Children of priests

For decades, the Catholic Church rarely acknowledged the fact that supposedly ‘celibate’ priests were fathering children. The scale and impact of these secretive births is only now coming to light. The Vatican has admitted for the first time that there could be as many as 10 thousand children of Catholic priests living around the world. Many of them – now adults – describe childhoods separated from their fathers; shrouded in secrecy and shame. Three of them – Vincent Doyle, Michael McGuirk and Sarah Thomas – tell their stories.

Producer: Dan Tierney.

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There’s a scene in the 1988 film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ which I always think of when I read the Lazarus story. It was a much criticised film at the time, mostly by people who had never seen it. And it did have its faults. For one thing, it was half-an-hour too long. But its central message was wonderful. 

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 'Are there any good Catholics in this time of coronavirus?'

Italian-born Dominican theologian believes the coronavirus pandemic can lead society and the Church back to the basics

 

Alberto Fabio Ambrosio
Luxembourg

I feel close to the cry from outside the Church in the face of its cowardice. Of course, there's a cry from the inside, too. But it seems to me that it's being raised hesitantly when it should be extremely strong.

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Holy Spirit

THE GOD WHO SPEAKS ...
ACTA
LECTIONARY COMMENTARY
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
YEAR A
YEAR OF MATTHEW

Download:  5th Sunday of Lent Yr A Matthew

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COVID-19

It feels very strange to be writing a homily which will never be heard by anyone. ‘Unprecedented’ is the word these days to describe the situation we are currently living through. People in previous centuries, of course, lived through much more serious times than the we are doing, but we all have to live through our own times, and these are ours.

 

And so the big question is what do we make of them? The spirituality of Ignatius Loyola is summed up in the phrase Finding God in All Things. So, if this is right, where is God in the current crisis? There will be those who will do what they always do and see this virus as some kind of punishment from God. Have nothing to do with this kind of rubbish. It’s utter nonsense. God is not like that and never has been. You could say that mother-nature is somehow fighting back, urging us to look again at what we are doing to ourselves and the environment. The virus started, after all, through a lack of proper care in the way we treat animals. And so, as so often happens, we are the cause of our own misfortune. But mother-nature herself is only a metaphor, not God.

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