Don’t blame children for food poverty (COVID-19 blog no. 40)

Don’t blame children for food poverty (COVID-19 blog no. 40)

Marcus Rashford’s petition highlights the plight of thousands of families and individuals across the country who were struggling before the pandemic hit, but who are now in dire straits during another national lockdown, and those who have fallen into poverty since COVID darkened our skies.

Pope Francis, peoples, and culture: Preparing for a future post-COVID with Fratelli Tutti (COVID-19 blog no. 38)

Pope Francis, peoples, and culture: Preparing for a future post-COVID with Fratelli Tutti (COVID-19 blog no. 38)

An integral part of what it is to be a people is to be a community who are organised and working for the common good, and to be rooted in their own cultural history. It is this that the Theology of People is always moving towards: the practical means for the people and the poorest amongst them to find their liberation and salvation.

Remote learning and the Eucharistic potential of online education (COVID-19 blog no. 37)

Remote learning and the Eucharistic potential of online education (COVID-19 blog no. 37)

Although the shift to online-learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for all involved in the education sector, it poses a particular challenge to those of us involved in Catholic education due to the Catholic theological commitment to sacramental encounter and connection.

L'Arche and COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 35)

L'Arche and COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 35)

L’Arche Communities are people with and without learning disabilities, designing and creating spaces for encounter, mutual friendship and transformation that become signs for our world that we all belong, and that we all have gifts for building a more peaceful and just world.

Empowerment in a time of pandemic: reflections on Rahner's theology of sickness (COVID-19 blog no. 34)

Empowerment in a time of pandemic: reflections on Rahner's theology of sickness (COVID-19 blog no. 34)

Rahner argues that times of confrontation with sickness and death should be for individual Christians (and so, I would add, for Christian society also) among the most important phases of our lives; an opportunity to anticipate our death, to rehearse surrendering to the grace of the invisible God, and to live life with a renewed hope and energy.

Mental health, spiritual wellbeing, and COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 32)

Mental health, spiritual wellbeing, and COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 32)

There are many analogies for describing how it feels to emerge from a national lockdown: tentative baby steps, gasping for air, relief after a bad dream, waking up one day to find we live in a completely different world.

This range of feelings and emotions reflects the variety of human experience during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the differing effects on mental health.

The St Vincent de Paul Society: Nourishing faith and friendship during COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 31)

The St Vincent de Paul Society: Nourishing faith and friendship during COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 31)

As COVID-19 struck, Tower House in Brighton, run by the St Vincent de Paul Society, was forced to temporarily close. Volunteer Luke Fernandes reveals that this potentially catastrophic turn of events has inspired alternative ways to support older and isolated people and, he adds, lockdown has provided an opportunity to nourish our faith.

Welcoming the stranger within at a time of Brexit and COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 30)

Welcoming the stranger within at a time of Brexit and COVID-19 (COVID-19 blog no. 30)

A tsunami of mass unemployment is on the horizon, and our social fabric is under severe strain as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Against this backdrop, there has been a cynical recycling of myths about migration as a threat to our national prosperity and sense of identity.

Father Hudson's Care How: COVID-19 has impacted our work and the various groups whom it accompanies (COVID-19 blog no. 29)

Father Hudson's Care How: COVID-19 has impacted our work and the various groups whom it accompanies (COVID-19 blog no. 29)

In this time it has become clearer than ever what the mission of Father Hudson’s is, and what it means to be a charity.