Dispatches

The pope struck a very different tone this year, compared to last year when he lambasted 15 “curial diseases.”

Pope Francis has nominated the well-known Irish monsignor Paul Tighe as a bishop and has appointed him as Adjunct-Secretary to the Pontifical Council of Culture The Vatican made the announcement on Dec 19 and said the Pope has named him to the titular episcopal See of Drivasto in Albania nbsp M

“Policies of fear and inflammatory rhetoric will only offer extremists fertile soil.”

Where this peculiar style of doing electoral politics has touched public life in Britain, and caused a lot of offence, is his claim that the United Kingdom has a “massive Muslim problem” and that we are going to great lengths t disguise it.

Sith or Jedi: it’s all about the small choices. So as a wise prophet once said, choose wisely.

The outrage at Sandy Hook provoked yet another short-lived cry across the nation for greater restrictions on gun ownership. As in the past, gun lobbyists bided their time and turned to their congressional rolodexes.

“The Catholic Church could do things with political consequences if it coordinated with political leaders.”

The lie of anger is that it liberates us and isolates those who deserve punishment. The truth of anger is that it isolates us and liberates no one.

Today the pope opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, inaugurating the Jubilee Year of Mercy.