Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

November 01, 2018

The spiritual intensity of a Suffolk weekend

November 01, 2018

Composers by tradition channel their most serious, abstract thinking into symphonies and string quartets. And though Benjamin Britten was neither a symphonist nor someone who worked in the abstract – writing mostly vocal music with a narrative – he did produce three significant quartets, as well as youthful stabs at the medium that were consigned

Pope on All Saints’ Day: Live for heaven, not the world

November 01, 2018

'Holiness or nothing' is the choice Christians face, Pope Francis said

America’s Catholic enclaves have vanished. But I can imagine a beautiful future

November 01, 2018

A gauzy cultural Catholicism is no match for secularism. For the US Church to flourish, we need to act like full-time followers of Jesus

How Agatha Christie helped to save the Latin Mass

November 01, 2018

An unlikely intervention by England’s cultural luminaries rescued the Tridentine Mass from threatened extinction

Brave new Church: can Catholicism be decentralised?

November 01, 2018

The youth synod’s final report resoundingly endorses ‘synodality’. This could be a positive step – once bishops have worked out what it means

Vietnam: Replanting ‘Mother Mushroom’

November 01, 2018

A Catholic blogger is sent into exile The Vietnamese Catholic blogger and activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as “Mother Mushroom”, has been released. This comes two years after Quynh was imprisoned for “propaganda against the state”. (Her moniker derives from her daughter being nicknamed Mushroom.) For over a decade, Quynh (pictured) has been

Ukraine: Vocations nation

November 01, 2018

In one of Europe’s poorest countries, one thing is still doing well: Christianity Arguably no European country is in a worse economic and political situation than Ukraine. Since 2014, Russia’s war against its neighbour has claimed 10,000 lives. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund estimates that in terms of GDP per capita, Ukraine is Europe’s poorest

Bishops: Memphis mystery

November 01, 2018

Why did the Vatican oust Bishop Martin Holley? On October 24, Pope Francis removed Bishop Martin Holley from the Diocese of Memphis without assigning him to a new see. At 63, he’s over a decade shy of retirement age. To remove such a (relatively) young bishop without giving him another assignment is an extreme measure.

Higher education: Teach first

November 01, 2018

A new degree in Catholic social teaching is now accepting applicants A few years ago, there was an unexpected wave of interest in Catholic social teaching. David Cameron started taking advice from Phillip Blond, an Anglican professor inspired by the Church’s doctrine. His opponent, Ed Miliband, grew close to Blue Labour”, a group which drew

Northern Ireland: London calling

November 01, 2018

MPs haven’t given up on introducing abortion and gay marriage to the region Say “the Northern Ireland problem” to followers of British politics, and they are likely to think about Brexit. Do we need a customs border, and if so where should it be placed? Is there some hybrid arrangement that could satisfy all parties?

Youth Synod: Continental shift

November 01, 2018

African bishops don’t share their Western counterparts’ doom and gloom Some general assemblies of the synod of bishops have been more closely supervised, and some better, than others. But the truth is that they’ve always been managed, so the focus on political machinations, the talk of “rigging” and “manipulation”, is only to be expected. But

In brief

November 01, 2018

Mundelein US bishops to hold retreat on abuse crisis Pope Francis’s personal preacher will lead a retreat for American bishops early next year, to reflect on the clerical abuse crisis. Fr Raniero Cantalamessa will be director of the retreat at the University of St Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois, which houses the primary