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February 07, 2019

Arnold of Brescia (1090-1155) was, oddly enough, born in Brescia, Italy. Joining a house of Augustinian canons in his native city, Arnold rose to become prior of the monastery. He began preaching what he called “Apostolic Poverty”, by which he meant that the Church should own nothing – most especially real estate. At the time,

If Virginia Governor Northam goes, pro-lifers won’t be able to breathe a sigh of relief

February 07, 2019

In the last two weeks Democrats in New York and Virginia have advanced efforts to expand legal abortion, succeeding in the former case and failing in the latter. Both can be understood as responses by Democratic states to shore up legal abortion in the face of a shifting Supreme Court. In New York, Governor Andrew

Week in review

February 07, 2019

The big story of the past seven days ✣ Jeremy Hunt vows to defend persecuted Christians What happened? Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, has criticised the Government’s past response to anti-Christian persecution, pledging to “banish any hesitation to look into this issue”. Speaking at the launch of an independent review into global persecution of Christians,

World news

February 07, 2019

Louisiana Law restricting abortion put on pause the Supreme Court (pictured) has put a temporary hold on a law that would restrict abortions in Louisiana. It would require abortion providers to have “admitting privileges” – official status – at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. It would have dramatically reduced the number of

The Pope’s in-flight press conference didn’t get the attention it deserved

February 07, 2019

When it comes to news from the Pope’s in-flight press conference en route to Rome from Panama last week, his discussion of the “inflated expectations” for the upcoming child protection summit rightly garnered the lion’s share of attention. Those remarks were always going to grab the headlines, though they weren’t the only newsworthy things Pope

The Church is leading the battle against human trafficking

February 07, 2019

Three years ago police in Lancashire noticed that among an influx of Romanians was a man called Gabriel Razvan Ursu, a career criminal with convictions for theft, fraud and running prostitutes. Brothels started to spring up in the east of the county and officers began to watch houses in Blackburn and Burnley which were being

Excommunication breakdown: Why Catholics can’t agree about Cuomo

February 07, 2019

Without a doubt, the most evocative moment in Catholic cinema is the excommunication scene from Becket. Richard Burton, playing Thomas Becket, pronounces the delinquent Bishop of London anathema, culminating in these horrible words: “We declare him excommunicate and anathema. We cast him into the outer darkness.” Admittedly, the film omits the full formula of excommunication,

Asia Bibi’s exoneration is good news for other victims of the blasphemy law

February 07, 2019

Asia Bibi has, at long last, triumphed in her search for justice. When the Supreme Court of Pakistan last week threw out a challenge against its decision to acquit the Christian farm labourer, it marked the end of almost 10 years of legal proceedings, eight of which Asia spent on death row. At the time

Germany’s Christian Democrats are about to liberalise the abortion laws

February 07, 2019

The German government has reached a compromise on liberalising the country’s abortion law. Health minister Jens Spahn of the Christian Democrats (CDU) will revise the controversial Article 219a which bans advertising of abortion services. The government will now publish a list of doctors offering abortion and expand training in the procedure. This follows a bitter

A new persecution has begun – and with it, a subtle temptation

February 07, 2019

The danger to Western Christians doesn't come from sword-and-sandals tyrants, but from an enforced code of etiquette

When anti-Catholicism inspired riots

February 07, 2019

Historians, including some of the good ones, have often proffered sweeping generalisations about American anti-Catholicism. You’ll read about it being “the deepest bias in the history of the American people” or the most “tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history”. The pity is that these analyses are not too far wide of the mark.

Mass readings

February 07, 2019

Ordinary Form Divine Office Week II Sunday, February 10: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Is 6:1-2A, 3-8; Ps 138; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Lk 5:1-11 Monday, February 11: Weekday in Ordinary Time or Our Lady of Lourdes Gn 1:1-19; Ps 104; Mk 6:53-56 Tuesday, February 12: Weekday in Ordinary Time Gn 1:20-2:4A; Ps 8; Mk 7:1-13