Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

September 30, 2019

Pope Francis: Love children and the elderly – or expect ‘demographic winter’

September 30, 2019

In his Monday morning homily at the Vatican’s Santa Marta guesthouse, Pope Francis said the vibrant presence of elderly and young people in communities demonstrates the presence of God. “The abundance of elderly people and children. This is the sign that when a people care for the old and for the young, and consider them

Morning Catholic must-reads: 01/10/19

September 30, 2019

“Do not be afraid to bear witness to Jesus even where it is uncomfortable or inconvenient,” Pope Francis has told missionaries. Sandro Magister argues that the new movements “are everywhere in decline, in some cases ruinously so”. Barbie Latza Nadeau says “there may be no more important meeting in Francis’s entire papacy” than the Amazon

Cardinal Nichols: John Henry Newman calls Catholics to be ‘missionary disciples’

September 30, 2019

Blessed John Henry Newman offers an important witness for the Catholic Church in England during difficult times, and is a patron for the call of every Catholic to “missionary discipleship”, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has said. “Cardinal Newman faced difficult times and circumstances. So do we. At this moment,

Pope approves division of world’s largest diocese

September 30, 2019

Three new dioceses have been carved out of the Archdiocese of Mexico, a move Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City said will bring pastors “closer to the all the inhabitants.” The decision, announced on September 27, creates the dioceses of Azcapotzalco in northwest Mexico City; Iztapalapa, the Mexican capital’s largest borough; and Xochimilco, in

Fr James Martin meets Pope Francis at Vatican

September 30, 2019

Pope Francis met Fr James Martin, SJ, in a private audience in the apostolic palace inside the Vatican. Martin said on Twitter on September 30 that his meeting with Pope Francis lasted 30 minutes, and that he shared with him “the joys and hopes, and the griefs and anxieties, of LGBT Catholics and LGBT people

Pope Francis institutes day to promote knowledge and love of scripture

September 30, 2019

Pope Francis has declared the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time to be the Sunday of the Word of God in order to promote a closer relationship with holy scripture and its dissemination in the world. “A day devoted to the Bible should not be seen as a yearly event but rather a year-long event, for

It’s time to banish phones from Mass

September 30, 2019

Coming soon to a church near you: a sea of backlit mobile phone and tablet screens creating a fittingly reverential aura round the People of God. I often think of the Catholic Church as resembling a symphony orchestra, and my forecast is based on the news of the BBC Philharmonic’s recent technological initiative. From the

What if people aren’t oppressed?

September 30, 2019

Moving from blogging about Gabriele Kuby’s book, Abuse of Sexuality in the Catholic Church to blogging about Douglas Murray’s new book, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity raises interesting parallels. Kuby is looking at that ancient and most enduring guardian of dogmatic truth, the Catholic Church, and asking what has gone wrong: why

A call for clear teaching

September 30, 2019

Gabriele Kuby’s new book, Abuse of Sexuality in the Catholic Church (Divine Providence Press) includes an anecdote which shows up in pitiable relief the glory of the Catholic priesthood and its degradation in in some highly publicised instances today. Recalling a film made about Pope John XXIII in 1965 by Harry Salzmann she writes that