|
Sign up to our Weekly Newsletter.
 |
|
Robert MickensThe Pope has described it as an act of paternal mercy. But while the lifting of the excommunication of rebel Lefebvrist bishops has been praised by arch-traditionalists, it has shocked many Catholics and members of other faiths, especially Jews. Our Rome writer tracks the reasons for the turnaround and its consequences Free
From the editor’s desk
| Not yet back in the fold Free The announcement of the lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops illicitly ordained by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre has been received badly for two main reasons. The first is the impression given that Pope Benedict XVI is so determined ... | Delinquent Lords |
|
Features
What the world can teach usJackie WilliamsA whole range of emotions are inspired in the secular world – say in sport and shopping – that faith fails to take advantage of. Yet it is arguable that the joys and sorrows, the desires and longings, that we are familiar with in this sphere should be equally a part of our spiritual life in the Church...
|  Can the Irish Church survive?Michael KellyFewer than half of its flock go to Mass on Sundays, compared with 95 per cent 30 years ago. Its moral authority has taken a battering and its coffers are depleted. Now the Church in Ireland faces two further damaging reports on its failure to control clerical sexual abuse... |
 Bobby’s girlDavid GibsonThe famous Irish American dynasty is known for its public clashes with the Church as much as for its private piety. Now one of its daughters, Kerry Kennedy, talks to David Gibson about her journey from belief to alienation to a new embrace of Catholicism... | Brown is the new black – and whiteRichard RodriguezThe number of mixed-race children is increasing rapidly in the UK, and clear-cut racial groups could disappear. America has led the way, its status as a ‘brown nation’ confirmed by Obama’s election. But will it mean new confidence or conflict caused by fundamentalism?...
|
Sacred aid to faithDaniel McCarthyThe wording of this prayer, and in particular its indication of the relationship between faith and the Eucharist, is marked by the debates on transubstantiation during the Reformation. As Daniel McCarthy argues, it shows the means by which true faith is nourished...
| Novelty in continuityJoseph A. KomonchakAccording to Benedict XVI, Vatican II was a fundamental yes to a modern age. But does the Pope see it as a rupture with the past? A leading authority on the council suggests the Pope’s interpretation is a subtle one, pitching him against the Lefebvrists...
|
 Long road to unityJulie ClagueAs Christianity grows ever more diverse, is unity an absurd hope – or even desirable? A recent international conference in Durham confirmed that although progress is slow, a new way of ‘doing’ ecumenism is starting to bear fruit... |  Sorry? They haven’t a clueGiles FraserMuch public fury has been directed at the bankers, who are seen as largely to blame for our financial woes. Given the suffering they have caused, many desire to see them shamed. But is stigma the appropriate Christian response?... |
|
|
|
Columnists
|
Books and arts
Civilised man in a Brutal regime Free
The Weight of a Mustard Seed
Wendell Steavenson
In August 2003, during the early days of the post-Saddam era, Wendell Steavenson, a half-American, half-British journalist, was in Iraq interviewing former members of the Baath Party. ... |
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
