The NW NJPN E Bulletin for April 2026 leads with the full text of Pope Leo’s prayer for peace at Saturday’s Vigil for Peace.  In a direct challenge to the current crisis, Pope Leo writes: ‘Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!’ He asks us each of us to ‘turn to a Kingdom of peace that is built up day by day – in our homes, schools, neighbourhoods, and civil and religious communities.’

In Easter Sunday’s Urbi et Obi message the Pope warned that the world is ‘growing accustomed to violence’ and ‘becoming indifferent, not only to the deaths of thousands of people, but to the ‘’hatred and division’ war causes, as well as its ‘economic and social consequences.’ Stirring words!

On page 4 we feature three poems on the subject of war, one a translation from the 13^th century Persian poet Rumi that could easily have been written today.

An aid worker in Beirut says people feel ‘dehumanised’ as Lebanon buckles under the bombings and an opinion piece ‘Lebanon: The Real War & The War of Words’ from Ian Linden takes up the theme of a comment from Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in March who said: ‘The abuse and manipulation of God’s name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at the present time’. 

April is a busy month, with a World Week of Prayer for Peace in Sudan (page 7), talks in Manchester, London and online by Precious Kalombwana, a visiting activist from Zambia who says the debt crisis is combining with the climate emergency to push communities into poverty, an ecumenical conference on healing from conflict and a screening of ‘The People’s Emergency Briefing’ on the topic of climate change in Chester (all on page 8).

Sometimes the bad news from around the world can be overwhelming, so it’s refreshing to read the winning entries and view the winning artwork in the recent Columbans’ competition on the subject ‘Becoming a refugee is never a choice, but how we respond is.’  All the entries were positive, including an uplifting account from someone who was forced to flee their homeland and also the story of how a parish welcomed a group of refugees into their community offering friendship and solidarity. (see pages 9-13)

There’s just a few days left to enter an art and poetry competition for Curlew week – see page 14 for details.  Also on page 14, details of this year’s Refugee Week in June and news of a series of online study event in April and May from Sabeel-Kairos to unpack the message of the Kairos II document and how it can inform us in our advocacy work as we campaign for justice and peace for Palestinians.

Following the recent enthronement of Dame Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury we look at the issue of greater involvement for women in the Catholic Church with articles from Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, Archbishop of Luxembourg and writer Tina Beattie.

Finally, plenty of dairy dates for the coming weeks and don’t forget the NJPN Day in Sheffield on 25 April on the theme ‘Shining the light on Food and the Environment’ and the NJPN Conference ‘Just Talk’ at Swanwick on 24-26 July.

Please read and pass on to others.

Best wishes,

Anne O’Connor, Editor

NW NJPN Justice and Peace E Bulletin APRIL 2026 [A]