April 9, 2013 - Catholic Herald

East Anglia diocese applauds UK Government lifting cap on Catholic schools

May 13, 2024

A decision to lift the faith-based admissions cap on new free schools in England has been welcomed by the Diocese of East Anglia. The diocese says the decision paves the way for Catholic free schools to open, having previously been excluded under the 50 per cent cap or “rule” which could have forced schools to

An unexpected trip to Auschwitz to confront the reality of evil

May 13, 2024

I’m not really sure why I wanted to go to Auschwitz, the Nazi extermination camp in Poland – it was not the most obvious place to go for an Easter break! But it was something more than just morbid curiosity. I wanted to try to understand the reality of the mechanistic killing of over a

Israel protests talk of Gaza ‘genocide’ by Nobel Prize winner during Vatican event

May 13, 2024

ROME – In the latest episode of tension between Israel and the Vatican over the conflict in Gaza, Israel’s Embassy to the Holy See issued a protest on 11 May after a Yemeni Nobel Prize winner accused Israel of “genocide” while attending a papal event the night before. Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni journalist who became

Dead or alive – or both? The fate of Schrödinger’s Cat has challenged the premises of quantum physics

May 13, 2024

Police were recently called to disperse some animal rights protesters from the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge after they got wind of news that a group of physicists were attempting to replicate the results of the Schrodinger’s Cat experiment. OK, well, this didn’t actually happen, but it’s the sort of story that could conceivably be reported

Vatican Museums in dispute with workers and local residents over ‘troublesome’ visitors and noisy pilgrims

May 13, 2024

ROME – Nearly 50 employees of the Vatican Museums have initiated a labour dispute with the Holy See over what they allege are poor, unfair and unsafe working conditions, and which could result in the first-ever class action lawsuit brought against Pope Francis’s administration. At the same time, some local residents are fuming and say

UK Parliament abortion vote on 15 May: ‘A time to raise our voices and not lose heart’

May 12, 2024

Bishops rarely comment on Bills in Parliament. Lay Christians, informed by their faith, freely and sincerely adopt different political views and propose different solutions to the practical problems and great challenges of our time. Yet, when the bishops voice “deep alarm” about a legislative measure in Parliament it is a moment when the faithful, and

Reading ‘On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain’ can leave you yearning for a bit more religious commitment

May 12, 2024

On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain by Oliver Smith Bloomsbury Continuum, £20, 256 pages A book about pilgrimage should make me a pushover as a reader. I love reading about pilgrimage, especially when imprisoned in the Catholic Herald basement office, forced to realise my pilgrimage dreams vicariously through books such On This

Vatican weighs up potential Trump return in its approach to European elections

May 12, 2024

ROME – Although non-Europeans may not be paying attention – and, for that matter, a fairly wide swath of the European population itself isn’t exactly riveted either – but elections for the European Parliament loom large on June 6-9, when voters will select 720 representatives who will chart a course for the EU for the

The infernal serpent: Understanding envy may prove salutary in the end

May 12, 2024

“I don’t envy you.” When someone says that, they are implying that you will have a bad time dealing with whatever, or whoever, you’re about to encounter. It’s a discouraging remark which often comes with a note of reproach, suggesting that you shouldn’t be doing whatever it is. This is odd. If envy is a

What does it mean if we are ‘kept’ in the name of the Father?

May 12, 2024

“Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us. While I was with them, I kept those you had given me true to your name” (John 17:11-12). In Sunday’s Gospel, our lectionary translation opts for a variant in the manuscript tradition, but the other

Douai Abbey: a place extolling the English Benedictine temper and charism

May 12, 2024

“A monastery is above all this: a place of spiritual power.” Pope Benedict, as ever, got to the heart of the thing when he addressed these words to Benedictine monks at Heiligenkreuz, outside Vienna. Monasteries serve all sorts of functions – repositories of tradition, places of architectural and cultural interest, sometimes social hubs. But unless they

World Communications Day and Catholic journalism’s role to ‘guide and inspire’

May 12, 2024

On the Sunday before Pentecost the Catholic Church celebrates the role of communications media and focuses on how it can best use such platforms to promote the Gospel values. World Communications Day, also know as Communications Sunday, was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration to “encourage us to reflect on

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