{"id":13068,"date":"2025-12-28T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T11:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedsjp.org.uk\/?p=13068"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:46:00","slug":"28-dec-good-news-from-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/2025\/12\/28\/28-dec-good-news-from-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"28 Dec – Good News from 2025!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\nby Kathy Shaw, SPARK Manager<\/em>

As we come to the end of the year, it’s good to reflect not only on the ongoing issues throughout the world, but also to celebrate some of the successes, large and small.

\u00a0

Here are just a few examples of what’s been happening this year.

\n\n\"20251213-advent-fair-1000px-1\"\nOur first ever Diocese Eco Fair was organised by Rowan, Director of Communications and was a resounding success!\u00a0

Within this beautiful building and peaceful grounds, we were able to reflect on the end of our Jubilee Year.\u00a0 As Pilgrims of Hope, we were reminded that we are stronger together and the effective networks and partnerships represented in this event will be the building blocks to a brighter new year.\u00a0 We are looking forward to Eco Fair 2026!

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"day_259_Tim\n3431 mile fundraising ride for Medical Aid for Palestinians

Pudsey cyclist Tim Devereux rode 3431 miles in 2025, the distance from Leeds to Gaza, to raise funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians, raising over \u00a36000.

\u00a0

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"image004\"\nSeveral of our SPARK members graduated in the summer, and are continuing to work towards justice and peace in pastures new

\u00a0

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"Laudato\nOn\u00a015th\u00a0June<\/b>\u00a0there was a\u00a010th birthday party<\/b>\u00a0of Pope Francis\u2019 encyclical\u00a0Laudato\u00a0Si<\/i><\/b>,<\/i>\u00a0to remember how justice for the poor and justice for the planet are related.\u00a0

Laudato\u00a0Si<\/i>\u00a0is named after the Canticle of St Francis of Assisi which begins \u2018Praise to You (Laudato Si\u2019<\/i>), Lord, in all your creatures\u2019.

\u00a0

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"pope-leo-xiv-050825-9-1f856aa9fabd4f97a913fde4974eb4f7\"\nHabemus Papam!<\/strong>

\nCardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope and is now known as Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV holds dual citizenship in both the US and Peru where he served as a bishop. He spent much of his career as a missionary in South America where he is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges in the local Church.

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\nJust over 50 people gathered at Wheeler Hall on the Bank Holiday weekend Saturday to find out more about the LiveSimply award scheme. It was a hectic day with 3 different workshops in the morning. In the afternoon people chose to attend another three workshops (out of 6 offered).

LiveSimply asks parishes to draw up a plan of action for

\u00b7 Living more simply

\u00b7 Living more sustainably

\u00b7 Living more in solidarity with those experiencing poverty

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\nExploring Social Justice with Notre Dame 6th Form College

The Social Justice group are interested in organising a marketplace event and future leadership activities, with a focus on their particular interest of poverty in the UK.\u00a0

Working closely with key staff and Notre Dame Chaplaincy, we are listening to what these group members want to achieve and finding ways to support their passion for social justice.

Watch this space for a Social Justice event soon!

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"image\nOscar Romero Lecture with Fr Luis Orlando P\u00e9rez Jim\u00e9nez

The title of the lecture \u201cExcavating Hope\u201d reflects the desperate and dangerous work undertaken by 240 networks of mainly women across Mexico who are seeking answers and hoping to find the bodies of their loved ones.\u00a0 \u00a0They connect locally and regionally to share information and support, building a community in the face of great challenges.

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"Humpback\nThe Global Ocean Treaty has now been ratified by over 60 governments worldwide, this creates legal frameworks for High Seas Sanctuaries, protected areas where threatened ecosystems can recover and thrive. If this treaty meets the expectations of conservationists, it will protect a third of our oceans (approximately an area bigger than Canada).

\u00a0

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"Screenshot\nFareShare was originally created as part of the homeless charity Crisis in 1994 but since 2004 they have been running as an independent charity.\u00a0 In 2023 FareShare and Tesco won a charity partnership award working together to reduce poverty in the UK.\u00a0 They ensure surplus food in the Tesco supply chain goes to feed people in need.\u00a0 In 2023 and 2024 they redistributed 56,000 tonnes of food to nearly one million people in need.

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n\"0_LC_220625mice_00\"\nEva Wishart and Emily Smith spent 3 years breeding harvest mice in 27 tanks in their bedrooms and garage, in order to reintroduce our smallest rodent to Devon.\u00a0 They discovered the species is threatened in England due to current farming practices and habitat loss.\u00a0 They set up a Crowdfunder which was picked up by TV nature presenter Chris Packham, he shared it to his millions of social media followers.\u00a0 This helped them release more than 220 harvest mice into the wild.

\n Read more… <\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,5,370,104,17,238,11],"tags":[20,508,509,510,25,67,511,512,185],"class_list":["post-13068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-social-thought","category-climate-change","category-education","category-international-development","category-peace","category-racialjustice","category-social-action","tag-cafod","tag-fareshare","tag-food-bank","tag-good-news","tag-laudato-si","tag-live-simply","tag-notre-dame","tag-oceans","tag-sparksocialjustice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13068"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19942,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13068\/revisions\/19942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c4652100.myzen.co.uk\/jp2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}