Castro and the Catholics

The man who has led Cuba since 1949, and who was widely expected to remain in office until he died, is stepping down from the presidency. The relationship of Fidel Castro with the Church was more complicated than might be expected in such a ‘devout’ Communist...

How activists muddy Sudanese waters

The intervention of film director Steven Spielberg has put the crisis in Darfur back on the front pages. But uproar over China’s involvement with the government in Khartoum has clouded the more complex story of what is happening in the region...

Home truths from York’s plain speaker

Installed to the sound of African drums as the ninety-seventh Archbishop of York two years ago, John Sentamu tells Victoria Combe of his fasting for peace, public cutting-up of his clerical collar, and his defence of the ‘sharia’ views of Rowan Williams...

A Church that looks both ways

The second of two articles on the revised Tridentine Rite Good Friday prayer points out that, for some, it now seems that Catholics hold two contradictory positions on relations with the Jews...

The joy of giving ourselves

The Church’s teaching on sexuality is based on natural law, but the former Master of the Dominicans argues that a Christian vision of sexuality can also embrace another kind of sexual ethic derived from Jesus’ gift of himself at the Last Supper...

Thirst for God’s justice

Christ offers the Samaritan woman he meets at the well a kind of water that will satisfy thirst for ever. In his meditation for the third Sunday of Lent, the late Cardinal Basil Hume addresses the transformative power of revelation and its effect on human consciousness and solidarity...

What’s it to be?

Magnanimous or pusillanimous, the right option seems self-evident. But in life’s moments of great decision the way of choice is rarely so easy or obvious...

The Lord provides

Is someone watching over the naval chaplain turned point-to-point jockey who has just won his first race at 50-1? Might be worth watching his next race, says Dominic Prince...

Forgiven and so forgiving

The prayer for the Third Sunday in Lent is based on the understanding that we need to be helped to see the beam in our own eye before we attend to the faults of others. As Daniel McCarthy explains, God’s enabling of forgiveness is essential for our spiritual progress...

In from the cold

A systematic programme for bringing those who have drifted from the Church back ‘home’ to the Sacraments can bear much fruit – provided it is grounded in prayer...

Limits to understanding

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