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Military conflict and the destruction of the environment

As we move towards the end of the Season of Creation, I would like to ask Catholics in England and Wales to intensify their focus on the Holy Father’s theme “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4). In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Leo asked us to work unremittingly for peace and to end the cycle of violence that destroys our common home. I commend his message to all of you.

Is Polycentricity the Solution to Regulating AI?

In the discussion about Magnifica humanitas a great deal of concern is expressed about the concentration of power in a small number of companies.

Reparation for sins against life and the need to speak truth to power

This post is the homily by Bishop Peter Collins on the memoria of St. Alphonsus Liguori at the Catholic national shrine and basilica of Our Lady, Walsingham on the occasion of the 42^nd pilgrimage of reparation and prayer for the sanctity of life, August 1^st 2026.

Magnifica Humanitas – Disarming Artificial Intelligence

A couple of days before Magnifica Humanitas was published by Pope Leo XIV, the Australian musician and comedian Tim Minchin was interviewed on the radio about artificial intelligence (AI) at the Hay Festival. He spoke with great clarity about how the problem with AI is the lack of any proper idea of intention, and he called for people to be ‘belligerent’ in their reactions to it. At the press conference which launched the encyclical, the Holy Father stressed his call in the text to ‘disarm AI’; while much of what Minchin said chimes with the pope’s insights, the different use of military language is striking.

The Catholic Church and rearmament

On Thursday 14 May, Ascension Day in some countries, Pope Leo XIV visited one of the largest universities in Europe, La Sapienza in Rome. In a wide-ranging address [1] which drew on the restlessness of St Augustine as a young man, at one point the Holy Father said:

Taxation, government debt, and the family

Render unto Caesar was published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales in 2025. In this third of three blog posts from the contributors to an event on the publication, Philip Booth writes about taxation, government debt and the family.

Undemocratic filibustering or proper scrutiny? The death of the Terminally Ill Bill.

The Terminally Ill bill has run out of time in the House of Lords. Disappointed advocates of the bill to allow assisted suicide claim that the obstructive tactic of filibustering, mainly by a cohort of seven peers, caused the bill to fail. They point to the fact that the Commons voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Bill at its Third Reading by 314 to 291, a narrow majority of 23, and that the House of Lords, as an unelected body, has acted undemocratically in not following the lead of the Commons.

Catholic social teaching, taxation and generosity

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales recently published a document on taxation called Render unto Caesar. There is relatively little Catholic teaching that is specifically on taxation. Catholics apply principles such as the universal destination of goods, the right to property and the primacy of the family to try to develop practical approaches to taxation in the wide variety of specific circumstances in which they find themselves. Unsurprisingly, they disagree.

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Introduction