Viewpoint

The Pope is back safely from his visit to four African countries. Little was said about the danger to him when in Bamenda in Cameroon in the midst of a civil war, or Equatorial Guinea where Putin's Africa Corps (the old Wagner Group) look after its murderous President. During his visit to Nigeria in 2003, President George W Bush travelled protected in his heavily armoured Cadillac, The Beast. The ... Read More

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved into a force which is reshaping news, economies, healthcare, education, and daily life. Pope Leo XIV, in his Message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, Preserving Human Voices and Faces, addresses AI because of its far-reaching implications. The Pope warns against "a naive and unquestioning reliance on artificial intelligence as an omn... Read More

Dr Anna Rowlands, St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at the Department of Theology and Religion & Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, writes: An edition of The Economist Bagehot column from a few months ago makes for an interesting read. Its author argues that, on the Left of British politics, a debate is opening up again about the moral basis of taxation a... Read More

"[Leo] wasn't on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump. If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican….Leo should get his act together as Pope, use common sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a politician". Don... Read More

There is a danger in this time of peril, general sense of helplessness, and fear of diversity, in seeking sanctuary in groups of comforting sameness. It may be in ethnic identities seeking recognition, small political movements, or finding solace in religious piety. Each of these options offer more rewards than generalised apathy. They may in their different ways counteract secular promotion of in... Read More

Until recently, nations gave lip service to international laws that classified certain actions during conflict - attacking hospitals and essential civilian infrastructure like power generation and desalination plants - as illegal. Such attacks might only be lawful if the military advantage gained outweighed the loss of civilian life. The problem arose - vexing politicians, military leaders and hum... Read More

"The abuse and manipulation of God's name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at the present time". Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 17 March 2026. What do Peter Hegseth, US Secretary of Defence, Naim Qassem, secretary-General of Hezbollah, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israeli Minister of National Security, have in common? They all believe that mili... Read More

Anger and apathy, Bankers and BREXIT, Corruption and COVID, the ABC of Britain's decline, has determined our recent history. The Venerable Bede wrote in the 8th century that history should record the "evil of wicked men" to avoid sin, while describing the "good things of good men" to encourage virtue. James Macintyre's insightful and balanced Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose, Bloomsbury 2026, fal... Read More

"I don't need international law", Trump told the world in January; his "own morality", his "own mind" was all that he needed to formulate foreign policy. Trump's mind and morality do not inspire confidence. No reasonable person in a democracy would willingly agree to tolerate or endorse lawlessness within their own nation-state, so why is lawlessness between States once more acceptable? If law... Read More

In 2024, more than 200 mental health professionals issued an open letter theorizing that President Trump exhibited behaviours that meet the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. "Even a non-clinician can see that Trump shows a lifetime pattern of 'failure to conform to social norms and laws,' 'repeated lying,' 'reckless disregard for the safety of others,' 'irritability,' 'impulsivity,' ... Read More

At a rough estimate, the Church runs 3,100 hospitals and 15,000 clinics in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). From Pope John XXII's Mater et Magistra in 1961 to Pope Leo's Fratelli Tutti in 2020, the Church has consistently called the rich nations to action: supporting the poorest, engaging their citizens in development, reducing indebtedness, extending the outreach and effectiveness of the Cat... Read More

Leela Ramdeen, Consultant, Trinidad and Tobago Catholic Commission for Social Justice & Attorney-at-Law writes: Albert Camus's statement is noteworthy. He said: "A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world." As a Catholic, there are a number of guiding ethical and moral principles that exist to guide my behaviour. They influence how I make decisions and how I live my life. We a... Read More

Donald Trump does not, in my opinion, deserve any more airtime than he already gets. I am incensed at many of his irrational decisions (and obvious need for power and recognition). In particular, his deployment of ICE agents throughout mostly Democratic states, and the resulting tragic and unnecessary murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last weekend, brought out my disgust and anger. The United S... Read More

"Today the meaning of words is ever more fluid and the concepts they represent increasingly ambiguous", Pope Leo told gathered diplomats in the Vatican on 9 January 2026…"Or rather in the contortions of semantic ambiguity, language is becoming more and more a weapon with which to deceive, strike, or offend opponents," he continued. "We need words once again to express distinct and clear realitie... Read More