Francis Phillips, Author at Catholic Herald

Francis Phillips

The Catholic Church is back ‘on the spiritual map’ in Sweden: an interview with Ulf and Birgitta Ekman

January 28, 2019

Having blogged last week about Ulf and Birgitta Ekman’s book, The Great Discovery: Our Journey into the Catholic Church, I was keen to ask them a few questions. Ulf, as I related in my earlier blog, had been the founder and pastor of Word of Life, a worldwide Pentecostal church of over 200,000 members. What

An ideal Confirmation gift that will annoy trendy snobs

January 22, 2019

If anyone is searching for a delightful and informative book to give to a Confirmation candidate or convert as a gift, I recommend Catholic Traditions and Treasures: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, by Dr Helen Hoffner (Sophia Institute Press). It is beautifully produced, with many Old Master illustrations alongside pencil drawings by Deirdre M Folley, and contains

How the founders of a Protestant mega-church converted to Catholicism

January 18, 2019

We have entered the week of Prayer for Christian Unity and thus today at Mass we prayed the traditional prayer that our “separated brethren” may return to “the one true fold.” What a potent mixture of theology and pain these phrases conjure up: yes, those members of the many Protestant churches are separated from the

A tale of reconciliation after the horror of the Holocaust

January 14, 2019

In our family, not surprisingly given my interest in book reviewing, books are always exchanged at Christmas. My daughter happened to give me The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es (Fig Tree. £16.99) which was chosen as Radio 4’s Book of the Week last August. An interview/memoir dealing with the Holocaust from the perspective

Solzhenitsyn saw how suffering could be redemptive

January 07, 2019

Last December saw a significant centenary: 100 years since the birth of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970. A hugely significant figure for literature, for Russia and for his witness to Christianity, he is less remembered now than he ought to be. But two online articles,

Why the Soviet Union failed to eradicate religion

January 04, 2019

There is a very affecting scene at the end of Turgenev’s mid-nineteenth century novel, Fathers and Sons, when Bazarov, the resolute young atheist who dominates the book, is dying of typhus and his father begs him to receive the Last Rites of the Orthodox Church in order to “give your mother and myself some consolation”.

Nine books that will lift your spirits

December 20, 2018

It is always a fascinating exercise to look back over the year and try to select the most memorable books reviewed. Why this book and not that one? By what criterion does one make one’s choices? I have decided finally on the simple measurement of a gut instinct: how much of the book in question

The best spiritual books of 2018

December 17, 2018

If you haven't already read these books, there's still time in the New Year

The myths that sustained the work of Tolkien and Lewis

December 12, 2018

Inklings of Truth: Essays to Mark the Anniversaries of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, introduced and edited by Paul Shrimpton, has now been published by Grandpont House (£8). It comprises four papers from a series of talks hosted by Grandpont House, Oxford in 2013 to mark the 40 and 50 years since Lewis and Tolkien

An antidote to the cant and confusion of our times

November 30, 2018

Those who enjoy reading the shrewd and wise words of Fr George William Rutler, the Manhattan parish priest, author and essayist, will be glad of Calm in Chaos: Catholic Wisdom for Anxious Times (Ignatius Press/ Gracewing). A collection of his online articles of recent years, mainly from Crisis Magazine, they are informative, witty and perceptive

The remarkable courage of the Jesuit who rescued souls on the WWI battlefields

November 30, 2018

Fr Willie Doyle was convinced the eternal fate of souls was at stake daily in the killing fields of WWI

The Jesuit who photographed the First World War

November 26, 2018

Father Francis Browne SJ was already famous for taking the last photos of the Titanic

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