As preparation for the Church Synod, Catholics across the world are being asked for their opinion on how the Church can be revitalised. Has it been completely forgotten that this was one of the aims of the Second Vatican Council? It is to be lamented that the practice of the Divine Office has not become established as part of the liturgical life of a parish, as the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council had envisioned. For the most part, the … Read More
A Message of Great Significance: The appearances of Our Lady at Garabandal from 1961 to 1965 have not been approved by the Catholic Church. While they have also not been condemned, the lack of official sanction has meant that many of us Catholics have failed to pay them the attention they deserve. The Garabandal events are associated with messages and prophecies that are remarkable and that have huge connotations, which, as time has gone by, have merely made everything to … Read More
From The Garden of Eden in the beginning, to Gethsemane and the garden near Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre where our Lord was crucified and buried, and to the Tree of Life in the heavenly Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, there are gardens at key moments in Sacred Scripture. Surprisingly, the Bible does not tell us what flowers where found in these gardens, yet flowers do appear in other places in Holy Writ. Sometimes flowers are used by the inspired authors … Read More
Is the Church to be understood like a great department of spiritual welfare? Is it where we go when we need the kind of nourishment that can’t be obtained elsewhere? This is now the time when we Catholics should know how to talk about Holy Mother Church when so many simply understand her as an institution and when she is so prone to being criticised. Like government departments and the Health Service Executive, we recognise our dependence on these institutions … Read More
Last time I told the story of how the governors of the once-Christian Trent College, a boys’ school in Nottinghamshire, had sacked their chaplain for having preached a sermon saying that pupils should feel free to adhere to the Church’s teaching that homosexuality was wrong. This issue, an even more shocking story. Some weeks ago a Methodist preacher, Pastor Sherwood, and his colleague Pastor Simpson were preaching in the street outside a London Underground station in the Prime Minister’s constituency, … Read More
