Across the United States, religious congregations have reopened, or reopened with some health restrictions still in place, after two long pandemic years, according to a new Pew Research survey. But there has been little or no rise in the number of people attending in-person religious services over the past six months, while the number of Read more
Pope Francis offered his initial diagnosis of the Roman Curia a long time ago – on December 22, 2014 to be precise – and it was severe. He was still riding the momentum of his recent election to the papacy at the time, and before a gathering of stunned cardinals and top Vatican officials he Read more
It was freezing cold the day Neil Laybourn saw a man in a T-shirt sitting on a high ledge on Waterloo Bridge and made a split-second decision that would change both their lives for ever. “It’s hard to pin down what it was that made me stop… but it would have played on my mind Read more
One of the major cultural shifts in Western society in the 20th century has been the decline – in many places, the disappearance – of the culture of deference. Many reasons have been advanced for this shift in how people relate in society, but all are agreed that it has occurred. What is a culture Read more
Russia’s brutal military attack on Ukraine continues. And with each passing day Pope Francis appears more and more frustrated that he and his Vatican aides can do nothing to stop it. No doubt, they are even more irritated that their continuous offers to mediate or facilitate discussions between the two countries, which the Cardinal Secretary Read more
Across the world, the omicron phase of the Covid-19 pandemic is now piling up towering case counts in places that have largely managed to keep the disease in check until this point. This troubling rise may signal that another wave of Covid-19 is rising in countries just coming out of their own omicron shadows. Hong Read more
American men are dropping out of college in alarming numbers. A slew of articles over the past year depict a generation of men who feel lost, detached and lacking in male role models. This sense of despair is especially acute among working-class men, fewer than one in five of whom completes college. Yet one group Read more
Pope Francis shared his vision for the Church in the Third Millennium with the members of the Synod of Bishops during their meeting in Rome in October 2015. The Synod has a meeting every two or three years and, up until the election of the first-ever Jesuit pope, they were choreographed events attended by selected Read more
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has released a report entitled ‘First Assembly Proposals from Small Groups and Individual Members’ described as the ‘fruits’ of the first of two Plenary Council assemblies. These published ‘proposals’ of the First Assembly of the Plenary Council of the Australian Catholic Church are neither ‘assembly proposals’ nor ‘fruits’ of the assembly. Read more
On Monday 28 February CathNews NZ reported on an open letter written to you by a group of anonymous Catholic men, which asks you to advocate to the government that they review and remove Covid-19 vaccination mandates. Although we have not been able to find the text of the letter on any public website or Read more