Catholic Church

Back to porridge: the grace of Ordinary Time

As Christmas gives way to Ordinary Time, the Church offers no soft landing. Yet beneath the porridge of everyday life lies the slow, hidden work of grace

Fr Gavan Jennings

A guide to Pius XI’s encyclical Divini illius magistri

A demanding but deeply rewarding guide to Catholic education, Pius XI’s Divini illius magistri repays careful reading with a coherent vision of formation ordered to God

Brian Martin Lapsa

What the Church must do in Venezuela

With United States military intervention leaving Venezuela in a precarious position, the Catholic Church may once again be called upon to fill a moral and institutional vacuum

The Coptic Church: A model for Catholic–Orthodox dialogue

As Catholics look toward renewed engagement with the Orthodox Churches, the long and often fruitful dialogue with the Coptic Church shows how ancient divisions can be approached without denying history or doctrine

The Catholic Henry Manning at 175: greatness, grief, and a misunderstood conversion

One hundred and seventy-five years after his reception into the Catholic Church, Henry Manning remains one of the most formidable and most maligned figures of Victorian religious life

Can animals have Catholic funerals? One of the Herald’s chaplains answers your questions

Our chaplain answers your question: why does the Church not offer funeral rites for pets?

Crowds at Papal audiences are back, but the deeper question remains

Attendance at Vatican events rose sharply in 2025 after years of decline, but numerical recovery alone cannot answer deeper questions about doctrinal clarity and ecclesial confidence

Archbishop Laterza was right about feminism

Archbishop Laterza caused a media storm with his comments about freedom, but for Catholics they should come as no shock

What Pope Leo XIV’s Lebanon remarks failed to capture

Pope Leo praised Lebanon’s coexistence. Yet behind the pastoral language lies a more fragile reality of Christian presence struggling to survive

What to watch at Pope Leo’s first extraordinary consistory

Joseph Shaw assesses what Pope Leo’s first Extraordinary Consistory will reveal about the balance between tradition and progress in the new pontificate