“You can follow thousands of catechism courses, thousands of spirituality courses, thousands of yoga or zen courses and all these things. But none of this will be able to give you the freedom as a child (of God). Only the Holy Spirit can prompt your heart to say ‘Father.’ - Pope Francis, 9 January 2015
As we move closer to the Schimod on the Family 2015, I expect more homilies like this. Before the vine is planted the ground needs to be prepared. Papal homilies seem to be the rotavator. The placement of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - that which the Pope is well-placed and well-advised to teach - alongside yoga and zen courses is a little unfortunate, isn't it?

So here we go again and I cannot believe I am saying it. Yes, we can all know the truths of the Holy Faith and be horrible people (sorry Savaronola! Mea culpa!) - who do not love God and our neighbour. Still, knowing the truths of the Holy Faith is not the cause of people being horrible to other people and not lovin…

I'm not convinced that Charlie Hebdo magazine meets the criteria of what satire is by definition. Religious belief is not stupidity - though there are some very stupid religious beliefs out there - nor is religious belief of itself a vice or an evil. Neither am I convinced there was any genuine humour, or irony, or even exaggeration in Charlie Hebdo's cartoons. It seems there was plenty of malice employed in Charlie Hebdo's work, a desire to cause great offence and shock for the sake of it, a desire to be provocative and hurt the sensibilities of the religious.


I think people are getting confused between satire - which by its use of humour and irony exposes stupidity - and blasphemy, which simply mocks God and religion. Satire is entertaining and enlightening because it can also be edifying. Satire, when done correctly, doesn't simply run people - or people's beliefs - down for the sake of it, in order to be gratuitously offensive, but instead uses humour to tell …