ch20181207 Archives - Catholic Herald

ch20181207

December 06, 2018

Ordinary Form Divine Office Week II Sunday, December 9: The Second Sunday of Advent Bar 5:1-9; Ps 126; Phil 1:4-6, 8-11; Lk 3:1-6 Monday, December 10: Weekday of Advent, St John Roberts (Wales) Is 35:1-10; Ps 85; Lk 5:17-26 Tuesday, December 11: Weekday of Advent, St Damasus I Is 40:1-11; Ps 96; Mt 18:12-14 Wednesday,

The US Church’s $3bn question

December 06, 2018

On the same day that law enforcement raided the chancery of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, the attorney general of New Mexico executed a search warrant on the chancery of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Officials were looking for information on two priests the archdiocese had named in a list they released of clergy who had

Escaping the loneliness of modern art

December 06, 2018

Friar Alejandro Arias is a 22-year-old Conventual Franciscan who is in formation to be a Franciscan Brother. Originally from Colombia, Friar Alejandro began painting around the age of 12. Ten years later, and despite no formal training, he presented one of his works to the Habsburg family. “You don’t paint an icon: you write the story of

How to … Observe Advent

December 06, 2018

Advent can seem to be defined by what it isn’t: a time of waiting while everyone else has started the party. We don’t even sing the Gloria (except this Saturday, for the Immaculate Conception). But Holy Mother Church doesn’t leave us with nothing to do – there are many customs, ancient and modern, which can

The ‘gay network’ claims which reach far beyond Connecticut

December 06, 2018

The day after the raid on Sante Fe, the rector of Holy Apostles College and Seminary in the Archdiocese of Hartford came forward to discuss the shocking conclusions of a 2012 investigation. The final report spoke of a gay subculture at the seminary, which it situated “in the context of a much wider homosexual network

We like the idea of salvation, until it requires serious engagement

December 06, 2018

On the eve of Advent Sunday I attended Handel’s Messiah performed by the brilliant Schola Cantorum of London’s Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. A professional baroque orchestra was the worthy complement to the accomplished choir, yet the soloists were not professionals but boys from the choir. Many are highly gifted musicians. Some of the older ones

Last orders? Spain’s vanishing monasteries

December 06, 2018

Catholics in Spain have voiced alarm at the rapid decline of monastic life in the country, despite reassurances from Church leaders. “We are haemorrhaging fast – religious congregations are being forced to shut their doors definitively due to scarce vocations and advancing ages,” says a statement from Christian Networks, a grouping of more than 200

Omnium Gatherum

December 06, 2018

This week we celebrate Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception and the feast of St Lucy, virgin and martyr. Lucy, from the Latin word lux, “light”, is one of our beautiful saints who captured the imagination of countless of our forebears. I might remind you of her naming in the short mnemonic phrase about the penitential