Today’s Catholic News podcast looks at palliative care, social care and what needs to be ‘fixed’ – as Prime Minister Andy Burnham puts it. Our guest is Dr Karen Groves MBE, a highly experienced palliative care consultant who founded Queenscourt Hospice in Southport in 1991. Hospices lie at the heart of our communities and provide vital services to those nearing the end of their lives. However, most hospices have to fundraise for eye-watering sums of money just to keep their doors open. Dr Groves talks to us about what it takes to deliver gold standard end-of-life care, the existential challenges and […]

Nurturing one’s marriage is not a seasonal endeavour. Hard work and commitment are needed on a daily basis to keep the ship sailing straight. Summer, however, presents the opportunity to take a little time off for rest and recouperation – family time when, for a few precious weeks, we can hit the reset button after the rigours of the first six months of the year. For married couples, it’s a chance to spend some quality time together and to take a break from the demands of work or, if blessed with children, the endless school runs and education-based drama. For this […]

Day for Life, the day in the Church’s calendar when we come together to celebrate the gift of life from conception to natural death, falls on Sunday, 21 June 2026. The theme is The Wonder of the Child in the Womb. Archbishop John Sherrington, Archbishop of Liverpool, is the Lead Bishop for Life Issues for the Bishops’ Conference. He spoke to us for this Catholic News podcast to explain the importance of the day, the theme and how it extends to the tragedy of baby loss, and tells us how we can all play our part to uphold the beauty and […]

The World Day for Social Communications is marked on Sunday, 17 May. This year, Pope Leo’s message examines how we need to preserve our God-given human dignity and show wisdom and good judgment in our use of fast-evolving communications technologies – particularly AI. This is a theme we discuss on this Catholic News podcast with the ‘media bishop’ for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Bishop John Arnold. As Bishop of Salford, Bishop Arnold is a stone’s throw from Media City and regularly comments on the issues of the day from a Catholic perspective. Today we talk about the opportunities […]

A peace vigil was held in London on Thursday, 30 April, at Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church in Kensington to pray for peace in the Middle East. The vigil was attended by Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the Bishops’ Conference as well as Bishop Mike Royal, General Secretary of Churches Together in England, and His Grace Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Great Britain and Ireland and Churches Together in England’s President for the Orthodox Churches. During the service, an address was given by Dr Harry Hagopian, a public international […]

It’s Holy Week for the world’s 2.4 billion Christians. As such, it’s a great time for us to meditate on how sacred music and sacred art accompany us on the road to Calvary to the foot of Christ’s Cross and beyond. The life, Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus have provided rich and provoking subject matter for composers and artists for many hundreds of years, so for this joint Catholic News/Art of Dying Well podcast we’re joined by priest and art afficionado Father Patrick van der Vorst. Where do we start with the ebullient Fr Patrick? Three years a priest, […]

When Bishop Jim Curry, our Lead Bishop for the Holy Land, and Dr Harry Hagopian, our former consultant on the Middle East North Africa region, last offered their thoughts on a podcast together, it was to contribute to the final episode of ‘Middle East Analysis’. Just as we were lamenting the fact that the series had been placed on hold to consider its long-term future, something cataclysmic and literally earth-shattering took place that shook us from our self-imposed slumber to record a ‘special’ on the war in Iran and its wider regional consequences. We share this today on our ‘Catholic […]

For this ‘Catholic News’ podcast we’ve pulled a segment from our Lenten episode of ‘At the Foot of the Cross’. Fleur Dorrell, our Biblical Apostolate Manager, provides a very useful 15-minute whistle-stop tour of the Bible. We’re encouraging our listeners to deepen their relationship with Christ through Scripture during Lent. As well as talking about the books of the Bible, Fleur offers some achievable top tips to help us go deeper into Scripture as we journey towards Holy Week. Subscribe You can subscribe to our Catholic News podcasts via Apple Podcasts or Amazon/Audible.

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Wasn’t that what REM once sang? Ironically when the famous rock band from Athens, Georgia committed those lyrics to popular music folklore, the world made more sense. Today, after 17 years and many laughs, smiles, tears (and the odd exasperated outburst), Dr Harry Hagopian brings the curtain down on a remarkable podcasting run with this, the final Middle East Analysis. The epitaph reads: Here lies Middle East Analysis, 2009 to 2026, it lived hard, loved dearly and asks for your prayers as it returns to its maker. Something like that. […]

In today’s Catholic News podcast, we are joined by His Eminence Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The Cardinal has been visiting the UK this week with Missio, the Pope’s charity for world mission. Cardinal Marengo has served as a missionary priest in Mongolia since 2003. He has been the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, a missionary jurisdiction that covers the entire country of Mongolia, since 2 April 2020, and was created a Cardinal by Pope Francis on 27 August 2022 – making him the second youngest in the College of Cardinals. In this episode, Cardinal Marengo tells us […]