Religion
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A Christian reaction to the election results
Today we shall know the results of Malta’s 2013 general election. For the majority this will mean elation, for the minority, disappointment. There is near-universal consensus that the electoral campaign was too long and a lacklustre affair. There...
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Quotes and news
Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia said the Church’s credibility had been dealt a serious blow by the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who admitted to sexual misconduct with priests. Mgr Tartaglia said the events surrounding Cardinal...
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‘Probably others could do it better’
Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, one of the leading candidates to succeed Pope Emeritus Benedict, suggested in an interview that other candidates for Pope might do a better job. He also said it would not be surprising for the Pope to come from...
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Clothes for next Pope are ready
Even before Cardinals meet in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope, the family-owned Gammarelli tailor shop that has dressed popes for two centuries, is ready with the new papal wardrobe. The shop displayed three sets of white vestments –...
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True leadership
Today’s readings: Exodus 3, 1-8.13-15; 1 Cor. 10, 1-6.10-12; Luke 13, 1-9. It is with a heavy mind and heart that I attempt a reading of today’s Scriptures in the light of the deep alienations and desolation that shadow the Lenten season this year...
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The Catholic politician
While each party is working hard to persuade the electorate to vote for its electoral programme it is time to sit down and reflect on some important aspects of political life. The question I wish to address is: What is the mission of the Catholic...
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Quotes and news
In a speech at UN headquarters in Geneva, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, said: “A fundamental question ought always to be present in our minds. “Are human rights universal because a majority of...
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‘I am not coming down from the Cross’
Pope Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience yesterday, acknowledging the “rough seas” that marked his papacy “when it seemed that the Lord was sleeping”. In an unusually public outpouring for such a private man, he alluded...
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Energising belief
Today’s readings: Gen. 15, 5-12.17-18; Philippians 3, 17-4,1; Lk 9, 28-36. Climbing up the mountain in the Scriptures means breaking with routine, being in search of what is beyond our earthly life, searching for the divine. This can be a luxury...
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An election or just a selection?
It’s all about choices. I would like to distinguish between two ways of making choices. For the purpose of this article I’m taking ‘selection’ to mean choosing one or more out of several possibilities; in other words, ‘to choose from’. On the other...
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Quotes and news
In a February 17 Russian television interview on Pope Benedict’s decision to step down from the papacy, Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev said: “He [Pope Benedict] saw [at the end of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate] the process of...
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Who will be the next Pope?
After Pope Benedict’s papacy of almost eight years, the cardinals who will elect the next Catholic Pontiff are more European, more conservative and more “Roman” than the conclave that chose him in 2005. Benedict has hand-picked more than half the...
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In listening mode
Today’s readings: Deut. 26, 4-10; Romans 10, 8-13; Luke 4, 1-13. Lent is mainly about refocussing on the reason to believe. We all have reasons not to believe but Lent is the opportune time in which the true self in each of us is explored and made...
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The Catholic vote
The right to vote and choose our representatives is a hard-fought and sacred right that so many people are denied and have died for. One needs only to look at the current tragedy in Syria and other Arab countries. At such a crucial time, more than...
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Quotes and news
Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, said comments by Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne were manipulated as the cardinal was misinformed about the effects of the ‘morning-after pill’. The...
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God’s politics
Today’s readings: Wisdom 14, 3-7; Acts 27, 16 – 28, 6; Mark 16, 15-20. The 10th of February each year is a date with connotations that range widely from national to religious, political to cultural. Politics has by now come to saturation point. But...
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The Christian faced by the elections
In one of the riddles of the gospel, our Lord says that his disciples are not of this world and yet he sends them to the world and insists he is not asking the Father to remove them from the world. The solution of the riddle: for the evangelist, the...
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Quotes and news
Following a court order, the Los Angeles archdiocese released the personnel files of 87 clergy accused of sexual abuse. The files, which were also posted online, were described as containing “brutal and painful reading” by the Archbishop of Los...
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New situations
Today’s readings: Jer. 1, 4-5.17-19; 1 Cor. 12, 31 - 13,13; Luke 4, 21-30. For so long the Christian faith has been the foundation stone and source of our civilisation. But now the prevailing sensation is one of rejection. Jeremiah’s call in today’s...
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Human rights revisited
Recently, the European Court of Human Rights held that where conditions of employment forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and an employee following her/his religious beliefs discriminates, she/he may lawfully be dismissed. In...
