Viewpoint

Dr Philip Booth writes about Pope Francis and fraternity. This is a theme, he argues, that unites Pope Francis's social and pastoral teaching and can also unite people who come from different political perspectives as we consider how to promote a more fraternal society. In the coverage of the passing of Pope Francis to eternal life, surprisingly little has been said about an important aspect of P... Read More

What similarities are there between the rise of Adolf Hitler and the rise of Donald Trump? How are we as Christians being called to act when the whole basis of freedom and justice is being threatened by the current US administration? US-based Catholic Church Reform International launch a series of discussions on the subject on 9 April. They say: 'As the current US administration's policies unfold ... Read More

"Lesotho which nobody has ever heard of": this is Trump three weeks ago with customary offensiveness berating a US-funded aid programme in this small majority-Catholic African nation. Unusually not a flagrant lie - at least as far as his followers are concerned. Lesotho is not desperately poor but some 35% of people in Africa's 55 countries are still living in extreme poverty, 43% without electri... Read More

Prayers for a seriously ill Pope seem to have been answered. But will we hear his voice again, speaking from the heart, truth to power, at this critical time? It is so badly needed. For his words have often broken through the political gaslighting to illuminate truths that give hope, and could do so again. It says something when a Guardian editorial (17 March) describes Francis' pontificate as mak... Read More

US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage by publishing an AI-generated video that reimagines the Gaza Strip as a luxury tourist destination-complete with a golden idol of himself erected in the Holy Land. The video, shared on Trump's Instagram and Truth Social, depicts a surreal, futuristic Gaza transformed into a high-end beachfront resort, where the devastation of war is erased and replaced... Read More

Elon Musk's precipitate freezing of some $58 billion in US Foreign Aid allocated for 2025 was wrong in a number of ways: morally, or as an effective economic policy or as in the 'soft power' interests of the USA. It is a telling sign of the times. We are accustomed to Trump's lack of any concept of truth but the picture painted of development aid by him and Elon Musk still comes as a shock for any... Read More

The first in a new Tablet podcast series of 10 podcasts with Ruth Gledhill, assistant editor of The Tablet and former religion correspondent of The Times, and Liz Dodd, a former Tablet journalist who is now a sister of St Joseph of Peace (CSJP), discussed the latest developments on women in the Catholic Church, Donald Trump's first weeks as US President and top Catholic movies. Liz Dodd, who is ba... Read More

"Of Course It's A Coup" is the headline of a recent blog by Timothy Snyder, Professor of History and Global Affairs at Harvard. He is always worth reading but this short piece on the Substack American online platform ( https://snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-its-a-coup ) is something of a blockbuster. Snyder's proposition is quite simple. Coups used to start by the military trying to take control ... Read More

The story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) describes a time when the world was united and spoke a single language. A particular community settled in Shinar (modern-day Iraq) and resolved to build a city. They decided to build a high tower that reached up to heaven. Genesis relates that when God saw their pride, he confounded them so that they all began speaking different languages and could no... Read More

The crisis in America is many-sided. One aspect is to be found within the Christian Churches. At a prayer breakfast last Thursday, President Trump announced a Task Force on "anti-Christian bias" within the Federal Government, a new Commission on religious liberty and a 'Religious Office' in the White House. He had changed his mind about religion, he explained; God had saved him from an assassin's ... Read More

Answers abound. But, after barely two weeks of President Trump's executive orders, the nagging question still persists. Why and how did he win for a second time? This isn't idle speculation if he is to be resisted. The most frequent explanation of Trumps' victory is economic: the consequences of spectacular inequality, not least three super-billionaires earning as much as fifty percent of the Amer... Read More

President Trump, 1. Much like those who do not want you to be president, you do not get to decide whether a bishop's office is legitimate. She was chosen by the people of her diocese to be their bishop. Then, she was granted consent to be a bishop by other bishops and standing committees of our church's dioceses. Beginning by calling her a "so-called" bishop is an obvious low blow to discredit her... Read More

Now that President Trump has taken office, Jo Biden's parting shot warning of the danger to American democracy posed by an oligarchy of the super-rich - assembled by President-Elect Trump -seems all the more timely. But it is not the only threat. The rule of law is the institutional foundation and safeguard of democracy. Once it is undermined democracy crumbles. There is now a real danger that pol... Read More

A down to earth liturgical battering awaits us after Christmas. No more "Away in the Manger". Nor sweet, and posh, little voices from King's College Chapel. The wrapping paper in the bin, we hear about a stoning (St Stephen on 26th December) and more killings, on the Feast of the Holy Innocents ( 28th December). Both have resonances today. In the Acts of the Apostles St Luke describes how Stephen,... Read More