Can Obama do it for Catholics?

In the last presidential election the Catholic vote was decisive in giving George W. Bush a second term in the White House. But there are signs that Catholics may be deserting the Republicans and the Democrat candidate is making great efforts to woo them...

Too much to bear

Religious affairs correspondents gathered in Cardiff on 20 June for the funeral of one of their colleagues. As they mourned his untimely death they reflected on the pressures of reporting religion today and the toll it can take on their faith...

Our lost children

Violent crimes by teenagers cause inevitable headlines and claims that harsher punishments will solve the problem. But this approach ignores the true cause – that young people are being failed by a society that has lost its nerve ...

Mellow rebel

Marking his eightieth birthday earlier this year by celebrating Mass twice, Hans Küng remains the Church’s most progressive theologian. Tempered a little by age, he is still committed to radical reform of the Church,as he explains to Paul Vallely ...

Home before dark

Advancing age is a time when people look back over the way they have come, and consider the essence of a lifetime on earth. But it is also a period of looking forward – to the homeland to which God calls the faithful to return...

Food into fuel tanks

The United States has invested heavily in biofuels but there is growing evidence that the trend is playing a significant role in the world food crisis. Land turned over to ethanol production comes at the cost of many impoverished people going hungry...

Life choices

Statistics published last week show that half of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales end in abortion. But for those who decide to keep their babies there is the prospect of help in the form of an innovative programme imported from the United States...

Apostolic defenders

This year the Solemnity of Peter and Paul replaces the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. While the prayer for the Solemnity is addressed to the Lord, explains Daniel McCarthy, it establishes the apostles as intermediaries, through whose prayers God grants Christ’s atonement to us...

What are you doing up there?

There is a huge variation in the way that priests preside at Mass, which can range from wonder-filled celebrations to perfunctory walk-throughs. The key is to remember the ancient principles of good liturgy, and that it is not only the laity who must actively participate – it is the priest, too...

Friends in higher places

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