The new arrangement enabling Traditional Anglicans to come into full communion with the Catholic Church raises two interesting questions. Firstly, will the clergy of this group need to be re-ordained? Secondly, could a young Catholic man who wished to be a married priest now join the Traditional Anglican group and seek married ordination within it?

Shortly after the watershed democratic election of 1994 I was involved in the organisation of the annual meeting of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Southern Africa. To help us reflect on the recent, bitter past, we had the good fortune to have emeritus Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu. Time has erased [...]

There’s a story concerning the writing of books that I frequently use when preaching retreats. It is by Fr Carlos Valles, the Spanish Jesuit who spent his life working in India. A Jesuit writes a book which is a wild success. He is tempted to write another but is worried that this second book will [...]

When President Bashir of Sudan was indicted by the International Court for crimes against humanity, he expelled 14 Western NGOs, including the highly respected Doctors Without Borders. Another effect of the indictment has probably been to save Bashir’s waning political career, since he is now seen by many northern Sudanese as a victim of Western [...]

During the struggle against apartheid many Christians saw themselves as companions-in-arms with the progressive political forces in the country, in particular with the ANC. It was assumed, perhaps a little naively, that since the churches had supported the politicians in their time of need, the politicians would reciprocate later and address their issues. The disillusionment [...]

In many ways South Africa is a laboratory of social change. Most unexpectedly, our little Catholic community has become an experiment in the minor religious department of that laboratory. I refer of course to the new English texts of the Mass which have generated such surprising friction. It appears that the South African church has [...]

One of the problems with ‘silent’ retreats is that they sometimes aren’t silent at all because the place where the retreat takes place might be actually quite noisy. This is sometimes true of retreat houses themselves where one would think that silence could be assumed. Why is this? Part of the problem seems to be [...]

Morris West in his memoirs reminds us of the words he puts into the mouth of Giordano Bruno in his play, The Heretic: