Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

April 14, 2016

Tear up migrant deal with Turkey, urges COMECE

April 14, 2016

The bishops said that refugees' right to human dignity and to protection needed to be upheld

As America’s culture war hits fever pitch, religious freedom is ever more precarious

April 14, 2016

This debate pits the newest freedom, so-called “marriage equality”, in direct conflict with the oldest

Canadian archbishop: assisted suicide makes the elderly fear hospitals

April 14, 2016

"The strong feeling is, 'If I can't speak for myself, if I'm alone with no family members, are they going to kill me?'" said Archbishop Smith

Pope Francis ventures into uncharted waters

April 14, 2016

The Pontiff has chosen to promote debate and diversity, rather than build unity around clearly expressed doctrine. The consequences will be enormous

Mary Kenny: The presidential candidate we’re waiting for

April 14, 2016

I’ve had the pleasure of being in New York for the past week – one of the friendliest cities in the world. Everyone says hello in daily encounters, and so courteously, too – the honorific of “Ma’am” is often used. Obviously the main talking point in the public realm is the coming presidential election. Few

Escape from a puritan ‘wasteland’

April 14, 2016

“There was something sinister in the very word Catholic,” said George Mackay Brown of his “anti-papist” upbringing. Brown was raised in a lukewarm Presbyterian family, where “all the words that clustered about [Catholicism] – rosary, pope, confession, relics, purgatory, monks, penance – had the same sinister connotations”. Yet Brown, a great and underrated Scottish poet

A blasphemous insurrection

April 14, 2016

The Easter Rising in Dublin by the Irish Volunteers, with the intention of overthrowing British rule in Ireland, failed every single test that would make a war moral. Another, non-violent method to achieve independence existed, namely a parliamentary campaign that had already managed to put limited self-government – “home rule” – for Ireland on the

Neglecting animal rights is just daft

April 14, 2016

“How can you worry about animals when human beings are suffering?” I wish I had a penny for every time that has been said to me, because by now I would be a millionaire. I know that I shall be hearing it again in a few weeks’ time as we approach hedgehog awareness week, which

Amoris Laetitia: Why Cardinal Kasper lost

April 14, 2016

Amoris Laetitia is a strikingly elegant presentation and defence of the Catholic vision of marriage and the family. The content of the exhortation, and the broad and sincere welcome it has received, came as a genuine surprise to many who had braced themselves for its release as if for an earthquake. Across two extraordinarily contentious

Amoris Laetitia: A radical proposal

April 14, 2016

There is a brief comic moment in Amoris Laetitia at the point where, some 50,000 words into the matter, Pope Francis writes at paragraph 307: “In order to remove all misunderstanding …” At that length, if the danger of misunderstanding remains, it is because clarity is not the goal. Amoris Laetitia insists repeatedly that general

Amoris Laetitia: An ode to Humanae Vitae

April 14, 2016

Buried deep in the middle of Amoris Laetitia is one of those little barbed asides for which Pope Francis is famous. He throws out the comment that “some Christian families, whether because of the language they use, the way they act or treat others, or their constant harping on the same two or three issues,

Can Pope Francis heal the SSPX rift?

April 14, 2016

On April 1 this year, reports emerged that the Superior General of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) was welcomed with open arms at the Vatican by the man some regard as the most liberal pope of all time. No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s story; the summit actually took place. Even more remarkably,