Features
 In the balance Free Tina BeattieTraditional teaching by the Church bans abortion, even when the mother might die if she continues with the pregnancy. But many theologians are now questioning whether, when it comes to hard cases, they should stick to moral absolutes or return to an even older teaching about the start of life
... | The love that must speak its nameMark DowdLib Dem MP David Laws, who resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury last week, has said that it was keeping his homosexuality secret from his Catholic parents that led to his breaking the rules on expenses. Here, another gay man recalls what happened when his own Catholic parents learned of his sexuality
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 Lighting up the EastVincent NicholsEastern and Western Christianity could move a step closer this weekend when Pope Benedict visits Cyprus for talks with the Orthodox. Here the Archbishop of Westminster says the apostolic letter Orientale Lumen points the way forward for Orthodox and Catholics in Britain... | ‘Catholics are not utilitarians’Charles E. CurranSt Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, like all such Catholic institutions in the United States, follows the fifth edition of the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health-care Services”, approved by the United States bishops late in 2009, writes Charles Curran....
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 A place for mystery and formalityCuthbert JohnsonA translation of liturgical language brings with it both dangers and opportunities. The new English Missal has managed to avoid oversimplification and also provides an opportunity for biblical and liturgical catechesis, according to one of those involved ... |  God’s wonderful railwaysMichael WilliamsSmall boys and men all love railways, but clergymen in particular have a fascination for trains, with bishops, vicars and monks seduced by the ‘traffic of time’. What draws them to tracks, signals and gauges? An enthusiast attempts to find out
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Church is where the art isHugo EllisIncorporating the arts into parish programmes and activities can uncover the creative potential that lies dormant in people. Moreover, inspiration is encouraged through the cultivation of
a truly contemplative approach on the part of the artistic practitioner...
| May they be oneDaniel McCarthyThe Prayer After Communion for the Mass of Christian unity is also used in this Mass in which, as Daniel McCarthy explains, the congregation prays for union between will and action, body and mind, humanity and divinity, among and within Churches...
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Columnists
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Books and arts
Not quite as hopeless as we thought Free
Edward II
Seymour Phillips
England has had its share of unpopular monarchs. Some of them (John or Richard III, for instance) at least had an air of villainous glamour: we love to hate them. Edward II, ... |
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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 ...
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