I signed up to walk home but I didn’t expect what I would carry with me at the end writes Paulina Guzik When you are born in a major pilgrimage destination, you grow up with a treasure – a national shrine and sacred image – within reach every day. I was that child, born in…

A: The short answer to your question is that excommunication is specifically a punishment for canonical crimes. And although political support for pro-choice policies is morally problematic, it is not a canonical crime in and of itself. For context, usually when we speak of pro-choice politicians being denied Holy Communion, the relevant citation is Canon…

How a chance encounter with a young man gathering rubbish became a lesson in virtue The professor entered, gown flowing from tall, broad shoulders, stately, imposing, dignified. Sitting down at the top of the seminar table he announced, in urbane voice, but with a hint of country: “I’ve just overheard two students, two girls, one…

The figure of St Joseph and St John are included alongside the Immaculate Virgin Mary in the apparition at Knock. In the 1879 vision all three wore luminous, white garments which indicate their transfigurations, and their personal, undefined chastity. They are among those dressed in white before the Lamb of God: the many whose robes,…

On July 17, 1794 sixteen Carmelite nuns from Compiegne were guillotined in Paris, during the height of the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. At the suggestion of their prioress, Sr Teresa of St Augustine, they had offered their lives for peace in their country and in the Church. Ten days after their execution…

There are parts of scripture that should come with a warning label, the kind they sometimes flash at the end of a movie which reads: “No animals were harmed.” One such text is a story in the Book of Judges (11,29-39). It’s the story of a king named Jephthah who is at war and makes…