Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
"'Militant secularism' makes as much logical sense as 'aggressive pacifism' or 'hardline tolerance'; it is an oxymoron, a cynical attempt to paint equality and fairness as infringing upon the religious"
The Vatican shows its moral collapse by attacking American nuns. "The bishops are interested in power. The nuns are interested in the powerless. Nuns have preserved Gospel values while bishops have been perverting them"
Compelling photo gallery showing diversity of Christianity, and Easter customs and traditions around the world. Spain and the Philippines could scarcely be more different from sober Canterbury
No, not banks this time. It's the Catholic church. Review of hostile new book Render Unto Rome, on the Vatican's finances. Opening salvo? So far, $2bn has been paid out to settle sex abuse cases. And that's just in the US
Revisiting history of the Inquisition suggests troubling conclusion: "Inquisitions advance hand-in-hand with civilisation itself." Indeed the Inquisition can be seen not as historic relic but as harbinger of the modern police state
Theologian says Pope Benedict's "absolutism" is deforming the Roman Catholic church. Community spirit is gone. "An unparalleled personality cult prevails once again today, which contradicts everything written in the New Testament"
"Many Catholics worry about a Vatican that fires an Australian bishop for speaking in favour of ordaining women and married men, but declines to act against a Belgian prelate who unapologetically admits to molesting young boys"
The 'Ndrangheta of Calabria take their involvement in religious parades very seriously. So when a clergyman banned them from carrying the statues at a village's Easter procession there were bound to be repercussions
Fine exposé of Scientology in "New Yorker" this week. But are Scientology's doctrines any crazier than those of Roman Catholicism? Is the Pope a better man than L. Ron Hubbard was? How about more investigating of the Vatican?
Catholic Church used to see Judaism as main interfaith partner; now it has shifted to Islam. Pope Benedict wants "cultural alliance" with Islam to defend traditional morality, place of religion in public life
Powerful writing and just as hostile as you'd expect from Britain's best known atheist. Pope Benedict denounced as "leering old fixer" and much else besides. Catholics may want to look away now
Mayor of London wonders how best to welcome Pope Benedict: "Long time no See ... I felt like a woad-painted savage called upon to explain the religious back-sliding of the tribe"
Author and founder of Virago Press decries the absolute silence of the church during the Holocaust, and discusses five books on the "dark and murky side" the French have now "faced up to"
