(Photograph: Catholic Herald columnist Katherine Bennett helped organise Bishop Barron’s UK tour) I have been watching Bishop Barron online for over a decade.  I became a member of his enormously popular “Word on Fire” apostolate, and I spent much of last year helping Brenden Thompson of Catholic Voices organise his upcoming visit to the UK.   I,

In answer to a question thrown at me more than once, and only occasionally with accompanying rotten fruit, “Yes, I do call myself a Christian.” The most recent inquisition came from a climate-change zealot after I questioned London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to expand the ULEZ zone. “Call yourself a Christian and you want ultra-high emissions?!” And so it always is when a Christian takes a position different from the received opinion of climate alarmism, but as Christians we should think carefully before partnering too quickly with the environmental lobby.

There is an episode of Friends where single girl Phoebe struggles with the fact that the guy she is dating won’t sleep with her. She later proudly recounts to womaniser Joey how she convinced him to change his mind by reassuring him that sex doesn’t have to be a big deal and can just be about two people,

(Photo credit: Getty Images. People from the Walt Disney Company participate in an LA Pride Parade in West Hollywood, California) My friend’s son has a peanut allergy.  She doesn’t want him to die so she keeps a peanut free home and carries with her, at all times, an EpiPen in order to administer lifesaving treatment should

When I was 14 I decided never to hurdle again after falling flat on my face at the county games and moving from first to last place within just a few seconds. The fact that I did this while looking like a Woody Allen approximation of an athlete, sporting a head-brace and oversized NHS specs just

The whole Netflix watching world has been talking about Harry and Meghan this week.  The fact that their documentary, entitled – you guessed it – ”Harry and Meghan”, smashed UK Netflix ratings in just 24 hours tells us that, as Christians, we should be paying attention for these are the deep waters of our time.    Harry

We live in a world of increasing and often needless complexity.  We tie ourselves in knots complicating otherwise simple language.  To say that someone is simple is considered an insult, yet we often miss God not because of His complexity, but because of His simplicity. The greater the complexity the greater the chance of division and of

About 6 months ago I was asked by my Nigerian friend Father M if I would take part in an online conversation about faith in the public square.  It was based in Nigeria and there were about 200 participants. I was the only white woman. After the event, Fr M shared with me some messages that he had

A new advertisement from Canadian fashion retailer La Maison Simons features a 37-year-old terminally ill woman who availed herself of the euthanasia laws to end her life. Here is a link to the video: The short film is gentle, beautifully shot and as one commentator said, “sells euthanasia to the masses like an advert for a

The Devil doesn’t always wear Balenciaga, writes Katherine Bennett During my teens I fell in with a crowd of disaffected older youths.  We skipped school and spent our days in the underpass smoking cigarettes before moving on to harder drugs.  I lied to my parents and went clubbing at weekends to notorious goth clubs in the city

I was once in conversation with a man so desperately concerned with women’s rights that he soon put me in my place for defending the male priesthood.  I have been put in my place a number of times by a number of men seeking to stand up for women.  Clearly, I’m the wrong sort of woman.  Alice

The World Cup began on Sunday.  I love football as much as the next woman, but I do have some interest in this tournament: my brother has lived in Qatar for 15 years and my sons love the game.  In prayer this week some school students asked God to “make England win”, others asked Him to “make