If ever there was a saint for the poor, humble and marginalised, it must be the Canadian Alfred Bessette, or St André Bessette. Born in Quebec on August 9, 1845, he was orphaned by the time he was 12. He was forced to work to support himself, travelling from place to place and taking up…
Released in 1937 and directed by Jean Renoir, the talented son of a great French painter, La Grande Illusion set itself deliberately against the trend toward jingoism present in 1930s Europe. Set during WWI, it tells the story of French prisoners of war who continually try to escape from German camps; and about the German…
Scholars say German professor-pope stands the test of time writes Maria Wiering Beginning well before he was elected pope in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI made substantial contributions to theology and Catholic thought through his prolific writing, academic lectures and long-form interviews, say scholars who study his work. In the wake of his death, Benedict has been…
Who is this child born in Bethlehem? The manifestation of his divinity is known as an epiphany. On Friday, the sixth of January, we recall the first of three epiphanies. The Wise Men coming from the east brought gold to proclaim Jesus as king, frankincense to represent his priesthood, and myrrh which is used for…
‘The book you need to read finds you, and finds you at that time in your life when you need to read it’. I believe that old axiom, and offer it here as an apologia for my selection of books for 2022. Good art and good literature always have an objective element to them, a…
Pope Francis thought it a good idea to hone in on the life of St Francis de Sales on the 400th anniversary of his death and so should we, writes Jason Osborne On December 28 Pope Francis released an apostolic letter Totum Amoris Est (‘Everything Pertains to Love’), to mark the fourth centenary of the…
The Wisdom of Pope Francis Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God’s total love and opens us to the power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience. Each of us comes to the light because of love, and each of us is called to love in order to…
An accusation frequently levelled at the Church is that while it talks a good game regarding helping the impoverished, it actually hoards its riches in a very immoral way. Comments such as “The Pope lives in a palace” or “The Church should sell some of its treasure to help the poor” are commonplace in this…
Starring Catholic convert Alec Guinness as a mild-mannered bank attendant who happens to be in charge of shipments of gold, The Lavender Hill Mob is a whimsical 1951 comedy made by Ealing studios. It gets onto the Vatican’s great films list from 1995 under the ‘art’ section. It is an odd choice for the Vatican’s…
Saint of the Week A mother of five who went on to become a religious sister and the United States’ first saint is one of the examples the Church pays tribute to January 4. St Elizabeth Ann Seton was born Elizabeth Ann Bayley, into a prosperous Protestant family from New York in 1774 – a…
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser