The celebration of Youth Day, and remembering the extraordinary sacrifices and bravery of the Soweto youth of June 16, 1976, is these days often accompanied by a lament for modern-day youth: “The trouble with...
Our newspapers and TV have been full of comments and questions recently about leadership. Often unfavourable comparisons are made between current political leaders and heroes from previous generations. Has the current generation lived up...
We’ve just had the feast of the Divine Mercy, a devotion started by St Faustina in Poland and widely promoted by St John Paul II. All around the world, not least in South Africa, there...
March 26 marks the 50th anniversary of Populorum Progressio—and it’s a great reason for the Church across South Africa to celebrate. However, don’t be ashamed if you did not know about the anniversary or...
Lent will soon be upon us — that period of penance, fasting and almsgiving to prepare ourselves for the joys of Easter. It is an interesting twist of Catholic tradition that Ash Wednesday, which...
I am a fully paid-up city-dweller. For 28 of the last 30 years, I have lived in places that count their populations in millions: London, New York, Birmingham, Johannesburg and now Durban. I...
Christmas came early for me at Rhino Camp. I don’t mean in the form of tinsel or turkey or even good Scotch. Christmas came for me in human form 11 years ago, that first feast...
Last year on December 28 I wished a shop assistant, “Happy Christmas”. She looked horrified — not because she was a Muslim or a Jehovah’s Witness, but because she thought that Christmas was all...
We are in the middle of First Holy Communion season. Although there is no fixed liturgical feast for this, many parishes across South Africa choose a Sunday in October or November as the date...
We need to get our own house in order. Do we as Church people — dioceses, parishes, sodalities, religious communities, NGOs — spend most of our time talking or acting? Do we hold ourselves...
The canonisation on September 4 in the Vatican of Mother Teresa focuses the world’s attention again on the extraordinary works of this extraordinary woman. 19 years after Mother Teresa’s death, her name remains short-hand...
I love all forms of culture — drama, film, music, painting, dance, sculpture. They can be entertaining and inspiring and uplifting. But they can also challenge the spectator with ideas that we would rather...
