Focus

  • Science fiction may become reality with ‘killer robots’

    May 16, 2014

    For more than a decade, serious concern has been raised about civilian victims of drone strikes, yet there is still little transparency or accountability, and the attacks continue. A strike in December on a wedding procession in Yemen killed 12 men and wounded at least 15 other people, including the bride.

  • Meditating on the meaning of mercy

    May 16, 2014

    During his first Angelus address, Pope Francis recommended a work of theology that “has done me so much good” because it “says that mercy changes everything; it changes the world by making it less cold and more fair.”

  • A pilgrimage through nature, desire and soul

    May 16, 2014

    Nature, desire, and soul — we rarely integrate these well. Yet they are so inextricably linked that how we relate to one deeply colours the others; and, indeed, spirituality itself might be defined as what we each do in terms of integrating these three in our lives.

  • Food for thought

    May 16, 2014

    As summer approaches and most of us find ourselves outdoors, we will experience thirst and a need of water.

  • A thirst like no other

    May 16, 2014

    Offhand, most of us couldn’t say how long someone can survive without eating or drinking, although we know that a person can go a lot longer without food than without water.

  • The importance of water in our lives

    May 16, 2014

    Water is a necessary element for life. Without water, all life on earth would wither and die. Scientific evidence shows that life on earth began in the oceans and only millions of years later did that life migrate to dry land.

  • Accepting truth, whatever its cloak

    May 08, 2014

    When I was student in the seminary, I had two kinds of teachers: One kind, precisely because they were fiercely loyal to all that is Christian and Catholic, would have us read great secular thinkers but always with the intent of wanting to help show where these thinkers were wrong.

  • Those little prayers Francis slips under his St Joseph statue

    May 08, 2014

    “The Holy Father really makes St. Joseph work. Francis' devotion to Jesus' adoptive father has spread to all those who work in and around the Pope's residence.

  • Hans Kung knows churchss problems - and that change is inevitable

    May 08, 2014

    There are a number of reasons why it is particularly apt that I would be writing about theologian Fr. Hans Kung's latest writings.

  • Food for thought

    May 08, 2014

    At one time or another, some of us may have a hard time accepting death, ours or someone else’s. The idea of the unknown can be daunting, even overwhelming.