Melanie McDonagh, Author at Catholic Herald

Melanie McDonagh

Melanie McDonagh: The heavy burden of forgiveness

May 18, 2017

The death of the Moors murderer Ian Brady hasn’t brought out the best in us, has it? “Monster of the Moors is Dead” is the Daily Mail headline. “Burn in Hell, Brady”, the Mirror has it. “Monster Brady is Dead,” The Sun says. Faced with evil incarnate, we derive palpable satisfaction from a good online

Don’t stop feasting

April 13, 2017

Easter, being movable, is an annoying feast for a culture that likes to plan ahead. Just over a century ago it fell on March 22. Then again, it could be as late as April 25. This year, it’s quite late: April 16. This makes holidays and, more crucially, the commercial Easter – which is essentially

The party must go on – yes, into February

December 22, 2016

One of the downsides of starting Christmas so soon is that it finishes too soon. Obviously, if the season starts commercially just after Halloween, and the Christmas lights go on at the beginning of November, and the party season gets going in early December, you’re over the celebrations by St Stephen’s, or Boxing Day, with

The party must go on – yes, into February

December 22, 2016

The modern tendency is to start and end Christmas early. Let’s return to our roots and celebrate until Candlemas

Melanie Mcdonagh: Why did Jesus praise the poor?

December 02, 2016

You know, when Our Lord called money “that tainted thing” (Luke 16), I’m sure he was right, but not quite so sure that he took on board the inconvenience of having too little of it. At present, I am contemplating just what an insufficiency of funds means, and it’s awful. It costs €3,000 (£2,500) a

Melanie McDonagh: A medievalist’s guide to dying

October 06, 2016

Jonathan Riley-Smith was a distinguished historian, perhaps the most eminent contemporary historian of the Crusades, but of all his achievements, not the least was the way he died. It wouldn’t be true to say of him that nothing in life became him like the leaving of it, but in the last three years of his

How Herbert McCabe taught me to pray

August 11, 2016

There are some people, lucky things, whose prayers are nearly always heard. A friend of mine, Herbert McCabe, a distinguished Dominican theologian at Blackfriars Oxford, was one of them, and he made the mistake of telling me so. This was brilliant: a hotline to heaven. So whenever things were really tricky, I would get on

Melanie McDonagh: It’s good for politicians to be parents

July 14, 2016

The extraordinary turn of events whereby Britain acquired a new Prime Minister, Theresa May, nine weeks before anyone expected, owes a great deal to the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom from the race. And that, in turn, is almost entirely because of the furore that followed her observation in an interview with The

Melanie McDonagh: Catholicism is good for your health

May 19, 2016

Hah! Not only does Christianity offer you eternal life, it also prolongs your life on earth, at least if you go to church. Win-win. There have been lots of studies to suggest that churchgoing is good for you; the latest is an analysis of a study of 75,000 middle-aged nurses in the US between 1999

Help! Am I turning Protestant?

April 07, 2016

There was a time when I thought I’d never say this, but I’m worried that I’m, how shall I put it, turning Protestant. The awful thought dawned on me when I realised that although my parish church has a Door of Mercy – going through which, with appropriate prayers, would give me an indulgence –

Melanie McDonagh: When music changed its tune

February 18, 2016

There are several significant anniversaries this year, but the big one is coming up next year: in 2017 it will be 500 years since the start of the Reformation, a circumstance I may mark by wearing black or purple for the duration. The Reformation in England happened much later, but 1517 is indeed the point

I’m turning to a mad ‘saint’ in my hour of need

January 14, 2016

My mother has been very ill – and still is – so the most natural thing to do is to badger God about it. So I do, and indeed I recruit as many people as I can to do it too. Some are better than others at it – though no one comes anywhere near

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