Stuart Reid, Author at Catholic Herald

Stuart Reid

Stuart Reid: When Protestants were ‘Separated Brethren’

October 27, 2016

You can’t ignore the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, and it would be insane (and ill-mannered) to try to. All the same, you don’t have to put on your party dress. The Reformation was bad for all of us, not least for Protestants, and its emotional, intellectual and spiritual shortcomings are now to be

Stuart Reid: What bikinis and burkinis have in common

September 01, 2016

Older readers may remember the big hit of the summer of 1960, Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini. It tells the story of a nice young girl who has put on a bikini but is nervous about showing herself in public. The song reached No 1 in the US and New Zealand, and is

Stuart Reid: Catholicism’s boozy halo

August 04, 2016

More wine is drunk per head in the Vatican than in any other place on earth, according to the California Wine Institute, which keeps an unforgiving eye on these things. Each of the Vatican’s 850 or so inhabitants drinks on average 74 litres of wine a year. Holy Moses! But do the sums and you

Stuart Reid: Down with people power

June 30, 2016

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget. For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet. The Secret People, GK Chesterton Well, we have now, Gilbert, and there may be hell to pay. Consider the confusion that is engulfing us. Consider the misery, the uncertainty, the bad

Stuart Reid: Down with the Brexit bores

June 02, 2016

A couple of months ago I wrote here that, in spite of my love for Europe, I was thinking of voting Brexit in the referendum. Now, however, with only three weeks to go, I find that the arguments for voting Remain are just too powerful to resist. Here are four of them: Katie Hopkins, Richard

Stuart Reid: Has Harry gone for ever?

May 05, 2016

We had Harry put down last month, and I still feel like a murderer. The guilt is not so much Catholic, I suppose, as Buddhist. Whatever the case, Harry haunts me. I am woken by his bark. I hear him cough. I think I hear him being sick in the kitchen. A few days after

Stuart Reid: I’m a Europhile flirting with Brexit

April 07, 2016

It is precisely because I love Europe and am happy to call myself a citizen of the European Union that I may vote Brexit on June 23. My vote will have nothing to do with all those Eurosceptic scare stories about the threat to freedom, democracy and sovereignty. The “EUSSR” holds no terrors for me.

Stuart Reid: Giving up Confession in Lent

March 03, 2016

Someone I know rather well – perhaps rather too well for my own good – is trying to give up Confession for Lent. Well, OK, not giving it up altogether, but going less often than he does at other times of the year. My friend and I have been pretty close for 70 years, and

Stuart Reid: The day I asked Trump for $20m

February 04, 2016

It is now almost 30 years since I tried to tap Donald Trump for $20 million. It is possible, likely even, that Mr Trump does not remember the occasion. My own memory is hazy, but let me say immediately that I did not approach The Donald in person. I sent him a letter written in

Stuart Reid: 2016 – the eve of destruction?

January 07, 2016

In the Catholic blogosphere you are seldom more than two clicks away from a lunatic. On New Year’s Day I did an online search for Fr Tim Finigan, who the day before had undergone heart bypass surgery at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, and I was anxious to know whether it had gone well. I

Will the carols survive without Boris?

December 22, 2015

For many Londoners Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Boris Johnson and his carol service at Southwark Cathedral. As soon as he appears in the nave you know that tradition, kindness and irony – together with a bit of bogus self-deprecation – are going to be offered in sacrifice to his rapt and adoring fans,

Advent diary: Calamity is heading our way

December 17, 2015

Thursday, December 10 Today is the start of much telephoning and emailing and texting, accompanied by guilt and fear, as I try to round up a group from the Passage homeless charity to attend the Mayor’s Christmas Carol Service at Southwark Cathedral on Monday the 14th. I’ve had months to organise this thing and now,

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