Gavin Ashenden, Author at Catholic Herald

Gavin Ashenden

Finally the experts agree that being Catholic is good for your health

November 28, 2023

It turns out that the psychologists have finally come round to the view that “being Catholic is good for you”. As Jordan Peterson very recently observed, Catholicism is “as sane as you can get”. Psychology has frowned on religion ever since Sigmund Freud believed he had made a connection between the practice of religion and

The modern Advent calendar and our descent into vice

November 15, 2023

Every time a journalist phones me I remind myself of Oscar Wilde’s warning, “the difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read”. I find that I can’t break the habit of trying to explain to journalists that there is more to the question than they have as yet seen.

Nothing to see here? Cardinal Ghirlanda denies attempts to change voting rights in next conclave

November 10, 2023

Few things cause Catholics more excitement than a papal conclave. So when it was reported by the eminently respectable website The Pillar, and then by regular Herald contributor and Vatican veteran Diane Montagna, writing for The Remnant, that the Pope has charged his senior canon lawyer, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, to develop draft revisions to the

‘This is not so much a clash of cultures as a clash of gods’

November 08, 2023

A few days ago, as I walked through the Underground a large Muslim, four inches taller than me, barreled up to me and out of nowhere threatened to beat me up if I didn’t get out of his way. This was something of a surprise. I don’t think looking at me it shows, but I

Tolkien’s fantasy is deeply rooted in the Gospels

November 02, 2023

The willingness to sacrifice all for love. Of all the Catholic authors of the last century, JRR Tolkien is the best read – and astonishingly draws his readers, without any warning, into a Catholic mind. He does this with such sensitivity and subtlety that there is some scope for the Church, as part of its

The synodal Church will be guided by the spirit of the age

November 02, 2023

The camera never lies; except that it does. A still photograph taken out of context can be wholly misleading. A video less so, since it provides context. The October Synod in Rome has produced two contradictory responses in observers. Those who look at the still photograph have been saying “nothing has changed. The catastrophists were

The Church has moved on from the 1970s – the Rupnik scandal shows the Pope must do so too

October 31, 2023

One of the worst accusations against the integrity of the Catholic Church arise from the continuous sexual abuse scandals that have emerged in recent decades. In particular the “Spotlight scandals” of clerical abuse in Boston found their way into the news in 2002. The Church authorities responded by saying they were shocked and appalled, offered

How war in the Holy Land imperils our Judaeo-Christian civilisation

October 20, 2023

I had wanted to write only theology and spirituality. Raw politics always presents added complexities. It is too often the practice of power in the setting of prejudice. But in the West all politics takes place within a framework of ethics. We are not yet suffering totalitarianism, though through self-indulgence and laziness, we may yet

Islam’s problem with Jews goes back millennia

October 17, 2023

The events in Israel and Gaza have presented the world with a clash of political ambitions of the most intense kind, bathed in the deeply emotive murder and rape of civilians, extending to the burning and slaughter of babies. But they have also presented the world with a clash of ethical systems. The Muslim protagonists

‘The assumption must be faced that Pope Francis is consciously breaking with the Church’s tradition’

October 04, 2023

We can’t say we weren’t warned. On World Youth day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, Pope Francis, excited by the crowds of young people, adopted something of the energetic creativity of the teenagers he was surrounded by and exhorted them to make a mess: “I want to tell you something. What is it that I

Miraculous: The events of Padre Pio’s life make scepticism a good deal harder

September 28, 2023

Catholics, above all people, have an antidote to sterile materialism of modernity. Sanctity, it turns out, unlocks the doors of perception, and weakens the grip of mono-materialism. One of my favourite saints has become Padre Pio – partly because so many of the miraculous events surrounding his life took place under the scrutiny of 20th-century scepticism,

The problem with prioritising ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue at the Synod

September 28, 2023

As more details of the October Synod emerge, so does a clearer sense of its priorities. On 30 September the Synod will begin with an ecumenical vigil. A host of ecumenical guests have been invited. Much is being made of the fact that the Synod on Synodality is being begun with an ecumenical flourish. Sr. Nathalie

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