Archive for June, 2013
Soldier to Saint: the tour has started and tickets still available
This is from the RISE Theatre site: After a successful London run in 2011, RISE Theatre is reviving its ground-breaking one-act play Soldier to Saint, bringing this challenging & thought-provoking drama to the very heart […]
Exploring Monastic Theology: Retreat for Young Adults this summer
Transfigured in Christ Exploring Monastic Theology – Retreat for Young Adults @ Worth Abbey Benedictine Monastery 28th August – 1st September Four days of study, prayer and community alongside the monks of Worth Abbey and members of The Wellspring Community. With […]
Pope Francis appoints Bishop Alan Hopes as new Bishop of East Anglia
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Alan Hopes, currently Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, to become the fourth Bishop of East Anglia. Bishop Hopes was ordained priest in the Church of England in 1968 and served until […]
Where the Strasbourg religious freedom judgement leaves the UK
The judgement handed down in January in four high-profile UK religious freedom cases by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has strengthened the freedom to manifest belief (Article 9). The judges disagreed with the UK courts in […]
Pope Francis calls for just wage, deplores ‘slave labour’
A society that “does not pay a just wage”, that “does not give work” to people and that “only looks to its balance books, that only seeks profit” is unjust and goes against God, Pope […]
“Full Sweep” Youth Catechesis
It was refreshing to read Archbishop Vincent Nichols’ words about catechesis for young people. He said we need to transmit to them the “full sweep” of the Catholic Faith. Thank you Archbishop – I couldn’t agree more. When […]
“Those who desire comforts have dialled the wrong number”
This may be one of my favourite EVER quotations from Pope Benedict XVI. It just makes me smile. He’s bang on! Anyone who tells us that Christianity is easy, that we can go on […]
Peer Ministry
One thing I have learnt through my involvement with Youth 2000 is that nothing works better than young people evangelising young people. This was how my own conversion happened. My parents could have told me […]
Ten Top Tips for Managing Your Class
OK, readers. These come from someone who has zero training as a teacher. But they are what I have picked up and learned (often the hard way) from giving catechesis myself. It is hard to […]
40 Days for Life London: Is it a good thing to pray outside an abortion clinic?
I was at the 40 Days for Life vigil in central London during Lent. People gather outside the BPAS abortion clinic in Bedford Square, between Tottenham Court Road station and the British Museum. They pray. They witness […]
Why keep the Sabbath?
Why should we keep the Sabbath? I know, because it’s there in the Bible; and it’s not just a throwaway line, it’s one of the Ten Commandments. But what is the reason given there for […]
What children want. What children need. What children get.
You may not have seen the recent Unicef report about the way materialism has come to dominate family life in Britain. What children really want, says the report, is to spend time with family and friends, to […]
If This is a Man and human suffering
Can we write about human suffering in a way that does not reduce it to the poverty of an indulgence? Do words exist with a tensile strength that can hold the pain of one soul, […]
Top Ten RCIA Traps
Recently a number of conversations with different people have highlighted for me that in many parish RCIA processes there are still some fairly dismal practices going on. RCIA, in my view, is one of the […]