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Year-end Review 2006
Happy New Year, crocodiles!
What a note on which to end one year and begin another. It is all a question of perception of course.
Listening to a wildlife show with half an ear while parking the car to rush to the post office in the thick of the Christmas rush I heard the presenter extolling the virtues of reptiles, from the little gecko up. Read more…
Prayers for 2007
In 2006, the world was spared the astonishing series of natural disasters and terrorist attacks that shook us in the previous year—but it was a year in which the prospects for worldpeace inched yet further away. Read more…
The meaning of Christmas
Chris tmas means different things to different people. For the young children of families who can afford it, it is primarily a time of presents. For many young Catholics, Christmas will also be remembered, from year to year, for the events in church: Midnight Mass, a crib, candles, carols. Read more…
The meaning of Christmas
A reflection by Professor Peter Hunter
Christmas means different things to different people. For the young children of families who can afford it, it is primarily a time of presents. For many young Catholics, Christmas will also be remembered, from year to year, for the events in church: Midnight Mass, a crib, candles, carols. Read more…
Keeping Jesus warm
By Owen Williams
On Christmas Day we celebrate the fact that the Word became flesh. Or, to use a profound phrase of Benedict XVI, the day when eternity entered time. The exact date of this extraordinary event is now known, but it was probably not December 25. That does not matter. It is the entry of grace into a fallen world to which we raise our spirits, and the day of the solstice is appropriate.
Read more…
Voting and abortion
Is abortion the moral equivalent of murder, even if not the legal equivalent, because of our pro-abortion legislation? If so, should this not morally preclude voting for pro-abortion political parties, even if only to achieve desirable political objectives, other than legalised abortion? Read more…
Rediscovering Christmas
Commenting on a recent “Santa Claus Parade” in his English hometown, an Internet blogger remarked on the succession of floats on display. One that agitated the blogger in particular represented Christianity. Read more…
How saints became patrons
Ever since I saw my Great-aunt Evelina get down on her knees in urgent and desperate supplication to St Anthony of Padua over a missing pair of tennis socks, it has been a constant source of wonder to me how the patron saints got allocated their tasks and titles.
As a child I pictured a great gathering of saints in some massive heavenly amphitheatre. Read more…
Dialogue with Islam
Since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has sought dialogue with other Christian denominations, notably the Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches, and with other religious faiths, in particular Judaism and Islam. Read more…
