As visitors descend upon Bethlehem this holiday season, they will notice a different look for the Church of the Nativity. Wrapped in scaffolding, the basilica located at the traditional site of Jesus’ birth is undergoing a much-needed facelift after 600 years. Experts say that water is leaking from the rooftop and threatens to cause serious Read more
Since reading Pope Francis’ new document, The Joy of the Gospel, I have a huge amount of hope for the future of the Church’s work with the young. It raises many points that would mean, if we do it right, we’re much more open, available and welcoming to young people. While I think the Pope’s Read more
The unholy noises of the city surround Burnside Park where the Rev. Edmund Harris delivers his Saturday afternoon service. He plants himself behind a makeshift altar, light-blue stole draped over his peacoat, and asks the people milling about to “gather ’round.” Some settle into folding chairs; others stand. A regular known as “Mama Kelley” passes Read more
It is difficult to overestimate the rate and depth of change and the collapse of a phase of the Church’s life that is currently underway. Throughout the world, but particularly in Ireland, the sense of the end of an era that delivered the largest growth in the history of the Church, something foundational is happening. Read more
These are the very early days of a phenomenon that will reshape Christianity forever, the coming of what theologians call the “Third Church.” The “First Church” was that of the original disciples and the generations that followed them, centred on the Mediterranean and making the first missionary advances into lands and cultures outside of Israel. Read more
Parliament’s sanctioning of same-sex marriage this year has prompted galloping expectations, not least where churches are involved. One has been tested in the Human Rights Review Tribunal by the Gay and Lesbian Clergy Anti-Discrimination Society on behalf of Eugene Sisneros, an events co-ordinator at St Matthew-in-the-City who claimed he was rejected for a priest training Read more
Cardinal Francis Arinze grew up in Nigeria, and in 1965 became the youngest bishop in the world at the age of 32. He was the first African cardinal to head a Vatican office and served as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2002 to 2008. He is the Read more
The effort of some of our Catholic friends on the right to question or object or contextualize to the point of gutting the obvious import or even to demean Pope Francis’ happy penchant for speaking frankly continues. They rightly perceive that something different is happening in the church under the leadership of our new Holy Read more
When addressing the cardinal conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Buenos Aires warned of “self-preferentiality” and “theological narcissism,” which he said would lead to a “sick” Church. He particularly criticized the “mundane Church that lives within itself, of itself and for itself.” Six months into his papacy, it is crystal clear that this Argentine cardinal, Read more
A man I know said to me yesterday that I must be outraged about what Pope Francis is saying. I inwardly rolled my mind’s eye. Let me just tell you who this guy is. He’s a professed non-believer. A former Catholic. The worst kind, right? And he’s a bit in your face about it too, Read more