De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

In the wake of the USCCB's re-affirmation of the pre-eminence of the issue of abortion in our society  I have to say I was really sickened to find no mention of this issue in CAFOD's newly released Guide for Catholic Voters . The article begins with this comment from Daniel Hale, Head of Campaigns at CAFOD, who says: “The idea of having to go the polling station on the way back from our Christmas shopping isn’t something that will fill many of us with festive joy. “But an election is one of the most valuable opportunities we have to bring the voices of our poorest sisters and brothers to people in power – making sure that they are not an ‘afterthought’, as Pope Francis has warned. “Brexit is bound to dominate this election, but we need to make sure that the candidates asking for our votes are reminded that politics has to also focus on the other critical issues we face in our common home.” The article continues to state four especially important election issues to r...

Rorate Caeli draw our attention to the following valuable information: There is a great deal of good Catholic audio to be found on the internet nowadays. We want to alert our readers to things in particular. First, our friends at the Roman Forum have put a large number of lectures on Church History by John Rao up on Soundcloud . Included are the completed lectures of the current year (2016-2017), which is about the years 1794-1846, and all the lectures of last year (2015-2016), which was about the years 1748-1794. We encourage our readers to take a break from current events, and recall the Church’s struggles in previous centuries. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were periods in the Church’s life with many parallels to our own. The temptation to water down the faith, and try to make it palatable to modernity can be found then as now. And Rao masterfully shows how all attempts do so were counter-productive and disastrous, whereas attempts to recover the fullness of the Chur...

Bishop Robert Barron will give one of the keynote addresses at the Cornerstone Catholic Conference in Tacoma Oct. 20–21. His address will be titled “The Eucharist: Spiritual Food to Sustain Our Witness.” The Cornerstone conference arose in response to this division between “pro-life” Catholics and “social justice” Catholics — this lack of communication and cooperation, sometimes distrust and even disdain. Bishop Barron has given an interview about the forthcoming address in which he laments this false dichotomy. To me, it’s one of the bitter fruits, in some ways, of the post-conciliar period — mind you, not the council; Vatican II is very clear on this . But in the post-conciliar period there was a tendency within Catholicism to fall into these two camps, and I’ve watched that all my life in the church. Call it left-right, liberal-conservative, or, as we see it in the Catholic context often, this: Are you more on the life issues or more on the justice issues? And it’s just a...

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth Diocese has issued a Pastoral Letter (14th May 2017) entitled God is Calling You . In it, he discusses vocation and challenges us all to pray for vocations, and offers some important questions which we can put to those who are seeking election to Parliament in June. I found an interesting correlation with this and Dr Joe Shaw's most recent post on Fatima  which talks about the potential of Catholic Social teaching, properly lived out, to fundamentally change the world for the better: As a former active and senior member of the Communist Party, both in the Spanish Civil War and in industrial Glasgow, Fraser was particularly interested in the connection with the conversion of Russia. He goes on to argue that, quite aside from any spectacular supernatural intervention, Russia's conversion would be inevitable if the Church's social teaching was manifested in the daily lives (including the work lives) of Catholics around the world. P149 I...

What horrible news we are hearing about the tragedy of those persecuted in their own lands, by ISIS or Boko Haram, who then risk and often lose their lives in a desperate bid to escape the slaughter. For these brave individuals, the only option is to board a flimsy craft over-loaded with similarly desperate people trying to escape the carnage in their own countries. Carnage which, I find myself realising, we are largely responsible for in Britain. Especially with regards to Libya, from where the people are fleeing as a direct result of Britain & France's intervention and lack of any cohesive plan as to what to do once Colonel Gaddafi had been deposed. The current conflict in Syria has caused the worst humanitarian crisis this century. More than 3 million people have fled the country and many are making the perilous journey to seek safety overseas. A large number of those trying to get to Europe by boat are Syrians. Amnesty International has some of the individual storie...

