Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

July 11, 2019

Catholic school teacher fired for gay marriage sues Archdiocese of Indianapolis

July 11, 2019

A teacher at a Catholic school in Indianapolis whose contract was terminated due to his same-sex marriage is suing the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, one day after reaching a settlement with the school. Local news station RTV6 reported that former Cathedral High School teacher Joshua Payne-Elliott filed a lawsuit claiming that the archdiocese illegally interfered in

Russian Orthodox Church considers ending blessings for nuclear weapons

July 11, 2019

The Russian Orthodox Church is debating an end to the practice of blessing large scale weapons, including nuclear missiles. Last month, a committee on ecclesial law met in Moscow and recommended ending the practice of blessing missiles and warheads, and suggested that priests should instead bless only individual soldiers and their personal weapons. According to

Pope accepts resignation of Bishop of Menevia

July 11, 2019

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Thomas Matthew Burns, S.M. as Bishop of Menevia in Wales. Burns submitted his resignation on June 3, the day of his 75th birthday, as is required of all bishops by Canon Law. A priest of the Society of Mary, Burns was ordained a Bishop of the Forces

Vincent Lambert dies in Reims hospital

July 11, 2019

On Thursday morning, Vincent Lambert, the severely disabled Frenchman who was at the centre of a legal battle, died in Reims, France. In a tweet on Thursday morning, the Pontifical Academy for Life said Lambert’s death was “a defeat for our entire humanity.” Mons. Paglia e tutta la @PontAcadLife pregano per la famiglia di #VincentLambert, per

Morning Catholic must-reads: 11/07/19

July 11, 2019

Attacks on Christian sites in France quadrupled between 2008 and 2019. Myanmar (Burma) is producing the most priests in the world relative to its Catholic population. The Pope has been “bombarded with abuse” after tweeting in support of migrants. US Catholics are crowdfunding the launch of a new magazine. Elisabetta Povoledo explains why the search

Wanted: certain kinds of saints

July 11, 2019

The French philosopher Simone Weil once commented that it’s not enough today to be merely a saint. Rather, “we must have the saintliness demanded by the present moment”. She’s surely right on that second premise: we need saints whose virtues speak to the times. What kind of saint is needed today? Someone who can show

Wolf Hall: When ingenious fiction meets public ignorance

July 11, 2019

Just in time for the publication of The Mirror and the Light, the third and final volume of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell later this year, my old friend Richard Rex, a history professor at Cambridge, has delivered a lecture in Dublin on the first volume, Wolf Hall. It should be required reading

Heretic of the week: Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian

July 11, 2019

Apostasy is a bad thing, whoever may do it; but it seems particularly bad when it happens to a scion of one of those grand recusant families who kept the faith shining during the time of the penal laws. Leaving the faith, there are saner and crazier options – an intelligent person embracing the latter

Prize crossword 0601

July 11, 2019

Cryptic across 1 Eyes beginning to go, need earliest treatment for transplant fixes (7) 5 Nymph’s impiety rebounds, ensnaring even those who abstain (5) 8 Mature flower? (7) 9 Under Milk Wood: it’s not a poetic description of another Welsh town (5) 10 Missionary in Tibet it usually covers (5) 11 Essence of purity maybe required in

Mass readings

July 11, 2019

Ordinary Form Divine Office Week III Sunday, July 14: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Dt 30:10-14; Ps 69; Col 1:15-20; Lk 10:25-37 Monday, July 15: St Bonaventure Ex 1:8-14, 22; Ps 124; Mt 10:34-11:1 Tuesday, July 16: Weekday in Ordinary Time or Our Lady of Mount Carmel Ex 2:1-15A; Ps 69; Mt 11:20-24 Wednesday, July 17: Weekday in Ordinary Time

How to… join the papal nobility

July 11, 2019

In spite of a succession of reforms in the modern era, including the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has never abolished the papal nobility: those aristocratic titles formerly occupied by the likes of the Borgias, the Medici, the Orsini, the Pamphili and the Borghese. St Paul VI was the last pontiff to address the

The Martins didn’t know they were saints – but they wanted to be

July 11, 2019

If your only Catholic association for the date of July 12 was hitherto the painful one of the Battle of the Boyne, a new and beautiful one can be added to it, for it is now the feast day of Ss Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Thérèse Martin, “The Little Flower”. There are so