An Irish Jesuit, Fr. Michael Paul Gallagher, who died four years ago at the age of 76, used to give an introductory course to students of English literature in University College, Dublin. In one of his first lectures he would write these three intriguing words on the blackboard: “ha”, “aha”, and “ah”. Needless to say,…
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Dr. Anthony Fauci: To keep churches safe, use masks, limit singing and wait to resume Communion
As states around the country begin to ease stay-at-home orders, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said churches should adopt “common sense” measures to protect worshippers and the wider community, like requiring masks, practicing social distancing and prohibiting singing. Regarding the distribution of Communion, he said, “I…
Dominic Cummings makes a mockery of his own coronavirus policy
By Clare Foges in THE TIMES, 25 May 2020 Didn’t you read the small print? Yes, the headline was “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” But beneath it was a list of caveats in tiny letters: “*Unless you have the symptoms of coronavirus, and feel like leaving the city for some restorative countryside air,…
Homily, Seventh Sunday of Easter (A) 2020
In the Second World War famous poems were used to encrypt messages supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the secret Special Operations Executive. However this was found to be insecure because enemy cryptanalysts were able to locate the original from published sources. Leo Marks, an English writer and cryptographer who headed the codes office for the SOE countered this…
We can’t go back to our old noisy world
By Jenni Russell in THE TIMES, 21 May 2020 One of the great compensations of lockdown is hearing less noise, at least of the external, ungovernable kind. One’s own children at home, quarrelling or competing, is another matter. At least one can shout back at them. Everywhere people are marvelling at hearing the complexity of…
I talk to my mum, who has been dead for nearly ten years, and I wonder, is this a prayer?
By Tracy Thorn in New Statesman, 13 May 2020 Ben and I have been rewatching Rev, the comedy series from ten years ago, about an inner-city vicar, Adam Smallbone played by Tom Hollander. Its tone and mood seem perfect at the moment, and the rev himself – flawed, human, full of uncertainty – is as…
Homily, Sixth Sunday of Easter (A) 2020
The words of Jesus we have just heard (John 14:15-21) are part of a long ‘goodbye’ to his disciples at the Last Supper i.e. his last meal with them before being arrested. In this section he explains that although he soon will be taken away from them, he will be with them in a new…
The Bostey
The St Anthony’s Youth Education Service (known locally as “The Bostey”) supports children, young people and their families in Walker. Further details are available from Helen Woods-Waters at h.woods-waters@anthonycareservices.org.uk. In our 90th anniversary year, Holy Name members donated over £10,000 to this project. What Are We Doing? Following advice from the Government we decided to…
Care for the elderly has exposed the inadequacy of our care homes and highlighted the benefits of US-style retirement villages
By Philip Collins in THE TIMES, 15 May 2020 When the reckoning is done on the extent to which poor government exacerbated Britain’s Covid-19 crisis, it is likely that care homes will be the scandal. Infected patients were moved from NHS beds with no consideration of whether the care homes they were sent to would…
How the coronavirus can help us reclaim the virtues of self-sacrifice and prudence
by Michael Rozier, S.J. in America, The Jesuit Review, 14 May 2020 It is hard to have a conversation these days where Covid-19 is not the center of the story. Yet it is a terribly uninteresting protagonist. It has no personality of its own and no desire beyond replication of itself. We are the interesting…
