The incident described in the First Reading complements a similar episode in today’s Gospel. This time it was the apostle John who, like Joshua, was part of an ‘inner circle’, in this case being one of the Twelve apostles around Jesus. John was annoyed that someone was performing exorcisms (‘casting out spirits’) in Jesus’ name even…
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Exodus of teachers is a lesson for politicians
From Alice Thomson in THE TIMES, 26 September 2018: Angela Rayner left her school in Stockport without any qualifications and became pregnant at 16 but she was determined to get a job. Now she’s a granny at 38 but also shadow education secretary. She’s punching above her gene pool, as she once explained to me.…
UK asylum seekers refused housing over ‘social cohesion issues’
From Diane Taylor in The Guardian, 27 September 2018: Some asylum seekers have been banned from accommodation in north-east England because of “social cohesion issues” and far-right activity, a move lawyers have described as “discriminatory”, the Guardian has learned. Details of the ban emerged in a note from the Home Office to an asylum seeker’s…
Stop talking down the NHS
By Melanie Reid in THE TIMES, 22 September 2018: Sometimes, I wish I were braver. I’d love the courage to tap people on the arm mid-conversation and say, “Please stop moaning.” I’d like to interrupt meetings with, “Do any of you ever consider how lucky you are?” In fact, I dream of owning a long-distance…
Homily, 25th Sunday (B)
In 1989 a law came into force in England and Wales, known as The Children Act, which states that the interests of children and young people up to the age of 18 are paramount in all considerations of their welfare and safeguarding. No other considerations are allowed to over-ride the right of children and young…
Father Brett Kavanaugh would be suspended and investigated
by Thomas Reese, in The National Catholic Reporter (USA) 21 September 2018 If Brett Kavanaugh were a Catholic priest, how would we now expect the church to deal with him? Kavanaugh is not just any judge, of course. He's been nominated to the Supreme Court. Were he a Catholic priest being considered for promotion to…
I am 25 years a priest this December. I have never heard a paedophile’s confession
From Richard Leonard S J in THE TABLET, 12 September 2018: In the present climate in Australia, Catholic bishops cannot win a trick. In their long-awaited 60-page response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, they accepted 98 per cent of the commission’s recommendations. But this was drowned…
Jean Vanier’s ’10 rules for life to become more human’
By Edward Kendall in THE TABLET, 14 September 2018: Jean Vanier, the Canadian philosopher and theologian and the founder of L'Arche communities, turned ninety this week. To commemorate the occasion he released a YouTube video laying out his “ten rules for life to become more human” by sharing his thoughts on life and on growing older. He…
Catholic editor criticises Church beatification of rape victim
By Edward Kendall in THE TABLET, 18 September 2018 A senior editor of Catholic magazine Commonweal has criticised the tendency of the Church to make saints out of rape victims. Mollie Wilson O’Reilly, an editor at large and columnist at the USA-based Commonweal, was writing about the recent beatification of Anna Kolesárová, a sixteen-year old…
New measure of poverty is not perfect but it is the least imperfect one we have
By Paul Johnson in THE TIMES, 17 September 2018: How many people in the UK live in poverty? Well, it all depends what you mean by poverty. That’s a question which has been debated down the ages. To be poor, it has been accepted at least since the time of Adam Smith, does not simply…
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