In the novel The Brothers Karamazov, the Russian novelist Feodor Dostoyevsky tells the story of a guardian angel who wept before God because the woman in his charge had been so wicked in life that she was stuck in hell. When God asked if she had ever done anything good, the angel said she had once…
Author: Fr Michael Campion
Homily 17th Sunday of the Year C 2022
Two Conservative members of Parliament are now travelling around the country and appearing in various media outlets appealing to fellow party members to make them the next Prime Minister. These some 180,000 party members will choose who is to be in charge of the UK’s population of about 67.2m people. Whoever is chosen, will this…
Homily 16th Sunday of the Year C 2022
In an open letter published last year, Maria Zervino, president of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, encouraged Pope Francis to expand roles for women's leadership in the church's predominantly all-male institutional structures. "As a woman I feel that something is due to us," she wrote in March last year. "I think that not enough has…
Homily, 15th Sunday of the Year (C) 2022
The story we have just heard is one of the most famous in the Bible. It shocked its hearers when Jesus told it and fully understood it should do the same to us. It originated with Jesus being questioned by a scholar of the Jewish Law, the spiritual, moral and social code that governed Jewish…
Out Now
The PM must not remain in Downing Street until the autumn. He should leave immediately and make way for an interim leader The Times Leading Article, Thursday 7 July 07 2022 At lunchtime on Thursday, Boris Johnson finally bowed to the inevitable and announced his intention to resign as prime minister once a new leader…
The informed integrity of our discussions rarely finds a way into public Catholic discourse
By Tina Beattie in THE TABLET, 29 June 2022 After the Supreme Court’s ruling to remove the constitutional right to abortion, the US Catholic theologian Jessica Coblentz tweeted: “I know many Catholic women; I’ve been in communication with several today. Not one – not one – is ‘welcoming’ or ‘celebrating’ the overturning of Roe. And…
Homily, 14th Sunday of the Year C 2022
How many countries are there in the world? Thanks to Google, I can tell you there are 193 that are member states of the United Nations, and a further two that are non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine. So the answer is, roughly, 195 in all. In first century Palestine,…
Homily, 13th Sunday of the Year C 2022
Today's Gospel reading begins a long section unique to Luke's Gospel and which is sometimes referred to as the Travel Document. It describes Jesus undertaking his fateful journey from his home region of Galilee to the city of Jerusalem. The journey will end with his death and resurrection there. It’s a resolute Jesus, knowing the…
Homily, Corpus Christi C 2022
When St Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Corinth – our second reading today - there were no buildings for Christian worship. So people met in the homes of wealthy people who had houses large enough to host them. And when they gathered together, it was the practice in Corinth to combine their…
This Chaotic Man Has To Go
The Tory dilemma THE TABLET Comment 11 June 2022 When does incompetence become a moral issue? Britain’s prime minister must bear responsibility as the head of an administration under which a culture of mediocrity and dysfunction has led to things falling apart in virtually all departments – because this state of anomie reflects his chaotic…
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