Culture

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

A grievous oversight

the fall of archbishop theodore mccarrick, whose resignation from the college of cardinals was accepted by pope francis last saturday, makes...

The importance of silence in Christianity

Alain Corbin has written a detailed history of silence

A masterpiece of Catholic art is unveiled in Malta

Manuel Farrugia's Christ the King fresco in Paola, Malta shows modern church art need not be ugly

China is trying to bully me – but I won't be silenced

Threatening letters have been sent to my mother

Film: A thoughtful take on the miracle industry

how can the church deal with claims of apparitions in an increasingly secular, disbelieving world? that is one of the questions at the heart...

Prize crossword 0552

cryptic across 5 graphic details portrayed on local maps (3,6) 8 in jordan on every level, primarily, there’s a prophet (4) 9 old actor: in ...

Omnium Gatherum

shall we look at the collect for this sunday’s holy mass in the ordinary form? protector in te sperantium, deus, sine quo nihil est validum,...

A walk through the ‘side passages’ of religion

city of the good by michael bell, princeton, 360pp, £25 i like it when a book opens with an epiphany. michael bell, a sociology professor at...

How not to get rich

losing your religion can be good for your wealth, claims a new study carried out by the universities of bristol and tennessee. it argues tha...

Dallas Charter: Back to the drawing board

do the current child protection norms need a radical overhaul? the scandal of cardinal theodore mccarrick’s alleged abuse has just become ev...

Priests forever

on saturday two men prostrated themselves on the cool flagstones of st george’s cathedral during their priestly ordination for the archdioce...

Catholic magazine compares Italy's Matteo Salvini to Satan

Salvini has said the Famiglia Cristiana cover is in bad taste and that many Catholics support him

How long until students denounce Shakespeare as a white imperialist?

White male writers are being attacked for who they are rather than what they write

Pope accepts resignation of bishop accused of sexual and financial misconduct

Bishop Juan José Pineda is an auxiliary to Cardinal Maradiaga, one of the Pope's closest confidantes

Head of Vatican commission says contraception is 'intrinsically wrong'

There had been speculation that Mgr Gilfredo Marengo's commission would challenge Church teaching

A garden rescues a man from depression