Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

April 25, 2019

Ordinary Form Divine Office Week II Sunday, April 28: Second Sunday of Easter Acts 5:12-16; Ps 118; Rev 1:9-11A, 12-13, 17-19; Jn 20:19-31 Monday, April 29: St Catherine of Siena Acts 4:23-31; Ps 2; Jn 3:1-8 Tuesday, April 30: St George (England); St Pius V (Wales) Apoc 12:10-12; Ps 125; Jn 15:18-21 Weekday of Easter

Letters & emails

April 25, 2019

Make Confession available again SIR – I would like to endorse the comments made by Dr Holly Ordway (Letter, April 12) on the subject of the Confession crisis. I now live in Antwerp, Belgium, where, due to a shortage of priests and perhaps lack of penitents, Confession is normally available only on request. Until two

Exploitation and the desire for parenthood

April 25, 2019

Since at least the 1960s, we have been bombarded with information about overpopulation, and the phrase “unwanted pregnancy” has become part of the everyday discourse about women’s rights. How seldom has it been pointed out that, throughout the ages, there has been just as much yearning, among women, to achieve a pregnancy. Literature and history

A liberating joy: Easter in Kinshasa

April 25, 2019

Every Holy Week begins with the celebration of Palm Sunday. For us in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there is no shortage of palm leaves. In fact, here in our parish of St Perpetua, a stone’s throw from the banks of the River Congo, tall palm leaves were planted along the procession route and

Will Pope Francis meet Italy’s anti-immigration firebrand?

April 25, 2019

With a popularity rating of 59 per cent and his right-wing Lega movement’s poll figures now double the vote it took in last year’s general election, Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini is the man of the moment. The selfie-obsessed politician has made ample use of social media to bypass established media channels, cutting out the

Western Christians should learn from the Sri Lanka martyrs

April 25, 2019

“He who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” but “he who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:38-9). By that stark measure of discipleship, Sri Lanka’s slaughtered Christians have amply proved themselves. On Sunday, they filled their churches in Colombo to greet the Risen

Dear Fr Rutler: Can we feel too much sorrow for our sins?

April 25, 2019

Dear Father Rutler, My family is mostly Protestant, and they obviously don’t cross themselves before praying, say “debtors” instead of “trespassers” during the Lord’s Prayer, and so on. I never know what to do when we’re together. Would it be ostentatious for me to do things the Catholic way? Does God mind if I ask

Prize crossword 0590

April 25, 2019

Cryptic across 6 Steal, and the Old Testament requires death in the end: he was stoned (6) 8 Book about one son of Abraham, virtually the first among Hebrews (6) 9 In the KJV, various marine workers (6) 10 Keturah’s boy is CEO, one that’s secured fashionable American input (6) 11 Philistines’ champion banned refining of

There are three different kinds of spirituality. We need them all

April 25, 2019

Where should we be casting our eyes? Upward, downward, or just on the road that we’re walking? Well, there are different kinds of spiritualities: spiritualities of the Ascent, Spiritualities of the Descent and Spiritualities of Maintenance, and each is important. Spiritualities of the Ascent are spiritualities that invite us to strive always for what’s higher,

Fr Schall: The man who launched a thousand libraries

April 25, 2019

The legendary Georgetown professor Fr James Schall SJ died peacefully last week, at the age of 91, surrounded by his family. He had retired in 2012, after teaching for more than 30 years in Georgetown’s government department. Despite serious health problems, the books and articles had continued to pour forth. I was privileged to know

Heretic of the week: Rudolf Steiner

April 25, 2019

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in Donji Kraljevec, now in Croatia but then in the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His father was a telegraph operator on the railroad, rising through the ranks to become a station master. Thus, the family enjoyed a comfortable but peripatetic existence. Baptised and raised Catholic, young Rudolf began

How to… celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday

April 25, 2019

Divine Mercy Sunday was introduced by Pope St John Paul II in 2000 when he canonised St Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun and visionary who received apparitions of Our Lord in the 1930s. It falls on the Second Sunday of Easter, a day when the Gospels speak directly of the mercy of Jesus. Many churches