I have discovered in my life that there are many forms of isolation, confusion and loss. While I reflect on parental death, marital breakdown and estranged friendships as the most intense, there is a competitor. It is a particular form of academic crisis. One moment stands out. I was studying for my PhD at the

“If the principles of liberalism are valid, then socialism, which is in fact one of the most perverse aberrations of the human spirit, is fully justified.” These words of the 19th-century Archbishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler capture the central dilemma of Catholic thought in relation to Marxism. The Church’s engagement with Marx transformed Catholic social

After the Brexit vote, Britain's politicians are scrambling around for ideas. They should begin with Pope Leo XIII's masterpiece Rerum Novarum

It wasn’t very long ago that the European Union was denounced as a “Popish plot”. If only. True, the Treaty of Rome of 1957 marked the high tide of Christian Democracy, a political movement based on Catholic social teaching; and yes, five of the six signatories went from the Capitoline Hill to the Vatican for

Neither socialism nor unfettered capitalism have worked well in post-war Britain. A new consensus, inspired by Catholic social thought, is addressing the malaise