Author: Fr. Michael Campion

From Loyola Press, a Jesuit Ministry Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us recognize those times when we have not been as forgiving as God calls us to be. Scripture “And forgive us our debts,  as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12 Reflection A priest once told this story about his family. Two of his uncles…

  By Sarah Baxter in The Sunday Times, 3 March 2019: My cousin Bernard was a priest. He was close to my father and one of my nephews is named after him. He was charming and urbane, and I have no reason to suppose that he was either a closet homosexual or secret paedophile. Would…

Rediscovering Christ and His Church at the Margins By Kathleen Hill in Commonweal, 25 February 2019 In December Commonweal published a collection of personal essays under the heading “Why We Came, Why We Left, Why We Stay.” The response was favorable: readers asked for more such essays; writers offered to write them. The following essay…

By A N Wilson in The Sunday Times, 24 February 2019 Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a French psychiatrist-priest, was close to Cardinal Ratzinger even before he became Pope Benedict XVI. In 2005, Ratzinger asked the increasingly anti-gay Anatrella how to eliminate homosexuality from the seminaries. Anatrella’s draconian advice was to ban not merely practising gays from…

By Chris Gelder in THE TABLET, 23 February 2019 rom the age of seven I faced a number of incidents of abuse. They have stayed with me all my life. I remember a nun once encouraged me to expose myself in front of her and cough, while other children looked in through the window and…

By Christopher Lamb in THE TABLET, 23 February 2019 Sister Veronica Openibo today spelled out in public what has so far only been discussed in private at the Vatican’s child protection summit, or just hinted at: that serious sexual abuse is happening in the developing world and some bishops are in denial about it. The Nigerian…

By Frank Brenna S. J. in THE TABLET, 26 February 2019 The suppression order in relation to Cardinal George Pell has been lifted. In December, a jury of 12 of his fellow citizens found him guilty of five offences of child sexual abuse. No other charges are to proceed. Cardinal Pell has appealed the convictions.…

From The Tablet, 19 February 2018: Poland's most senior nun has been banned from further media contact after condemning the sexual abuse of religious sisters by Catholic priests in her country, and welcoming the Pope's recent highlighting of the issue. A church source told The Tablet "urgent internal enquiries" were underway to establish how the…

By Timothy Radcliffe OP in THE TABLET, 14 February 2019: An explosive book will be published next week claiming to expose the double lives of priests and cardinals and the deceit of the Church’s condemnations of homosexuality. A former Master of the Dominicans wonders if this crisis could be experienced as a moment of grace.…

By Christopher Lamb in THE TABLET, 13 February 2019   The Vatican has announced that John Henry Newman will be declared a saint after Pope Francis approved a second miracle attributed to the English cardinal’s intercession. The ruling means that Newman will be canonised, a decision that comes nine years after his beatification by Benedict…