A 10pm candlelit Mass is drawing hundreds of young students to worship each week in Lille, France. Every Tuesday night, 800 to 900 students converge on a chapel at Lille Catholic University for the Mass. Burning attraction For the six students who initiated the Masses, the unexpectedly successful candlelit formula is one they want others Read more
“Spiritual restlessness” is driving adults to join the Catholic Church – according to new research findings. The Diocese of East Anglia’s New Evangelisation Commission study “Why Adults Become Catholics” found the spiritual restlessness focus was tightly targeted. Study participants report a specifically spiritual restlessness, rather than a sense of “general unease with their lives”. The Read more
What is a Catholic, from a contemporary perspective? The stereotype is that he or she is a sort of reactionary simpleton, a bit mean, a bit senile, obsessing over abstruse texts, preferring Mass to sleeping in on Sundays, and insisting on obeying an antiquated sect whose main activity is covering up sexual abuse. This pious Read more
Catechumen and candidate numbers in Brisbane and Sydney dioceses are continuing to rise as hundreds of people are choosing to become Catholic. They – catechumens (those who have never been baptised) and candidates (who have been baptised, but not as Catholics) – will all become members of the Catholic Church this Easter. Numbers up In Read more
I never knew my maternal grandmother’s father, but my mother told me three stories that shaped my view of him. One involved his being mugged by a hitchhiker to whom he had offered a ride. I think my mom related this tale as a warning against good-natured but borderline foolish benevolence. The second dealt with Read more