Posts Tagged ‘Christopher Hitchens’
Morning Catholic must-reads
The Foreign Office has ordered members of its papal visit team to undergo “urgent diversity training” following the leaking of a memo mocking the Pope.
Catherine Pepinster explains the background to the Foreign Office fiasco.
Andrew Brown, Neil Addison and Rob Vischer react to the Macfarlane ruling on religious discrimination. Simon Sarmiento has more reaction.
A 73-year-old priest has been killed in India.
The French Catholic Church is seeking candidates for priesthood on Facebook.
Philip Jenkins considers how the abuse crisis will change the Catholic Church.
Fr Raymond de Souza goes another round with Christopher Hitchens.
The Economist tours the Vatican Secret Archives.
Professor Eamon Duffy tries to define Anglican patrimony at a conference on Anglicanorum coetibus.
Joanna Bogle hails the new English translation of the Mass.
Matthew Archbold says ultrasounds will prove to be “the Rosa Parks of abortion”.
And the Church has finally done something to make Andrew Sullivan proud.
Morning Catholic must-reads
The Sunday Telegraph’s report on the Foreign Office memo suggesting the Pope should open an abortion clinic during his visit to Britain has prompted comment from James Macintyre, Damian Thompson, Harry Mount, Melanie McDonagh, Catherine Pepinster, George Pitcher, Tim Collard, Fr Dwight Longenecker, Gerald Warner, Ruth Gledhill, Mary Beard, Cranmer, William Crawley, Tony Brenton, Giles Pinnock, Joanna Bogle, Fr Timothy Finigan and Fr John Hunwicke SSC.
The Independent reports that Pope Benedict will make “the first general apology” for clerical abuse when he meets thousands of priests from around the world at the end of the Year for Priests.
The Pope has praised the Meter Association, the group founded by Fr Fortunato Di Noto to combat paedophilia.
Benedict XVI will create a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, to be led by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, reports John Allen.
The internet has led to increased conformity and “the decline of critical spirit”, Pope Benedict has said (video).
Iraqi Christians have defied threats to erect a statue of Jesus modelled on the giant Christ the Redeemer in Rio.
An Italian group has accused Mgr Charles Scicluna of mishandling the case of an alleged clerical abuser.
A retired priest has said he warned Church authorities that Belgium’s longest-serving bishop was an abuser years before he resigned.
Clark Hoyt, the public editor of the New York Times, responds to criticism of the paper’s coverage of the Pope and the abuse crisis.
Christopher Hitchens provides an update on his campaign to arrest the Pope.
Historian Anthony Grafton says Pope Benedict is awaiting the St “Francis or the Angela Merici of our time“.
Joseph Bottum reflects on “the permanent scandal of the Vatican“.
Mark Lawson says the Pope and Catholicism “have become the evil force of choice” for novelists.
A new documentary traces the last days of Oscar Romero.
Marco Tossati discusses his controversial book-length interview with the exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth.
And a Colombian cleric has won an international prize for the best “priestly anecdote” with the story of how he heard the Devil’s confession.
Morning Catholic must-reads
In an oblique response to the abuse crisis, Pope Benedict has announced that he will dedicate his Easter weekly general audiences to the priesthood (video).
The Vatican confirmed yesterday that Fr Jerzy Popiełuszko, the Solidarity priest and martyr, will be beatified on June 6 in Marshal J Pilsudski Square in Warsaw.
Mexico City churches have reported a surge in Mass-goers during Holy Week.
Ross Douthat goes another round with Christopher Hitchens over the Pope and the abuse scandal.
Fr Joseph Fessio SJ defends the future Pope’s handling of the Kiesle case (video).
Paolo Rodari reports that the Vatican’s English Twitter feed is far more popular than those of other languages.
Thinking Faith salutes Robert Parsons, “the exemplar of the sinister Jesuit of popular imagination”, who died 400 years ago today.
Rod Dreher wonders if our minds are hard-wired for God.
Rob Vischer asks why senior Church officials are so gaffe-prone.
Andrew Sullivan suggests that new Catholic churches should look like Apple stores.
Catholic blogger Mark Shea wonders if the internet is making our manners coarser.
