Dear Editor, There has been a lot of controversy recently regarding immigration with one side expressing concern over its level or type and the other condemning them as simply hating foreign people and being far right. Polarisation is the order of the day and the possibility of a meeting of minds on the subject seems…
Navigating marriage after baby
Expect your marriage to change following the growth of your family, writes Simcha Fisher Ever have one of those days when you lose the hamburger you were defrosting and find it later in the washing machine, full of soap? And you can deal with that, but you cannot deal with being accused of leaving the…
Annoyed but full of hope: My Catholic wish list for 2024
Elizabeth Scalia You have no idea how many of my columns have begun as a germ of a thought – usually an annoyed question – scribbled on a scrap of paper. This one reflects my late, rather curmudgeonly, “wish list” of what I’d like to see happen within Catholicism in 2024. Indulge me, please. Let…
Shia LaBeouf’s conversion: Let’s rejoice over the movement of grace
Fr Patrick Briscoe OP In August 2022, when Transformers star Shia LaBeouf revealed during a conversation with Bishop Robert Barron that he had experienced a conversion and begun to attend Mass, I wrote that LaBeouf seemed to me to have undergone a genuine change of heart. He spoke regretfully of the pain and harm he…
Martin Scorsese finishes script for ‘A Life of Jesus’ movie
Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese has announced the completion of the script for a new movie, A Life of Jesus. Mr Scorsese co-wrote the screenplay with critic and filmmaker Kent Jones, based on Shusaku Endo’s book of the same name, and plans to to shoot it later this year. The American director said he envisions…
Why does the Christmas season end with Jesus’ Baptism?
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: I always thought the end of the Christmas season came with Epiphany and the arrival of the Magi. A priest recently said the season doesn’t end until a week later with the Baptism of the Lord. What has the Baptism of the adult Jesus got to do with Bethlehem? If…
Pope says slapping kids ok (again)
The German Child Protection Association has criticised Pope Francis for his comments on the beating of children. “There is no justification for beating children, not even a papal one,” said Daniel Grein, Federal Director of the Child Protection Association, in Berlin. “Anyone who physically abuses a child is doing the wrong thing. This also includes…
Life and death in Gaza: no water, mass burials, mosques and churches bombarded, heritage destroyed
Liz Harris Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. But how has the war affected the religious life of Muslims and Christians in the area? Water shortages and wudu Gaza is running dry. Water shortages have been rife in the strip for decades, but since the war began after the Hamas attack on 7…
Africa in revolt
Luca Attanasio While in Europe and other areas of the world there has been a mixed reaction to the publication of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s statement ‘Fiducia Supplicans’, with German bishops in clear majority in favour or French who speak of blessings as a ‘way to get closer to God’, the…
Bishop Álvarez released and exiled after over 500 day detention
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa has been released from prison and sent into exile along with 18 imprisoned churchmen as the Nicaraguan government expelled its most prominent critic, whose presence behind bars bore witness to the Sandinista regime’s descent into totalitarianism, along with its unrelenting persecution of the Catholic Church. Vatican News confirmed on January 14 at…











