Are Catholic intellectuals losing touch with the mainstream?
There is an interesting article in yesterday’s Observer on a subject that gets an occasional outing in the press every now and again, namely, why is it that in Britain intellectuals are not accorded...
View ArticleThe Power and the Glory remains the greatest argument for Catholicism ever made
My Mexican wanderings are now drawing to an end, and I find myself in the country’s second city, Guadalajara waiting for my flight back home via the United States. Guadalajara, or GDL to use its...
View ArticleAn eye-opening look at corruption in Africa
It is now getting on for five years since I lived in Kenya, but the memory of Africa is with me still. Kenya is a land that delights the eye, even when, like me, urban landscapes may be your preferred...
View ArticleHow do Christians offer an alternative to the ‘nonsense all around us’?
I have just finished reading Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, the story of the life and death of Pinkie, a young psychopath (for want of a better word to describe him). At the very end of the book,...
View ArticleReligious persecution has existed through the ages. We must continue to fight...
On Tuesday it was the Feast of the Mexican Martyrs, those 25 priests and laymen canonised by John Paul II in 2000, and whose heroic struggles are fictionalised in the great novel The Power and the...
View ArticleShould we care that Hilary Mantel is anti-Catholic?
What an honour for Hilary Mantel, the novelist! Her portrait has been painted and it is to be hung in the British Library, the first time such an accolade has been accorded to a living writer. We read...
View ArticleEngland is getting less Irish by the day
In the wake of the same-sex marriage referendum, there has rightly been a lot of attention given to the decline of the once-dominant Catholic Church in Irish culture. Side by side with this, though, is...
View ArticleBooks blog: The art of the Catholic book reviewer
I have been reading a stimulating book by the Newman scholar, Edward Short. Entitled, Adventures in the Book Pages, published by Gracewing, it is a collection of his essays and reviews. Short shows...
View ArticleThe sinister crime in Mexico that the Pope cannot avoid
The Pope’s meeting with the Moscow Patriarch is getting a great deal of media coverage and commentary, but we should perhaps remember that he is on his way to Mexico, a country that faces several...
View ArticleScorsese’s Silence has an unexpected relevance to the Communion debate
Martin Scorsese’s new film Silence, like the original Shusaku Endo novel, is a mysterious and complex work of art. It repeatedly catches you off guard – not least in how directly it relates to today’s...
View ArticleAre Catholic intellectuals losing touch with the mainstream?
There is an interesting article in yesterday’s Observer on a subject that gets an occasional outing in the press every now and again, namely, why is it that in Britain intellectuals are not accorded...
View ArticleThe Power and the Glory remains the greatest argument for Catholicism ever made
My Mexican wanderings are now drawing to an end, and I find myself in the country’s second city, Guadalajara waiting for my flight back home via the United States. Guadalajara, or GDL to use its...
View ArticleAn eye-opening look at corruption in Africa
It is now getting on for five years since I lived in Kenya, but the memory of Africa is with me still. Kenya is a land that delights the eye, even when, like me, urban landscapes may be your preferred...
View ArticleHow do Christians offer an alternative to the ‘nonsense all around us’?
I have just finished reading Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, the story of the life and death of Pinkie, a young psychopath (for want of a better word to describe him). At the very end of the book,...
View ArticleReligious persecution has existed through the ages. We must continue to fight...
On Tuesday it was the Feast of the Mexican Martyrs, those 25 priests and laymen canonised by John Paul II in 2000, and whose heroic struggles are fictionalised in the great novel The Power and the...
View ArticleShould we care that Hilary Mantel is anti-Catholic?
What an honour for Hilary Mantel, the novelist! Her portrait has been painted and it is to be hung in the British Library, the first time such an accolade has been accorded to a living writer. We read...
View ArticleEngland is getting less Irish by the day
In the wake of the same-sex marriage referendum, there has rightly been a lot of attention given to the decline of the once-dominant Catholic Church in Irish culture. Side by side with this, though, is...
View ArticleBooks blog: The art of the Catholic book reviewer
I have been reading a stimulating book by the Newman scholar, Edward Short. Entitled, Adventures in the Book Pages, published by Gracewing, it is a collection of his essays and reviews. Short shows...
View ArticleThe sinister crime in Mexico that the Pope cannot avoid
The Pope’s meeting with the Moscow Patriarch is getting a great deal of media coverage and commentary, but we should perhaps remember that he is on his way to Mexico, a country that faces several...
View ArticleScorsese’s Silence has an unexpected relevance to the Communion debate
Martin Scorsese’s new film Silence, like the original Shusaku Endo novel, is a mysterious and complex work of art. It repeatedly catches you off guard – not least in how directly it relates to today’s...
View Article