The word “addiction” brings to mind alcohol and drugs. Yet, over the past 20 years, a new type of addiction has emerged: addiction to social media. It may not cause physical harms, such as those caused by tobacco and alcohol, but it has the potential to cause long-term damage to our emotions, behaviour and relationships. Read more
Adoley and her husband Mike (not their real names) attend one of Ghana’s mega churches. Both are university graduates. She is a seamstress and owns a small retail shop. He is an accountant. The couple live with Mike’s family, where Adoley sometimes feels she’s blamed for the couple’s childlessness after having three miscarriages. When they Read more
The answers that Pope Francis gave to workers at a steel plant in Genoa, Italy, last month suggested an important distinction in the Holy Father’s economic thinking, one that addresses the increasing importance of the financial sector in the contemporary economy. In meeting the workers of the Ilva steel factory May 27, Pope Francis had Read more
On 8 December of last year, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Pope Francis released his message for the celebration of the Fiftieth World Day of Peace. It was titled, “Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace.” In addition to this message, Pope Francis used Twitter in the days following its release to Read more
On Friday, at the historic Parihaka reconciliation ceremony, the Crown finally apologised to the people of Parihaka for the actions which had burdened them “with an intergenerational legacy of grievance and deprivation, and which have burdened the Crown with a legacy of shame.” Here is the full apology, which was delivered by the Attorney-General Chris Finlayson. Mihi Te maunga tupuna, Taranaki Tū Read more
ROME – When most people think of Rome they picture the majestic Colosseum or the countless churches and basilicas sprawled across the city, but deep underground there is another Eternal City that tells the tale of the first pioneers of the Christian faith. The Catacombs of Domitilla, a vast web of tunnels and tombs used Read more
When it comes to theology, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches are very close. We accept the same Nicene Creed, we recognize each other’s priestly and episcopal ordinations, as well as the sacraments of baptism, confession and Eucharist. Catholic and Orthodox teaching on morals are also quite compatible, with both being more conservative than Read more
NEW YORK (RNS) Sister Patricia Daly is a Dominican nun who has been lobbying corporations to be socially responsible for so long that she has a rich trove of stories about battling recalcitrant execs and pushing faith-based resolutions at shareholder meetings. But one of her favorites dates from just a few years ago when she Read more
Dave Hansford wrote a book about the pest poison 1080 because “someone had to”. “I’d grown tired of seeing the volume and the extremity and the sheer amounts of BS in circulation about 1080,” he says. The result is a 318-page book called Protecting Paradise: 1080 and the Fight to Save New Zealand’s Wildlife that dissects anti-1080 sentiment and answers sentence Read more
The Popes want us to read poetry? Oh yes—and lots of it. You can probably rattle off the big-name poets the pontiffs often mention. Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy have been recommended for centuries. The temperamental master often appears in Vatican documents as “the supreme poet” or, as Pope Pius XI put it, the Read more