The Charles Plater Trust is proud to announce the three winners of its third annual granting round, continuing the 2010-11 celebration of the Year of Catholic Education that was proclaimed during the State Visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom in September 2010. Over its three years of operation, the Trust has now given over half a million pounds to education and social charitable groups dedicated to continuing the work of Fr. Charles Plater; this year’s theme was The intellectual endeavour of refreshing Catholic social thought in the British context through scholarship and writing linked with policy formation.
At a ceremony at Archbishop’s House, Westminster on Thursday 10 March 2011 attended by former recipients and other community leaders, The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, recognised each of this year’s recipients, saying that they embodied “the very best of the two-part mission of Fr. Plater: to serve those who are least advantaged, and to do so on the basis of Catholic social teaching.”
Pamela Taylor, chair of the granting committee and former Principal of Newman University College, introduced the winners, saying “We read some truly excellent applications from a wide range of academic and charitable organisations seeking total support that was several times the Trust’s annual grant allocation.” After a careful evaluation process by the Trust’s granting committee and trustees, a total of nearly £150,000 was awarded to the following three projects:
Professor John Loughlin, St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge: £65,150 to fund The Big Society: Catholic Social Teaching in Subsidiarity and Decentralization. This research project will assess the impact of the Big Society’s view of decentralisation and its application to British civil society, reinvigorating Catholic social teaching to provide a guide to a changing social and political environment;
The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology in partnership with Citizens UK: £52,000 to support Asylum, Catholic Social Teaching & the Big Society. This collaborative project links research and community engagement by using the values of the Catholic Church and the call to human dignity to assist in developing policies for children and families seeking sanctuary through the asylum and immigration system;
Caritas Social Action Network: £31,160 for their Criminal Justice Project. The project seeks to take advantage of new opportunities for dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Government, to stimulate debate, develop policy, inform Government policy and propose practical initiatives regarding the prison population and an improved response to crime.
For further information on the Year of Catholic Education:
