Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

  Bit short of cash for your holiday this year?  Cajetan (1480 – 1547) should be the patron saint of anyone who needs some extra money – right now.  For it was he who founded the Monts de Piete – the pawnshops – in the 16th century.  They were first designed to help people through...

‘You need hands to hold someone you care for’ – that song of 1958 reminds us how hands can convey a wide range of gestures and meanings. Hands to embrace, hands to signal ‘Stop,’ hands to sound out applause, and hands to show welcome. In the life of the church, we can thinkof sacraments that...

Fortnite is one of the most successful – and most addictive – games ever. Thousands of worried parents worry that the game is taking over their children’s life. One father found his primary school aged daughter sitting on a urine-soaked cushion – after a non-stop ten-hour gaming session. And so, in desperation, parents pull plugs,...

It was: 100 years ago, from 8th August to 11th November that the Hundred Days Offensive in France and Belgium, took place. Allied Victory leading to the end of the 1st World War and the collapse of the German empire. 90 years ago, on 6th August 1928 that Andy Warhol, iconic American Pop artist, photographer...

If you enjoy reading the Bible and in encouraging others to have faith in God, then Dominic is the patron saint for you. His passion for helping Christians to learn and proclaim their faith led him to found the Order of Preachers, or Black Friars, because of the black cape they wore over white habits....

It was a busy Saturday afternoon in August, in the market town of Omagh, Northern Ireland.  A maroon Vauxhall Cavalier with false number plates was parked outside the outfitters’ shop, S.D. Kells.  Just after a quarter past two it blew up, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured 220 others.  It...

The Mothers’ Union is now more than 140 years old. It has accomplished a staggering amount in that time, and nowadays numbers more than four million members, doing good work in 83 countries.  That is a far cry from the modest circle of prayer for mothers who cared about family life, which is how it...

Sir Terry Wogan, the Irish radio and TV presenter, was born 80 years ago, on 3rd August 1938. He was the epitome of a much-loved broadcaster – unthreatening, amiable and with a tendency to laugh at himself. Born in Limerick, Ireland’s third largest town, Terry showed no initial signs of immortality. His father was a grocer,...

Assisi, a beautiful town in the Italian province of Umbria, was the birth-place in the twelfth century of two of that country’s greatest saints, Francis and Clare. Francis first, and then Clare, discovered the liberating effect of release from the burden of wealth. For them simplicity, a godly poverty, was the way to blessing. Their...

Laurence was a deacon of the Church in Rome who was martyred in 258.  His story is found in the very ancient Depositio Martyrum, which tells us that he was closely associated with Pope Sixtus II, who was martyred just a few days before him during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian.   We also know...

   Church of England helps protect young people from modern slavery Drivers urged to join effort to stop modern slavery in hand car washes 
  C of E launches worship and prayer materials to commemorate First World War Universal Credit not working, says Churches New heritage website to help end the misery of leaking church roofs Synod vote to...

The terrorist organisation al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden 30 years ago, on 11th August 1988, though there is still dispute about the precise nature and purpose – and indeed spelling – of it. Translatable into English as “The Base”, al-Qaeda was formed initially to fight the influx of the Soviet Union into Afghanistan, but...