises made to introduce free bus travel for people seeking asylum.

📰Read the full story on our website: justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk

Representatives from Justice & Peace Scotland and the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh's Caritas, Justice & Peace Commission were delighted to attend an audience and Q&A with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in Edinburgh yesterday.

The Cardinal gave a heartfelt and poignant account of the conflict and of the struggles, fears and grief experienced by both Palestinians and Israelis since October 2023.

In perhaps his most saddening remarks, he told the audience how the Hamas attack on October 7th has felt like another Holocaust for Israelis and simultaneously, the retaliation since by Israel has felt like another Nakba for Palestinians, and that subsequently peace feels very far away.

In a moment of optimism though, he told of how the Christian Church there has an invaluable role to play as mediators and peacemakers.

When reflecting on Cardinal Pizzaballa's visit, we call the words of Fr Gabriel Romanelli who visited us earlier this year, too:

"Pray in whatever way you can, work for peace in whatever way you can." 🕊️