The Catholic church is an easy target. A socially conservative agenda stands in broad opposition to mainstream thought in liberal Western democracies. The church’s stance on homosexuality, contraception, abortion, transgender issues, the ordination of women and euthanasia is no longer that of the majority. Its history is full of examples of failing to live up Read more
Those of us who entered religious life just after Vatican II will probably remember it in the words of Wordsworth after the French Revolution: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”. Those were exciting years. In February 1968, aged 19, I entered an Irish Cistercian monastery. It was just three years after the Read more
Standing on Mexican soil, less than a football field’s distance from the U.S., Pope Francis boldly spoke out on behalf of thousands of desperate migrants trekking long dangerous distances hoping to obtain asylum in the U.S. On the last stop of his recent pastoral visit to Mexico, in Ciudad Juarez – the border city across Read more
It was Friday, the sun was setting over Wellington and we were in sacred time at the dinner table. There had been other Sabbath meals with Jewish friends but on this occasion our hosts guided us, step by step, through the deeper meanings of their rituals and their separate male and female roles. The husband Read more
Recent media coverage of Cardinal George Pell’s recall to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has ignited public debate on whether churches are willing to face up to child sexual abuse. Tim Minchin’s “musical attack” on Cardinal Pell has been a lightning rod for debate on social media. Against a background Read more
Two years ago the Northwestern University psychologist Eli Finkel had an article in The Times describing how marriage is polarizing: The best marriages today are better than the best marriages of generations ago; the worst marriages now are worse; over all, the average marriage is weaker than the average marriage in days of yore. Expectations Read more
The phrase “Kingdom of God” means enlightenment, say students of ancient Aramaic. And the Kingdom is not a place but a state of being, filled with the light of God’s grace. Many of Jesus’ parables are introduced with, “The Kingdom of God is like…” and this Lent I’ve been reflecting on Jesus’ story of the Read more
Cardinal George Pell still has a lot of questions to answer before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. On medical advice he has decided not to risk the long plane flight home from Rome. This makes things much harder for victims seeking closure. It makes things harder for others, including members Read more
Recently I logged on to Facebook to find this lovely meme from Thomas Merton: “If the you of five years ago doesn’t consider the you of today a heretic, you are not growing spiritually.” It’s a great sentiment, but my malarkey radar went off at the attribution to Merton. This language of “growing spiritually” is awfully modern Read more
It is largely an accident that the case of my autistic stepson Peter – refused residency in New Zealand on health grounds by the country’s immigration authorities – has become a cause celebre. We never planned it that way, and for personal reasons we do not intend to fight what we see as an invidious Read more