Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

July 24, 2020

Erdoğan joins thousands as Hagia Sophia opens as mosque for prayers

July 24, 2020

Thousands gathered around Istanbul's Hagia Sophia on Friday, as the historic building opened for Friday prayers and its conversion into a mosque became complete.

Christian leaders call on Democrats to embrace pro-life policies

July 24, 2020

A group of more than 100 faith leaders and clergy are asking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to modify the abortion policies

Pope thanks pilgrim with disability who walked along Spain’s ‘Camino’

July 24, 2020

Pope Francis sent a letter of gratitude to a Spanish teen with an intellectual disability after the 15-year-old travelled more than 60 miles along the famed Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

Cardinal Bo: Hagia Sophia’s conversion into a mosque will ‘reopen wounds’

July 24, 2020

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo said that he was grieved by Turkey’s decision to change the status of the sixth-century Byzantine cathedral.

Wisdom is a gift from God

July 24, 2020

Seventeenth Sunday of the Year 1 Kings 3: 5 & 7-12; Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 13: 44-52 The Collect for the seventeenth Sunday of the year prays that the Lord might so guide us that “we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast, even now, to those

John Sutherland: Orwell only deserves half his halo

July 24, 2020

The statue least likely to need Sadiq Khan’s protective box is, surely, that of George Orwell alongside Broadcasting House. But we should remove half his halo – the half smirching the name he began life with, Eric Blair. The Blairs were enriched, generations back, by slave-trade investment. Eric’s father worked in the Indian Opium Office

Edel Quinn’s life shows that real success often comes from failure

July 24, 2020

Edel Quinn’s life is a reminder that fruitfulness and authentic success often emerge from failure, from giving up one’s hopes and choices to God. Born in Cork in 1907, the daughter of a bank official and his wife, Edel’s early life was subject to constant change. Her education came to an abrupt end when she

Without Lourdes, Grace Kelly might never have become Monaco’s Princess

July 24, 2020

Critical scorn has been poured on a three-part BBC documentary about the principality of Monaco (Monaco – Playground of the Rich, now available on iPlayer). It’s been widely described as a tedious portrait of silly rich people talking drivel. Monaco – once also known as Monte-Carlo – has always attracted a certain amount of disparagement.

In Pascendi Dominici Gregis, St Pius X defended both faith and reason

July 24, 2020

In one of her letters, the American novelist Flannery O’Connor relates how, at a dinner party, one of the guests – an ex-Catholic – called the Eucharist a nice symbol. O’Connor replied, “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” This incident highlights a fundamental point about the Catholic faith: if it’s not true,

Blessed Hildegard Burjan: A mother and MP who helped the poor

July 24, 2020

The first half of the 20th century produced incredible amounts of bloodshed, warfare and social unrest: of the hapless nations visited by these plagues, Austria was among the foremost. Yet the Catholic empire-turned-rump-republic also produced some of the brightest lights during that dark time, and one of these was Hildegard Burjan (1883-1933). She was born

Mysterious consolation: Perfume and the history of Christianity

July 24, 2020

The Lord said, “You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood.” (Exodus 30:1) Scent has an incredible ability to unite the present with the past. That has made perfume useful in church services since the earliest times, not only in the form of incense, but also mixed

Bishops urge Catholics to ‘meet hatred with love’ after churches vandalized

July 24, 2020

Attacks on churches, regardless of the motivation behind the perpetrators, 'are signs of a society in need of healing,' the bishops said