SPIRITED THINKING SINCE 1888
Stephen Bullivant

McCarrick Report: Outstanding questions
November 13, 2020
Stephen Bullivant pokes around the edges of what the McCarrick Report mostly … doesn’t. I ended each of my previous two pieces (here and here) with a not-so-subtle trailer to where, in this final instalment, I always expected I’d end up. The Report provides a wealth of detail on the deliberations that led to each
Cold Reading
November 11, 2020
‘For everything there is a time…’, and if the afternoon of Tuesday, November 10th was the turn of ‘warm takes’ on the McCarrick Report, today we turn to the cold, hard ones.  As I noted shortly after it dropped, much of the real story in the McCarrick Report will likely emerge from the footnotes. This
Warm Takes on the McCarrick Report
November 10, 2020
The indictment and “trial” of Theodore Edgar “Uncle Ted” McCarrick was in large measure the arraignment of the system in which he thrived for so long. At least it should have been. The postmortem on his ecclesiastical career is – or ought to be – a vivisection of the careers of many others. Hence it is no surprise
Continuing the hunt for a fabled GK Chesterton quote
December 17, 2019
Over two years ago, I published a CH article about trying – and roundly failing – to verify G. K. Chesterton’s famous answer to the question “What’s Wrong with the World?”: Dear sir,  I am.  Yours, GK Chesterton As the story normally goes, this was his answer to a request from The Times for essays
Exclusive data: How Catholics are likely to vote in the General Election
December 11, 2019
Whether there is still such a thing as “the Catholic vote” in UK elections is a moot point – no parties seem particularly keen to chase it, even if there is. Nevertheless, there are certainly millions of Catholic voters. Overall, self-identified Catholics add up to around 8 or 9 per cent of the population, though
Vatican II was meant to be the laity’s ‘coming of age’. So what went wrong?
May 30, 2019
On October 11 1962, St John XXIII formally opened the Second Vatican Council. Its avowed purpose was, he told the thousands assembled in St Peter’s Basilica, to “really succeed in bringing men, families and nations to the appreciation of supernatural values”. While this would require some “timely changes” to “keep up to date with the
Running the London Marathon while praying the rosary – an apology
April 29, 2019
Six weeks ago, the Catholic Herald published an article of mine, titled ‘Rosaries and marathons are a perfect combination – at least, I hope so’. In the past days, it has come to light that this contained a number of egregious falsehoods and calumnious misrepresentations. I hasten to add that the editors had no way
Rosaries and marathons are a perfect combination – at least, I hope so
March 15, 2019
Several years ago – back when I was, if not precisely in my prime, at least substantially less old, fat, and mentally ill than my current shambolic state – I had the idea of running a marathon. In December. Along Liverpool’s windswept Docks. While praying the rosary non-stop, all the way round. If that sounds
When ‘no change’ changed everything
July 19, 2018
For the philosopher Ralph McInerny, 1968 was “The Year the Church Fell Apart”. For Peter Steinfels, it saw the beginning of “the Vietnam War of the Catholic Church”. These apocalyptic descriptions – there are many more – refer to a single event: Pope Paul’s release on July 25, 1968, 50 years ago this week, of
How Humanae Vitae changed the Church
July 19, 2018
After Paul VI released Humanae Vitae 50 years ago, Catholics split into warring tribes
Spare a thought for seafarers this Sunday
July 06, 2018
This disproportionately Catholic community can go months without any access to the sacraments
A new finding: one in five UK Catholics was born elsewhere
May 10, 2018
Official data also show which immigrant groups are most likely to attend Sunday Mass
The scary truth about young Europeans and the Church
March 22, 2018
New figures show the scale of the challenge facing the bishops at this year's youth synod
Europe’s youth: the good and bad news
March 22, 2018
In his 2003 exhortation Ecclesia in Europa, Pope John Paul II addressed at length the “de-Christianisation of vast areas of the European continent”. Citing Christ’s query as to whether, upon his return, he would find faith left on earth (Luke 18:8), the Polish saint asked: “Will he find faith in our countries, in this Europe
England has hundreds of forgotten martyrs. Let’s bring back our devotion to them
February 02, 2018
The sheer numbers of martyrs mean there is scope for fostering some very local devotions
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