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

‘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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Paul VI released Humanae Vitae 50 years ago, Catholics split into warring tribes

This disproportionately Catholic community can go months without any access to the sacraments

Official data also show which immigrant groups are most likely to attend Sunday Mass

New figures show the scale of the challenge facing the bishops at this year's youth synod

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

The sheer numbers of martyrs mean there is scope for fostering some very local devotions