Pope: Poverty stems from unjust economic system, not big families
Families who have lots of children do not cause poverty, Pope Francis said. The main culprit is “an economic system that has removed the human person from...
January 2015
Root out prosperity cult teachings
From Frank Bompas, Johannesburg For years I have been concerned about the absence of quality Catholic teaching and spirituality in Church sodalities. In most of the parish...
Are we Charlie?
BY ACTING EDITOR FR CHRIS CHATTERIS SJ To identify oneself directly with the victims of some terrible event or monstrous injustice has become almost fashionable, ever since...
Pope Francis and the dirty war
POPE FRANCIS: UNTYING THE KNOT, by Paul Vallely. Bloomsbury Academic. 2013. 240pp Reviewed by Winnie Graham Argentine-born Pope Francis, elected head of the Catholic Church less than...
Is it OK for Leaders to Lie to us?
Public figures now seem to be getting away with telling lies or denying what is plainly true. Some claim to have degrees they never had, and get...
Protecting the unborn in a ‘throwaway culture’
What a sight! Over 25 times from the top of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., I have seen a sea of people marching to proclaim the dignity...
Tune out and into Family and Friends
In today’s world there seems to be an ever-increasing demand for people to produce; for one person to do more functions at work; to be multi-skilled; to...
Dom Lambert’s Long Exile
Octave Beauduin was born in 1873 in Belgium. At 33, as a diocesan priest, he became a Benedictine monk at Mont-Cesar Abbey and received a new religious...
Input of Laity Critical for Synod
Fom Mervyn Pollitt, Waterfall, KZN The December 24 issue of The Southern Cross contains an article headed “Bishops get questionnaire for 2015 family synod”. Together with a...
Cardinals from the Peripheries
ACTING EDITOR FR CHRIS CHATTERIS SJ It must have been quite a surprise for Bishop Soane Patita Panini Mafi (just 53) from Tonga, a Pacific island nation...
