| Our words, God's word Free One of the great unfulfilled promises of the Second Vatican Council was that a new encounter with Scripture would greatly enrich the life of the Church. That was what the bishops clearly hoped for, and what their decree Dei Verbum actually said ... | A time to lend |
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Features
 Haunted by a wounded soulWhen a parishioner became obsessed with and abusive toward her parish priest, that priest, who writes anonymously here, turned to his ecclesial superiors for help – and got none. The entire disturbing incident raises questions about how similar situations should be handled... |  The monsignor’s arkBrian Fleming The debate about Pope Pius XII’s wartime record has been revived following the fiftieth anniversary of his death, but he tacitly approved the courageous efforts of an Irish priest at the Vatican who risked his life to rescue thousands of Jews and fugitive prisoners of war... |
Maturing towards GodDaniel McCarthyThe Prayer Over the Gifts this week takes as its theme the divine-human exchange, by which God’s self-gift elicits a human response and enables one to rise to serve freely. As Daniel McCarthy explains, by our nurturing within ourselves this divine-human exchange, we are purified...
|  Hard-wired for social justiceClare Tickell, chief executive, Action for ChildrenThe influence of faith on the career path of some of the leading figures in the caring professions and charities is often key. In the first of a new series Terry Philpot meets Clare Tickell, leader of Britain’s biggest children’s charity... |
 Art for God’s sakeBrian MortonWith great fanfare Glasgow Archdiocese has announced what it says is the biggest commission for a Scottish Catholic cathedral since the Reformation. A massive canvas of the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie is to be painted by Peter Howson... | Naturally blessedDaniel O'LearyEvery blessing is a reminder of the original blessing – that of life itself. To administer one is to divine a wellspring of sacred presence, already secure below the surface of everything – and in that lies the true meaning of Incarnation...
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Still on the road to hopeAn DangVietnam’s Catholics are well used to persecution. But the latest stand-off with the clergy and parishioners of Hanoi has prompted a fearful Government into a far more brutal crackdown than has been seen for some time...
| Fair dues to eco-livingJosephine SiedleckaActivity to conserve and protect Creation has been endorsed and encouraged by the Holy See, and one of the most useful ways of engaging in this work is to raise consciousness at parish level with a 'green fair'...
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Columnists
 Tim Hames‘Nationalisation has been reinvented as a form of human kindness’  Ann Wroe‘If you see faerie gold lying on the ground, pick up as much as you can’
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Books and arts
Trying to make the centre hold Free
What Happened at Vatican II
John W. O’Malley
Love it or loathe it, the Second Vatican Council has occasioned many of the often acrimonious controversies that have made modern Catholic life anything but boring. Vatican II embraced ... |
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Is the Church too slow in recognising that academies are the future for Catholic schools?
Christopher Lamb
According to the chairman of governors at the Cardinal Vaughan School, west London, one ... Goodwin the scapegoat
Elena Curti
There was an old Sixties TV series, Branded, about a disgraced soldier that always began ... The pain of being a coeliac Catholic
Sr M, guest contributor
"Whoever comes to me, I shall not turn (him) her away" (John 6:37). Many readers will recognise ...
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