What's it all about? A flier that Armen Gakavian sent us advertising the National Interfaith Festival in March, and a new video that Milly posted information about on our discussion forum, sparked much discussion in this forum and in other places. Here's the email where it started. [more]

The moral issues surrounding the death penalty For his first contribution for 2007, Peregrinus, begins a two-part exploration of the moral issues surrounding the death penalty. In particular he examines how Church teaching has been developed and refined with the publication of Pope John Paul II's encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, in 1995. [more]

Does demographic shift alone offer hope? In his cover story for NCR this week, John L Allen argues the ageing of the population and other demographic shifts offer some hope for institutionalised religion. In this commentary Brian Coyne seeks to draw attention to the important information Allen is bringing to public attention but Coyne urges some caution that demographic shift alone offers hope for institutional religion. [more]

Finding some unexpected answers in a Google search... Over the holiday break Brian Coyne was doing some technical research for Catholica. He came upon some unexpected answers and insights reading David A. Vise's book, The Google Story, which provides a fascinating overview of the Google corporate and technological phenomenon. [more]

Finding the meaning in the literary and movie classic Ben Hur... In this commentary Dr Andrew Thomas Kania has gone delving into the literary and movie classic, Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ to extract the timeless essence of the story — finding Christ in the least of our brothers and sisters. [more]