Today we have reached a turning point in our weekly Sunday reading of St Mark’s Gospel (8:27-35). We find Jesus in a town 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. From here we will find him and his disciples travelling in stages to Jerusalem where he will be arrested and put to death. In…
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Homily 23rd Sunday of the Year (B) 2021
You may have heard that the members of ABBA, the pop group so dominant in the 1970s, have reformed to produce a new ‘album’ of songs to be released in November; and that next year they will perform a series of concerts in which digitally rejuvenated versions of themselves will perform on stage. The ability…
Soaking the Rich
by Peter Jones in THE SPECTATOR, 21 August 2021 Oxfam is arguing that if all billionaires forked out 99 per cent of their profits made during the Covid pandemic, the whole world could be vaccinated and every unemployed worker given a handy payout. Dream on. The ancient Athenians had rather more intelligent ways of soaking…
Homily, 22nd Sunday (B) 2021
With access to clean running water, hot and cold, in our homes, most of us are able to wash as often as we wish and whether we need to or not. Today’s Gospel features a clash between Jesus and an elite group of fellow Jews over the ritual washing hands before a meal. The Pharisees…
It’s time for Catholics to go back to no meat on every Friday (not just during Lent)
by Doug Girardot in AMERICA, The Jesuit Review When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report on Aug. 8, I felt overwhelmed. In the face of the startling news that humanity’s window for mitigating the worst effects of global warming is shrinking by the year, it seemed like there was nothing that I could do…
Homily 21st Sunday of the Year (B) 2021
This is the last of five consecutive Sundays in which we have been hearing Our Lord’s teaching in Chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel. Here Jesus refers to himself as the Bread of Life. His teaching is in the form of a dialogue with fellow Jews who neither understand nor accept his claim to have…
Homily, 19th Sunday (B) 2021
From time to time in recent years efforts are made to introduce legislation in Parliament to make it lawful to help another person commit suicide. Since 1961 it is no longer a criminal act to take your own life but it remains unlawful to help a person to do it. Those who oppose a change…
Britney declares she has become a Catholic
by Sebastian Milbank in THE TABLET, 6 August 2021 In a post on Instagram yesterday Britney Spears wrote: “I just got back from mass...I’m Catholic now...let us pray.” The 39-year-old pop star was raised in a strict Baptist household and is a regular churchgoer, but has had a troubled relationship with her family and her fame. Her apparent…
Virtual reality and the coming Catholic Metaverse
by Phyllis Zagano in The National Catholic Reporter (USA), 3 August 2021 The combination of pandemic lockdowns and Zoom have spawned a new way of being Catholic. Or, they have spawned a new way of seeming to be Catholic. We are moving toward a Catholic Metaverse. A metaverse is a virtual world, like those existing in virtual…
Dreaming of a Single Humanity
The Vatican's newspaper has published a very personal reflection on Pope Francis' encyclical Fratelli Tutti by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a self-described feminist writer from Nigeria who has become one the world's most prominent young Anglophone authors. "Dreaming as a single humanity," was featured in the July 5 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See's Italian-language daily. In her article,…
