Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Festival, Ken Loach’s film expresses indignation over the lack of respect for those on the margins of society in the United Kingdom. An elderly carpenter suffers a heart attack and is forced to resort to public assistance. He falls into a Kafkaesque network of control that renders his life impossible. He meets a single mother with two small children who are also forced to endure all kinds of humiliation. The solidarity...
The subject of humor in religious literature is certainly not something new, even in our journal.[1] We believe, however, that a brief note may help our readers keep alive a fundamental dimension of human existence that seems to us in danger of being lost in our western society where daily conflicts and tensions always run the risk of becoming radicalized and exasperating. As a consequence we lose sight of the moderation offered by humor. One might say the same thing...
Surrogate maternity refers to the act of procreation where a woman agrees to carry to term a pregnancy and then subsequently give the newborn infant to the commissioning couple. Surrogacy is one of the most delicate and pressing issues in public debate, complicated further by the different ways it is defined; for example, “third-party reproduction,” “donor-assisted reproduction,” or “womb for rent.” The anthropological and ethical questions that this practice raises go to the root of the meaning of life, the...
“It is important to observe,” writes the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, “that Amoris Laetitia (AL) reminds us above all of God’s mercy and compassion, rather than solely moral regulations and canonical rules.”[1] This is a theme that Pope Francis has been repeating since the beginning of his pontificate. In his speech opening the Pastoral Congress of the diocese of Rome,[2] he affirmed “the sensitivity with which God looks at our families helps us to direct our consciences in the...
Writing about the history of the Bible in the 13th century, de Hamel notes, “The Bible, at least in Western Europe, was mostly still in Latin, by then used by fewer and fewer people. This gave it authority but obscurity.”[1] A parallel situation has emerged in the contemporary world in terms of Church authority. The Church possesses and exerts many kinds of authority, with the most serious and solemn connected to its teaching office in matters of faith and morals....
Pope Francis’ trip to Fatima took place on May 12 and 13, exactly 100 years after the apparitions of the Virgin of Fatima. He canonized two of the three shepherd children who lived that experience in 1917: Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Lucia, the third child, died in 2005 and the cause of her beatification is ongoing. This was the fifth trip of a successor of St. Peter to Fatima and follows those by Paul VI (in 1967 on the 50th...
The most respected digital Catholic journal from Rome. A must-read on all the present issues alive in the Church. Discover top Church scholars interpreting the history, politics, culture, science and art in the light of the Christian faith.
© Union of Catholic Asian News 2023 | All Rights Reserved.
Except for any fair dealing permitted under the Hong Kong Copyright Ordinance, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior permission.
