February 18, 2016 - Page 2 of 8

Escaping the darkness by accepting ‘the beauty of the light’

April 14, 2024

“Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it” (Luke 24:41) In Sunday’s Gospel, the Risen Jesus’s disciples do not believe in him for a strange reason: their joy is too great! It seems odd, but sometimes we can lack faith for this reason: we think it is all too good to

The cynical politics (and politicians) endorsing assisted dying and abortion

April 14, 2024

This is a bleak time to be pro-life. The holistic vision of human life from conception to natural death as being invested with dignity and worthy of respect is being steadily undermined by legislatures. In Britain and Ireland, there are moves to introduce assisted dying into law. An Irish parliamentary inquiry has recommended legislation to

The astonishing Fourth Gospel: teasing out the narrative of the one we call John

April 14, 2024

I hesitate to call the Fourth Gospel “John’s Gospel”, since there is no reliable sign that John had anything to do with its authorship. It is the gospel of the Beloved Disciple, but who was he? The Beloved Disciple is never given a name, and that is quite deliberate. He (or perhaps she – except

Restoring the Catholic grand-dame of New Orleans

April 13, 2024

In its more than 300 years of existence as a topographically challenged city pummelled by a holy trinity of natural disasters – fire, flood and pestilence – one sacred building less than 200 metres from the Mississippi River has framed the religious, cultural and political life of this oddest and most exotically Catholic of American

New study expresses ‘grave concerns’ on State’s definition of ‘brain death’ compared to Catholic view

April 13, 2024

When does the brain die? While the concept of brain death has been widely accepted by medical professionals since the late-1960s, significant questions about its precise nature still remain. The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) has released a report, “Integrity in the Determination of Brain Death: Recent Challenges and Next Steps”, to draw attention to

‘Something has gone truly, terribly wrong’: the latest outbreak of anti-Semitism in Britain

April 13, 2024

The atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza mark a turning point not just in the fraught relationship between Israel and the Palestinians but between religious communities and ethnic groups in the United Kingdom as well. Previous conflicts between Israel and Gaza have resulted in an increase

ON PILGRIMAGE WITH…Fr David Howell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark who is also studying canon law in Rome

April 13, 2024

Where would you go? To see the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, after travelling to Latin America via transatlantic ship. It was produced miraculously after Mary appeared to a native Mexican, Saint Juan Diego, in the 16th century. Many native Mexicans converted to the Catholic faith in the wake of the

Italian regulator pulls ‘blasphemous’ crisps advert from the airwaves

April 12, 2024

Italian regulators have pulled a “blasphemous” television advert in which nuns are offered crisps instead of consecrated hosts during a Mass. The advert for Amica Chips provoked a huge backlash within the Catholic nation, with claims that it “debased” and “vilified” Jesus Christ. The Institute of Advertising Self-Discipline, Italy’s advertising standards authority, has now upheld

Murdered Catholic MP Sir David Amess honoured with seafront statue

April 12, 2024

A statue of murdered Catholic politician Sir David Amess has been unveiled his former constituency town of Southend. Sir David, the Conservative MP for Southend West, Essex, was stabbed to death while holding a surgery for constituents in Leigh-on-Sea in October 2021. Ali Harbi Ali, a British Muslim of Somali origin, was in 2022 convicted

Ditch the woke idiocracies and let Europe be Christian, urges Hungarian minister

April 12, 2024

ROME – Hungary’s State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and a leading member of the country’s Christian Democratic People’s Party has lauded Pope Francis’s condemnation of so-called “ideological colonisation” and his call for Europe to return to its founding values. Speaking to Crux April 8 as part of a whirlwind trip to Rome, Secretary Tristan

Unprecedented commute of all death sentences to life imprisonment in California’s Santa Clara County

April 11, 2024

An unprecedented decision by California’s Santa Clara County district attorney to reset the death penalty sentences in the county to life in prison sentences has been touted by the local bishop as “an important step toward respecting the sanctity of all human life”. “As Bishop of San José, I also support and congratulate Santa Clara

Bishop elect of Dunkeld in Scotland dies shortly before ordination service; last week he went to Lourdes to pray for his new diocese

April 11, 2024

The bishop-elect of Dunkeld in Scotland has died two weeks before his ordination service that was due to occur on 27 April. Only last week, Fr Martin had travelled to Lourdes on pilgrimage to pray for his new diocese. In a statement released 10 April, the diocesan administrator for Dunkeld, Canon Kevin Golden, announced the sad news:

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