In the run-up to the US presidential election in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the Washington Post’s legendary columnist EJ Dionne wrote: “There is no Catholic vote. And yet, it matters.”

The cover of Mark Cleary’s Educating in Faith is something of a parable: “a projected but unrealised plan” for Downside Abbey, near Bath, with monastery and school either side of a fine church – two lungs, if you like, of the same monastic body.

The well known British Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe has urged for a change in perspective over the continually contentious issue of women’s ordination, arguing for a change in mindset that would involve moving away from seeing the attainment of priestly duties as all important.

Imagine the scene: one summer’s evening, a young mother’s peace is shattered when her brother bursts in, pursued by an angry mob.

Accusing the brother of a crime he has not committed, the militants tell the family that if they don’t leave the house they will be burnt alive.

Lord David Alton has drawn attention to the continued persecution of the Catholic Church in China through the oppression of 10 bishops by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and has questioned the Vatican’s muted response to the situation.

The only people involved in a child’s education who have an overview of the whole process, from babyhood to adulthood, and who truly know the child, and his or her needs and ambitions, are parents.

They are their children’s primary educators, in a sense that encompasses the moral relationship between parent and child, and the practical and biological relationship.

While Cardinal-elect Francis Leo’s upcoming promotion from Archbishop of Toronto isn’t necessarily a surprise – a cardinal has led the Archdiocese of Toronto for all but eight years since 1934 – one thing that’s unique about his elevation is his age.

Pope Francis has addressed a new law in Ukraine restricting the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, voicing concern about its impact on religious freedom in the country.

In 1850 the Catholic hierarchy of England and Wales was restored by Rome; Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman issued his vainglorious pastoral letter written from “outside the Flaminian Gate of Rome” announcing his appointment as Archbishop of Westminster.

A months-long investigation has concluded that the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB, who died in 2019 appears to be incorrupt.

The study, conducted by medical experts and commissioned by the Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph, has confirmed that there were no signs of decomposition when the body of the foundress of the traditionalist Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles was exhumed in 2023.

While the US Church has made substantial progress in addressing the abuse of children there remains a risk of complacency creeping in, the US Bishops’ Conference has been told at its spring general assembly.

ROME – Friday was among the most remarkable single days in the entire Pope Francis era, and given the way this papacy has generated non-stop thrills, chills and spills for more than 11 years now, that’s truly saying something.

It was a long day’s journey into night, beginning at 8.30am with a still-unexplained, but nonetheless deeply amusing, encounter with more than 100 comedians from around the world – virtually every one of whom, for the record, told reporters they had no idea what they were doing in the Vatican – and ended 14 hours later when Francis’s helicopter landed back in Rome, after the Pontiff spent several hours at a G7 summit in the southern Italian region of Puglia.

ROME – In Umberto Eco’s immortal novel The Name of the Rose, the stern Benedictine abbot Jorge de Burgo insists that laughter is evil: “Laughter kills fear,” he declares, “and without fear there can be no faith, because without fear of the Devil there is no more need of God.”

NEW YORK – When the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage passed through the Bronx borough of New York City last week, Fr Roger Landry witnessed what he describes as the heroic efforts of an older woman, who insisted on getting out of her wheelchair to kneel before Jesus.

“It was already an effort just to come out and greet him, but that type of heroism, it was a part of the conversation I had with Jesus for the next 10 minutes as I was holding him in my hand,” Landry said.

Religious minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan are disproportionately ensnared in modern-day slavery, according to a new report issued by a group of UK parliamentarians.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Pakistani Minorities issued its report “Exploitation of Bonded Brick Kiln Labourers in Pakistan: The Unseen Modern-Day Slavery” on 29 May. The study showed how religious minorities in particular are victims of the local bonded labourer system – bonded labour amounts to slavery – and as a result are being turned into modern-day slaves.

A priest kidnapped in Nigeria a week ago has been released by his captors.

Father Oliver Buba of Yola Diocese was taken on May 21 from his residence at the St Rita Catholic Church in the Numan Local Government Area.

Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza of Yola has now announced his release with “our hearts full of joy and thanksgiving”.

Nigeria has around 230 million people, almost evenly divided by Christians and Muslims.

The 29th of May 2024 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of G.K. Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936), the indomitable English author, philosopher, Christian apologist and literary and art critic. To mark the auspicious occasion, Lord David Alton shared with the Catholic Herald his favourite Chesterton poem:

ROME – When Pope Francis visits Belgium and Luxembourg later this year, the trip will not only constitute a favour to a key ally, but it will also mark an opportunity for Pope Francis to reinforce several priorities of his pontificate.

On 20 May the Vatican officially announced the Pope’s Sept. 26-29 visit to Belgium and Luxembourg, saying in a statement that he would make a stopover in Luxembourg on 26 Sept. while on his way to Belgium, where he will stay from Sept. 26-29, visiting the cities of Brussels, Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve.

Last week a bi-partisan bill to rename a street adjacent to a Chinese government building in Washington, DC, “Jimmy Lai Way,” was introduced in Congress, following the January 26 piece in The Hill by Nina Shea, that proposed that Congress do precisely that to “honor [Lai’s] heroism in defending cherished principles of freedom”: Rename the Chinese Embassy’s address to honor a Hong Kong hero | The Hill

Why did a record number of people go on this year’s Paris to Chartres pilgrimage? And why were so many of the estimated 18,000 – 20,000 pilgrims who made the journey so young?

The pilgrimage is devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass and over Pentecost weekend and Whit Monday each year – 18-20 May this year – pilgrims walk around 60 miles from Paris to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres.