Why greed will always come before a fall

Not since the Wall Street Crash of 80 years ago has the financial system been so damaged by a shakeout that has led once mighty institutions to topple. But the aftermath will require more than a rethink by banks as to how they do business...

Poland’s pointless trial

Former communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski is on trial over his imposition of martial law almost three decades ago. Many Poles agree politicians should face such a reckoning for that dark period in history, but others point out that the complexities of the era are only now coming to light...

Alternative healing

New Age spirituality has been condemned by a variety of voices in the Church, but it would be wrong to reject its enthusiasts out of hand. Their spiritual longing, like that of many Christians, is to try their best to find the still centre at the universal heart of love...

A shrine that became theirs

Residents on a bleak housing estate in South Wales have begun to take an interest in the Marian shrine on their doorstep. As a result Our Lady of Penrhys is playing a key role in the regeneration of the area once thought by many to be out of sight and out of mind...

Reveille for slumbering Catholics

The French saw two sides of Pope Benedict last week: the profound theologian who delivered a testing lecture in Paris and the warm pastor ministering to the sick and disabled in Lourdes. It was his ninth foreign journey and his first time in France as Pope...

Seeking the God who seeks us

As part of his visit to Paris and Lourdes, the Pope spoke last Friday at the French capital’s Collège des Bernardins, a former monastery, to an audience of 700 representing the ‘world of culture’. He explored what lessons contemporary Europe can learn from the legacy of monasticism...

In love and duty

After petitioning that the Lord receive our gifts, writes Daniel McCarthy, the prayer for this Sunday, composed no later than the sixth century, asks that these gifts, through the mysteries of heaven, might obtain for us the saving realities the prayer itself proclaims...

Poetry and silence required

The training of readers at Mass takes time. The initial enthusiasm is important, but people also need to be encouraged to ponder the passages prayerfully beforehand, to use various skills to bring the readings alive, and to understand the ‘choreography’ of their moment in the celebration...

Family matters

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