Over the past three years, I have been speaking to many groups about the notion of synodality and what it might mean (and not mean) for that community of disciples we refer to as the Catholic Church. In the discussions, one question is invariably put to me, and it amounts to this: If you were Read more
The narrative of the “The Parable of the Sower” draws our attention to the varying types of ground upon which the seed falls. The type of ground prompts introspection: which parts of me are rocky, shallow, or overrun with thorns? However, suddenly, I find myself at the centre of the narrative. I recommend reading verses Read more
Meet any group of Catholics today and within minutes someone will mention that their diocese or local area is undergoing a “re-organization”. Parishes are being combined, the ordained ministers being spread more thinly around communities, and the access to gathering for Eucharistic activity is being curtailed. The process is sometimes given an elegant name derived Read more
Among clergy and sociologists, film directors and songwriters it’s become practically a matter of cliché that people are searching for wholehearted belonging and not finding their needs met — the phenomenon, in short, behind the phrase “spiritual but not religious.” These people are setting out on an open-ended quest, on their own or with trusted Read more
Pope Francis has warned on many occasions over the past seven years of the danger of the Church being like a museum, full of lovely stuff that’s without any real currency. He phrases it in various ways, but the message is the same. “Keep us from becoming a ‘museum Church,’ beautiful but mute, with much Read more
While some people bunkered down during the Covid lockdowns, Gerarld Arbuckle wrote a book! The award-winning author’s new book is about the Church in a post-COVID world. In “The Pandemic and the People of God“, internationally renowned theologian and anthropologist and New Zealand-born priest, Gerald Arbuckle SM, weaves together insights from life, anthropology and theology Read more
One of the first big crises the Church faced was one that Jesus had probably not anticipated. He certainly did not leave any instructions or even advice on how to deal with it. The problem appears in the Acts of the Apostles: “Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists Read more
Without trust, human cooperation is impossible. Without trust, people refuse to cooperate and instead engage in struggles over power because they fear what will happen if their opponents have it. Today, we see this in the highly charged partisan character of American politics and in the Catholic Church, where the hierarchy has lost credibility. A Read more
A Church leader once said he didn’t have a vision beyond the next 12 months. His point was that everything changes rapidly, and no one knows the future. So why plan beyond what you do not know for certain? In looking far into the future, he believed leaders wasted too much time on fruitless thinking Read more
Marshall McLuhan, was a convert to catholicism and described by one of his colleagues as “a mystic Catholic humanist”. And if the man who coined the phrase “the medium is the message” were alive today, there isn’t much that would surprise him — not the Internet, or Google, or Twitter, or WikiLeaks, or even the phone-hacking Read more