|
Sign up to our Weekly Newsletter.
 |
|
Michael McCarthyAhead of Monday’s opening of the Copenhagen conference on climate change, the majority of governments and scientists are working hard to avert drought, famine – and war. Yet the public is still unconvinced of the need for urgent action Free
From the editor’s desk
| Abuse and the Holy See Free The Irish Government’s official report into the handling of child-abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Dublin has shone a shaft of light into some very dark corners. It is to the credit of the current archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, that it was only ... | Solidarity with the future |
|
Features
 Language of Molière falls silent at the VaticanAlain WoodrowIt was once called ‘eldest daughter of the Church’ and is the country of Lourdes, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Taizé. But now France faces a crisis in its Catholicism – not only a shortage of priests and shrinking congregations at Mass but a waning of its influence in theology and at the Vatican
... |  The Amazon changed meMichael HolmanIt took the evidence of his fellow Jesuits working with indigenous people in South America to convince the British provincial that the impact of climate change is the most urgent moral issue of our time. On the eve of the Copenhagen summit, he argues that the future of humanity is at stake
... |
 There’s safety in vampiresLiz DoddTeen fiction that features horror or magic tends to attract censure from the Vatican. It has happened with Harry Potter, and now with the hugely popular ‘Twilight’ series of novels, two of which have recently been made into films. But beneath the gothic horror setting is a highly moral tale... |  Culture that corrodesDonald CozzensSecrecy and the avoidance of scandal rather than protecting the vulnerable have been exposed by the Dublin report into clerical child abuse as the dominant culture in the Irish capital’s archdiocese. But it is by no means unique and can be found in many dioceses around the world
... |
 Indignation before righteousnessTerry PhilpotMichael Little is a social scientist with a burning desire to help disadvantaged children. Catholicism was in the ether as he was growing up in Liverpool and, as he tells Terry Philpot, it has profoundly affected his outlook even though he is no longer a conventional believer... | Between two comingsDaniel McCarthyIn response to the call of John the Baptist, the prayers this Sunday describe how to ‘prepare the way of the Lord’, explains Daniel McCarthy, so that we may humbly walk the way of the Lord’s first coming in the humility of the flesh, as we anticipate the majestic ways of his Second Coming ...
|
 Sins of the fathersDavid QuinnOnce again the Church in Ireland is reeling from the findings of an official report into the abuse of children by Catholic clergy. This time a shameful history in the Archdiocese of Dublin has led to calls for a national inquiry into every diocese in the country
... | Their place at the altarKen O'RiordanWhen the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke recently in Rome he suggested that women’s ordination need not be as divisive an issue as some suggest. Here a Catholic priest who attended a celebration of one female Anglican’s ministry reflects on its significance
...
|
 The Word has its story tooVivian Boland OPTomorrow is the Second Sunday of Advent and Vivian Boland considers two histories being played out – the lineage of kings and the history of God’s relationship with the world... | What is it about Mary?Nicholas HenshallSpecial devotion to Our Lady is natural in Advent, but it can be used to discover surprising things about the ever-surprising mother of God...
|
|
|
|
Columnists
|
Books and arts
Awaiting the Twelfth Imam Free
The Persians: ancient, mediaeval and modern Iran
Homa Katouzian
Six months from now – who living, who dead ?” The author quotes this old Persian proverb as an example of the national sense of insecurity which has led, he claims, to ... |
|
|
|
Can the Church support abuse victims on its own terms?
Elena Curti
The clear message that emerged from the symposium on child sexual abuse held in Rome from ... 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 ...
|
|
|
