Tom Leopold is a very funny guy. He’s also a Catholic. He has been funny longer than he has been a Catholic. But being a Catholic doesn’t stop him from being funny. “I can’t go more than two lines without getting a laugh,” Leopold told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from New York. Read more
The resignations of two bishops on child sex abuse allegations in the past six weeks and the Vatican’s handling of these latest cases has again prompted questions on how the world’s oldest monarchy handles controversy: It ignores it. In both cases – a nuncio to the Dominican Republic and, most recently, an auxiliary bishop in Read more
This is not a particularly successful season for converts to Christianity. Often more respect is shown to those who “dialogue” from outside of the Church than to those who embrace the Christian faith and ask for baptism. But it is also true that conversions to Catholicism are more numerous than one might think. Departing from Read more
New Friends and Old Sometime in August our staff Josephine and I attended a Boroko Rotary Club dinner and made a presentation on the work of WeCARe! It went over very well and the club is very interested in helping us. They have already given us a handsome donation which is very welcome, and told Read more
As it’s come to be understood in the 21st century, the papacy is really an impossible job. A pope is expected to be the CEO of a global religious organization, a political heavyweight, an intellectual giant, and a media rock star, not to mention a living saint. Any one of those things is a life’s Read more
She sat beside the bed, tears brimming. ‘Mum’s dying.’ ‘Yes.’ We sat in silence for a bit. ‘I’ve lost my faith.’ ‘Uh huh.’ ‘When my friend died.’ ‘Mm.’ We held hands and Mum’s too, wondering in our own ways, about God and faith and people dying and what the universe meant, if anything. As we Read more
On my regular walks around my neighbourhood, I pass by a property where two large dogs live. If they are running free on the fenced property, they come up to the gate, relaxed, curious, and quietly watch until I pass. It is a different scenario should they be tethered on their chains. As I approach, Read more
A legal battle is taking place in Utah, USA, as a result of a split in the Tongan Wesleyan Church there. The split in the church took place after Filimone Havili Mone, the former pastor of the Tongan United Methodist Church, was charged with failing to report child abuse. The Rocky Mountain Conference removed Mone Read more
I have been asked at this meeting of the Australian Jesuits and our companions on the journey to explain why I love the Catholic Church despite all the woes we are suffering as a social institution at the moment. I love the Church because it is the privileged space where people can share their deepest Read more
It began when the Pope paid his bill. The day after Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named the leader of the world’s billion Catholics, he asked his driver to go back to the hotel in the Vatican where he’d been staying during the Congress of Cardinals, to pay his bill. The payment was completely symbolic Read more