by Benjamin Lipscomb
A deep theological understanding and coherent orthodoxy should be the best foundation for good pastoral practice yet, Joseph Ratzinger/ Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was such an outstanding exemplar of both, is often perceived as lacking in pastoral sensitivity, characterised as God’s stern Rottweiler or with even worse soubriquets. Yet, his great body of writing […]
The Report of the Commission into Mother and Baby homes has opened boxes of memories right across the country and beyond. Pandora’s boxes perhaps. People who carry these painful memories are everywhere among us, silently re-living the sadness of their family stories, sometimes feeling their unique and individual experience is being appropriated by a grand narrative […]
A few days ago, Dr Michael Ryan of WHO singled out Sweden for praise for its handling of the covid19 crisis. This is significant because Sweden was being pilloried as arrogant at best, irresponsible at worst for its refusal to join most of rest of the world in state enforced lockdown. Sweden’s extensive testing regime […]
It is said that in a war the first casualty is truth. The world is at war today in a unique way. There is not a corner of the globe that has resisted the onslaught of the lethal, microscopic,viral army. We should be united, co-operating and we should certainly suspend ‘business as usual’ when it comes […]
Mary McAleese in her contribution to a Trinity College conference entitled ‘Women the Vatican Couldn’t Silence’ read from a book by Pope John Paul II, ‘Love and Responsibility’. The book was written by the late Pope in 1960, and was a lengthy treatise on the nature of spousal love that focused on mutual self-giving, consideration […]