And, in response to the “12 evilest Pope pictures” meme, Anna Arco presents the “12 sweetest Pope pictures“. E D Kain applauds.
Morning Catholic must-reads
SSPX bishop Richard Williamson will not be present at his trial in Germany on Friday for denying the Holocaust.
A senior Maltese archbishop met victims of clerical abuse yesterday ahead of the Pope’s visit on Saturday.
A Swedish bishop has asked abuse victims for forgiveness following two reports of abuse perpetrated by priests.
Christopher Hitchens discloses that his campaign to put the Pope on trial will begin at the International Criminal Court (video).
An American priest who appealed from the pulpit for the Pope to resign is at the centre of a media frenzy.
Anthony Flew, the philosopher famous for his atheism who late in life concluded that there was a God, has died aged 87.
Fr James Martin SJ says Cardinal Bertone was wrong to link homosexuality and paedophilia.
Patrick Madrid reflects on the Intelligence Squared debacle
Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid has some useful advice for defenders of the Church in the wake of the Intelligence Squared debate.
Hitch says Catholics lack conviction
Fresh from vanquishing Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe, Christopher Hitchens reflects on his experiences of debating Catholics and Protestants around the world.
He says:
Usually, when I ask some Calvinist whether he is really a Calvinist (in the sense, say, of believing that I will end up in hell), there is a slight reluctance to say yes, and a slight wince from his congregation. I have come to the conclusion that this has something to do with the justly famed tradition of Southern hospitality: You can’t very easily invite somebody to your church and then to supper and inform him that he’s marked for perdition.
More to the point, though, you soon discover that many of those attending are not so sure about all the doctrines, either, just as you very swiftly find out that a vast number of Catholics don’t truly believe more than about half of what their church instructs them to think.
Photo: Christopher Hitchens speaks at The Amazing Meeting 5, known as TAM5, b in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January 2007 (FrogMiller)
In the paper this week
This week’s paper is dominated by the announcement of the Anglican Ordinariate. Here’s our main news report, leading article and commentary by Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster.
Elsewhere, we report on the mismatched debate between Christopher Hitchens and Nigerian Archbishop John Onaiyekan. Stuart Reid, who watched the debate, says it’s been a vintage year for Catholic bashing.
Westminster auxiliary Bishop John Arnold explains how the visit of St Thérèse reconciled him to the notion of relics and how we can keep the spirit of the visit alive. A letter writer tells a poignant story about the power of the saint’s presence.
We report on Archbishop Nichols’s visit to the major new London exhibition, The Sacred Made Real, and Alan Caine explains why the sacred sculpture is almost too realistic.
Anna Arco catches up with Rocco Palmo, one of the world’s leading Catholic bloggers, in New York. Fr John Pungente SJ explores why going to the cinema sometimes feels like a religious experience. And Fr Michael Seed reveals that Archbishop-elect Bernard Longley is known affectionately to his friends as “Paddington Bear”.
Only a small proportion of our articles are online. Paper-only articles include Fr Tim Finigan’s thoughts about whether Catholics should celebrate Halloween, Jonathan Wright reviews a book that is so brilliant he threw it at a wall, Fr Robin Burgess explains how we can all pray without words, Hugh David wonders why educationalists are so obsessed with Scandinavia and our Rome correspondent, Edward Pentin, says the Vatican was surprised by the generally positive reaction to the Anglican Ordinariate.
If you would like to read all this, and more, you can subscribe to the paper here.
Hitchens wins lopsided decision
Last night’s main event – the Hitchens-Fry versus Onaiyekan-Widdecombe debate – ended in heavy defeat for the Catholic contingent.
According to Andrew M Brown, audience opinion shifted dramatically thanks to Hitchens’s verbal ninjitsu and Archbishop Onaiyekan’s hesitancy.
He reports:
The voting gives a good idea of how it went. Before the debate, for the motion: 678. Against: 1102. Don’t know: 346. This is how it changed after the debate. For: 268. Against: 1876. Don’t know: 34. In other words, after hearing the speakers, the number of people in the audience who opposed the motion increased by 774. My friend Simon, who’s a season ticket holder, said it was the most decisive swing against a motion that he could remember.
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