By Vin Totton, a member of the Holy Name congregation Like everyone I have spoken to about the unfolding nightmare in Ukraine, I have been so upset at the events which have already led to many armed personnel as well as too many civilians including children already being killed. It is truly lamentable. I cannot…
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Putin’s Unjust, Immoral War
From The Editor's Desk of THE TABLET, 4 March 2022 Events are unfolding in Ukraine with lightning speed, so that what was unthinkable at the start of the week could be inescapable by the end of it. For instance, at what level of suffering experienced by the ordinary people of Ukraine does the Western resistance…
Homily, First Sunday of Lent C 2022
In our Gospel reading today we find Jesus at the beginning of his public life undergoing what must have been a lifelong temptation to abandon the role God had marked out for him. The three separate experiences described by St Luke combine to show the scale of the struggle he had not to choose an…
Roman Abramovich wants to go with honour – yet will not condemn bloodshed
By Matt Dickinson in THE TIMES, 3 March 2022 “Roman Abramovich has parked his Russian tank in our front garden and is firing £50 notes at us.” So said David Dein, the Arsenal director, in 2003 to herald the influence of the billionaire who transformed not only Chelsea but English and European football with personal…
Homily, Eighth Sunday of the Year C 2022
At Friday’s Requiem Mass for the late Mary Burke – a longstanding and devoted member of this parish – her family chose a reading from Scripture (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) that is popular for funeral services. Its author says that there's a season for everything, and he gives a list of seven pairs of opposing things, saying…
Religious roots of Ukraine crisis
Putin’s strategy THE TABLET Editorial, 26 February 2022 Has Vladimir Putin gone mad? It is a question hinted at when the British Prime Minister accused him of behaving “irrationally” towards Ukraine. But the understanding of Putin’s motives seems to stop there, an implicit attempt to shame him into acting rationally. But in another reality, populated…
Homily, Seventh Sunday of the Year C 2022
Any comment that I might make on the Gospel we are about to hear – S t Luke 6:27-38 - would only serve to take away from its stark demand. Our Lord sets before us, in quite stark terms, the Christian standard of how we are to behave towards others. He teaches that those who…
Reform of Seminaries
THE TABLET COMMENT, 12 February 2022 Clericalism is a virus in the Catholic Church that will be hard to eliminate. Its latest manifestation is the reported emergence from Catholic seminaries of a type of newly ordained priest who seems to be in love with the idea of being “special”. Their ideal of Catholicism stems from…
Homily, Sixth Sunday of the Year © 2022
When Jesus says: ‘blessed are you who are poor’, and ‘blessed are you who are hungry,’ and ‘blessed are you who weep’, as he does in today’s Gospel, what exactly does he mean? Would any poor person or those starving and weeping with hunger in Afghanistan believe him? What’s ‘blessed’ about being poverty stricken when,…
Homily, Fifth Sunday of the Year (C) 2022
We have just heard of Jesus inviting fishermen to leave their business and follow him. They were Peter and his brother, Andrew, who were in a fishing partnership with another pair of brothers, James and John. Between them they owned at least two boats and we are told that they ‘left everything’ to follow Jesus.…
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