On 22 June 1535, my great-great (to the power of twenty) grand-uncle, Cardinal John Fisher ascended the scaffold, just as his friend Thomas More would do three weeks later.
Every great religion has had its sacred sites where people felt closest to God. Our Jewish ancestors counted the Jerusalem Temple their holiest place, where God’s shalom dwelt, and the prayers and sacrifices of the cult were offered.
Dear friends. This is a time of challenge for our Church. Whether it's debates over school funding or religious liberty or the sacraments of Confession and Matrimony, there's more than a bit of anti-Christian feeling in the air.
In 1802 an orphan boy was placed in the care of his uncle, Father Bede Brewer, leader of the English Benedictine Congregation.
“I pull a Kleenex from its box and hand it to Stevie Nicks. She wipes a tear as it slides down her cheek. She cries… when she speaks of the babies she might have had.”
Origins: ‘From Nazareth?’ asked Nathanael, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ (Jn 1:45-51) It’s one of the most famous and sardonic questions in the New Testament.
Monica Riley once wanted to be the world’s fattest woman. Each day she would consume over 10,000 calories, often being fed through a funnel.
“It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money from, or to regard them merely as so much muscle power… To the rich I say… once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest that one owns belongs to the poor.”
The website MyFreeImplants.com started in 2005 as a way to crowd-fund women who want breast implants. They create a profile and would-be donors can scroll through, access photos of them, even talk to them through live streaming, before making a donation.
The phrase “walking on water” is often used, understandably, to indicate an impossible task; so, when we are told to do something we think too hard, we might respond that “you might as well tell me to walk on water”.
Thank you for those kind words of introduction. Five years ago Nicholas Tonti-Filippini reviewed my book, Catholic Bioethics for a New Millennium, for which I was very grateful. It is a pleasure, therefore, to return the favour by launching his final work, the fifth in his About Bioethics series published by Connor Court, regrettably without Nick’s physical presence with us tonight.
The Harman Lecture was established to honour the late Rev. Dr Francis Harman, a charming and wise canonist, ethicist and parish priest who long hoped for a session of the John Paul II Institute in Australia, celebrated its conception, but died in 2000 just before it came to birth.
