For decades, viewers have enjoyed the Japanese reality TV series “Old Enough!” in which preschool children venture into the streets alone to run errands for their parents. What if American women asked their live-in boyfriends to stop playing video games, leave their couches and run errands? In the “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Old Enough! Longterm Read more
It’s easy to say that pilgrimage must be a movement forward, but it is not so easy to do. That’s because I can’t see the road ahead, which is getting wider and suggesting new scenery. What will it demand of me? We know we have to leave the oast. St Paul reminds us that we Read more
It’s an interesting experience being a churchgoer these days. We’ve been nudged to the periphery of society and lost out in numbers and influence. Countless revelations about sexual misconduct by clergy have shaken public confidence. The accumulation of negative publicity in very recent times has been remarkable: Dilworth School, Gloriavale, Destiny Church’s antics, Arise Church’s Read more
What is the difference between Faith and Belief? It was an interesting question, and if it had been asked in a room full of people, we could have had many answers. My response is that both are important, but Belief belongs to the head and Faith belongs to the heart. The journey from head to Read more
Pope Francis says the Lord does not expect us to be “perfect Christians,” and he (the pope) is afraid when he sees righteous and self-assured Christians. Francis told a crowd at the Vatican on Sunday that the Lord would prefer us “to seek him, to call on him or even, like Thomas, to protest, bringing Read more
US secular universities will benefit from a US$3.6m grant to create a national network of independent institutes of Catholic thought. Several secular universities are already home to many of these institutes. The aim of the plan is to help make Catholicism’s intellectual tradition a vital aspect of academic life, foccusing on the theology, arts, politics Read more
American men are dropping out of college in alarming numbers. A slew of articles over the past year depict a generation of men who feel lost, detached and lacking in male role models. This sense of despair is especially acute among working-class men, fewer than one in five of whom completes college. Yet one group Read more
Over the past week, Australians have heard Scott Morrison make several explicit references to his faith. Given Morrison has placed his faith front and centre of his public persona, it is helpful to try to understand how he perceives his faith and how it might intersect with his job as prime minister. For me, Morrison’s Read more
An international study of the effect of the pandemic on the faith of young people and families has found widespread disengagement and disconnection, and that many failed to return to church after lockdowns eased. The study, based on research carried out in the UK, United States, Brazil, and Canada in June, suggests that children felt Read more
Religion forms a moral foundation for billions of people throughout the world. In a 2019 survey, 44% of Americans – along with 45% of people across 34 nations – said that belief in God is necessary “to be moral and have good values.” So what happens to a person’s morality and values when they lose Read more