“Heresy” is an ugly, loaded term in Christian tradition, one which over many centuries saw thousands of people executed (often wrongly) or excommunicated (which in practical terms, where community acceptance and participation was essential for survival, could be almost a…
church history
Sex and Catholics: the problems in Natural Law
Something called ‘Natural Law’ sets the ground rules for all Catholic teachings about sex. Natural Law means the only Catholic approved sex is vaginal intercourse that can lead to procreation, and only when it is between a married woman and…
80-year-old Nun a suspect in Spain’s baby-snatching scandal
An 80-year-old nun, Sister María Gómez, is the first person to be accused of baby snatching in the scandal over trafficking newborn babies from Spanish hospitals. Sister María Gómez was formally named as a suspect in the investigation into one…
Valentine’s Day: Same Sex Lovers in Church History
For St Valentine’s day,we should remember the same sex lovers (a surprising number of them) who feature in Scripture and in the history of the Catholic Church. In the list below, I do not not claim that the relationships were…
Catholic Bishops, Gay Marriage – and Slavery.
At Enlightened Catholicism, Colleen has a post on the Prop 8 ruling and Catholic reaction which used an entirely appropriate picture to illustrate the response of the Catholic bishops: Catholic orthodoxy teaches that the bishops are their to lead the church.…
Catholic Bishops, Gay Marriage: “the Outer Fringes of Crazy Town”
Catholic mothers, like all others, delight in their offsprings’ weddings – and those of other family members. They are not alone. Weddings are the occasions of major family gatherings, where we gather to celebrate with them, cement the family bonds…
Edith Stein, “St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross”
Today, Aug 9th, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of “St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross” – better known to most people as Edith Stein, Jewish convert to Catholicism, and nun who died in the Nazi gas chambers on…
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (2: Where Are We Now? Changes in the Church)
As we digest the impact of these past trends, I consider the implications in four key areas: the decline of Vatican power; internal contradictions in Vatican teaching on homoerotic relationships; the transformation of the laity; and the transformation of the…
Mathew Fox, on “The other side of the Catholic tradition”
In the modern Catholic Church, it is common to find Vatican loyalists and rule-book Catholics throwing up their hands in horror at “dissent” in the Church, insisting on the importance of sticking to so-called traditional teaching. What these people overlook,…
Eppur si muove! (Galileo, the Church, and Absolute Truth)
“And yet it moves!” Legend has it that Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) muttered these words to himself on his way out after having been forced to recant. At issue was his work on the theory of heliocentrism – that the Earth…
