By Ruth Kennedy I was once asked, by a friend who was not religious, why the Church required us to ‘forgive everyone’. How was it fair that you could just say sorry, and it would all be forgotten and wiped away? I agreed with the sentiment behind his questions. I knew that he had suffered a lot and had people in his life that would be hard to forgive, for valid reasons. I also understood that this conception of the Church was a misconception, but a very difficult one to overcome. He saw this concept of forgiveness as a grave lack of justice.  But forgiveness is a tenet of our Faith. When ..read more

Press Release 05/08/2022 By Fionn Shiner BISHOP Robert Barron, a bestselling author with over three million followers on Facebook, is visiting London this September, speaking at an event in Parliament, celebrating Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and giving a talk to a gathering of over 1,000 Catholic leaders. The visit, taking place between 11th-18th September 2022, is being organised by Catholic Voices in collaboration with The Word on Fire Institute. Bishop Barron of Winona-Rochester said of the upcoming tour:  “I am delighted to be coming to the UK this September. My purpose, as alway ..read more

Prayer vigils, prayers at the end of Mass, generous offerings of a home, money, clothing, food and medication have been constant since the start of the Ukrainian invasion. Here are some unusual photos of an Archbishop buying nappies, bedding and all sorts of supplies for the Ukraine, and hear his podcast on his visit to the Polish Community in Balham. © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk Trafalgar Square Rally On the 5th March the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral organised a prayer rally in Trafalgar Square, attended by the Nuncio, the Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy, Archbishop Angaelos, Archbishop Ber ..read more

Clare McCullough - Good Counsel Network Diane’s Story A young woman is telling me about how her abortion happened. Through long silences and outbreaks of tears Diane stumbles through a description of the last few weeks. She is only 16. Her boyfriend has had an on – off relationship with her for some months. They used to be good friends, but now they are all over the place. When she found out she was pregnant, she didn’t know what to do. Her parents would kill her, she said. Not literally, but she was too scared to tell them. Her boyfriend said nothing for a while. Then he said it was her ..read more

My top 5 lessons from the Rise Up Youth Leadership Project By Lucy Savage I signed up for the Rise Up programme during the summer holidays not entirely sure what it would be like in its pilot year. The whole experience surpassed all my prior expectations.  Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” This beautiful biblical verse is the main message of the Rise Up course, where you discover how important faith is in becoming the best leader that you can be whilst receiving guidance on developing leadership skills and qualities. The Rise U ..read more

During this festive season, many of us will be looking for films to watch and particularly scrambling to find something that everyone will enjoy. Katherine Bennett, Catholic Voices speaker as of 2019, shares with us her reflections from watching The King of Staten Island and draws upon wisdom from St Josemaria Escriva. By Katherine Bennett After deliberating together about how we would spend our evening and ruling out anything that involved donning hazmat suits, standing within 2 metres of anyone or leaving the house, we decided to sit safely in our living room and watch a film. It’s not easy ..read more

Pope Francis’ historic Apostolic Journey to Iraq, March 5-8, 2021 By Robert Ewan On March 5, 2021, an unusual Alitalia flight, number AZ4000, named “Giotto” after the fourteenth-century painter, landed at Baghdad International Airport, marking the historic first-ever papal visit to Iraq. It was Pope Francis’ first overseas trip since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This photo was originally uploaded to YouTube  Seventy-five journalists from all nations accompanied Pope Francis, almost double the number normally allowed on a papal flight. The Pontiff insisted on making the trip to ..read more

[by Brenden Thompson] New restrictions, announced on 31 October and set to come into force from Thursday 5 November, state that “places of worship will be closed” with exceptions for funerals, broadcast acts of worship, individual prayer, essential voluntary public services, formal childcare, and some other exempted activities. These restrictions will once again make participation in the celebration of Mass unlawful.   Last "public Mass" in Westminster Cathedral before the Four-Week National Lockdown in England | © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk   The President and Vice-President of the Cathol ..read more

By Katherine Bennett Catholic Voices Speaker In the Gospels Jesus and His disciples came to a place called Caesarea Phillippi, whereupon He asks two questions.  Firstly ‘Who do people say I am?’ and secondly ‘Who do you say I am?’ I recently read an article by a Catholic journalist who claimed, “If the church doesn’t do more to engage with BLM, the future of our church is at stake”, and that the Church could learn a lot from the Black Lives Matter movement where, “These Black female leaders, unlike the predominantly all white bishops who oversee the US Catholic Church, are ..read more

For this CV Connect Webinar, we were joined by speaker and author Chris Stefanick (founder of Real Life Catholic). Chris is an internationally acclaimed speaker who goes around the world inviting people into a dynamic, life changing encounter with God through Jesus in His Catholic Church. In this CV Connect we talk to Chris about how becoming aware of the way we speak to ourselves and replacing the negative self-talk with uplifting and powerful words that come from God can remind us of our Christian identity and the life we have been made for.    Catholic Voices (CV): How is isolati ..read more