The “2013 Survey of U.S. Priests on the New Roman Missal” was conducted under the auspices of the Godfrey Diekmann, OSB Center for Patristics and Liturgical Studies at Saint John’s University School of Theology Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. The objective of the survey was to determine as accurately as possible the views of U.S. Catholic priests about the new translation Read more
I entered the seminary in Dublin in October 1962, just one week before the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The winter of 1962-63 was one of the bleakest in decades, and our seminary was a very cold place in more ways than one. My memory of the seminary is of a building and a Read more
For years I’ve been immersed in Catholic media and the ongoing conversation within the Church of how to carry on as the Church. And, of course, in the West, at the heart of this conversation is the fact that within the next generation half of the pews will empty. When I travel, I always get Read more
Ordinations of new Catholic priests in Britain have fallen to one tenth of the number in 1965, and marriages and baptisms have also dropped significantly. Details of the declines have been revealed for the first time by the compilation of statistics for these sacraments over the past century. The figures were compiled by the Latin Read more
The April 22nd kidnapping of Syrian archbishops Mar Gregorios Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the killing of their driver, has reminded us once again of the vulnerability of ancient Christian peoples living in the Middle East. More than 1,000 Christians have been killed Read more
I was motivated to write the book A Catholic Guide to Depression because I believe that our Catholic tradition – including the writings of the Church Fathers and saints – has something important to say to those suffering from this terrible affliction. Depression is often misunderstood; most people mistakenly believe it’s nothing more than intense Read more
The Catholic faith is spread not by proselytising but by “attraction, by witnessing, by preaching”, Pope Francis has told a congregation including Vatican employees. True evangelisers build bridges, to meet people wherever they are, rather than building walls to protect the Church, he said. “A Christian must proclaim Jesus Christ in such a way that Read more
The president of the German Catholic bishops’ conference has called for a new office of women deacons in the Catholic Church. Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg made it clear he was calling for a new office specifically for women, rather than admission of women to the sacramental diaconate. He called for the move at the Read more
Allen Ottaro, 28, lives in Nairobi, Kenya. A parishioner at St. Paul’s Catholic University Chapel in the Archdiocese of Nairobi, he studied Environmental Planning and Management at Kenyatta University. Mr. Ottaro is the national coordinator of MAGiS Kenya, an Ignatian young adult ministry, and has worked with the African Jesuit AIDS Network. He is also a cofounder Read more
A German court has ruled that a man who renounced his faith cannot claim a right to retain his job with a Catholic charity. The plaintiff had been dismissed by Caritas Germany after he changed his legal registration as a Catholic, in a public protest against Church policies. He said that his dismissal was a Read more