How to really solve poverty in Africa
You might find yourself wondering just what the solution to poverty in Africa is, if it is not government aid. Professor Philip Booth’s book provides a pretty good checklist of the necessary...
View ArticleKenya’s clerical abuse cases should have been handled with more transparency
No one likes bad news, and one hardly likes to pass on bad news, but RTE broadcast a programme about clerical abuse in Africa last week. The programme has not been noticed here in the United Kingdom as...
View ArticleHow to ease famine in Africa
Famine has come to the Horn of Africa once more, because of the failure of seasonal rains. Once more, because this is an event of depressing regularity. As Mike Pflanz points out in a recent article in...
View ArticleAs long as murders go unpunished Africa will never have political reform
I have just been asked to review, for another publication, a book about the late Fr John Kaiser, entitled You Will See Fire, by the American journalist Christopher Goffard. As far I can see this is the...
View Article‘Is it true, Father, that in Scotland men wear skirts?’
Catholics, shown last night on BBC4, was the first of three films about British Catholics, scheduled for the next few weeks. If you missed it, you can (if you live in the UK) see it here. It was fly on...
View ArticleWhat makes a country third world?
What makes a country a third world country? This was a question that often troubled me when I was in Kenya, sitting on a bus, staring out at the beautiful countryside or the urban sprawl of Nairobi....
View ArticleMorning Catholic must-reads: 01/07/13
Benedict XVI showed what it really means to follow one’s conscience when he decided to resign, Pope Francis said during the Angelus yesterday (full text, full video). Church leaders become stumbling...
View ArticleWhy do Hague and Cameron give comfort to anti-Christian regimes?
It has been a deeply distressing weekend for all who care about Christians abroad. About 60 people have been murdered coming out of Mass by suicide bombers in Peshawar, Pakistan, and a considerable...
View ArticleKenyan Catholic leaders praise citizen reaction during hostage crisis
As Kenyan security forces worked to bring an end the siege at the shopping mall in Nairobi, the nation’s Catholic leaders praised their fellow citizens for displaying “Kenyan spirit”. In a statement...
View ArticleAfter the latest terrorist outrage, the international community must wake up...
Alas, poor Kenya, the victim of another terrorist attack, reported here by the BBC. Unidentified gunmen raided the Jesus Joy Church, a Pentecostal congregation, in Likoni, killing at least six people,...
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The world record-breaking athlete and his extraordinary Catholic coach
The BBC is undoubtedly hyping the Commonwealth Games, which gets underway in Glasgow today after last night’s lacklustre opening ceremony, beyond its limited worth. But even with that in mind, there...
View ArticleThe unkillable Catholic vaccination conspiracy
After six months of investigations, equivocations, and allegations, the Kenyan bishops had at least reached their conclusion. “We shall not waver in calling upon all Kenyans to avoid the tetanus...
View ArticleKenyan bishops continue to say no to tetanus vaccine with hormone
Kenya’s Catholic bishops are holding firm in urging people to avoid receiving a tetanus vaccine being administered under a nationwide campaign because they say it contains a hormone linked to birth...
View ArticleChristians in Kenya ‘living in fear’ after latest Islamist attack
Christians in Kenya “are living in fear, wondering where the next attack will be” since Somali militants killed 36 non-Muslim quarry workers in early December, a bishop has said. Bishop Emanuel Barbara...
View ArticleGoing to church is a privilege that people living in a free society must not...
Will you be going to Mass this Christmas? If you are one of the Catholic readers of this paper, I imagine the answer is yes. If you are a member of another Christian body, then I imagine you too may be...
View ArticleKenyan bishops call for no more tetanus vaccines until further tests
Kenya’s bishops have insisted that “no further mass tetanus vaccination campaigns” should take place in the country until the “vaccines have been appropriately tested and proven to be safe.” The...
View ArticleMorning Catholic must-reads: 17/04/15
Francis will visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay in July, in his first papal trip to Spanish-speaking Latin America, the Vatican has confirmed. Italian police have arrested Muslim migrants for...
View ArticlePope urges those guilty of brutality in Kenya to ‘come to their senses’
Pope Francis mourned the deaths of all those killed in extremist and ethnic violence in Kenya, and admonished the perpetrators to “come to their senses and seek mercy”. Meeting the Kenyan bishops on...
View ArticleThe bishop who risks martyrdom every day
Bishop Joseph Alessandro is short in stature, meek and softly spoken. But don’t be misled by appearances: he is a courageous man serving Christ and the Church in what has become one of the most...
View ArticleKenyan bishops say they’ll resist pressure to accept same-sex marriage
With US President Barack Obama set to visit Kenya on July 24-26, the head of the nation’s bishops’ conference said the Church will resist any pressure to accept same-sex marriages. “We are not going to...
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