I am intrigued by an article by Christopher Howse in the Telegraph of Saturday 17th August. Entitled “Is Chesterton to be made a saint?” It discusses the great GKC’s particular qualification for this singular honour: his optimism – “no facile cheeriness but a deep conviction that the world was fundamentally good”. This is a significant Read more
I’m not used to posting my woes and sorrows for all to see. I am however open to allowing my life to be opened up to the truth and allowing it to liberate me as I believe the truth should. With that said, I’m hoping that there are others who can gain or empathize with Read more
I was at the bookstore recently with my kids. The little ones were checking out the Legos while the older girls were lounging like hippies on beanbag chairs reading books we hadn’t bought. I noticed a mother was sitting nearby in the crowded cafe with her daughter, who seemed about thirteen or fourteen years old. Read more
Yesterday new legislation redefining marriage as the “union of two people regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity” took effect in New Zealand, and 31 officially recognised weddings of same-sex couples took place. Some of them, predictably, were media events sponsored by radio stations and public institutions. A lesbian couple had their ceremony on Read more
Teenagers are flooding out of our churches.They used to come back later in life, but now they often do not. Dialogue in the style of the Second Vatican Council, rather than laying down the law, is the way to evangelize them. The church is on their side, seeking to teach all men and women of Read more
A few weeks ago, returning from World Youth Day, Pope Francis made several interesting remarks to journalists, including an implicit appeal for a theology of women. “We talk about whether they can do this or that: Can they be altar boys? Can they be lectors? About a woman as president of Caritas, but we don’t Read more
“Who’s the church?” “We are!” “Where’s the church?” “Right here!” “And?” “Everywhere!” The “youth animator” at the centre for English-speaking pilgrims in Rio de Janeiro was revving up the crowd of young adults, no small feat considering it was 9 o’clock in the morning. It was the Friday of World Youth Day, and attendees had Read more
Is sex addiction real? That is, is it really a disorder, involving diminished control over behaviour? Questions such as these are difficult to answer because it’s always difficult to distinguish diminished capacity to resist a temptation from a diminished motivation to resist. People who tell us they literally can’t resist might be deceiving themselves, or Read more
The reverberations can be heard nationwide. As church employees and volunteers receive notices requiring them to attend safe-environment trainings, their responses have become familiar: “Again?” “Didn’t we just do that?” “I went through this where I teach; do I need to do it in the parish too?” “I barely come in contact with kids; why Read more
I read “I’m a Catholic but …” in CathNews NZ on Tuesday 6th August, and pondered upon it as I stacked the firewood. I walked over a carpet of camellia flowers – some pink, some brown, some crackly, some squishy. They need to be collected and put on the compost to be transformed, and later, Read more