The Wise and the Wherefores

Christopher Lamb, the Tablet’s Rome Correspondent, updates us on current events in Rome together with giving us some insights into working as the Rome Correspondent for The Tablet and covering the pontificate of Pope Francis.

A panel discussion in conjunction with The University of Notre Dame in Australia, on Christ-Centred Leadership Frameworks in Catholic Education led by Maggie Fergusson, the Literary Editor of The Tablet. Maggie’s distinguished guests were: Renee Kohler-Ryan, National Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia; Jenny Sinclair, the founder director of Tog...

Synod Watch Two explores Synod wisdom from the Religious, gaining an insight into the Religious Orders’ response to the Synod and their experience of discernment. Christopher Lamb and a panel of representatives from the Religious Orders discuss the synodal journey in this webinar with The Tablet. Details of past and future events are here . Webinar host Christopher Lamb is a British journalist who...

Natalie K. Watson, Publishing Editor of the Pastoral Review, in conversation with Seán McDonagh, eco-theologian and author of Robots, Ethics and the Future of Jobs , about the ethical and theological implications of Artificial Intelligence.  Seán McDonagh SSC is an Irish Columban missionary priest. As well as theology he has studied Anthropology and Linguistics. During his time as a missionar...

This episode of The Church's Radical Reform is an interview with Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras and a member of Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisers. The Church in Latin and Central America has been at the forefront of reform in Catholicism. Cardinal Maradiaga tells Christopher Lamb how the synodal process is something “totally new”. He discusses...

The Catholic Church has embarked on a two-year synodal pathway towards the Synod of Bishops on synodality in 2023. Women’s submissions to the synodal process must be made “as public as possible” in order to prevent any attempt to airbrush them out, theologian and broadcaster, Professor Tina Beattie said at a webinar hosted by the Tablet. The retired Professor of Catholic Studies at the University...

The synod process is opening up discussion about the role of female leadership in the Church. In this episode, Christopher Lamb discusses what shape these roles could take, the position of women in early Christianity and why a “synodal” Church is a more inclusive one. To find out more, he speaks to Professor Phyllis Zagano, who served on Pope Francis’ commission looking at female deacons, Nicola B...

In a new podcast series on synodality, “The Church’s Radical Reform”, Christopher Lamb explores the most ambitious Catholic renewal project in 60 years which was launched last month by Pope Francis. Episode One asks "What is a Synod?" and focuses on why a global synodal process is needed, what it might achieve and the opposition it is already facing. Among those interviewed for this episode a...

A sermon for the first Sunday in Advent 2021 by Fr Alban McCoy OFM Conv.

We talk to Kashaf Zahid of Gumley House School in West London, the winner of the 2021 Columban Schools Competition , Let’s create a world without racism , and to James Trewby, Columban Education Worker in Britain. Racism was chosen as a topic by the Columbans for its 2021 competition after many young people joined street protests on Black Lives Matter last summer. The fourth annual competition, it...

“For me, to live is Christ”, says St Paul. That’s where we find ultimate meaning, where everything in our lives comes together. Lent 3 [A & B]2021. The Samaritan Woman at the Well (alternative gospel). John 4:5-42. A sermon by Fr Alban McCoy OFM Conv.

Catherine Pepinster, author of ‘Martyrdom’ and former editor of The Tablet, on the World Watch List 2021, which finds that more than 340 million Christians worldwide suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.

Austen Ivereigh worked closely with Pope Francis on his new book, Let Us Dream. Here he discusses some of the ideas explored by Pope Francis, and where he believes it will lead.

Catherine Pepinster, the well-known author, broadcaster and commentator and former editor of The Tablet, discusses the Catholic Church’s terrible record on abuse in the light of the report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

The McCarrick report is a damning indictment of the Catholic Church’s response to allegations of abuse against one of its most senior clerics. What went wrong, and why? Can the Church change in the way that it needs to?

From ornate neo-Gothic splendour to cool, aesthetic modern churches ‘in the round’, from grand cathedrals to tiny chapels, Elena Curti talks us through the beauty of Catholic churches both ordinary and extraordinary.

The Catholic Church and Jewish community leaders have recently marked the 55th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council document on relations between the Church and non-Christian religions. At the same time, a disturbing report into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party has been published. The Equality and Human Rights Commission found the party responsible for 'unlawful acts of harass...

Fr Damian Howard SJ, provincial of Jesuits in Britain, on the imprisonment of Fr Stan Swamy SJ in India, and on what you can do to help. For a link to the petition visit The Tablet podcasts page .

Pope Francis has given his backing to civil unions in a new documentary, Francesco, premiered in Rome. What does this mean, and why is it so controversial? The Tablet’s Rome corespondent Christopher Lamb explains.

Christine Allen, director of CAFOD, talks about how we can take some of the teaching in the Pope’s new encyclical Fratelli Tutti to help us be better neighbours, at a time when we are all challenged by the coronavirus pandemic.

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...

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...

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 in...