Catholic News

If you’ve been a regular at Mass over these summer months you will have listened to the guidance of the prophets in our readings.

Whether you've heard God’s wisdom and warnings through Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Micah or Hosea, it’s that time of year when we are given the revelatory word that brings about change in the hearts of some or consolation in the hearts of others.

But, as our General Secretary Canon Chris Thomas tells us, prophets are often misunderstood.

“Lots of people think that prophets are there to predict the future when really that's not fully their role,” he tells us on our At the Foot of the Cross podcast. "Prophets, as we understand them, are people who are endowed with a supernatural gift of wisdom to be claimed in the hearts of the people. They challenge current day practices and make known to the people the consequences of not changing their ways.”

Canon Thomas uses three vocational stories about prophets and their preaching, focusing on Amos, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

As we go through the Summer, we'll hear the prophets time and time again. Listening to their words can, at times, be quite difficult, but Canon Thomas offers some advice.

“If you keep in the back of your mind that prophets are given a specific word by God to preach to the people so that they will return to being faithful to the covenant and adapt their way of living,” he says. “They can then, as the Prophet Micah says, act justly, love mercifully or tenderly, and more humbly with God. This then leads them to the fullness of life.”

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Ahead of the World Day of Prayer for Grandparents and the Elderly, Bishop David Evans has spoken about the need for us to value the elderly and recognise the important contribution grandparents make to society.

On this 'Catholic News' podcast we discuss how we can use this day, on Sunday 28 July, as one of thanksgiving and prayer for grandparents and the elderly.

"We might have a rather rosy idea of family life or of the life of older people," says Bishop Evans, our Lead Bishop for Marriage and Family Life. "In fact, they have their difficulties and their burdens. We are able to recognise these, and to think about the social implications of their isolation. It's important we pray for them and recognise that they too are included in God's love for all."

Bishop Evans affirms young people in their care for the elderly - particularly grandparents:

"One thing that strikes me is the love which grandchildren have for their grandparents. We're not asking anything exceptional, for them to take care of their grandparents. Many are doing this already, which is a wonderful thing. But it might just be an opportunity just to do something a bit extra for them on this day, to keep them in our prayers, to think perhaps a bit beyond family members, not just our grandparents, but the older people who might live next door."

He adds a further suggestion for social outreach:

"It may be that one or two people are able, with the proper precautions, to visit older people who live nearby or who live in care homes - paying a little visit to make their day a bit better."

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Ahead of Sea Sunday, the day we come together to pray for seafarers and fishers to thank them for the vital role they play in all of our lives, we spoke to Deacon Nick O'Neill, the Senior Area Port Chaplain for the South of England and Wales for Catholic charity Stella Maris.

In this Catholic News podcast, Deacon Nick discusses the joys and challenges of his job supporting seafarers with host Fionn Shiner.

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Hospices - places you go to die, right? Horizontal in a bed for the last months of your life? Decades ago, perhaps, but the modern hospice offers a wide variety of services - all designed to provide high quality, compassionate care for the dying person.

Most people want their death – or that of a loved one or friend – to be comfortable and reconciled. A dignified death. At St Joseph’s Hospice the dying person always comes first so why not listen to find out more?

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For this special Catholic News podcast, we take a look back on Bishop Declan Lang’s twenty-three years as Bishop of Clifton. Let me set the scene for you…

It was the evening before his successor's episcopal ordination, and we were fortunate to side-step all the intense planning and preparation for the day to come, in order to sit down in the garden of the retiring Bishop of Clifton as the Spring sun gave out its last.

Metaphorically, the sun was setting too on Bishop Declan’s years of ministry as the ninth Bishop of Clifton – it was just a matter of hours before his handover to the incoming Bishop Bosco MacDonald. So, for this podcast, it seemed apposite to take a stroll with Bishop Declan to look back over almost a quarter of a century shepherding the diocese.

In this 'Catholic News' podcast we discuss:

His upbringing on the Isle of Wight

Poignantly, when discussing his health challenges, he said:

"It has strengthened my trust in God - that God knows what He's doing. I'm not saying that God sent me Parkinson's, but I am saying that you can live through Parkinson's.

"The Christian message is about life. It's about death, but it's about life coming from death. We are people of hope, and we can find God. We might think Parkinson's is totally destroying lives, but actually God can be found in illness, sickness and vulnerability, and it has made me more vulnerable in some ways."

