US school massacres: the real problem is not guns
The common response to yet another mass shooting caused by a young gunman is the usual polemic about the right to keep and bear arms in the United States. But it is a reductive view that does not take into account all the factors involved. What emerges is the deep despair in the perpetrators of these massacres, a lack of meaning that drives them to death. This should be the starting point for reflection.
Monkeypox, the media's bizarre scaremongering
Monkeypox, an extremely rare disease, is hogging the headlines. Smallpox has been eradicated since 1980. A new vaccine, in case of its deliberate spread (i.e. biological warfare) was announced in 2019. Monkeypox is one of many zoonoses and cases are few. Why the alarm?
Archbishop Cordileone sanctions Pelosi, a lesson in Catholicity
Challenged by the Democratic leader on support for abortion and the right to Communion, the Archbishop of San Francisco did what every bishop should do in similar circumstances: he has forbidden Pelosi from receiving the Eucharist. Obviously Cordileone will be much criticised for this both by politicians and within the Church, but his letter of explanation is also unexceptionable from a pastoral point of view.
Nuns’ land donation repaid with hate campaign against Catholics
A sensational case in Ireland: a valuable piece of land donated to the state by the Sisters of Charity in 2012 to construct a maternity hospital, has become a pretext for a vicious anti-Catholic campaign after abortion was introduced.
Archie, another victim of “best interests”
Twelve years old, with a serious head injury caused by accidental suffocation, the family embroiled in a legal battle against the London hospital doctors who want him dead. The final sentence - following life-threatening tests - due within days. Then, there’s the whole family’s conversion to Catholicism after the accident.
Will Zen be sacrificed to maintain the China Accord? The Vatican’s Dilemma
The Vatican’s strong reaction against Israel regarding the incidents during the funeral of the Palestinian journalist are in stark contrast with the Holy See’s approach towards China, after the arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong. Their feeble statements betray a conception of diplomacy which is prepared to sacrifice the dignity of individuals on the altar of political objectives. Prominent Hong Kong figures are welcoming the Vatican’s abandonment of Cardinal Zen and all those who share his positions.
The anti-Russian “Holy War” is providing the West with justification for greater authoritarian tendencies
The war in Ukraine is yet another crisis following hot on the heels of the climate crisis and the pandemic: three ideological campaigns on a vast scale which share a common thread; that is the tendency towards a coercive restructuring of democratic societies by means of the employment of emergency powers, rendering their legitimacy beyond question. Also, the anticipation of a ‘piloted’ decline in population of those aforementioned societies.
Charles de Foucauld, the "little universal brother”
Today, on May 15, an original apostle of the Gospel is proclaimed a saint in St Peter's Square. He burned with the desire to make "his" Jesus known and loved, living among the Touareg people in the Algerian Sahara,: "I reside here, the only European... Happy to be alone with Jesus, only for Jesus". The long hours each day before the tabernacle: "The Eucharist, it is Jesus, it is all Jesus".
«Hong Kong has been transformed into a police state»
The President of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, cardinal Charles Maung Bo, speaks out following the arrest of cardinal Joseph Zen: «I express my profound concern about the threats to religious freedom in Hong Kong». «For the people of Hong Kong it is now increasingly difficult to speak out freely, so those of us outside Hong Kong who have a voice must use it on their behalf». «I call on Catholics and the wider Christian community around the world to pray for Hong Kong, especially for Cardinal Zen, on 24 May»
Cardinal Zen’s arrest, a challenge for the Vatican
While the most recurrent question in the media concerns China's intentions, the arrest of 90-year-old Cardinal Zen poses a serious embarrassment for the Holy See, whose first reaction is predominant silence. At stake is the renewal of the secret agreement with China for the appointment of bishops, but it would be a disaster if the freedom of a cardinal and of the Church were sacrificed for this.
Schooyans, the forgotten prophet for a culture of life
It is significant to note the embarrassed silence in the Church on hearing the news of Monsignor Michel Schooyans' death on 3 May at the age of 92. The Belgian Jesuit, philosopher, and theologian had written numerous essays on bioethics, demography, and international organisations, denouncing the “culture of death”. But in recent years he had noticed how this worldly ideology had infiltrated the Church.
Bux: “Only the proclamation of the Gospel produces true and enduring peace”
The ecumenical relations crisis between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow due to varying positions regarding the war in Ukraine: “it is the failure of an ecumenism based upon highly publicised encounters attempting to diminish the significance of our differences. John Paul II, on the other hand, focused upon establishing the roots of various cultures and traditions in order to insist upon the unity found in their origins: Christ and His Gospel”. “The work of the Church is not to fight for the environment or for peace, but rather to evangelise, because only Jesus can change a person’s heart. And if their heart is changed, the world will be changed”. The theologian Monsignor Nicola Bux speaks out.
