This week, the Vatican is set to publish a new set of guidelines on apparitions, including Marian apparitions, that is, reports from individuals or groups that the Virgin Mary has appeared to them. There are many kinds of apparitions and visions, but Marian ones predominate in the Catholic Church. The last major Vatican document addressing Read more
An issue that refuses to hide its face is the continuing fall in the number of priests serving our parishes. We should be considering this question as a matter of some urgency if we are to maintain our present diocesan structures at anywhere near their present level, let alone seek to become a Missionary Church. Read more
It took a little more than a day for Father Justin, an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar posing as a priest, to be defrocked. Defrocking Justin After Catholic Answers, a site devoted to evangelising for Catholicism, introduced the character to answer questions about the faith, Catholics on social media called the character a “scandalising mockery of Read more
Calls for hope in times like these can seem like toxic positivity — or like a slur. Urging hope seems to ignore charred bodies in a kibbutz and bombed refugee camps, to mock victims of hate crimes, to disregard the failed peace agreements and war machines that crisscross the sky. Countering rhetoric and policies At Read more
As global fertility rates continue to decline, even majority-Catholic and historically Catholic countries aren’t free from the demographic collapse. That collapse increasingly threatens to shrink the populations of countries below the necessary rate of replacement. Global fertility falling Global fertility has been falling for decades, with the problem often most acute in industrialised nations with Read more
Today I would like to talk about the virtue of faith. Together with charity and hope, this virtue is described as theologal. The theologal virtues There are three theologal virtues: faith, hope and charity. Why are they theologal? Because they can be lived – this virtue, the three theologal virtues – only thanks to the Read more
Before culture war issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, vaccines or pronouns, there was the battle over calendar reform, a battle that shows signs of ending. There is once again renewed hope that ongoing ecumenical dialogue between the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Roman Catholic Church will resolve an ancient rift. That rift Read more
I will be 80 years old in June. As a young child in the Methodist Church, I was certain I was called to ordained ministry. At Duke University, I majored in religious studies and then served as pastoral assistant and director of religious education in a small church in upstate New York. Then, in the Read more
Hollywood, the USA Gymnastics team, Penn State, the Boy Scouts: Sexual abuse has proved pervasive across institutions. And when it comes to faith groups, no creed, structure, value system or size has seemed immune. Get out of denial mode “We’ve got to stop saying that could never happen in my church, or my pastor would Read more
The synodal process within the Catholic Church demands a profound call to love that resonates at the very heart of Synodal discussions and decisions. This period of reflection and dialogue, aimed at rejuvenating and reforming the Church, must fundamentally be rooted in love. Central to this journey is the challenge to embody the greatest commandment—love. Read more