Responding to the “new” question of workers’ rights and organised trade unionism in the 19th century did not come easily for the Catholic Church. The papacy in particular was essentially a medieval monarchy in thinking, and up until 1870 it governed a chunk of what is now central Italy called the Papal States; this was [...]

In some circles the “seamless garment” approach to life issues is perceived to be inadequate, almost a “relativising” of Catholic pro-life teaching. This, I suggest, is a mistaken critique that effectively undermines the anti-abortion cause.

In many of his writings and speeches Pope Benedict, like many other Church leaders, sees care for the environment as a moral challenge to all people. While not explicitly addressed in depth, because at the time it was not high on the agenda of most people, we can see the roots of his concern in [...]

Recently some epidemiologists (scholars who track the origins and growth of diseases) have suggested that the first possible recorded case of someone dying from Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) dates back to 1959 in what was then the Belgian Congo.

If one talked about the “priesthood of all believers” or indeed the “priesthood of the laity” before 1965, Catholics would look at you as if you were insane. After all, priests and people were different, weren’t they? Catholics with more theological knowledge would have been able to say that in baptism every Catholic was in [...]

How many of us remember those Catholic missionary magazines of days gone by, with their stirring stories of fearless Fathers and self-sacrificing Sisters bringing the faith and western civilisation to the unsaved “natives” of Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America?

When we think of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), it may seem strange to claim that it almost never happened. More accurately, that it may have been a very different council to what it turned out to be.