Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

October 30, 2023

The remarkable feature of an increasingly secular culture is that it tries to replace the cycle of the Church’s year with feasts and fasts of its own. In the case of Hallowe’en it has done so by simply appropriating an element of the Church’s year and making it near-unrecognisable. Hallowe’en is, as the name tells

Bishop urges Catholics to stick to church funerals amid rise of ‘direct cremations’

October 30, 2023

An English bishop has encouraged Catholics to hold fast to Christian faith and practice at funerals in the wake of rising numbers of “no frills” and “direct cremations”. In a pastoral letter to the faithful of the Diocese of Shrewsbury, called “At the Hour of Our Death”, Bishop Mark Davies expressed concern about the rising

Sexual abuse survivors question why Pope took so long to stop protecting Rupnik

October 30, 2023

Sex abuse survivors groups are asking why Pope Francis took so long to waive a statute of limitations to permit the possible prosecution of Slovenian priest-artist Father Marko Rupnik. Victims “need justice, not talk,” said Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins (pictured), a former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) who

Numbers of African Catholics boom as Church in Europe continues to shrink

October 30, 2023

YAOUNDÈ, Cameroon – A leading Nigerian prelate has said that Africans see Catholicism in the West as a “Church in decline” while in Africa Christianity is flourishing because of a strong Biblical faith and traditional moral convictions. “The African understanding of Biblical authority, sex, marriage, and sin may strike Western liberals as backward and superstitious,”