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October 17, 2019

The 2019 Catholic Herald Book Awards in pictures

October 17, 2019

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Analysis: A pink dolphin, a carved image, and inculturation at the Amazon synod

October 17, 2019

At a “moment of Amazon spirituality” on October 16, in a church just down the street from St Peter’s Square, a woman told the Amazonian folk tale of a pink river dolphin who seduced a village girl. The story, and the conversation that ensued, is a poignant example of questions raised about the Vatican’s Amazon

Brazilian bishop: Lack of holiness among clerics an obstacle to vocations

October 17, 2019

A bishop in Brazil who is a member of the Amazon synod has said he believes a major obstacle to increasing priestly vocations in the region is a lack of personal holiness among the ordained, rather than the discipline of celibacy. Bishop Wellington de Queiroz Vieira of Cristalandia said on October 16 that the proposal

Morning Catholic must-reads: 17/10/19

October 17, 2019

The Amazon synod is not a “referendum” on priestly celibacy, Cardinal Seán O’Malley has said (Fr Luke Hansen SJ, Robert Royal). The Holy Spirit is “working overtime” at the synod, Cardinal Kevin Farrell has said. A priest has been kidnapped and murdered in Embu County, Kenya. There is a “strong fear” among Iraqi Christians that

Grieving as a spiritual exercise

October 17, 2019

In a remarkable book, The Inner Voice of Love, written while he was in a deep emotional depression, Henri Nouwen shares these words: The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to try to understand

Why preachers – and politicians – shouldn’t speak from notes

October 17, 2019

I have been told that not so very long ago – certainly in my lifetime – if and when an MP read out his speech in Parliament he would be greeted with protesting cries of “Reading! Reading!” from fellow members, it being considered a breach of parliamentary protocol. If you have watched a good deal

Heretic of the week: William J Seymour

October 17, 2019

William J Seymour (1870-1922) was born in Franklin, Louisiana, to a former slave couple. Although baptised Catholic in his home town’s Assumption Church, as a child he followed his parents out of the faith into the Baptist Church. At the time the federal government’s Freedmen’s Bureau – in addition to teaching the newly emancipated African

Prize crossword 0615

October 17, 2019

Cryptic across 7 After dissolute heir apparent’s wild spree, gets kicked out of Iranian section (8) 8 Bob in the old days with a mournful song to bring down the curtain? (4) 9 Runs into boss after Jersey, perhaps he’s a Pompey supporter… (6) 10 …his little county club’s first and foremost creating footy songs (6)

Mass readings

October 17, 2019

Ordinary Form Divine Office Week I Sunday, October 20: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Ex 17:8-13; Ps 121; 2 Tm 3:14 – 4:2; Lk 18:1-8 Monday, October 21: Weekday in Ordinary Time Rom 4:20-25; Lk 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75; Lk 12:13-21 Tuesday, October 22: Weekday in Ordinary Time or St John Paul II Rom 5:12, 15B,

How to… Pray to St John Henry Newman

October 17, 2019

The simplest way to pray to England’s newest saint is to say: “St John Henry Newman, pray for us.” This could be elaborated upon by asking for a specific favour, as did Melissa Villalobos, the mother cured at his intercession – who, as she lay haemorrhaging, said: “Please, Cardinal Newman, make the bleeding stop.” Melissa by

Newman was no prophet of doctrinal ‘paradigm shifts’

October 17, 2019

Everyone agrees it’s a great thing both for the Church in this country and for the Universal Church that John Henry Newman is now a saint. If the interest in his life and works generated by canonisation leads to a genuine engagement with his thought and a recovery of its riches that will be wonderful.

A strategy for Catholics in a time of chaos

October 17, 2019

If you are a regular reader of this publication, you have probably learned of peculiar, indeed inexplicable, nay, rather, downright alarming goings-on in Rome in the penumbra of the Amazon synod now underway. It is likely that some of you are upset by them. That’s entirely understandable, but there’s an alternative. In times of chaos,