Posts By Date - Catholic Herald

March 23, 2024

Everything in London has changed, except the familiar scents of the Oratory

March 23, 2024

It has taken two-and-a-half years, but I have finally crossed the Rubicon and feel a stranger in the city that was home for more than two decades. In London for a book launch last month, it became horribly apparent that things had moved on without me. Never a Pret a Manger where I left one.

Normal Women: 900 years of women making history, by Philippa Gregory

March 23, 2024

Normal Women: 900 years of women making history Philippa Gregory William Collins, £25, 688 pages Shortly after I finished reading Normal Women, I rocked my friend’s newborn baby to sleep. While she napped in my arms, we traded birth stories. Shortly after that, I sat by my grandmother’s side in hospital, holding her hand as

Cardinal offers prayers for Princess of Wales after cancer shock

March 23, 2024

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has offered his prayers to Britain’s Princess of Wales after she revealed she is receiving treatment for cancer. In a video message released on Friday, Princess Kate, 42, said she wanted “to say thank you, personally, for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding whilst I have been recovering

Dark shows for dark times: going toe to toe with Elektra and The Handmaid’s Tale

March 23, 2024

There’s an old Bugs Bunny cartoon with the punchline, “What’d ya expect in a opera – a happy ending?” It’s a fair point. Opera does of course do comedy, but tends to misery/pain/anguish as default positions. And they were defaulting to excess at the start of the year when London’s two main lyric companies –

Foetal sentience Bill progresses after Lords debate

March 23, 2024

A Bill to establish a government advisory committee to study and establish the development of unborn children has progressed in the House of Lords. Lord Moylan’s Foetal Sentience Committee Bill, which intends to create a committee to act as a source of evidence-based scientific expertise on the sentience of unborn babies in accord with developments

Catholic schools take in most children from deprived backgrounds, say researchers

March 23, 2024

Data newly released shows that Catholic schools in England and Wales take in 50 per cent more pupils from the most deprived backgrounds than state schools. The Catholic Education Service (CES) says just under a fifth of all pupils in Catholic statutory education meet the highest national deprivation criteria, compared to a 12.8 per cent

Vatican finally reins in German bishops over ‘schismatic’ synodal agenda

March 23, 2024

ROME – The Vatican has reined in the German bishops amid proposals to break from Church unity on innovations such as women priests, married priests, blessings of same-sex couples in churches and baptisms by women. The Holy See announced last night that the German bishops will ensure all reforms within the German Catholic Church comply

Confession safe from Communist security reforms, says Hong Kong Church

March 23, 2024

After new national security legislation was passed unanimously in Hong Kong this week, the local diocese assured that amid concerns that the sweeping new measures will not interfere with the secrecy of confession. In a brief statement, the Diocese of Hong Kong addressed what it said was “social concern” over the church’s Sacrament of Confession