Columns

Why I believe in God

Aug 16, 2018

Some of my favourite authors are agnostics, men and women who face life honestly and courageously without faith in a personal God.
A third national car and new mega highways could have dire consequences

Aug 09, 2018

New research findings have revealed that global warming in the future may be twice what climate models have projected while sea levels could rise over six metres, even if we manage to contain temperature rises below the target.
Standing on new borders

Aug 09, 2018

A particularly powerful Gospel story recounts Jesus meeting with a Syro-Phoenician woman. Central to that story is where their encounter takes place.
To the friends I’ve known

Aug 01, 2018

Recently, reading Commonweal magazine, I was struck by this line by Jerry Ryan, a Little Brother of Jesus: “I have lost contact with so many people who meant a lot to me at different stages of my life, people I loved dearly and really cared for and who had given me so much and made me what I am.”
New Malaysia: The dream is not over

Aug 01, 2018

They say it all begins with a dream.
After 50 years, it’s finally time to consider the wisdom of ‘Humanae Vitae’

Jul 30, 2018

On July 25, 1968 – in the midst of the “sexual revolution” which aggressively promoted premarital sex, pornography, homosexual activity and artificial contraception – Pope Paul VI with the courage of a prophet gave the Catholic Church and world an entirely different message.
A slur that cuts deep

Jul 26, 2018

He’s a loser! You’re a loser! Among all the hurtful slurs we mindlessly utter, this particular one is, perhaps, the most hurtful and damaging. It needs to be forbidden in our public discourse and stricken from our vocabulary.
As Romero approaches canonisation, his legacy lives on

Jul 26, 2018

When I first saw the video on WhatsApp of a bishop speaking in a church about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines with such obvious courage, the first thing that ran through my mind is “Oscar Romero lives again,” this time not in El Salvador but in Asia.
Consecrated celibacy — an apologia

Jul 20, 2018

Huston Smith, the renowned commentator on world religions, submits that you should not judge a religion by its worst expressions, but by its best, its saints. That’s also true in terms of judging the merits of vowed, consecrated celibacy. It should be judged by its best, not perverse, examples, as is true too for the institution of marriage.
Lessons in solidarity from the Tham Luang cave rescue drama

Jul 20, 2018

Much of the world was held spellbound by the drama of the 12 boys and their coach who were trapped in treacherous flooded caves in northern Thailand from June 23 to July 10, 2018.