The Hexham and Newcastle Catholic Partnership, a project involving schools in the north-east, listened to a lecture given by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on May 13. The archbishop, who was delivering the inaugural forgiveness lecture at St John's, Smith Square, London, spoke on the question: "Is violence ever justified?"
Hosted by the Forgiveness Project, a charity exploring traumatic experiences that challenge people to be forgiving, the lecture was a rare opportunity to listen to the courageous ways people often live the faith.
Thirteen staff and 12 pupils representing the Catholic Partnership travelled to London to hear Archbishop Tutu share his lecture. Pupils and staff from Carmel Catholic College, Darlington, St Michael's Catholic School, Billingham, St Robert of Newminster Catholic School and Sixth Form College and St John's Catholic School and Sixth Form Centre, Bishop Auckland, Durham, spent the day around Westminster.
They experienced the social and political electricity of a nation on the first day of a new government.
The group were privileged to listen to the thoughts of a panel including Pat Magee, convicted of planting the Brighton bomb in 1984, Jo Berry, daughter of Sir Anthony Berry MP who was killed in the bombing, and Mary Kayitesi, who lost more than 50 members of her family in the Rwandan genocide.
