In early 1979, primary school teachers in Poland were told to tell their children that a man who was about to visit their country was their enemy. The man was Pope John Paul II. The communist authorities tried to make sure the turnout for the visit would be low. Instead,...

The Christmas before I left the diplomatic service of the Holy See, I received about 100 Christmas cards from colleagues. The Christmas after I left, I received the sum total one from those same colleagues, and that one did not know that I had left! To be fair, I only...

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (7:11-17) Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. When he was near the gate of the town it happened that a dead man was being carried out for burial, the only...

Ten thousand talents are equivalent to what an ordinary labourer would have earned after working for 200,000 years! A hundred denarii would be the equivalent of four months’ wages. The wicked servant could never have paid back his master. He would probably have struggled to pay back the 100 denarii...

I think I was six. Mum had gone out to something and dad was in charge. I wanted to go out to play and was told, “be back by seven.” But I wasn’t. When I got in, I got a spanking and remembered showing my mum the next day my...

If you stay long enough in a country you will soon speak the language and pick up the accent. I lived in Italian-speaking situations for many years and I realised I had really learnt the language when I started praying and thinking in Italian. I think that’s where I also...

None of what Jesus said or did would have meant anything extraordinary if he had not been the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In fact, many of those who do not believe in His divine identity only consider Him to have been, at most, a charismatic leader, with...

Taking my cue from those words of Isaiah in the first reading, “my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples”, I thought it worthwhile, as much as for myself as for you, to reflect once more on what this place is, what we do here...

When you’re in the middle of something, it’s easy not to see the wood for the trees. That’s true if what you’re doing is enjoyable or if it’s anything but. And yet it’s part of our human condition that we have to pay attention to what’s in front of our...

“My husband worked hard all his life to provide for his family and he has now given his life to save our daughter.” These are the words of Emma Jane Pearson, wife of Simon Pearson, who drowned in Italy barely ten days ago as he saved his 11-year old daughter from...