Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
Before the White Smoke Rises
Living and teaching in Rome at the Gregorian University from 1973 to 2006 provided a front row seat for much recent papal history. I joined the congregation for the funeral Mass of Paul VI (pope 1963–1978), distributed Holy Communion at the installation of John Paul I (pope 1978), and just over a month later attended his funeral in the rain.
John Paul II (pope 1978–2005) began his pontificate by addressing the predominantly Italian crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square and asking them, “When I make mistakes in your—no, our—language, please correct me.” Clearly, no matter what other strengths the new pope brought to his ministry, he was also a first-rate actor who knew how to deliver his lines.
In 2005, I was on Edward Stourton’s BBC Radio team for a broadcast presenting John Paul II’s funeral. A few weeks later I returned with Brian Hanrahan of BBC Television for the conclave (“with the key” or gathering of cardinals under eighty years of age “locked into”…
By referring to eye-witness accounts, I happen to believe that I am on firm ground. It is impossible to believe that the early Christian martyrs went to their deaths in service of unsubstantiated hearsay.
Sep 01 2024
4 mins
You can imagine my surprise when I recently became aware, courtesy of my cousin Paul, of the letter below, addressed to Mr J.A, Farquar, Commissioner of the South Australian Railways.
Aug 31 2024
2 mins
The history of the Jewish state, just like that of the Holocaust, is undoubtedly unknown to these deniers of Israel’s legitimacy. They are but the latest iteration of the five Arab states’ war in 1948-49, by which they expected to destroy the fledgling Jewish state. They lost, but have since used the motley collection of Circassian, Turkish, Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese Arabs, renamed Palestinians in 1967, to ceaselessly prosecute the original war of rejection.
Aug 29 2024
8 mins
