SPIRITED THINKING SINCE 1888
August 29, 2019
Keep schools open, Cameroonian bishops tell Anglophone separatists
August 29, 2019
Some bishops in Cameroon have urged Anglophone separatists to allow schools to reopen, after militants abducted a bishop and two priests for condemning the school shutdown campaign. “All children deserve the right to education and a good future wherever they decide to spend their lives,” said members of the Bamenda provincial bishops’ conference. “Many parents
UPDATED: Facebook posts contradict Seattle archdiocese claims on parishioner’s planned suicide
August 29, 2019
The Archdiocese of Seattle issued a statement Aug. 28, subsequent to the initial publication of this story. The story has been updated to incorporate that statement. Social media posts made by Robert Fuller, the man whose assisted suicide was profiled Aug. 26 by the Associated Press, suggest that he scheduled his funeral with his parish
Morning Catholic must-reads: 29/08/19
August 29, 2019
Xu Hongwei has become the second Chinese bishop to be ordained since last September’s Vatican-China agreement. An Argentine judge has permitted Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta to return to Rome “to continue with his daily work” – even though he has been suspended from his Vatican post. A high court in India has agreed to hear a
There’s no excuse for letting schoolchildren go hungry
August 29, 2019
In bygone days schoolchildren would be seen at midday with their tin lunch pails or strolling home from neighbourhood schools to eat with their families. But suburban sprawl means that most of the 50 million children attending US public schools today live too far from school to safely walk home at lunchtime. Even if they lived
Men suffer from abortion too
August 29, 2019
Back in 1975, before Fr Stephen Imbarrato became a Catholic priest and pro-life activist, he got his girlfriend pregnant and was, in his own words, “complicit” in her abortion. Decades later when he met her to apologise, he found out she had been carrying twins. “I had said I supported her decision either way, though I
A lesson in ageing
August 29, 2019
We live in a culture that idealises youth and marginalises the old. And, as the psychologist James Hillman says, the old don’t let go easily either of the throne or the drive that took them there. I know; I’m ageing. For most of my life, I’ve been able to think of myself as young. Because I was
I’m thankful for the sacrament that Luther and Calvin rejected
August 29, 2019
My mother received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick last Sunday. I was away when she was anointed but her carers were there and they noticed that she tried, with a faltering hand, to make the Sign of the Cross … less successfully than Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited, on his deathbed, and
Heretic of the week: Ralph Waldo Emerson
August 29, 2019
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is considered to be one of the greatest writers the United States has ever produced. Generations of schoolchildren have read his essays, and his opinions have been drilled into students as the epitome of American individualism and rectitude. His influence, moreover, has been reinforced by his disciples, such as Henry David Thoreau.
Prize crossword 0608
August 29, 2019
Cryptic across 5 Licentious nature of the monasteries in the 16th century? (11) 7 Dairy produce one finds in buffet area (4) 8 Dig in about the defence of WWI (8) 9 He wrote masses about drugs in Ethics (7) 11 Poke around firm in Israel (5) 13 Poles, running around court, faint (5) 14
Mass readings
August 29, 2019
Ordinary Form Divine Office Week II Sunday, September 1: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Ps 68; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24A; Lk 14:1, 7-14 Monday, September 2: Weekday in Ordinary Time 1 Thes 4:13-18; Ps 96; Lk 4:16-30 Tuesday, September 3: St Gregory the Great 1 Thes 5:1-6, 9-11; Ps 27; Lk 4:31-37 Wednesday, September
How to… get to know St Augustine
August 29, 2019
The thinking of St Augustine of Hippo, a Doctor of the Church, is so influential, says Pope Benedict XVI, that he continues to leave a “deep mark on the cultural life of the West and on the whole world”. Much of his philosophy and theology is contained in an extensive book called The City of
The many blessings of a mini-pilgrimage
August 29, 2019
Over the summer many Catholics will have made their way to pilgrimage sites all over the world. Pilgrimage is as important as ever, with the revival of many ancient pilgrim routes and sites taking place over the last couple of decades. However, it is not always necessary to travel long distances at great expense to
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