Flashes
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Bizarre religion
The Taliban ban on women praying aloud sparks a harder question about the bizarre rules quietly embedded in every faith, including one’s own.
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The Church and the Census
Cultural Catholics still shape church funding and influence: Behind the Census lies a quiet contest over funding, identity and influence.
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What if the Algorithm wears a Mitre?
A non-clericalist model is essential if the church hopes to keep the passion and creativity of lay believers.
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Kneelers to circles: Berlin reimagines the liturgy
“Recent editions of Flashes have discussed the virtues of standing rather than kneeling during the liturgy. We’ve had ‘Restoring kneelers!’ (23 June), ‘When kneeling divides rather than unites’ (30 June), and ‘Standing to pray: sign of a priestly people’ (7 July). The authors all want us to stand before God.”
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The priest shortage
Empty churches and vanishing clergy reveal a deeper collapse the Church has brought upon itself.
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The point of Rome
King Charles walked into Congress amid dread and left having threaded a needle. Pope Leo’s doing something similar from Rome.
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Let this silencing law finally die
Some laws aren’t broken so much as expired — kept alive past the purpose they were built to serve, and past their welcome.
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The miracle we keep missing
Tired parents, difficult coworkers doubt and gossip can become places where holiness fits comfortably inside ordinary, unglamorous human circumstances rather than grand spectacle.
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Quick thinking, slow witted
Dictators and demagogues understand a basic human weakness — our preference for neat, simple explanations over messy, complicated realities.
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Holiness is wholeness for modern life
Inner character and outward commitments like solidarity, the common good and care for creation work together, not separately.
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