6th March 2017
Holy See
We usually think of the Catholic Church as a male-dominated organisation because priests staff the hierarchy. But, as I have been discovering in my first six months in Rome, women play an important role in the Church. Indeed there are nearly twice as many religious sisters (800,000) as there are Catholic priests (around 400,000) – […]
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2nd November 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Nostra aetate (trans. “In our Time”) was the shortest of the many official documents that emerged from the Second Vatican Council. It was sub-titled “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions”. Passed by an overwhelming majority of the bishops present, and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 28 October 1965, the Holy […]
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13th April 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Stereotypical images tend to come to mind, at least the non-Catholic British mind, when we think of nuns. We think of Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music. Perhaps Sister Wendy Beckett delivering art lectures. We might just stretch to Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta. Like most stereotypes, such images are both unhelpful […]
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4th December 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
We all know the phrase about lies, damned lies and statistics. I often think this is particularly applicable when trying to identify and quantify people’s religious identity. How do we count the number of Anglicans, Catholics or Muslims? For Christians, is it based on baptism, whether they go to church every week, or what they […]
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8th March 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
As we reflect on International Women’s Day, it seems clear to me that one of the tasks awaiting the successor to Benedict XVI will be to explore how the Holy See, and the Roman Catholic Church, can use better the talents, energy and loyalty of the women in its ranks. Anyone who works with the […]
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28th October 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
25 years to the day that Pope John Paul II hosted an unprecedented gathering of world religious leaders in Assisi to pray for world peace, Pope Benedict XVI on 27 October hosted, in the same place, his own “Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World”. Again, leaders of the […]
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