COVID-19 Archives - Catholic Herald

COVID-19

CAFOD blames IMF’s ‘devastating’ role in global debt crisis

April 18, 2024

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank hold their Spring meeting, a leading Catholic international aid group says the world is sinking “deeper into a global sovereign debt crisis”. The world’s two leading financial behemoths are meeting in Washington, DC, from 15-20 April. But while their respective representatives and experts meet and

Helping young people escape the ‘social media trap’

April 08, 2024

In hindsight the Covid pandemic was the world’s most extensive experiment to settle a centuries-old question that has befuddled scientists and philosophers alike – despite the guidance offered by the Church. The apparent riddle for such lofty minds is whether human beings are primarily individuals who just enter society out of selfish needs, or are

Letters: Will we ever have an honest debate about ‘catastrophic decision’ of national lockdown

February 17, 2024

A high price Sir: Further to Lord Greenhalgh’s timely remarks, (“Covid churches lockdown was ‘outrageous’ says ex-minister’, December 2023) it is unfortunate that the UK Covid inquiry is ignoring the baleful effects of lockdown altogether. Equally outraged are the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaigners, who are furious about the way they suffered under rules

Is getting to church in 15 minutes worth ‘unprecedented level of control’ over your life?

February 08, 2024

At the end of this month on 29 February, the so-called “father” of the 15-minute city, Carlos Moreno, is giving a talk in Oxford, the English city pioneering a new approach to urban life. Oxford has been the centre of controversy since November 2022 when the county council approved an experimental traffic scheme to address

Crackdown on faith in Hong Kong is a warning to the West

February 07, 2024

Following a 2004 visit to the bright lights of Shanghai, columnist Peter Hitchens gloomily acknowledged that China, then approaching the zenith of its economic growth miracle, “proved that police states can also be prosperous”. It led him to caution: “If the world discovers that liberty is an optional extra, rather than a necessity, how long

Catholic expert highlights cholera surge in Southern Africa after Covid ‘diverted’ resources

February 05, 2024

YAOUNDÈ, Cameroon – UN estimates about a severe cholera outbreak across the Southern Africa region may be wide of the mark, according to a Catholic expert who says the reality may be even worse. The UN has estimated that there have been more than 3,000 deaths in the past year and almost 200,000 people affected.

Swathes of women are involuntarily single and childless: Covid lockdowns and the ticking biological clock

January 11, 2024

‘I can’t believe you’re about to have your third baby and I haven’t even had my first,” said an old girlfriend wistfully over supper the other night. This was not the first time I’d noticed this, although no one really talks about it, that women, when they enter their mid-to-late 30s, suddenly become very starkly

The long shadow of Covid

November 25, 2021

Stephen Bullivant examines how the pandemic has affected Mass-going in one anonymous diocese