How We Dress for Mass
In the 1920s a lively debate in The Southern Cross focused on the immodest dress of women who displayed their ankles. The debate about how to dress,...
Editorials 2012
Our Prayers for 2013
In his missionary prayer intention for August, Pope Benedict asks us that the churches of Africa, faithful to the Gospel proclamation, may promote the building of peace...
Contemplate Christmas with new eyes
Guest editorial by Fr Sean Wales CSsR And is it true? And is it true, This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,...
Truth to Power
This weekend the African National Congress will vote for the party’s new leadership in their elective conference in Mangaung, a meeting that has been preceded by much...
Prepare for Christmas
As in every Advent season, Christians will again sound the reminder: “Put Christ back into Christmas”. This call, of course, presumes that there was a recent time...
Misunderstood teaching
No Catholic can be untouched by the death in Ireland of Savita Halappanavar, the 31-year-old expecting mother who was denied a potentially life-saving termination of pregnancy, a...
Preaching at Mass
The complaint is often heard that the standard of preaching at Mass has declined; sometimes this is even cited as a sign that the Church supposedly has...
Preventing crime
Discussions on crime prevention often place an emphasis on law enforcement and the punishment of offenders. Aside from failings in the police, many tend to attribute the...
Barred from communion
Among the many topics for discussion at Octobers Synod of Bishops on New Evangelisation was the difficult subject of the Churchs teachings governing the administration of the...
Responding to Suicide
This week a priest describes how being confronted by the self-inflicted death of a friend led him to a new understanding of suicide. Suicide remains widely...
