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Britain: Free speech in peril

local councils are increasingly trying to silence pro-life groups a pro-life charity has condemned a london council for its “authoritarian a...

Nick Hallett

McCarrick scandal: O’Malley’s new challenge

the cardinal’s formidable record on abuse is being tested in 2014, pope francis chose cardinal seán o’malley of boston to head the new ponti...

Michael Warren Davis

Bahrain: Catholics return to the desert

a cathedral is being built in the arabian peninsula there were christians in the arabian desert before the coming of islam: they included bi...

Gerard Russell

End of life: Belgium’s shame

three children were given euthanasia during 2016 and 2017 one striking thing about modern western societies is how quickly bioethical practi...

Niall Gooch

Diary: by James MacMillan

my son aidan is getting married next month. he and his bride will have their nuptial mass in cumnock, my old home town in ayrshire. to be ho...

Sir James MacMillan

A holy history

the hymn “onward, christian soldiers” has a line reminding us: “brothers, we are treading/where the saints have trod”. english catholics oug...

Joanna Bogle

Who’s next?

recent media coverage of gk chesterton’s possible canonisation morphed into speculation as to when he would be made a saint. misunderstandin...

KV Turley

Fr Raymond J de Souza: A promotion for lay people

it was thirty years ago this summer that st john paul ii promulgated pastor bonus, his reorganization of the roman curia, completing the cur...

Fr Raymond de Souza

Matthew Schmitz: The avuncular archbishop

theodore mccarrick did not want to be known as a father. he encouraged young men and boys to call him “uncle”, and called them his nephews i...

Matthew Schmitz

Back to school after Goldman Sachs

a year of celebrations begins at stonyhurst this september, marking the college’s 425th anniversary. founded in 1593 in saint omer, the scho...

Stephen Withnell

British anti-Semitism has a long history

the labour party is being rocked by allegations of anti-semitism from a number of sources. the board of deputies of british jews has claimed...

Mary Kenny

Missionary work: not just for priests

book extract a parish, by nature, is missionary. it opens out. it does not fold in upon itself. jesus sent his disciples: ‘‘go into all the ...

Cardinal Francis Arinze

Comments of the week

letters should include a genuine postal or email address, phone number and the style or title of the writer. email: letters@catholicherald.c...

The Catholic Herald

Arts essay: Evangelisation as an all-out war on modernity

the great french catholic poet, journalist and polemicist charles péguy died at the first battle of the marne at the very outset of the firs...

John Milbank

A flawed masterpiece of 18th-century satire

it isn’t only priests who struggle with hard questions about human suffering: 18th-century philosophers were exercised about the subject too...

Michael White

Wild liturgy with the kitchen sink thrown in

what is a catholic to make of a “mass” in which the celebrant throws the host to the ground and smashes the communion chalice in fury? the a...

Damian Thompson

Where pre-Reformation glory can still be seen

rood screens by richard hayman, shire books, 64pp, £7.99 rood screens? surely you can’t write a whole book about them – and, if you do, sure...

Harry Mount

A melancholy trip among the Travellers

the stopping places by damian le bas, chatto and windus, 320pp, £15 where have they all gone? well might you ask. there was a time when the ...

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

The popes and American racism

who are you? what is your name? is a work of controlled fury. it opens with an account of the chaos triggered by president trump’s executive...

Michael Duggan

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