Is it right to fear God? What is the difference between a destructive fear and a “holy trepidation”? An Advent homily by Fr Stephen Wang: Look around you at the chapel walls. Look at the […]
Ethics
Who is Jesus? (And, by the way, how to vote in the EU Referendum…)
A homily by Fr Stephen Wang, about the challenge of proclaiming Jesus Christ, and the political implications of St Paul’s theology of baptismal unity.
Why do you go to work in the morning?
As Christians we are called to loving service, and as adults we spend a third of our waking lives at work. So how do we turn our work into service? One of the deepest modern […]
The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth
We are delighted to announce the publication by Routledge of The Ethics of Pregnancy, Abortion and Childbirth: Exploring Moral Choices in Childbearing by Dr Helen Watt, the Anscombe Centre’s Senior Research Fellow. See below for a brief description […]
How to enter the reality of suffering without losing faith in God
Have you ever been in a situation where, to everyone outside, it looked like everything had fallen to pieces? A failed plan, a project or job fallen through, a serious illness, a financial loss, some […]
Catholics and Our Common Home: Caring for the Planet We Share
At last we are in fashion! Back in 1995 I wrote a CTS pamphlet entitled, Must Catholics be Green? It had seemed obvious to me for a long time that any sane person would want […]
Resisting assisted suicide
Tomorrow the UK Parliament debates a Bill tabled by the MP Robert Marris to legalise assisted suicide. The following is an excerpt from the new edition of a book by UK and US Catholic Voices coordinators Austen Ivereigh and […]
Eight Reasons not to legalize Physician Assisted Suicide
From the Anscombe Bioethics Centre. 1. Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) would not address the urgent needs of the dying One attraction of PAS is that it is thought to address the suffering of the dying. […]
Francis’s bold message to abortion survivors: come and be freed
Pope Francis yesterday sent media and commentators into a tailspin after calling for all priests to be granted the faculty to absolve the sin of abortion during the Year of Mercy (see Crux). The bold gesture, […]
Assessing the evidence on assisted suicide
The debate over assisted suicide frequently generates more heat than light, and arguments are often based on anecdotes or appeal to emotion rather than evidence. When people do appeal to evidence, they often do so […]
Francis declares 1 September ‘World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation’
Pope Francis has agreed with a request from the Orthodox for Catholics to join them in praying for creation on 1 September. The suggestion was made by Metropolitan John of Pergamon, who was part of […]
Living simply: the contemporary relevance of the virtue of temperance
Laudato Si’ challenges us to live a simpler lifestyle. In this, Pope Francis follows the teaching of his two predecessors. St John Paul II wrote: Simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirit of […]
Is there a difference between “suicide” and “assisted dying”?
The Assisted Dying Bill that comes before the House of Commons would “enable competent adults who are terminally ill to choose to be provided with medically supervised assistance to end their own life.” This is […]
Laudato Si’: a summary of Pope Francis’s sweeping eco-encyclical
Pope Francis’s encyclical Praised Be You: On the Care of Our Common Home is available in full here. A brief, ’10 things you need to know’ video by Fr James Martin is here. Humanum has produced a […]
Laudato Si’ – the new Encyclical from Pope Francis: a landmark in modern church teaching that will shape a new future
When it appears tomorrow, Laudato Si’ — “Praised Be You” — will captivate and divide the world by issuing the most robust challenge to the contemporary myth of progress in recent times. Any other document […]
Why we all need to think deeply about chastity
Last week, we had the great joy of having Dawn Eden speak on “Living to Love: Why Chastity is Key” (see her speaking above in Basingstoke). I hadn’t read her book, The Thrill of the […]
Scotland rejects assisted suicide
Members of the Scottish Parliament have voted down the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill for a second time by 82 votes to 36. In what amounts to a clear rejection of the principles of the Bill, first […]
The morality of nuclear weapons
I saw the RSC play Oppenheimer this week. It closes today so I’m sorry I can’t encourage you to see it. There were many themes and ‘messages’. For me, the overriding one was how it […]
Blessed Oscar Romero
Archbishop Oscar Romero is beatified today in El Salvador. Five years ago, on the 30th Anniversary of his martyrdom, Cardinal Vincent Nichols celebrated a Mass in his honour in Westminster Cathedral, and spoke these words. We […]
Résumé virtues vs eulogy virtues
David Brooks reflects on the gulf that can open up between your external career and your inner character: ABOUT once a month I run across a person who radiates an inner light. These people can […]
General Election 2015 – Letter to Catholics in England and Wales from their Bishops
The Bishops have released a letter addressed to Catholics across England and Wales about this year’s General Election. Over 500,000 copies of the letter have been sent to the parishes. The letter can be read […]
