Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

December 18, 2023

Who would choose to be a Catholic at a time like this?

December 18, 2023

The phoney war is over. Civil war has been launched within the Church by Pope Francis and his recent appointee Cardinal Victor Fernandez. Many of the recent theological and political tremors that have emanated under the leadership of the Pope have produced a degree of incoherence and uncertainty. But the ambiguity is now over. Secular

Vatican’s doctrinal czar parses details for enabling same-sex blessings

December 18, 2023

ROME – After Pope Francis earlier this year opened the door in certain circumstances to giving blessings to same-sex couples, the Vatican’s doctrinal office has published a lengthy note explaining the pastoral grounds for these blessings, and spelling out the details of how and where they are to be given. The new declaration, titled “Fiducia

Vatican appears to endorse couples in ‘irregular situations’ receiving blessings that do not ‘validate their status’

December 18, 2023

A new declaration from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith appears to attempt to square the controversial issue of approving blessings for same-sex couples without undermining the Church’s traditional teaching on the sanctity of marriage. The Declaration Fiducia supplicans issued by the Dicastery on 18 December, approved by Pope Francis, means “it will be

Cardinal Nichols ‘heartbroken’ over attack on Gaza’s only Catholic church that he knows personally

December 18, 2023

LEICESTER, Crux – Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the UK’s Roman Catholics, says he is “heartbroken” over the attack on a Catholic compound in Gaza by the Israeli military that left two women dead. On 16 December, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, announced that an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sniper killed

Pesellino’s work is spectacular: alas, we shall never know what else might have been

December 18, 2023

Francesco di Stefano, known as Pesellino, first established his reputation and that of his workshop in Florence through small-scale devotional paintings. But by the mid-1450s his focus had shifted to large-scale altarpieces. His first, The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints (about 1453), in the collection of the Louvre, was a trial by fire. The project

Advent and the ‘Great Paradigm Shift’

December 18, 2023

There is an old story told about the dilemma of a monkey reaching down through the narrow neck of a glass jar to grab the alluring beads contained within and to which he is irresistably attracted. In excitement and desire, the monkey grasps a full handful of beads to pull out and possess. But the

Vatican trial raises the question: Is Pope Francis ‘Great Reformer’ or ‘Great Restorer’?

December 18, 2023

ROME – Anyone who’s ever read or seen Inherit the Wind knows that almost 100 years ago, a celebrated trial took place in the American state of Tennessee, dubbed at the time the “Trial of the Century”, in which a teacher was accused of teaching evolution in a public school in violation of state law, thereby creating