I know a woman who frequently goes to confession, yet doesn't seem to make any progress in virtue, remaining an habitual and vicious gossip. What elements are necessary for a valid confession? Although I answered in an earlier column the question about what true sorrow and the resolution not to sin again imply in confession your question involves another important aspect of moral life: t...

I became a Catholic in 1997 and for the last 10 years I have played tennis on Fridays with an Anglican Rector, and a champion athlete who is an Agnostic and another friend who is a Pentecostal. Faith does come up in the conversation and they know where I am at. It just shows it doesn’t matter where you are, be it work or on the tennis court. There is always an opportunity to engage. ...

Dear Father, following your column on some of the saints in the Roman Canon, who are the saints mentioned after the consecration? After the Consecration in the Roman Canon, or Eucharistic Prayer I, we find a list of 15 saints: eight men and seven women. The first one is John. But which John? Since the three following saints are Stephen, Matthias and Barnabas, all of whom are mentioned...

Although there are no words accorded to the Saint in Scripture, it is clear, Brian Peachey says, that St Joseph knew what it was like to battle for his family. The neglected saint takes up a sizable chunk of the second and revised edition of Mr Peachey’s The Gift of the Rosary booklet, which was released in Perth late last month. The booklet has received some valuable additions since ...

1. The betrothal of Joseph to Mary Joseph was the most privileged of men. He was not called, but was one of the few who are chosen. He was chosen by God to be the spouse of the purest of creatures, who was to be the mother of the Son of God. 2. Joseph accepts that Mary is to be the mother of God. Joseph, the humble carpenter, son of David, was chosen by God to fulfill the words of the ...

By Tom Gourlay “I am no murderer... Why is it that a doctor should be made to feel like an executioner?” Outspoken pro-euthanasia advocate Dr Phillip Nitschke, founding director of the euthanasia support group EXIT International recently mused over his life’s work and the direction in which he is hoping to take it into the future at a lecture of a recent conference of the same organisati...

I was scrolling through Facebook this week and I saw the following message; “KEEP people in your life that truly love you, motivate you, encourage you, inspire you, enhance you & make you happy. If you have people who do NONE of the above, let them go.” These sort of short inspirational messages are all over the internet and I have posted up a few of them myself. However as I read...

I read recently that a Russian has written an alternate version of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, with the evil demon-god Sauron as the hero. In this, Sauron, aided by the evil wizard Saruman, is trying to trying to bring modernity and industrialisation to Middle-Earth, in the face of the medievalist obstructionism of Gandalf, Aragorn. etc. My first thought was this seemed ...

It began as an ordinary conversation at a Sunday afternoon parish social function. I was chatting with one of the ladies who had arranged the festivities, and the subject came around to Mass that morning. “Oh, we didn’t go;” she quipped, “we felt like having a lazy morning, so we slept in.” I was taken aback by her casual admission. Since she and her husband were very active in the...

As part of her sophomore English Literature course, my teenage daughter has been studying The Tell-Tale Heart, a short story by 19th century American Gothic fiction author, Edgar Allan Poe. For those not familiar, this tale is written in first-person narrative by a character, who (whilst insisting he is not mad) exhibits classic symptoms of monomania and paranoia, if not psychopathy. ...