December 2006

Year-end Review 2006

JANUARY 2006 The Vatican Congregation for Evangelisation reveals that 27 Catholic missionaries were killed in 2005. In his first encyclical, titled Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict reflects on...

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...

The meaning of Christmas

GUEST CHRISTMAS EDITORIAL BY PROFESSOR PETER HUNTER – Christmas means different things to different people. For the young children of families who can afford it, it is primarily...

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...

Keeping Jesus warm

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...