The chimney on the Sistine Chapel is up, and voting to elect the next pope will begin on Wednesday afternoon, May 7. There will be 133 cardinals who participate in the conclave and they will elect among themselves Pope Francis' successor. Eighty-nine is the magic number to pass the two-thirds majority mark required to be…
Blog
The secrets of ‘God’s influencer’
Assisi In a medieval church built of white stone, pilgrims and tourists shuffle past the body of a 15-year-old boy in a tomb with a glass side. The boy is handsome, with dark curly hair, and wears a blue tracksuit top, jeans and Nike trainers. Everyone peers through the glass and some realise, with a…
Bruce MacDonald 1948-2024
Bruce Walter MacDonald, cherished husband, devoted brother, loyal friend and beloved by his extended family, was born on 29 September 1948, the youngest son of Charles and Ruth MacDonald of Hyde Park, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He passed away unexpectedly but peacefully on 8 December 2024. An alumnus of Withrow High School, Bruce attended Princeton University…
Assisted Suicide: An Error of Judgement
From the Editor, The Tablet, 14 February 2025 As was entirely predictable, the proposed law to allow state-assisted suicide in England and Wales is in trouble. The House of Commons committee examining the draft bill has comprehensively proved the adage that “the devil lies in the detail”. It is likely, therefore, that the bill that…
How far did he go? David Lodge (1935-2025)
Although David Lodge, who died on 1 January aged 89, will forever be regarded as a ‘campus novelist’, he was much more than that David Lodge rather admired Lionel Trilling’s notion of “pieties”, habits of mind and of behaviour that were retained even after the core or supporting belief was lost. “I suppose that in…
In Defence of Faith
Leading Article in The Spectator Christmas Issue For what should we give thanks this Christmas? The faith that sustains millions through life’s challenges and inspires countless acts of compassion every day? The hope that our world may be redeemed by love? The charity that makes us think of the voiceless and the vulnerable who need…
Notre Dame Goes Back to Nature
From the Vineyard by N.O' Phile, The Tablet's Wine Writer Amid the pomp, pride and palpable emotion of last week’s reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, an unremarked but far from insignificant vignette about the event has come The Tablet’s way. At the first Mass, celebrated fittingly on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception by the Archbishop…
Rubicon -The Times View on the Assisted Dying vote
In a momentous decision, MPs have voted in favour of assisted suicide Friday 29 November 2024 It could be years before the first dose of poison is taken by a patient deemed terminally ill, but following the decision by a majority of MPs to vote in favour of assisted suicide on Friday something in Britain…
Statement from the Catholic Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland opposing proposed legislation for assisted suicide.
Be Compassionate As Catholic Bishops in England and Wales, and in Scotland, we believe that genuine compassion is under threat because of the attempts in Parliament to legalise assisted suicide. ‘Compassion’ means to enter into and share the suffering of another person. It means never giving up on anyone or abandoning them. It means loving…
BEING A PRISON VISITOR
How does a church organist and retired botanist/marine biologist come to end up volunteering in a reception prison? If I had had a bucket list of things to do following my retirement from university (which I didn't) this would not have featured on it - and yet it turns out to be one of the…
Sunday Mass: Saturday 4pm, Sunday 10am 