Just over a century ago, in 1917, the renowned Anglican priest and writer Ronald Knox was received into the Catholic Church in a small private ceremony at Farnborough Abbey in Hampshire. Shortly afterwards he wrote a brilliant account of the whole process of his spiritual conversion, entitled A Spiritual Aeneid.
Continue readingThe rescue of the twelve boys and their coach trapped in Tham Luang caves in Thailand, for more than two weeks, has been seen as a story of great success and a miracle… and rightly so. It brought to the fore the best in humanity – love and concern for
Continue readingWEDNESDAY was the feast day of St Benedict, generally regarded as the founder of monasticism in the western Church, who lived in the fifth and sixth centuries in Italy. As the Roman Empire gradually fell apart these were years of great turmoil in Italy, marked by lawlessness and violence. The
Continue readingIn 1936 my maternal grandmother Peggy Hallum died of cancer – she was only thirty-six and my mother only fourteen. When I was a child my mother often used to talk about her mother’s illness and death; and one thing which I remember vividly was her telling me how much
Continue readingFRIDAY was a holy day of obligation – that is, a day when the Church asks you to go to Mass – the feast of Ss Peter and Paul. For Catholics it’s important not only because Peter and Paul were the most important apostles, the founders after Christ in many
Continue readingThis Sunday I will be travelling up to Liverpool for the funeral of an old friend which takes place in the city’s cathedral the following morning. Myles Dempsey passed away on 12th of this month after suffering a heart attack. He had celebrated his ninetieth birthday on 1st May, the
Continue readingTHIS PICTURE is an illustration of people voting in one of the plebiscites which confirmed Napoleon Bonaparte in power as First Consul of France and eventually Emperor at the beginning of the 19th century. Although the word plebiscite originated in the ancient Roman Republic as a way of consulting the
Continue readingLAST SUNDAY we heard a pastoral letter from our archbishop about the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and Congress, entitled Adoremus, taking place in Liverpool at the beginning of September. He asked every parish and school in the diocese to reflect and pray about the themes of the congress in the months
Continue readingI have been invited to share some thoughts, based on the St Edmund’s Confirmation Course that I have recently attended and on some additional research I have made on the internet. Confirmation means accepting responsibility for your faith and destiny. When I was young I was told what to do,
Continue readingSome of you may remember that about three years ago Pope Francis wrote an encyclical letter about care for creation, known by the Italian title Laudato Si’. It has been very important in strengthening Catholic moral teaching and consequently has come under attack, even from some Catholics. One of the
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