Recent Editorial

• Francis’ day to pray underlines priority for environment

  Sep 04, 2015

  September and October will be crucial in Pope Francis’ mission to Church and world. He had earlier declared the first of September an annual day to pray for the care of Creation.

  

• Listen and proclaim the good news

  Sep 04, 2015

  He put his fingers into the man's ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And the man's ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

  

• Stewardship or ecological virtue?

  Aug 27, 2015

  There’s a striking absence of ‘stewardship’ language in Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Laudato Si’. The term, which often features heavily in faith-based calls for environmental concern, accounts for just two of approximately 42,000 words.

  

• The divorced and re-married in the early Church

  Aug 21, 2015

  It is well-known that even before the Great Schism of 1054AD* that made a clear-cut division of the Church, there was a diversity of pastoral practices, especially in the East, on this issue.

  

• Family violence more complex than sexual abuse

  Aug 21, 2015

  How appalling and complex is the reality of family violence ..

  
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  Today’s Slaves

  Aug 06, 2015

  The Vatican’s gardens are lush. Palm trees create a canopy unique to that part of the world, marble buildings punctuate the landscape, often at unexpected turns, and it is not unusual to see members of the papal staff or cardinals scurrying about, either hurrying off to a meeting or pacing in deep reflection amid the quiet surroundings.

  

• Gospels must point way on gay issues

  Aug 06, 2015

  Can Pope Francis hold the Catholic Church together on the issue of homosexuality? A group of leading African bishops has already begun to organise itself to fight changes to the traditional Catholic stance, which regards the homosexual condition as “disordered,” and homosexual acts as gravely sinful.

  
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  An elusive integral ecology

  Jul 31, 2015

  At the conceptual heart of the encyclical Laudato Si’ lies the term integral ecology.

  

• Pope must resist right-wing assaults

  Jul 31, 2015

  Two counter-narratives are developing in the Catholic Church designed to neutralise some of the more trenchant teachings of Pope Francis.

  

• Post-sanctions Iran will be force for stabilty

  Jul 31, 2015

  Iran’s agreement with five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, dubbed P5+1, in Vienna over its nuclear programme has been widely seen a major diplomatic breakthrough.