Sport creates its own ‘miracles’
The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow continues a sporting summer which has been graced by the World Cup in Brazil and the Tour de France in Yorkshire, Cambridge and London. With the approach of the...
View ArticleRoger’s death reminds us to look after one another
Sadly, our next door neighbour, Roger, died recently. He was 78 and had suffered with heart problems, diabetes and had had a couple of stroke scares. He had lived alone in the house his parents brought...
View ArticleAbortion Act: runaway train with nobody in driving seat
Last week, this column warned that the new Parliament to be formed after the General Election in May 2015 is likely to see a decisive vote on the proposal to allow ‘assisted dying’ currently being...
View ArticleWealth measure could be a gross domestic problem
Economics is regarded as specially reserved for experts and removed from the reach of ordinary mortals but it felt like it had entered a new dimension last week when it was revealed that Britain’s...
View ArticleRemember as the lights go out
Pope Francis has naturally been lamenting the scourge of war as we begin to mark the centenary of the First World War. There are echoes of wars past in conflicts of the present, from the Holy Land to...
View ArticleLourdes remains a beacon where the most vulnerable are seen in a new light
This week I am in Lourdes, along with what appears to be half of the UK Catholic world. Not only is my diocese Arundel and Brighton here, but also Glasgow, Shrewsbury, Newcastle and Hexham and...
View ArticleSchool holidays penalising parents
As we enter the middle of the summer holiday season, families with school-age children will be taking advantage of the opportunity for quality time together. But whilst enjoying the sand, sea and...
View ArticleSurrogate mother has embraced disabled son after offers of adoption
The story of baby Gammy, the seven-month old boy apparently abandoned to live in squalor and poverty with his surrogate mother in Thailand on account of his Down’s syndrome by his biological parents,...
View ArticleMarvel at faithful centurions
In Cambridge on Monday 4th August, to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, the university and the city held an ecumenical service in the church of Great St Mary’s. Our Gospel...
View ArticleMiddle East reports miss ISIS genocide
It’s good to know that the United Nations is performing to reputation. After all, that august body managed not to notice genocide in the Balkan states and Rwanda, despite it happening right under the...
View ArticleTime for a new approach on religious freedom?
Never shy of courting controversy, this column today kicks off with an expression of its absolute disdain for the way Baroness Warsi, the so-called former “Faith Minister”, so brazenly used the plight...
View ArticleScience can help unlock mysteries of our faith
My most interesting time in politics was in the late 1990s when I was the UK’s Science Minister (among a few other responsibilities). As someone with no formal adult training in matters scientific, to...
View ArticleJK Rowling challenges society
A century ago, Chesterton and Belloc were leading figures in the literary world. Even before Chesterton converted to Catholicism, both could be perceived as Catholic writers. They had something to say...
View ArticleWilliams opens debate on how we handle depression
The death of comedian Robin Williams, who apparently committed suicide by hanging himself, has caused shockwaves around the globe. While Williams had a well-publicised battle with alcohol and...
View ArticleOsborne needs to add an anarchic touch to cement his ‘economic recovery’
France’s economic growth has flat-lined, with no movement at all in the last two quarters. Italy has entered what is now its fifth ‘dip’ of recession, and the economy of mighty Germany actually shrank...
View ArticleChurch in conflict over war
Flying back from Korea, Pope Francis told reporters that international intervention in Iraq is justified: “In these cases, where there is an unjust aggression, I can only say that it is licit to stop...
View ArticleGirl’s plight highlights the misery of abortion law
The Irish press ran a horrifying story this weekend, which has inevitably made its way across the globe along with accompanying outraged commentaries. It featured a pregnant young asylum seeker, the...
View ArticleDon’t sidestep life’s radical challenges
I usually get a brief twinge of conscience on 8th August each year, the feast day of St Dominic. He is one of my personal patron saints, the radical priest preacher who set up the Dominicans as a...
View ArticleLaws are worth fighting for
I’m not sure there was any ‘ban’ on it as such, but I am delighted that the cause for the beatification of Oscar Romero may be progressing. Yes, the usual liberal hand-wringing brigade may have...
View ArticleUnborn children and our pro-life parliamentarians need your support – now
This blog recently warned that the new Parliament constituted after the coming General Election in May 2015 may be tasked with a major review of the way in which our abortion laws are working, or more...
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