We don’t ask enough questions. Sometimes that is because we feel we should know the answers and don’t wish to appear stupid. In fact, many others also wish to ask the same question but, for similar reasons we all keep our lips tightly closed. That is a pity, for being inquisitive is the start of Read more
In mid-September, the director of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, suggested that Covid-19 was here to stay. “I think that politicians across the world are sort of pretending you can have your cake and eat it,” Farrar told the German podcast Pandemia. “(They’re claiming that) You can have zero deaths, no control measures, vaccinate if Read more
For Catholics who put their faith first, before anything else, there is one way – above all others – to view the life and death issues facing local communities, the nation and the world: and that is, through the lens of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching! But instead, it clearly appears that more often Read more
Age and illness have not taken the wind out of Pope Francis’ sails. Despite major intestinal surgery last July and his upcoming 85th birthday in December, the Italo-Argentine pope — amazingly! — is showing absolutely no signs that he’s slowing down or planning to close up shop anytime soon. His recent four-day visit to Budapest, Read more
In Pope Francis’ vision for the future of the Catholic Church, bishops will no longer make decisions alone but in dialogue and discernment with the faithful in their community. The new, expanded two-year process to prepare for synods will begin in October and promises to flip the power structures in the church. When it comes Read more
With Covid-19 causing extraordinarily intrusive and expensive lockdowns, vaccine or Covid passports or certificates are increasingly seen as key to getting out of them. Decision-makers and gatekeepers – from border guards to maître d’s – will have a means of knowing who can safely engage with others. To that end, the New Zealand government aims Read more
Nineteen-year-old Anne Wilson loves the stars, the television show “The Walking Dead” and her morning cup of vanilla iced coffee from Dunkin’. “I feel like it’s just straight from God,” she said. “It’s like he blesses that coffee in particular.” More than anything, Wilson says, she loves Jesus — as the teenager from central Kentucky Read more
The great Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan once described those nostalgic for the pre-1970 liturgy as a group “that is determined to live in a world that no longer exists”. The phrase came back to me recently when I read of another Jesuit, Pope Francis, who spoke about finding “new languages for handing on Read more
The average house price in Aotearoa is more than $900,000. We have a shortfall of more than 100,000 dwellings, all urban housing markets are considered severely unaffordable by international standards. 500,000 Kiwis are in overcrowded housing situations 350,000 households are on accommodation supplements Māori home ownership sits at just over 30% less than 50% of Read more
The Christian mystic and philosopher Simone Weil wrote that “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” Indeed, we can only love something insofar as we direct our pure, generous attention toward it—be that to God, to a neighbour or to ourselves. And in a world that so hungrily demands it, Read more