Category: Comment & Analysis

Two of the most searched items on the internet are pornography and religion. Questions are often raised about the Church and the internet. Throughout YOUCAT there are many reasons why young Catholics are ‘needed’ in the area of translating the message of faith into a language of their peers. Paul VI wrote about the need…

Pope Francis’ recent interview, given over three days to his Jesuit colleagues, has attracted great attention.  He ponders over things, constantly reflecting and modifying his answers even as he delivers them.  He is clearly a very thoughtful man. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, who conducted the interview reported that, “Talking with Pope Francis is a kind of…

Open debate and free discourse are healthy, so maybe it’s good that we are witnessing “rebel priests”, such as Fr Iggy O’Donovan, Fr Gerard Moloney, Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Brian D’Arcy making their opinions known, even when this invites Vatican disapproval.   I am not sure if the correct word really is “silenced”, since…

"Home is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot wrote that and it describes an experience that can be felt both as a freedom and as a heartache. I cite my own case:   I grew up in a second-generation immigrant community on the Canadian prairies. My grandparents’ generation had been the first settlers in that…

Before the papal election Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio hadn’t given a thought to what name he would choose if he was elected Pope. The very idea hadn’t even entered his mind. Even immediately after his election he still hadn’t thought what name to choose. Then a good friend of his, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Archbishop Emeritus of Sao…