Britain’s leaders warn on effects of the loss of common values.                        Atheist Bus Campaign creator Ariane Sherine poses in front of a bus bearing an atheist message during the launch of the campaign in London on January 6. The atheist advertisemen...

New forms of slavery: more attention turns to sexual trafficking victims.   A young tsunami survivor stands in the rubble of a rehabilitation shelter after a fire broke out there in 2005 in the southern Indian town of Kargil Nagar. An anti-trafficking activist from India recently told Catholic News Service that post-tsunami conditions give traffickers an opportunity to take...

Mozart’s Requiem translates the concrete reality of the Christian virtue of hope for doubters and believers alike, says Communion and Liberation member John Kinder. Beauty can wound the heart, and open it up to the presence of something divine. By Anthony Barich   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756 - 1791. Such is the case with Mozart’s Requiem, acc...

 Leederville gardener-poet would have burned his manuscripts if it wasn’t for education colleagues. By Deb Warrier Talking to Chris Cypher in the grounds of the Catholic Education Office in Leederville where he is a gardener I find myself in the presence of an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift. Early this year he self-published a book of his poetry, The Gar...

The literary avant are still singing a tired old tune.   Catherine Parish   Years of disappointment still haven’t entirely killed my optimism when opening a new modern novel of the acclaimed variety. The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas, recently shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, is the lat...

When the Eucharistic Liturgy sings.By John Heard  We cannot help attaching an outsize weight to coincidence and synchronicity. These are the clever names that we give, of course, to quite simple events that seem to hold much greater meaning.In the course of an otherwise ordinary day, something will happen, and it will seem to overflow the normal limits of meaning.The bare facts might ...

People in the firing line of public opinion need our prayers.By Mark ReidyIt may sound strange, but the recent public unravelling of Mel Gibson’s life has caused me to reflect on the Church’s declaration of the forthcoming Year for Priests  (June 19, 2009 – June 11, 2010). When he produced The Passion of the Christ in 2004, Gibson brought Jesus to the masses like no ...

We need to teach kids to say sorry.  By Karen and Derek Boylen"It was Caleb who stole your biscuit, Elijah, I saw him!” Isaiah said with a deadpan face. Thus started the affliction of Caleb at the hands of Elijah and Isaiah.Caleb denied the accusation - outright and earnestly - but that didn’t help his cause. Instead, it fired the others up even more. Elijah was upset...

Question: Some time ago you wrote about the origin of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Could you say something about the origin of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is celebrated on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart?  By Fr John FladerWhile devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary certainly received an impulse in more recent times, its roots go ba...

Why I became Catholic: The Record's Debbie Warrier speaks to Kay Gibbens By Debbie Warrier   My father was a lapsed Catholic partly because of his wartime experiences. My mother came from a Protestant background. I remember attending a Baptist Sunday school when I was about eight. From this background came a personal and intimate journey towards Catholicism. Before...