The last week has been full of analysis of Pope Francis' first Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudiem . As Jimmy Akin explained, an apostolic exhortation is a papal document that exhorts people to implement a particular aspect of the Church’s life and teaching. Its purpose is not to teach new doctrine, but to suggest how Church teachings and practices can be profitably applied today. Some apostolic exhortations are devoted to the pastoral challenges faced in particular parts of the world (Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas). Others are devoted to particular themes. Previous apostolic exhortations include: Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi (on evangelisation today) John Paul II’s Christifideles Laici (on the role of the laity) John Paul II’s Redemptoris Custos (on St. Joseph) Benedict XVI’s Sacramentum Caritatis (on the Eucharist) Benedict XVI’s Verbum Domini (on the Word of God). In terms of its importance, it is of a pastoral nature rather than a doctrinal or le...

So, it was a record-breaking transfer window in the world of English football (that's soccer to my American readers) this year in more ways than one. Premier League clubs spent a record £630m this summer as a result of the injection of £5.5 billion spent on tv rights.  Tottenham received a jaw-dropping £85m from Real Madrid for 24 year old Gareth Bale who will be paid an incredible £300,000 a week. His transfer fee was a world record. The £630m laid out by English top-flight clubs was a 29% increase on the equivalent figure of £490m in 2012, and £130m more than the previous record set in 2008. The Premier League might have spent more than any other, but Europe's nouveau riche in France, and the 'old moneyed' in Italy, also made headlines. All in all the 20 premiership teams spent £630,000,000. Am I alone in feeling repulsed at that figure? Am I the only one wondering what good that amount of money could in a world where children starve to death every d...

Fr. Kevin Hale saying Mass at the Altar of Our Lady. Dr. Joseph Shaw has a really fascinating post on his blog from yesterday. It is entitled The Old Mass and the Workers and immediately caught my attention in the first paragraph with the sentence: "the working class were betrayed by the changes to the liturgy, spirituality, and what we might call the general orientation of the Church, following the Second Vatican Council." In our post Vatican II world, it seems to me (and I am happy to be corrected if this is not the case) many consider that the Extraordinary Form of the Mass is elitist, and EF Masses are populated by snobs and intellectuals who like to pretend they know more about being Catholic than the rest of us. Despite this common perception, my personal experience was very different. Attending my first EF Mass, I found that it was a broad spectrum of people who simply took their faith seriously. I have felt similarly comfortable at all subsequent eve...

Happy New Year to you all! A great blogging start to the year I have to say. Credit where credit is due; @PartTimePilgrim drew my attention to these great posts yesterday morning. So good, I felt I had to share some sort of conspectus with my own readers. First off, you must read this post by CCFather. It is concise, yet contains all the main historical, social and philosophical developmental points of the argument. CCFather correctly identifies that what is missing in broader society is any real concept of what marriage really is. We must address this fundamental point before we can begin to be heard on issues like same sex marriage. It is extremely valuable that he has placed the currently position squarely in its correct temporal context, i.e. that it is not first step 'on a path that we shouldn't take, but rather because..[it constitutes] a further step on a path we have already gone too far along'. @PartTimePilgrim suggests the penultimate paragraph of Be...

I remember first reading Laborem Exercens and being amazed what good stuff it was. How relevant and how practically it related to my every day life. My business partner at L&B Technical Services wanted to know what it was all about and was similarly blown away at the depth of understanding and powerful teaching on reading the document whilst on holiday in Gozo. He later converted to the Catholic faith. It seems as a result of recession, global austerity and the Occupy movement there is currently an increased interest in Catholic Social Teaching as a framework for ethical business. Of course, the social teaching of the Church doesn't just question the power of the market, but also critiques the reach of the state. Some argue that these teachings come to life in a living relationship with the person of Christ. It is arguable whether or not they can stand alone. I for one think that would be a step in the right direction, and that's one of the great things about the Cath...