Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

April 01, 2023

Something for everyone: there is unity in the diversity of the Church’s rites

April 01, 2023

Unexpectedly, our American brothers and sisters who have up to now attended the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) have been in the news a lot lately. The FBI curiously followed a lead from the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and sent out a memo to their offices about a connection between “radical-traditionalist Catholic groups” and

The Roche Rescript impoverishes the whole Church, says Chairman of Latin Mass Society

April 01, 2023

Seminarians of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP) prepare to receive minor orders at Wigratzbad Since Pope Francis’s Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes in 2021, congregations attending the pre-Vatican II Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), have been living on borrowed time. Pope Francis announced that he wished to enforce “single and identical prayer” and to this

The pope and primates

April 01, 2023

Rethinking human relationship with the animal creation is not everyone’s cup of tea. There are nymphs in the Vatican Gardens. You will find them painted – chastely attired, as they represent characters in sacred history – on the walls of the Renaissance pavilion that houses the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. I recall them as I

The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

April 01, 2023

The Catholic Herald was in full view at the 18th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington, DC, on March 13. Mark Randall introduced Archbishop Christopher Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, who relayed Pope Francis’s greetings. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dr John Barton’s favourite book of the Bible: Ecclesiasticus

April 01, 2023

John Barton speaks out for an undervalued and little-read wisdom book of the Old Testament.

To Leslie, reviewed by Julia Hamilton

April 01, 2023

Andrea Riseborough as a recovering alcoholic is the best thing about To Leslie, says Julia Hamilton. In her latest film, To Leslie, Andrea Riseborough plays a small-town, West Texas single mother, a complete basket case of a rock-bottom drunk who’s made such a mess of her life that she is bankrupt on all fronts: physically,

Rational enquiries: a Dominican friar meets a theoretical physicist

April 01, 2023

Robert Verrill OP meets Carlo Rovelli, the Italian theoretical physicist whose latest book latest book challenges monotheistic faith. It seems obvious to me that throughout history there have been several conflicts between science and religion. But rather than seeing these conflicts as an indication of their fundamental incompatibility, I believe that through dialogue, we can

Vatican II: Angels and devils on our shoulders

April 01, 2023

Shaun Blanchard reflects on the ‘Very Short Introduction’ to Vatican II. A few years ago, in those halcyon days before the pandemic, I sat down in an Oxfordshire pub with Stephen Bullivant to draft a prop-osal for a volume on Vatican II for OUP’s Very Short Introduction (VSI) series. Much of that day saw pitched

Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History, by Philip C Almond

April 01, 2023

Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History Philip C Almond Cambridge University Press, £30, 386 pages ‘Will the real Mary Magdalene please stand up?” That question might be said to underlie Philip Almond’s new reception history of one of the New Testament’s most represented, and most contested, figures. At the heart of Mary’s story lies a paradox.

Enough: Scenes from Childhood, by Stephen Hough

April 01, 2023

Enough: Scenes from Childhood Stephen Hough Faber & Faber, £18.99, 272 pages In this cautiously loving book we are drawn deeply into Stephen Hough’s life, both inner and outer, in charming, sad, hilarious and, at one point, eye-watering detail. There is a sense of sharing which invites us into a world which some will remember,

A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought, edited by Juan R Vélez

April 01, 2023

A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought Juan R Vélez (ed) Catholic University of America Press,$75, 448 pages Just when you thought all the books about John Henry Newman had been written, along comes this enormous offering from Fr Juan Vélez: huge in scope and in the breadth of its contributors, who

Feast and Fast: Dominican friar offers his recipe whilst delighting in the scents and tastes he associates with Holy Week

April 01, 2023

Holy Week and Easter have been at the heart of my growth in the faith. From my late teenage years as a progressively more arch and spiky Anglo-Catholic, all the way through to my becoming a Catholic, entering religious life, and now a priest, those great days of the Triduum and the Octave of Easter