Charles Collins, Author at Catholic Herald

Charles Collins

Chapter House
Articles

Sorry, no search matching search results found. Please try again.

Traditionis Custodes: When “professional Catholic” squabbling spills over

July 27, 2021

For millions of Catholics around the world who find comfort in the traditional Latin Mass, the fights of the rectory and professional Catholic class have once again struck them at home.

The Vatican will have an even tougher time recruiting top talent after scattershot indictments

July 07, 2021

The London investment is equivalent to the Vatican’s annual budget, and the idea of a few laymen and a couple of prelates sinking it into a dubious deal, without proper oversight and checks and balances is, well, laughable.

In spat over Italy’s anti-homophobia law, the Vatican has little leverage, lots to lose

June 23, 2021

This is the first known instance of the Vatican using official diplomatic channels to oppose legislation in Italy; although given that it was publicized through a leak to the press and not an official statement, it is possible it has happened before. It is an odd time for the Holy See to brandish such a weapon. The world is observing Pride Month, and Italy is set to host a series of Pride parades this weekend, which organizers now say will protest the Vatican action. In addition, the Catholic Church in Italy has usually fared poorly when opposing Italian laws.

Johnson-Symonds and the changing face of British anti-Catholicism

June 09, 2021

"I don't expect members of panel shows or even Church Times columnists to be experts on Catholic Church law," writes Charles Collins. "But let’s face it, most of those who are upset with the Catholic Church for allowing Johnson to marry his girlfriend (and mother of his child) are more upset with the prime minister’s policies than his - or the Church’s - morals."

Synodality can work … if leadership lets it

May 26, 2021

Despite its novelty – 50 years is nothing in Church time – the Synod, too, can fall into the same “functionalism” against which Pope Francis warned the Dicastery for Communication earlier this week.

What’s in a name? The recent “upgrade” of the Center for Child Protection hints at danger of mission creep

May 12, 2021

It is important for the Vatican to have a Commission for the Protection of Minors. Whatever one thinks of the Center’s upgrade, it remains important that the Church have other named institutions for child protection.

More of ‘The Same’: Ireland, Quebec flex their ‘post-Catholic’ muscles

April 28, 2021

The events in Ireland and Quebec are easily explained away as the Church just getting caught up in laws that are aimed at the general population. But another factor is at work: Ireland and Quebec are both flexing their muscles as post-Catholic societies.

When Dawkins Teaches Catechism

April 14, 2021

For years, people have complained about the dumbing down of doctrine in religious education courses, but this takes the cake: Catholics literally enraged because an atheist describes Catholic teaching fairly accurately.

“Follow the Money” was Good Advice long before Watergate

March 31, 2021

The idea that everything can be attributed to financial motivations is a bit of an oversimplification, to be sure, but money can present incentives that act on us -- consciously and unconsciously -- and that does does tend to make "Follow the money" a maxim worth some consideration.

Walking Together, But … Where?

March 17, 2021

Synodality has become the buzzword of the present pontificate – Pope Francis has used the Synod of Bishops as the chief tool of pushing his agenda – only, what does "synodality" mean?

Huzzah! Or, what a bawdy “historical” drama can teach us about Church reform

March 03, 2021

To change domestic policy, or even the course of a war, it is more important to amuse the monarch than inform him, and an insinuation will work better than an argument.

A strange complaint: Pope Francis’s speech to the Rota

February 18, 2021

In an annual address to the Roman Rota, Pope Francis said the Church-appointed judges that hear marriage nullity cases “cannot disregard the memories, made up of light and shadows, that have marked the life, not only of the two spouses but also of the children.” It was a strange complaint to bring to this tribunal, since the Rota deals in nothing but cold, legal decisions.

1 2 →