Catholic Church

This article is available for download. You can download it and print it for private use and for private sharing but it cannot be reproduced in any other publication. To download a print copy click here – Casti Connubii – Part 4 In the last article on this great encyclical ‘Casti Connubii’, Pope Pius XI began to look at one of the most contentious issues for many Catholic women today. The teaching that wives are to be subject to their … Read More

The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (‘CCC’), paragraphs 1803 and 1833, defines virtue as “habitual and firm disposition to do good.” An old adage alleges that patience is a virtue, but how patience (in the usual sense of that word) can be equated with habitual and firm disposition to do good is unclear to me. A tendency towards doing good can co-exist with impatience (in the usual sense of that word). Patience (in the usual sense of that word) can … Read More

One of Our Lord’s salutary stories was of a man who sowed wheat-seeds in his field. Subsequently an enemy secretly sowed weeds among them. When the wheat developed, so did the weeds. The man’s employees reported this to him and asked whether he wanted the weeds to be pulled up. He replied, ‘No, lest in doing that you pull up also the wheat. Let both grow until harvest-time, and then I will tell the reapers to gather the weeds and … Read More

This article is available for download. You can download it and print it for private use and for private sharing but it cannot be reproduced in any other publication. To download a print copy click here – Divini Illius Magistri – Article 8 Pope Pius XI after teaching on the nature and duties of the role of the Catholic Church, the civil State and the family in education, begins to show how they are related to one another in a … Read More

This article is available for download. You can download it and print it for private use and for private sharing but it cannot be reproduced in any other publication. To download a print copy click here – Catholic Duties 5 In the previous article in this series, we looked at some of the ways in which Ireland has fallen away from the Catholic faith and particularly at how very young children are now being targeted for corruption by those who … Read More

First Published in The Catholic Voice – December 2014 Confusion about what the Church Teaches I like to talk to people about these articles and to discuss what is contained within them as it gives me greater insight into the state of both the world and the Church and it also gives me fuel for future articles. Recently I met with a young woman who had just returned from Rome where she is studying about marriage and family. I put … Read More

In these troubled times for the Catholic Church, when many are confused and there is contradiction amongst cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and laity, we do well to listen to those great Doctors of the Church who have gone before us.  I have mentioned my practice of following the liturgical cycle with Dom Propser Gueranger’s ‘The Liturgical Year’.  Yesterday was the feast of St John Chrysostom and Dom Gueranger gives the address that St John Chrusostom gave to the faithful under … Read More