The Wise and the Wherefores

Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, a canon lawyer and academic as well as a politician, has just published her memoir, ‘Here’s the Story’. In this podcast, she talks about her life as a Catholic in Northern Ireland and the Republic,  both now and when she was young, and of her hopes for the future.

Dr Anna Rowlands, St Hilda Associate Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice at the University of Durham, and Christopher Lamb, The Tablet’s Rome correspondent, discuss the Fratelli Tutti shortly after its publication by Pope Francis in Assisi.

Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, puts the controversy over the title of Pope Francis’ new encyclical Fratelli tutti, or Brothers all, into the wider context of the debate on women’s ordination.

Even in Italy, where “fratelli” can arguably be taken to mean both brothers and sisters, women are feeling upset and excluded by the title of the Pope's new encyclical, Fratelli tutti. A coaliton of Catholic women's groups from around the world have put together an open letter to the Pope asking him to include “sorelle”, or sisters, in the title. In this podcast, Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, where she has worked since 2011, explains why it matters so much. And she puts this latest misstep by Pope Francis into the context of the wider debate over women's ordination, and the ongoing attempts by Rome to suppress its advocates.

Kate, pictured on The Tablet website, moderating a conversation with Joan Chittister and Teresa Foracdes, attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts earning her BA in religion and later attended SOAS in London, earning an masters in international human rights law. Kate serves on the leadership circle of Women's Ordination Worldwide and the parish council of Caravita Catholic Community in Rome, where she and her husband have lived since 2014.

The strongly-worded text of the new document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Samaritanus bonus or The Good Samaritan, describes euthanasia and assisted dying as “homicide” while adding that the sacraments should be withheld from those planning to end their lives. While the document understandably reiterates Church teaching,  and has some rich passages on accompanying the sick and the dying, the language it uses is of the culture-warrior variety. The euthanasia document came a few days after the congregation sent a letter to the German bishops warning that proposals in the 2019 ecumenical document, “Together at the Lord’s Table”, to allow Catholics and Protestants to share communion, are unacceptable.  And over the summer the CDF ruled that baptisms performed using the incorrect form of words are invalid. In this Tablet podcast, The Tablet's Rome correspondent Christopher Lamb looks behind the scenes at what is going on at the CDF.

The writer and human rights activist Benedict Rogers talks to Ruth Gledhill about the persecution of the Uyghurs in China.  Benedict, East Asia Team Leader at the international human rights organisation CSW and a member of the Stop the Uyghur Genocide Campaign, is commenting after the announcement that Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who prosecuted Slobodan Milosevic for genocide and is an expert on international human rights and humanitarian law, is to lead the Uyghur Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal that will determine whether China’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide.

In a podcast for The Tablet, home news editor Liz explains why the title of the Pope's new encyclical, Fratelli tutti, to be published on October 4, is not good enough. She warns of the danger that this failing will distract from the wider, important message of the Pope's vision for society in a post-Covid age.

The threat to the common good of breaking international law, unjust laws and secret trade agreements – a leading academic outlines the dangers, and how concerned people can help. Tim Gorringe, emeritus professor of theological studies at Exeter university, has written a strong article for The Tablet and now he has spoken more of his concerns in a Tablet podcast, in which he advocates that people who are concerned and wish to act could join organisations such as Global Justice Now to advocate for change.

Since the presidential election results in August, there have been mass protests. The Catholic Metropolitan, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, is effectively in exile, having been refused re-entry to Belarus from Poland. Jonathan Luxmoore looks at the politics behind the turmoil, and explains why the Catholic Church is being targeted.