This category has personal opinion pieces on a wide range of Catholic issues by different writers.
In the last judgment scene of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus sends a severe warning that hell awaits those who ignore meeting the essential human needs of the poor and vulnerable - and thus likewise, ignore him.
And in reference to those who display a lack of hospitality toward migrants and refugees, Jesus warns "I was a stranger and you did not welcome me." Now … just imagine the indignation ...
Deacon William T Ditewig, PhD, from the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, has written the following letter in his blog: Deacons Today: Servants in a Servant Church
The news about the institutional dimension of the Catholic Church has been persistent and devastating. Crimes, cover-ups, accusations, bizarre and power-hungry behavior on the part of so many in positions of authority: i...
That there is opposition to the reforms of Pope Francis, among disgruntled elements in the slowly crumbling clericalist, power-structure who see their privileges and hollow self-importance under threat from the Holy Father's desire to return the Church to the simplicity of Jesus, is hardly news. But it seems that nostalgia and lust for power on their part, has now descended to a new low. How be...
Text of talk delivered by Leonardo Boff at a conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April, 2017. Pope Francis is not afraid of the truth We are presently suffering an enormous vacuum of leadership, both in the Church and in society. But there is one who stands out from this mediocrity. That is Pope Francis, precisely because he is not afraid to speak the ...
When I have finished writing this, I shall gently drop a book in my recycling bin, although destroying books goes against all my instincts. It isn't that it is a particularly bad book (although, on re-reading it 35 years after its composition, I can say that it hasn't worn terribly well). It isn't that it is a dangerous or corrupting book (although there are one or two points where, knowing wha...
I am not sure I have ever paid a proper tribute due to the nuns who educated me.
This came home to me on the Feast of the Assumption this week when I was invited to join the Religious of the Assumption at Kensington for a celebratory Mass and lunch to mark 65 years of their English Province. It was held in a chapel where the stained glass windows focus almost entirely on the contribution ...
Following the announcement - on the last day of Parliament before summer - that Fracking at the Preston New Road site in Lancashire has been given the final go-ahead by the Government, I would like to outline a few points to Claire Perry our Energy and Clean Growth Minister. Fracking is one of the dirtiest methods of extracting fossil fuels. It's production of gas would not be compa...
A new report estimates that more Nigerian Christians are being killed by Islamist herdsmen than by the notorious jihadist militia, Boko Haram. In the first six months of 2018, the International Crisis Group says 1,300 have died in the middle belt region of the West African country.
Yet, despite the evidence, the UK Foreign Office resists recognising the central role of fundamentalist Isla...
Pope Francis has once again put the cat among the pigeons.
In a statement issued to time with the feast day of the moral theologian and legal thinker St Alphonsus Liguori, Pope Francis has approved a change to the Catechism that declares the death penalty "inadmissible."
His argument is based on three grounds:
- that our developing understanding of dignity means we can no long...
These past weeks, a number of things have happened in the United States that signal to me we are entering a critical soul-searching time as a nation. We experienced the administration's hardened position regarding those who are entering our country, even for those seeking asylum. For a time it included separating children from their parents and placing them in detention centres without any plan...
Many of those who believe in the right to life of all human beings, including the right to life of the unborn, are reeling from the results of the recent referendum In Ireland. Their dismay is not lessened by the cheers of the crowd in Dublin Castle, celebrating that the state will soon arrogate to itself the power to end the life of the unborn on demand, and how that is being trumpeted in a pu...
Not too long ago a Catholic diocese advertised for a Justice and Peace worker. The job description referred to responsibility for the rights and well-being of disabled persons and also looked for some catechetical competence. It indicates the wide misunderstanding of the scope of J & P.
In thinking about this failure, I realised that there is a divide between what might be called pastoral...
At the beginning of the celebration of the centenary of World War I, 888,246 ceramic poppies were placed around the Tower of London. That figure was the number of British soldiers that were killed in World War I.
Some commentators made the point that the industrial nature of this slaughter which took the lives of almost 10 million soldiers was due to a clash between the 19th century milit...
Writing on his Facebook page this evening, David Alton, Lord Alton of Liverpool writes:
I am not alone in believing that when British law can displace the rights of parents then British law must be changed. I said exactly that at the time of the death of Charlie Gard and repeat it again now as little Alfie Evans battles for life.
The earlier case of Ashya King graphically ...
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