The latest edition of the ‘Church’s Book of Statistics’ was released to coincide with World Mission Sunday. The book details members of the Church, church structures, healthcare, welfare and education. World population To 31 December 2013 the world population was 7,093,798,000 with an increase of 70,421,000 compared with the previous year. Population growth was registered Read more
I went to a party last night. I don’t really go to parties, at least not of this kind. My kind of party involves ginger beer and snuggling under blankets to watch a movie. This party involved drinking games, very intoxicated people, startlingly immodest dresses and smoking pot. I started off the evening by demurely Read more
Nine percent of Americans say that they are Catholics, but that Catholicism is not their religion! That striking fact was uncovered in recent research by the Pew Research Centre. Two out of 10 respondents told the Pew pollsters that they are Catholics in the sense that they “claim the faith as their current religion.” Another one Read more
Some of the people who convert to Catholicism, come from other Christian traditions. Others are simply hi-jacked by God. I’m privileged to share a story of the latter kind, the experience of a young woman who had never had any interest in religion. Her passion was architecture, and she was in Rome with a camera, Read more
Being an aid worker turned me into someone I never wanted to be. In between moments of rising to the challenge, giving until it hurt, were many moments of great selfishness, rashness, anger, borne out of a feeling that I was almost constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place. The idealism that none Read more
One of the most arresting images published this year is of Pope Francis crossing a cobbled courtyard to enter the ornate Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. He wears the white papal vestments, accompanied by a cardinal, with a ceremonial Swiss guard nearby. He walks across red carpet from his car. But his conveyance is out of Read more
The New Evangelization has been a major effort in the Catholic Church for more than 40 years. Unfortunately, it has failed to stem several significant downward trends among faithful in the United States. Since 2000, 14 million Catholics have left the faith, parish religious-education participation of children has dropped by 24 percent, Catholic school attendance Read more
Whether it’s non-Catholics who attend Mass with their Catholic significant others or folks who are inquiring about the faith; if you weren’t brought up with Mass, your first (and second and third…) time can be very confusing—making people feel like they’re, “in on a secret that I’m not in on.” Here are some answers to Read more
Ten years ago this month, I became a Catholic. It happened in the attic of the guest house at Ealing Abbey. There was just me, a friend and a monk, and the operation took about an hour. Afterwards we went for cocktails. I started things as I meant to go on. I guess the two big Read more
On June 26th the Supreme Court ruled (by a slim 5 to 4 majority) that all states must now grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Writing for the majority Justice Anthony Kennedy contended that committed same-sex partnerships should be treated as fully equivalent in dignity and honor to traditional marriage, and that by not doing Read more