A few years ago I went to a lecture by the Right Honourable The Baroness Cox, of Queensbury. She spoke about her charitable work in many of the most dangerous areas of the world and in particular about the redeeming of slaves in Sudan. What struck me at the time was her comment that not only Read more
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published a 2000-page three volume Criminal Justice Report. One of its recommendations is that the states and territories “create a criminal offence of failure to report targeted at child sexual abuse in an institutional context”. If such an offence were created, those of us who Read more
Think to a time when you were hungry. Remember how it felt, a bit uncomfortable, right? You may have even said, “I’m starving!” But you knew that in a short time the next meal would be there for you. Knowing that a good meal was awaiting you allowed your slight hunger to actually whet your Read more
Why do we balk at paying people to do good? In New Zealand the average salary for the CEO of a top 50 listed company is $1.68 million and the average salary for a CEO of a charity is just over $220,000. Some analysts suggest the average CEO salary in the broader not-for-profit sector is as low as $100,000. Read more
Whatever we say about suffering will be largely subjective. It will come from our life experience and our beliefs. My brokenness will relate to the brokenness out there. Some will call that projection. Others will call it empathy. My own journeys through crucifixions and resurrections will prompt me to help others find the freedom of Read more
In the BBC remake of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mystery novels, the intrepid title character sometimes makes use of certain special knowledge when sleuthing crimes. This particular superpower is not the result of radioactive mutation or dark magic. It has to do with his priesthood, but it is not the Holy Spirit, exactly. It Read more
Years ago, a woman who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, asked me to pray for a miracle of healing. As she talked about this, I was aware that her body was in advanced labour to give birth to her soul. I wanted to tell her I believe we have our definitions back to front: Read more
There are plenty of things for which I thank God: good friends, the health of my children, the glorious tenth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum. Another is the fact that my wife and I were never made to attend a Catholic marriage preparation course. If we had been members of a parish where the mind-numbingly dull half-year Read more
A recent article in Nature magazine outlines a dramatic intervention that could wipe out a congenital heart defect. Working on a days old embryo produced by IVF it used a type of molecular scissors to cut out the defective gene. It described the process as the correction of a mutant gene; more broadly the question Read more
A wet knot on a pair of sneakers is hard to untie – even harder when they’re on your feet. As the pastor of a multigenerational, multicultural, and multilingual (Spanish, Vietnamese, and English) parish, I at times feel responsible for untying a lot of wet knots. Farm workers from Central Mexico founded the parish where Read more