Listen to our full podcast interview with Bishop Declan Lang - his last as Bishop of Clifton.

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Father Gabriel Romanelli is the parish priest of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City. He had to watch from a distance as the horrors of the 7 October Hamas attack unfolded, before Israel's bombardment of the Strip led to the humanitarian crisis and suffering we now see in this torn land.

Father Romanelli spent a week in the UK, in London and Glasgow, from 22 - 27 April, meeting with Christian leaders and politicians to highlight the plight of the near 500 people still sheltering in the compound of the Holy Family Church.

For this Catholic News podcast, we again partner up with Middle East Analysis - a podcast strand that emanated from the Bishops' Conference 15 years ago and features our former Middle East North Africa (MENA) consultant Dr Harry Hagopian.

Dr Hagopian, an International lawyer and analyst who has long worked for peace between Israel and Palestine, joins Fr Romanelli in conversation for this special podcast.

We discuss the current plight of the parish community in the north of Gaza, the lack of food, water and medicine, the Pope's daily phone calls and pastoral concern for the people, the need for a lasting peace, what Catholics in England and Wales can do, the light of faith in the darkness, and much more.

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This Catholic News podcast looks at AI and Pope Francis' message for World Communications Day.

Bishop John Arnold, Lead Bishop for Communications here at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, talks about how the technology can make information accessible and support the common good but we should make sure that it is carefully regulated.

"Let's use machines to assist us in what we're doing to make our world a better place, to enhance the way we live. But let's not allow machines in any way to think for us or to make decisions which are not appropriate."

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We keep our firm focus on the Holy Land and whilst we continue to weep as we look on at the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the suffering of all civilians caught up in this conflict, we're joined by Fr Fadi Diab to discuss the lived realities of the Palestinian people in the West Bank as well as in the decimated strip.

Fr Diab is from Ramallah and is the rector of St Andrew's Episcopal Church and also minister at St Peter's Church in Bir Zeit.

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Bishop Declan Lang, Chair of our International Affairs department, recently joined former Middle East North Africa advisor to the Bishops' Conference, Dr Harry Hagopian, on a special podcast to discuss the tragic events playing out in the Holy Land as the conflict continues to rage in Gaza.

Five long, painful months after the Hamas terror attack of 7 October and the subsequent bombing and ground offensive that has reduced Gaza to rubble and led to several thousand deaths and a humanitarian disaster of the most tragic proportions, this 'Middle East Analysis' special asks the question: Is there a road map to peace in the Holy Land or are we eternally to walk the path of violence, revenge and hatred?

Dr Harry Hagopian, an international lawyer, commentator, and MENA region analyst, joins his old friend Bishop Declan for a 30-minute podcast that we have, with permission, uploaded to our 'Catholic News' channel.

They look for any signs of light in the darkness, and mourn decades of failure when it comes to securing a lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

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The focus of this Catholic News podcast is the Year of Jubilee in 2025, and the preparation year proceeding it that we're currently living - the Year of Prayer.

Pope Francis wants the Church to be prepared for the Jubilee Year with a particular focus on prayer, and what better prayer to use than the 'Our Father' that Jesus taught us.

During Lent, we are offering a five-week course designed to help us deepen our understanding of the Lord's Prayer called We Dare To Say.

Father Jan Nowotnik, Director of Mission for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales talks to us about how important a prayer the Lord's Prayer is to us as Christians:

"There is a line in the Our Father that is a prayer of petition, 'Give us this day our daily bread'. When I pray that line, I'm saying, 'Give me today, Lord, just what I need - just for this day'. In the midst of some of the trials and tribulations of life, but also the joys, it's about realising that I put my hope in the Lord who gives me everything that I need - the Lord whose kingdom is in heaven.

"'Give us this day our daily bread'. Why? So that we can joyfully trust and hope in Him, but also so that we can forgive each other, so that we can put right some of those wrongs. Which takes us back to the major theme of a Jubilee year taken from the book of Leviticus - allowing the land to grow fallow, allowing that time of tranquilly and peace, so that we can rid each other of the debts that often occur when we don't forgive each other, when we're not kind and supportive to each other. To do that, you have to hope in the promises of the Lord - 'Give us this day our daily bread'."

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