The conservative Catholicism of Donald Trump’s running-mate is a countercultural form of dissent James Marriott in THE TIMES, Wednesday July 17 2024 Five years ago, at St Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, the man who is probably going to be America’s next vice-president was arrayed in a pure white robe and received into the Catholic church.…
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Vatican rejects attempts to ‘obscure’ differences between men and women
by Michael Sean Winters in THE TABLET, 9 April 2024 The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its much-anticipated document Dignitas Infinita: on Human Dignity April 8, noting that it coincides with the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document re-affirms long-standing teaching on various moral concerns and repeats Pope Francis’ opposition to…
Root and Branch
by Sue Williamson Root and Branch is an exciting new forum for reform, working for a safe, just and inclusive Roman Catholic Church. Begun just before Pope Francis initiated the current Synod on Synodality 2021-2024, Root and Branch has organized two very successful lay-led Synods, the latest in October 2023, an online and physical event…
Homily at the Service of Dedication of the Memorial Window
Monsignor Kevin Francis Nichols, Priest and Poet St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne 17 January 2024 Twenty years ago, in his homily at the dedication of the Adam Wakenshaw memorial window in this Cathedral, Kevin Nichols said: ‘We need memorials in glass and stone because of the passage of time and because of human…
Assisted dying – no laughing matter
by Julian C. Hughes in THE TABLET 11 January 2024 A bill to legalise assisted dying in the UK was defeated in parliament 2015. In recent weeks the campaign for a new vote has been gaining momentum. About 30 years ago, when our children were still very young, the topic of euthanasia cropped up over the…
The Battle of the Bubbles
by N.O.Phile, The Tablet's wine writer. He is also a senior Catholic priest. Supermarket sales of champagne used to soar during December, returning to normal only after new year celebrations, but champagne’s cachet is not quite what it was. The shift was signalled in recent changes to the UK’s duty regime. Tax on alcoholic drinks…
An assisted dying law will complicate life
Unlike Diana Rigg, my mother had no interest in death — a right to die could have made her last years worse for all of us - By Hugo Rifkind in THE TIMES, 12 December 2022 My mother, Edith, passed away in 2019, after living with multiple sclerosis for a little over 20 years. Her…
Charity Organisation at Holy Name
Holy Name is a generous parish. There are many demands from the diocese and various charitable organisations which up to now have always fallen to Fr Michael to manage. To relieve him of this pressure we have created a Charity Committee to deal with requests both from inside and outside our community. There are obligatory…
Crisis in Gaza – who will stand for universalism?
by Conor Gearty in THE TABLET 11 November 2023 A human rights lawyer argues that its uncritical support for Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza for the crimes of Hamas reveals the Global North’s descent into moral vandalism. On Sunday, 10 minutes early for Mass, my five-year-old asked to light a candle. With this dangerous…
Moral Combat – Can the killing of innocent civilians ever be justified?
By Paul Wood in The Spectator 4 November 2023 Israel has made the first, rather tentative, moves of its ground operation against Hamas – but there’s nothing tentative about its aerial bombing. Here’s a report of one incident: at 4.30 p.m. on 10 October, an explosion collapsed a six-storey building in Sheikh Radwan, a district of…
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