Features Archive

The assisted suicide bill being brought to Parliament – framed by its supporters as a loving response to the suffering caused by terminal illness – calls into question a fundamental aspect of our faith: the nature and meaning of love. And I…Read more

St John Paul II is widely accepted as having made a major contribution to the 1989 downfall of the Soviet regime. For him this was the victory of the Christian vision of the human person, over the Marxist one. The truth about Man ‘will out’…Read more

In his slim volume, Clear & Simple: How to Have Conversations that Lead to Conversion, seasoned evangelist and author, André Regnier lays out ‘the essential elements of Jesus’ disciple-making strategy in a step-by-step process.’ His clear,…Read more

Human beings are good beings. This is true even if they do bad actions, but especially if they have bad suffering. To be alive is to have an importance. This basic value is not earnt but received along with life itself. Love of someone affirms…Read more

In meetings with students and other ministry-based organisations I feel there is a consensus that the Church’s primary role is larger and broader than as a political campaigner or pressure group. This perspective aligns with the passion…Read more

Music has always meant a great deal to me. My parents met through a shared love of musical drama, and growing up in the Caribbean I was lucky enough to perform onstage with the Jamaica Amateur Operatic Society. However, it was only when I arrived…Read more

The name of St Thérèse of Lisieux is almost synonymous with her well-known ‘Little Way of Spiritual Childhood’. To many, this could only sound sentimental. However, to those who explore this ‘way’ soon find that Thérèse had understood…Read more

Jerome would not, it must be said, be everyone’s ideal partner for a walking tour. He was fiercely quarrelsome, and battled with many of his contemporaries, sometimes using language that would make you blush. He seems to have lived a fairly…Read more

Wenceslaus, Vaclav, in Czech, is one of my names. As my mother had two brothers, Vladimir and Jan, and the priest who christened me (executed by the Nazis in Auschwitz) was Antonin Dohalsky and to underline that though under German control since…Read more

By Deacon Roger Carr-Jones, Marriage and Family Life Coordinator, Diocese of Westminster Marriage and family life provides one of the most effective models of liminal spaces of transition, listening, waiting and sometimes not knowing. These are…Read more

Hildegard of Bingen was a mystic born in 1098 who had visions from God which were verified by Pope Eugenius during her lifetime. Her visions were written down in her first and most famous work I first encountered St Hildegard in 2022 when I was…Read more

Written by Fr Hugh Mackenzie, Chaplain at Westminster Cathedral “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously” One night in 1921, the 28-year-old Edith Stein stayed up all night reading a book that she had…Read more

During the academic year of 2018-2019, I had the privilege of living at the Convent of San Domenico in Bologna. The priory holds a special place among Dominicans because it is the place where St Dominic died in 1221 surrounded by his band of…Read more

Who was St Ignatius of Loyola? Where do we start? He was very much a man of his time and place, of sixteenth century Europe and the upheaval of the Reformation, a Spanish soldier and romantic dramatically converted to a life of faith in action, a…Read more