Francis Phillips, Author at Catholic Herald

Francis Phillips

October 08, 2019

The forthcoming canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman in Rome on October 13th makes one ponder the category of holiness – the word we give to those people, whom the Church describes as “saints”. In his study of Newman in Unearthly Beauty (Gracewing, £25), Fr Guy Nichols refers to the impressions of Newman’s contemporaries; even

The Catholic writer who recalls us to our spiritual roots

October 08, 2019

I wish someone would undertake to write a biography of that fine German writer Gertrud von le Fort as there does not seem to be one for an English-speaking readership. Still, there is some consolation in the way Ignatius Press has been gradually introducing new translations of her short stories and novellas; a few years

For Newman, beauty had a serious purpose

October 08, 2019

Fr Ian Ker, the Newman scholar and author of an acclaimed biography of the soon-to-be Saint John Henry, gave a talk recently at Blackfriars in Oxford on Newman as a writer. It was pitched for a general audience i.e. for people like me who am not very familiar with Newman’s writings. Ker made several interesting

A call for clear teaching

September 30, 2019

Gabriele Kuby’s new book, Abuse of Sexuality in the Catholic Church (Divine Providence Press) includes an anecdote which shows up in pitiable relief the glory of the Catholic priesthood and its degradation in in some highly publicised instances today. Recalling a film made about Pope John XXIII in 1965 by Harry Salzmann she writes that

What if people aren’t oppressed?

September 30, 2019

Moving from blogging about Gabriele Kuby’s book, Abuse of Sexuality in the Catholic Church to blogging about Douglas Murray’s new book, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity raises interesting parallels. Kuby is looking at that ancient and most enduring guardian of dogmatic truth, the Catholic Church, and asking what has gone wrong: why

‘I felt like weeping for the sheer beauty’: the philosophers who found Catholicism

September 26, 2019

Here is an invaluable collection of 10 essays, all written by American academic philosophers, which demonstrates, particularly to those who think religious people will always have to suppress their reasoning processes, that intelligent people outside the Church do indeed use their minds when contemplating the challenge and invitation to faith. As the foreword to Faith

How one professor overcame profound suffering to embrace the Catholic faith

September 16, 2019

Ignatius Press has produced an excellent book aimed at those thoughtful atheists or agnostics who think that one has to choose between faith and reason and that it is not possible to hold both in a dynamic if mysterious equilibrium. Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain Their Turn to Catholicism, edited by Brian Besong and Jonathan

How Newman brought God to a neglected village

September 13, 2019

The Sisters of the Spiritual Family of The Work at The College, Littlemore, Oxford, who are dedicated to advancing the life and spirituality of Blessed John Henry Newman, have republished Newman at Littlemore by Bernard Basset SJ (Gracewing £7.99) in honour of his forthcoming canonisation. First published in 1983 when Fr Basset, a well-known writer

When your child asks difficult questions about religion

September 09, 2019

Having already written an introductory blog about Sally Read’s new book, Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World (Ignatius), I had several questions to ask her about it – such as, what had given her the idea of using the Annunciation as a starting-point? Sally explains that “it came from a need. I

Visiting the imprisoned can be a rewarding act of mercy

September 06, 2019

According to the Church, one of the corporal works of mercy is to visit the imprisoned. I was reminded of this in reading The Visits by Christine Brown (published by Austin Macauley, £8.99). For ten years Christine Brown visited young men in a prison and young offenders’ institute. She only stopped being a prison visitor

How to explain the Annunciation to a child

September 02, 2019

What Catholic parent has not been faced by a child at some stage in their religious education stating “I don’t know if I believe in God”. And what parent – perhaps especially a mother – has not suddenly been faced by the difficulty of presenting something seemingly abstract and invisible in a concrete way that

Jean Vanier shows the graceful way to accept failing health

September 02, 2019

Plough Publishing House, directed by the Bruderhof Community from Robertsbridge, East Sussex, is ecumenical in its published list, consistently highlighting authors from different Christian traditions who are united in the service of Gospel values. So it is no surprise to see that it has now republished Jean Vanier: Portrait of a Free Man by Anne-Sophie

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