De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  Back in November, the  Catholic Unscripted team were invited to address the Catholic Man UK national conference at the historic Buckden Towers, Cambridgeshire. My talk was on the effect of fidelity - and infidelity - on family.

LMS Pilgrims at the site of the Holy House in Walsingham on Sunday, picture by Joseph Shaw I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ~ Rev 3:15-17 As a father and in my role as a parish catechist for many years, I have found that young people quickly reject anything inauthentic and long for authenticity. I suppose it has long been demonstrated that young people especially are looking for a "peg" on which to hang their identity. An essential part of being a parent is ensuring that the environment which forms them is a positive rather than a negative one . My own experience of youth ministry is that it tends to appeal to a certain kind of young person. It can be very clicky and if you ...

Yesterday was my Father's birthday. I haven't seen him for about 13 years now I suppose. He abandoned my mum, brother and I in the most acrimonious manner in 1999, after it was discovered that he was having an affair with a part-time typist who worked at the business and who is my age. The resulting fallout caused the most dreadful wound in the family which has continued to fester and effect his wife and children in an extraordinarily potent way, ever since. I always feel melancholy on this day irrespective of how hard I try to ignore it or shut it out. I am grieving, I suppose. Grieving for what I have lost, grieving for what could have been, as well as what was. Fundamentally, an unbreakable bond was broken. Something I was always told could never happen. Something that contradicted all the laws of nature, family, love, everything. A Father abandoned his sons. He told me he wished I was dead. This wasn't just a broken marriage, it was a completely broken family. He ...