From Timothy Egan in The New York Times, 31 August 2018: (This does not make for easy or comfortable reading but it's how more and more in the world are seeing the Church. ~ Fr Campion) One pope was a father of 10 through multiple mistresses, a man who purchased the papacy with mule-loads of…
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The Evil of Clericalism
By Nicole Trahan in The Global Sisters Report, 31 August 2018: Since I was in high school, praying with Scripture has been one of my favorite ways to pray. I read and meditate on the readings of the day and draw from them challenge, edification, questions, and/or calls to conversion. Sometimes the fruit of my meditation…
Homily, 22nd Sunday (B) 2018
With access to clean running water, hot and cold, in our homes, most of us are able to wash as often as we wish. Today’s Gospel features a clash between Jesus and an elite group of fellow Jews over washing before every meal. The Pharisees observed this practice not so much as a matter of…
How To Find A Good Husband
From Melanie Reid in THE TIMES, 25 August 2018: Age and experience, it’s said, impart wisdom. Age, experience and a bit of misfortune interwoven, perhaps, impart even more. Last sunny Saturday, one of my most cynical, worldly girlfriends and I drove past two wedding receptions in full swing. The flowers around the door, the lovely…
Homily, 21st Sunday of the Year (B)
Today's 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. In dialogue with fellow Jews he speaks here of his intimate and unique relationship with God, and how He is now the, definitive means through whom one can have an…
Corbyn has no right to judge my background ed conway
By Ed Conway in THE TIMES, 24 August 2018: I do not work for the BBC, but if I did, and if Jeremy Corbyn had his way, you would soon discover that I am, officially, posh. You would learn that I was privately educated; that my parents were both doctors. You would learn this because…
How dare the pope ask ordinary Catholics to atone for child abuse?
From Joanna Moorhead in The Guardina, 21 August 2018: The Catholic church is in meltdown: the appalling story emerged last week of clerical abuse stretching back decades in Pennsylvania, where at least 1,000 children were the victims of 300 priests. In the UK, a report on the behaviour of the monks at two leading Catholic schools was…
It’s too late. Not even Pope Francis can resurrect Catholic Ireland
From Fintan O'Toole in The Guardian, 23 August 2018: When Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose the name Francis for his papacy, he was asking Catholics to make a connection to the medieval religious revolutionary Francis of Assisi. Early in his spiritual pilgrimage, the original Francis heard the icon of the crucified Christ in the Italian church of San Damiano…
Homily, 20th Sunday of the Year (B)
Over 50 years ago, in 1967, the Oxford University Students Union held its first debate to be nationally televised on BBC. It caused quite a stir at the time and upset many Catholics. The motion was “The Roman Catholic Church has no place in the Twentieth Century”. The Reverend Ian Paisley, then a young firebrand…
Father’s lesson in forgiveness
By Mark Stibbe in THE TIMES, 18 August 18 2018 It was my father, Philip Stibbe, who taught me about forgiveness. Dad had been a prisoner-of-war at the hands of the Japanese. For three years he suffered terrible beatings and all manner of tortures. He never spoke about these things, but he did write about…
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