On 6 October, when Samuel Paty, a popular history and geography teacher at a school in a quiet Paris suburb, presented a copy of the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that provoked the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine five years ago, he self-evidently had no idea of the tragic consequence for his own life, French Read more
Catholics recently woke up to surprising—and for many of us, welcome—news: the pope had come out in favour of civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family,” he’d been recorded saying on footage included in the feature-length documentary, Francesco, which had just premiered. “Nobody should Read more
As we hunkered down to church closures and online Masses a second time, I reflected on a friend’s question: Are we treating this Covid-19 lockdown as a period of hibernation or will we emerge from a chrysalis — and, if so, how will we be transformed? As the Catholic community gains an accelerated experience of Read more
Charles Perko admits it will not stand up well as an excuse, but he does offer it up as an “explanation.” Too many Sundays he has missed Mass, he says, because he was too tired after a 12-hour shift the night before to make it to church. Workweeks loaded with overtime have not helped, of Read more
A friend of mine, who had spent many years establishing a successful printing business in the Midwest, opened his local newspaper to find a story about a fancy redevelopment project that the city had proposed in his neighbourhood. How nice, he thought, until he realized that planning officials were going to put the project on Read more
Dear Pope Francis, it is extremely disappointing that almost all the photos of you since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown you without a mask. This is bad on so many levels. You should know better. Please, wear a mask. Your friends in the media, including myself, have for the most part given Read more
With so much of humanity sickened in soul and body by greed, self-centered indifference to suffering, inequality, polarization and violence, Pope Francis has wonderfully seized the moment by giving to our wounded world the balm of his new inspiring and challenging social encyclical letter titled Fratelli Tutti. Pope Francis warns that humanity is largely going Read more
After two unsuccessful petitions in 2019, Labour is finally promising to ban conversion therapy. Sherry Zhang talks to Anna* on what conversion therapy was like for her and what a ban on its practice would mean. “It makes me want to cry. It makes me feel seen, like I’m not just making shit up.” That’s Read more
Churches are assessed as houses of “good” as well as of God in a study of their value to the community to be published by the National Churches Trust tomorrow. The concept of a “house of good” has been used to value the significant social and economic support generated by and through church buildings in England, Read more
Monika Schmelter is one of the women who crisscrosses the country to press for equal rights in the Catholic Church. The reason, she points out is that people are leaving the church in droves — including her own children. Many women share her experience of seeing their children turn their backs on the church. In Read more