On the very morning after Pope Francis was elected I was working on my computer, with a phone-in show on the radio playing in the background. Listeners were sharing their views on the Catholic Church, and two of them particularly drew my attention; funny enough they were phoned in one after the other. One accused the Church of sticking to…
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Undoubtedly the new Pope has already made a very good first impression; his humility, modesty and down-to-earth attitude have already won many hearts around the world. All those simple gestures have been so convincing because they are elements of his long kept lifestyle, not a publicity stunt. On the other hand, our excitement about those apparently obvious qualities of modesty…
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The recent scandal with Cardinal O’Brien at the centre has attracted the interest of the media to the Catholic Church in Scotland for all the wrong reasons. Sadly, this is not for the first time. Newspapers, radio stations and TV channels have been flooded with breaking news, analysis, opinions and discussions. Certainly the scandal affected many ordinary people; some were…
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Many people don’t like Mondays. I do, because it’s my day off. But in February I got scared of them. On my return from a long walk in the wilderness on a Monday I found out that the Pope had resigned; two weeks later on a Monday I found out that the Cardinal had resigned. So, instead of fulfilling my…
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On Ash Wednesday we always listen to the same part of Saint Matthew’s gospel, where Jesus speaks about three ways of self-denial: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Last Sunday’s gospel told us about Jesus’ fasting for forty days in the desert. Today’s gospel speaks about prayer. “Jesus took with him Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray.” They…