News

The Catholic Church in England and Wales is to establish a national social action agency called Caris. It will merge the Catholic Agency for Social Concern and the Catholic Child Welfare Council, and will also take over the work of the social welfare and community relations committees of the Bishops' Conference.

Other Catholic agencies will be federated to Caris. Its brief will be wide and take in housing and homelessness, social care, prisons and criminal justice, and race relations.

Terry Connor, director of the Catholic Children's Society (Southwark, Portsmouth, Arundel and Brighton), has been elected as the chairperson.