On being an English Catholic: from minority to mainstream and back again?

In preparation for tonight I was looking through a history of my old school. In it I came across a classic schoolboy howler. A master wrote: "Boys are constantly urged to read the examination questions carefully and come to the point quickly....

The world is their cloister

While vocations to the full monastic life are falling, the number of oblates is on the rise. Does this reflect abbeys’ new awareness of the need to accommodate the outside world, or something else?...

Southern comfort

When the Pope arrives in America he will visit the north-eastern ‘Cardinals’ Corridor’ that formed the old core of American Catholicism. These days, though, the US Church is shifting relentlessly southwards, where it is thriving in the old evangelical Bible Belt...

Divining the global soul

In his address to the heads of religious orders earlier this year, Pope Benedict spoke of three signs of the times: globalisation, secularism, and a search for spirituality outside institutional religion. On the eve of his visit to the United States to address the United Nations, we begin a series on these signs. In the first, the former Prime Minister explores faith and globalisation...

Mr Midas awaits

Italians vote again tomorrow and the indications are that, starstruck by Silvio Berlusconi’s business acumen, they will return the media magnate for a third crack at the parlous premiership...

Cause for apprehension

Oratorian Fathers in Birmingham long for their founder, John Henry Newman, to be declared blessed and to be canonised. But such acknowledgement will bring with it enormous headaches. How will they offer an intrigued public ‘the Newman experience?’...

Power of the paschal mysteries

In the early days of the Church, gifts for one’s neighbour were offered during the preparation of the gifts at Mass, from which bread and wine were taken for the eucharistic thanksgiving. The connection between Christ’s sacrifice and our self-giving was made clear ...

Everyone’s a winner

It is now easier than ever to give time to a good cause, one which benefits both the disadvantaged at home and abroad and the volunteer for whom the spiritual and practical rewards can be high...

Lost and Found

When a woman in her forties became a contemplative nun, her younger sister, to whom she had been like a mother, grieved. But with time and understanding they have renewed their bonds...

Trolley dash

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