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…
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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,…
In Britain we keep trying to ignore the whiff of corruption
Sean O’Neill in THE TIMES, 3 August 2021 To the litany of words used to describe questionable conduct in the upper echelons of public life we must now add “access capitalism”. This is the phrase used by the hitherto little-known telecoms millionaire Mohamed Amersi to describe his ability to leverage his wealth (with the assistance…
Homily 18th Sunday (B) 2021
The recent heavy rains that caused such damage in parts of the UK and Europe reminds me of the story of a man who believed he would be saved from an impeding flood because he prayed to God to save him. When the rains flooded his basement and the whole street where he lived, he…
Confessions of an Exhausted Catholic
by John Gehring, National Catholic Reporter (USA), 23 July 2021 Media coverage of the Catholic Church can sometimes feel like a bad weather system that settles over my soul. Those hopeful days in March of 2013, when Pope Francis' election signaled a season of opportunity and renewal for Catholicism —a "springtime" for the church — can feel…
Homily, 17th Sunday (B) 2021
When running for election or trying to become more popular when in office, some politicians like to present themselves as being in touch with the lives of ordinary people. So, for instance, they might take part in an easy interview for a popular magazine and carefully staged photographs of taking part in or helping with…
