Personal opinion pieces on a wide range of Catholic issues by different writers.
To all my friends at CPW!
What a wonderful week which I am sure must have been totally exhausting for all of you who put so much into it! But how so worthwhile it has been for all of us privileged to be part of it. Thank God for people of vision in 1945 who set in motion such a wonderful "CPW Way" for our continuing re-discovery of the beauty and wonder of Him who walks shoulder to shou...
Deacon William T Ditewig, PhD, from the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, writes: No one could have predicted the crises we face today, and they are slamming us all at once. Even before the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were challenged by the erosion of credibility of all institutions, including churches. Our national politics were continuing their toxic descent into en...
The catastrophe is upon us. The world is suffering and in shock as hundreds of thousands of people are dying from the coronavirus and economies are in chaos. This is because humans disrupted the natural world and caused this deadly virus to awaken like an angry dragon that is now infecting the world. Human encroachment is destroying the natural world by capturing wild animals for sal...
An expression of good news in the neighbourhood. Loving our neighbours covenantally draws us to be rooted in our local community. So what do we lose when we drive to church, or if we live and worship in different places? From Liverpool, Sam Tomlin writes about what happened when he started walking to church.
Recently my wife Jenni and I moved to a house five minutes' walk from our Salvati...
Pedro Gabriel writes in Where Peter Is: As the struggle for racial justice in American society expanded to include calls for the removal of statues honouring historical figures who perpetuated institutional racism (including slaveowners and Confederate soldiers,) statues of other figures have also been called into question. Some of these include two canonized saints, like Junipero Ser...
As lockdown began I hit 70. In other times it would have been a pause to party and then continue with life, continuing with my other responsibilities as school governor, helping with child care and the other activities those in their 70s and more carry out in our society.
However lockdown meant a complete cessation of this. Suddenly I had been defined as elderly and vulnerable. I was unab...
It always saddens me when I see places of worship - of any faith - being remodelled for other purposes as a result of changes in demographics, a drop in public worship or growing secularism in some societies.
That being said I have seen some wonderful examples of places of worship duly transformed into community outreach centres, homeless shelters, schools and nurseries and public housing...
Michael Sean Winters writes in the National Catholic Reporter:
"History is written by the victors," we are told and of course that is true in one sense. But history is actually written by historians, and their interpretations and reinterpretations of events change. It is why a consequential historical personage like Queen Elizabeth I or Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I or Abraham L...
In a piece yesterday entitled 'The extremist reactionaries have all the oxygen they need' Where Peter Is blogger Mike Lewis writes:
'This evening, the President of the United States of America amplified a voice that is basically calling for the downfall of the entire Catholic hierarchy.
With this one Tweet, the nature of the division in the Church has come into sharp focus,...
At the end of a week in which the Telegraph has reported that Boris Johnson has given in to President Trump's demand that the UK accept food produced to the US's lower welfare standards, (no longer following EU ban on hormone-fed beef, chlorinated chicken etc) our correspondent Leela Ramdeen writes:
Sunday, June 7, is World Food Safety Day. The theme is: 'Food safety, everyone's ...
The world is seeing once again the upsurge of a vicious "virus" that has spread to every corner of the world. This time, the "virus" is that of social, cultural, economic, political, institutional, legal and religious discrimination against people of different skin colour, social status and historical origins. Racism is everywhere and people around the world are on the streets once again protes...
Now that we are allowed to go to church, subject to certain restrictions, should we? This question admits no easy answers. On balance, my position is (and this may surprise you): No!
We could say: If business can resume, why can't we? I'm unconvinced. They are two different categories. If we don't restart companies the economy collapses and everyone starves. Emergency foo...
"When injustices around the world are screaming 'your life is of no value', the Church cannot remain silent. Apathy makes excuses. Love finds a way." (Nicky Gumbel)
Racism is a vile worm that continues to eat away at the soul of humanity. I don't think any right-thinking person can watch the video of the way in which George Floyd died without raging for justice.
44 year old...
Outside St Thomas' hospital in south London, an artwork has been created of artificial flowers with the message: I (big heart) NHS.
This captures the sentiments of so many who have been clapping on their doorsteps every Thursday, placing rainbows in their windows, acknowledging in personal messages their admiration and support for those who work in hospitals and care homes. An important h...
