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The peace of Christ – Bishop Van Looy’s letter for Christmas
Ghent’s Bishop Luc Van Looy devotes his Christmas letter to the peace of this period. Peace in ourselves, but also the peace we are obliged to share with those who need it most, especially the...
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Merry Christmas!
“Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for...
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The impossibilities of Bishop Bonny
It’s no secret that Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp is a voice of the more ‘progressive’ side of the Church, if such categories can be applied to the Catholic Church (which I think they can’t to any...
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This year’s saint – St. Dominic Savio
Like last year, I used Jennifer Fulwiler’s Saint’s Name Generator to select a patron saint for the blog for 2015. Last year St. Raymond of Peñafort, the Dominican canonist from the 13th century, was...
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Christ and the Church
In his homily for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on 1 January, Pope Francis emphasised why we not only need personal faith in Christ, but also the Church. Starting from the point that we can’t...
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After Verviers, some thoughts about our relations with Muslims
The fear of terrorism and the danger of returning Jihadists from Syria and Iraq seems to be slowly creeping northward, following the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. Yesterday, Belgian police prevented...
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Doing more with less – how to face the challenge of church closings
I recently made my Dutch-language blogging debut over at Broodje Paap, and the subject of that first post – how to respond to necessary church closing and parish mergers – remains topical. Today,...
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New travel companions – two ordinations in Groningen-Leeuwarden
A festive day for the Diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden yesterday, as it gained two new priests. Father Diederik Duzijn and Arjen Jellema were ordained by Bishop Gerard de Korte in the cathedral of St....
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The consistory of the marginalised – a look back
And so the Church gains twenty new cardinals. Much has already been said about the unique nature of the group, their places of origin and pastoral and other qualities which would spell out much...
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Remembering Baptism – Archbishop Schick’s Letter for Lent
It’s time again for bishops writing their faithful on the occasion of the season of Lent. I will share a selection of these letters here over the coming weeks. First of is Archbishop Ludwig Schick of...
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Proclaiming the faith, not building churches
In an interview during the final day of the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, Cardinal Wim Eijk once again said what the need to close church buildings should actualy lead to: not anger and protest,...
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German bishops stand for frank and faithful words
Just to show that not all German bishops intent on upending all Catholic teaching, as some media would have us believe, here is a translation of a letter sent by five bishops to the bishop of Passau,...
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Among the bishops, three big events
A noteable day for the German episcopate yesterday as three major life events occured. First, there was the news of the death of Bishop Manfred Müller, bishop emeritus of Regensburg. The 88-year-old...
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Road signs – how changing the teaching of the Church leads us nowhere
In Germany the Central Committee of German Catholics, the ZdK, has been calling for pastoral and doctrinal changes to the Catholic understanding of marriage and family. Earlier this week, it seemed as...
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Corpus Christi – The Eucharist as source and summit
While it is celebrated in the Netherlands next Sunday, today is the actual day of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi, the feast day devoted to one of the most...
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Cardinal Antonelli gets it
In the most recent book by a cardinal on that most visible question of the Synod – Should divorced and remarried faithful be able to receive the Eucharist? – Cardinal Ennio Antonelli points out ho we –...
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A small treasure among palaces – A visit to Copenhagen’s Cathedral of St. Ansgar
For the past two weeks, my fiancée and I have been vacationing in Sweden and Denmark, and on Sunday the 19th we attended Mass at Copenhagen’s cathedral of St. Ansgar. Bishop Czeslaw Kozon offered the...
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Love, trust and Jacob – Archbishop Koch’s homily
In an almost 2,000-word long homily during his installation Mass as archbishop of Berlin, Archbishop Heiner Koch took the figure of Jacob as a starting point to delve into what the love of and for God...
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Refugees, pastoral care, mercy and a selfie – the German bishops’ plenary has...
Evidently some of the auxiliary bishops (and one ordinary) have too much time on their hands at the autumn plenary of the German bishops… Time enough to take a bishops selfie. They may be excused...
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