A hot sun and a cold wind and ‘the uncertain glory of a spring day’, wrote William Shakespeare. The grass has sprung, gardens are being hoed and sowed, capsicums planted. Azaleas fragrance the air, petalled peonies turn their faces up to the sun – never were there so many. Apple and cherry blossom have drifted Read more
The first words of the prologue to the Catholic Church’s catechism express the purpose of faith: “Father … this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Cultivating that relationship with God is the purpose of faith and the mission of the Catholic Church. Read more
The steps taken in the last 30 years to prevent the devastating trauma of child sexual abuse are making a difference. From 1990 to 2010, substantiated cases of child sexual abuse throughout the United States dropped 62 percent, according to experts David Finkelhor and Lisa Jones using a variety of sources including national surveys, FBI Read more
A growing number of people seem to believe that as long as you claim the label you are as good a Catholic as the Pope. Some decades ago when I was a priest in the country, I blessed many marriages and generally attended the wedding reception. As a priest my presence was acknowledged and welcomed. Read more
Brand Christianity seemed to be male, didactic and interested in power at the recent Recovering the Common Good Conference in Wellington. The experience stirred something deep so that many days later my internal world is still bubbling. A wide range of people gathered at Parliament Buildings to reflect on the place of Christianity in discussions Read more
If ‘organisation’ were a gift of the Holy Spirit, boy, would I be a saint by now. I’ve never been much good at speaking in tongues, prophecy or healing (read: not at all). But I have been labelled the “Queen of Spreadsheets” (rather Marian huh? I wonder if there is an ‘Our Lady Queen of Read more
It is harder than ever to claim, as the Britain’s Prime Minister does, that Britain is still a Christian country. It was at the time when Baroness Thatcher stood outside No 10 and recited the prayer of St Francis of Assisi, to offer reassurance about her intentions. Two thirds of Brits were Christian then, and Read more
On Oct. 6, 262 bishops gathered in Rome for the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to discuss “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.” One of the gathering’s primary concerns, particularly for those leaders of churches in the prosperous North, is how to reach out to disaffected Catholics. Read more
In the end it was the butler, and only the butler, who did it – or so the Vatican would have the world believe. Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s personal valet, was convicted of stealing secret papers from the Holy See on Saturday and sentenced to 18 months in prison. But there was growing suspicion that Read more
During the time of big Irish families in the pre-pill era, boys might be under less parental control than ought to be possible today when the Irish birth rate, although the highest in Europe, is a modest 2.1. So, it was not unusual for boys to get into trouble and be deemed dangers to society Read more