A year in Parliament

The “Catholic parliamentary internship” provides one-year experience of political and social action to Catholic recent-graduates. Three interns will be placed in Westminster’s parliament, two in the Bishops’ Conference Catholic Education Service and Archbishop House, the home office of the Catholic primate. Two further interns will work in close contact with Catholic MEPs in Brussels. The system has been ongoing for 7 years. Those who made this experience described it as a very intense year that enabled them to feel the beat of the country, but also as a form of spiritual retreat leading them to discover their own vocations. We asked Charles Wookey, Secretary General of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, with responsibilities for the public sphere, to brief us on the internship scheme.How are candidates selected?“Firstly, the news is publicized on the press, in cooperation with university chaplains. We then select the requests that have come in. At a second stage, a judge panel that includes ex-participants examines candidates, with tests and group assignments. They must have high graduation marks and must have graduated from university not earlier than two years prior to their request”.Is access difficult?“Normally some forty-fifty applications are submitted for six to eight posts. So indeed it’s not easy, sometimes we are forced to turn down valid candidates”.How was the idea born?“It is the result of conversations between archbishop Smith, in charge of the public service department of the Bishops’ Conference, and other dignitaries. ‘CARE’ evangelical agency had a similar scheme, and we decided to reproduce that idea. We collaborate with Heythrop College, the Jesuits College within London University, where our program is offered”.How important is the spiritual dimension? “It’s extremely important. Candidates must be Catholic. Indeed, the spiritual dimension of the proposal makes it unique. During the internship candidates are given the opportunity to identify their vocation to public life through spiritual commitment. The program begins and ends with a retreat while every six weeks participants meet with a spiritual counselor, Fr. James Hanvey, a Jesuit priest who is an expert in spiritual direction, with whom they speak of their life of prayer. The program also envisages university classes and exams on the social doctrine of the Church and on Christian ethics in Heytrop College. It is a very intense year, marked by political and social involvement within a spiritual framework”.The program has been ongoing for seven years. What are past participants up to now? “Some of them are lawyers, others are employed in Charities’ political departments or in the public administration, notably in the field of public relations”. Has no participant yet embraced active political life? “We must consider that participants are 22 to 25 years old. They’re very young. It takes time and experience to undertake a political career; at least five – ten years of training. One of the past interns is considering this option”.Could you tell us more about the program? “Interns spend most of their time with British MPs. They work in MPs’ offices, in close contact with them, for four days a week. On the fifth day, which is a Friday, other events are organized and usually a half-day a week is devoted to classes on the social doctrine of the Church. The weekly schedule of interns at the Archbishop House – the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster – and at the education department of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales is similar to that of the interns working in Parliament, although they have different assignments. Interns live in the “Newman house” the Catholic chaplains’ home at London University, with other 80 Catholic students attending post-graduate programs. The two interns in Brussels are tutored by COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU”.Are all MPs tutoring the interns Catholic MPs? “Not all of them, although they’re all Christian. We have a network of contacts with MPs. An introductory letter is sent, whereby we explore whether MPs are interested in the internships. If they agree, we develop this option further”.