Gay Marriage: Catholic Bishops’ Assault on Religious Freedom.

“Freedom of religion” is an important principle in the constitutions of the United States, and of many other countries. It has also been firmly endorsed in Catholic teaching. It is right and proper that Catholic Bishops should be speaking up for religious freedom, wherever it is threatened. In the debates over marriage equality, however, their appropriation [...]

Austrian Bishops Respond to Catholic “Rebellion”: Continuing Dialogue Promised

Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna has responded to the Austrian rebels with a promise of dialogue, not discipline: jaw-jaw before war-war: but has firmly rejected calls to “disobedience”. Last week the Austrian branch of “We are Church” issued a statement of support for the Austrian priests’ earlier “call to disobedience, and at the same time urged [...]

Catholic Bishops, Gay Marriage: “the Outer Fringes of Crazy Town”

Catholic mothers, like all others, delight in their offsprings’ weddings – and those of other family members. They are not alone. Weddings are the occasions of major family gatherings, where we gather to celebrate with them, cement the family bonds and interrelationships that have been set up by earlier weddings when we catch up with [...]

“Occupy the Church”: Austria’s Catholic Rebellion Gathers Strength.

Two recent reports from Austria show clearly that the Catholic rebellion is gathering strength: survey research shows that two thirds of the country’s priests support calls for urgent reform, and that lay Catholics have announced plans to ignore Church rules that restrict the celebration of Mass to ordained priests. Instead, they will conduct worship and [...]

Aquinas, “Nature” – and Sex.

Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law are often trotted out by the rule-book Catholics alongside the half-dozen clobber texts as a supposed justification for denying respect and equality to sexual minorities. I have absolutely no expertise in Thomist theology, but was intrigued by this observation, in a longer article (“The Other Side of the Catholic Tradition”), [...]

American Catholic Conference – The “Action” Is In the Talking!

My initial reaction to the weekend’s American Catholic Conference was simply to refer to it, with minimal personal comment (I was under severe pressure for time), as “prophetic witness”. Since then, I was interest to read Betty Clermont’s contrary reaction, which expressed disappointment in the lack of “action” coming out of Detroit. In my view, [...]

Where have all the Shepherds gone?

Where have all the Shepherds gone? (with apologies to Pete Seeger) As so often happens when I’m preparing a post, current events break into the flow of my thoughts and somehow find their way into the post. Last week was no exception. I was preparing my homily for the fourth Sunday of Easter, knowing that [...]

Swiss Bishop Calls for Radical Reform, Women Priests.

Hard on the heels of the controversy over the dismissal of Australian Bishop Morris over some very cautious remarks he made years ago, on the need to consider ordaining women priests, comes this report of a Swiss bishop, who has gone much further. Instead of simply call for consideration of the idea, he is explicit [...]

Catholic Teaching: No Place for Nuclear Weaponry in Civilized Society.

Scottish cardinal describes Britain’s nuclear weapons as “shameful” (Independent Catholic News) Addressing a rally against nuclear weapons outside the Faslane Naval Base on the Gare Loch today, Saturday 16 April, Cardinal Keith O’Brien will describe Britain’s nuclear weapons programme as “shameful” and urge the British Government, “do the right thing and give it up”. Quoting [...]

Cohabitation, and the Church’s Redefinition of Marriage

Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe has written a strongly worded pastoral letter about Catholics who are living together in cohabitation, those who are married, but only by civil law, and those who have remarried after divorce. He writes: First of all, we ourselves must be firmly rooted in the Gospel teaching that, when it comes [...]