Almost all who have had the privilege of being educated in convents remember nuns whose lives were ones of fulfilment, vigour and purpose On reading Tales out of School: Recollections of Ex-Covent-School Girls, published by the Pastoral Research Centre Trust two thoughts occurred to me: a. that you only realise how important something is when it Read more
A lot has been written about Pope Francis’s goal of making the church more democratic, with less control by the Vatican and more power to individual bishops. In an ideal world, not only would the Vatican have less say in choosing bishops, but priests and laity would have a larger role in the selection of Read more
Charity is about being good-hearted, but justice is about something more. Individual sympathy is good and virtuous, but it doesn’t necessarily change the social, economic, and political structures that unfairly victimize some people and unduly privilege others. We need to be fair and good of heart, but we also need to have fair and good Read more
Dear Katrina, After watching our friends’ two grown kids go off to college and stop going to Mass and the disappointment it’s caused their parents, I was wondering if you had some advice for me and my own son, who will be leaving for college in two years. He’s already grown disinterested in coming to Read more
The first thing I noticed was his Mercedes. It was only when he got closer that I realised he was also wearing a pretty expensive-looking suit. We don’t see the likes of — well, let’s call him ‘John’ — coming to our soup vans every day. When you’ve been visiting the streets of Melbourne serving Read more
I’ve only been married for four months, so I have a lot to learn about the sacrament. I’ve read countless blogs, listened to podcasts, watched videos and picked through my library’s section on marriage advice. I’ve dug into the Bible to see what God’s word has to say about striving towards sainthood as a married Read more
When we are young, much of life experience seems unplanned and random. Our dear little hearts are torn by both love and disappointment, one as painful as the other, and without warning, days open up under our feet, hurtling us into some new happening. We sometimes feel out of control and don’t know where God Read more
The Second Vatican Council established that, “Christ summons the Church as she goes her pilgrim way… to that continual renewal of which she always has need”. At the launch of Wellington Diocesan priest Eddie Condra’s book, “Remapping Our Souls: Spirituality for Disillusioned Catholics”, I felt that we were responding to this summons. In a different Read more
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. – Robert Frost Frost’s little piece reads like a nursery rhyme with a depressing moral, Read more
Online pornography is one of the fastest growing addictions in the United States, on par with cocaine and gambling. Once confined to the pages of a smuggled Playboy magazine, pornography can now be in the hands of anyone with a smartphone, and is more prolific and anonymous than ever. PornHub, one of the world’s largest Read more