Being active in Church has been integral to most of my life. I continue passionate about Church but as an observer and critic, ruing the evaporation of reform and the override of clericalism.
The town of Santa Magdalena lies between Bulusan and Matnog in the southern part of the Sorsogon Province of the Philippines, which in turn lies at the southern tip of the main island of Luzon. The three towns front the San Berdanino Strait, ultimately a connector between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with its powerful tides and swirls of ocean power. We were dropped off at the Parish...
A critical juncture at which unstoppable change takes place. There is sufficient consensus that the earth has reached a tipping point in regards to global warming. There is concern that the United States is nearing a tipping point in regards to social division and acrimony. Has the Catholic Church reached a tipping point in regards to its demise as a relevant and integral witness to God’s Kingdom...
Note from Tony: This article was published in La Croix International, an Independent Catholic Daily. A cardinal says he’s open to women’s ordination; a priest who did so remains suspended. Irish Redemptorist Tony Flannery says he’s been given the chance to recant Robert Mickens Vatican City September 18, 2020 Cardinal Jean-Claude HollerichSJ (Photo:...
February 2019 “Clothes make a man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” So wrote Mark Twain, echoing the proverb listed by Erasmus some 400 years ago. How then would Mark Twain view members of the Catholic Hierarchy based on the clothes they wear? What sort of man wears a cassock-dress, a mitre (embroidered, high-pitched hat), a scarlet...
July 23, 2019 God created man in the image of himself,In the image of God he created him,Male and female he created them So it is written in the opening chapter of the ScripturesBut as we know, this is not the full truth. Down through the centuries, in all societies both ancient and new, there has been – and continues to be – a wider gender spread than male and female. If God created...
March 1, 2019 George Pell had powerful friends. The first was (Sir) James O’Collins the Bishop of Ballarat. He saw in Pell a future Church champion and was responsible for moving Pell from the Catholic Seminary in Werribee to the prestigious international Vatican seminary in Rome, the Pontifical Urban University. This gave Pell his first whiff of life in Rome and he thrived on it. In 1966 Pell...
In March 1983 Pope John Paul II stood on an airport tarmac in Managua Nicaragua, shock his finger at and publicly rebuked a white-haired man kneeling before him. This moment was covered live around the world. The man kneeling was Ernesto Cardenal, Catholic Priest, world-renowned poet and Minister for Culture in the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. He was kneeling in welcome of the Pope. The...