Category Archives: Blog
A Pope for All Seasons
For those predicting division and anger in the US Congress , Pope Francis delivered a characteristic surprise with one of his politically most finely balanced speeches since his election. He won over the great American nation within seconds , paying tribute to the ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ before drawing on the example of four exemplary Americans who between them cut across race, party, religion, and sex: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day. There were no walk outs, nor organised partisan sit-downs. …
Pope Francis’s Cuban politics
An article in today’s influential Spanish newspaper El Pais by its respected Rome correspondent Pablo Ordaz suggests than not all has been is peace and love in the current Vatican press corps while in Cuba. Commenting on the Pope’s visit to the island, Ordaz comments that it has been notable for its low-key and- in Ordaz’s view- disappointingly weak reaction to the Castro regime’s human rights record which showed its darker side when anti-regime leaflets were scooped up by security police, dissidents were prevented from getting anywhere near Pope …
Pope Francis as Trump’s Nemesis
Pope Francis stands for most of everything Donald Trump finds objectionable. I would list this, in no particular order, as the following: Kindness and tolerance of minorities and other races and religions. Concern about global warming to the extent of calling for an immediate and drastic cut-back of polluting energy generators and waste. A critique of unbridled capitalism and a belief in the common good, based on human solidarity, and a truly Christian community as envisaged by the Beatitudes. Humility. Spirituality. Jesuitical Discernment. An ability to listen to the other. …
Pope Francis and the Malvinas
Pope Francis and the Malvinas The snapped moment of encounter projected fast and globally on the world wide web has become as much as a characteristic of the Francis papacy, as his twitter account @pontifex. This is a papacy with a charismatic personality and instinctive communicator at its helm. It is also a papacy advised by media specialists and diplomats that know something about the opportunity offered by the digital age to spread a message with an impact that would have inconceivable just a few years ago. Since Francis’s election, …
Francis’s God of Surprises
Much of the Vatican-including its majority of civil servants and regular press corps- is on holiday although evidently not Pope Francis. On Wednesday of this week he resumed his weekly general audience after a month partly caught up in challenging foreign travels, some at life-threatening high altitudes, and spoke in a way that once again generated global new stories. This is a Pope that draws attention, rarely in a negative sense. Pope Francis called for a church of “open doors” to divorced Catholics and their families, reviving the ongoing debate …
Adios, Iker
They tried to make up for it today-the fans and the club and the execs in the Bernabeu with a belated act of homage- but neither the President of the Club nor your team mates were with you when, alone on sunday, you gave your final press conference as a departing Real Madrid player prior to your transfer to Porto. “C’est fini”,you said at the end of a press conference which inevitably had you shedding tears before the grateful photographers. At the age of 34, you have a record as …
Saving Battersea Park
Battersea Park is not only the jewel in the crown of Wandsworth Council which is responsible , on behalf of rate payers, for its management and care , but also one of London’s most historic, and best loved green spaces, south of the River but easily accessible from west and east London, and just across two Bridges, from Chelsea and Kensington and all points north. The park has been part of my conscious life as a writer, journalist, local resident, and London citizen, for over fifty years. I remember as …
