Letter from Mexico Recently – and, many observers would say, belatedly – the Church has awoken to the reality of anti-Christian persecution around the world. The emblematic case is the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, where Catholic organisations such as the Knights of Columbus and Aid to the Church in Need have meant the…
Arrests of immigrants in the US illegally are increasing nationwide, and the result is more children are losing – or fearing they will lose – a parent through detention or deportation. On July 22, the Trump administration released a new policy allowing immigration officials to quickly arrest and deport undocumented immigrants without going before a…
A number of years ago at a symposium on Faith and evangelisation, one of the speakers made a rather startling statement. She, a Christian activist, ended her presentation with words to this effect: “I work for the poor and I do it out of my Christian Faith. I’m committed to this because of Jesus, but I…
Dear Editor, How unfortunate that the newly appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh should start his new ministry by high-ighting the Church’s failure with regard to the status of women in its ministry. When he said that the Church “has to follow the lead of its founder Jesus Christ” regarding women’s place in the hierarchy (IC…
Notebook Jim and Leonie, thank you for asking me to be the priest who witnesses your marriage vows today in this little corner of Co. Monaghan which holds so many wonderful memories for all of us. By way of a reflection I want to share with you a story which was first given to…
I hear the words “Marie Antoinette” increasingly used about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – invoking the late (largely naïve) Queen of France as a symbol of privilege without responsibility. “Doing a Marie Antoinette” is shorthand for availing of every entitlement possible while play-acting at being just a simple milkmaid or shepherdess. Duchess Meghan’s latest caper…
I’m always interested in the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and the kind of country we live in. The English, bless them, still think that the world should give them thanks for civilising so much of it. The Americans are convinced that no country has ever been as special as they are.…
The View The 2018 Annual Report of Christ Church Oxford, where I was at college 50 years ago, arrived recently. Christ Church is one of those institutions, which are both academic and ecclesiastical, with the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford at the back of the front quadrangle. It was founded by Cardinal Wolsey,…
The Bruderhof community is an oasis of sanity in our world, writes David Quinn A small, little known religious community called the Bruderhof has been gaining a bit of attention lately because of an upcoming documentary about them that is to air on the BBC. The community consists of about 3,000 members spread across…
Lenin once famously asked, “how can you make a revolution without firing squads?” Boris Johnson, Britain’s newly appointed prime minister, has taken that advice to heart – in his first hours in office, over half the ministers in outgoing prime minster Theresa May’s government were pushed out or resigned. Much like Donald Trump – a…
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
David Quinn