Stephen Bullivant, Author at Catholic Herald

Stephen Bullivant

March 01, 2023

Stephen Bullivant presents evidence that the US is becoming an ex-Christian country, as more people become ‘nonverts’ to no religion. Meet John: a serious, straitlaced, staunch libertarian. Economically and sartorially conservative, he panic-bought his AR-15 rifle in 2016 in fear of a looming Clinton repeal of the Second Amendment. Meet Judy: a proud, practising polyamorous

The long shadow of Covid

November 29, 2021

Stephen Bullivant examines how the pandemic has affected Mass-going in one anonymous diocese

The long shadow of Covid

November 25, 2021

Stephen Bullivant examines how the pandemic has affected Mass-going in one anonymous diocese

Continuing the hunt for a fabled GK Chesterton quote

December 17, 2019

Over two years ago, I published a CH article about trying – and roundly failing – to verify G. K. Chesterton’s famous answer to the question “What’s Wrong with the World?”: Dear sir, I am. Yours, GK Chesterton As the story normally goes, this was his answer to a request from The Times for essays

Exclusive data: How Catholics are likely to vote in the General Election

December 11, 2019

Whether there is still such a thing as “the Catholic vote” in UK elections is a moot point – no parties seem particularly keen to chase it, even if there is. Nevertheless, there are certainly millions of Catholic voters. Overall, self-identified Catholics add up to around 8 or 9 per cent of the population, though

Vatican II was meant to be the laity’s ‘coming of age’. So what went wrong?

May 30, 2019

On October 11 1962, St John XXIII formally opened the Second Vatican Council. Its avowed purpose was, he told the thousands assembled in St Peter’s Basilica, to “really succeed in bringing men, families and nations to the appreciation of supernatural values”. While this would require some “timely changes” to “keep up to date with the

Running the London Marathon while praying the rosary – an apology

April 29, 2019

Six weeks ago, the Catholic Herald published an article of mine, titled ‘Rosaries and marathons are a perfect combination – at least, I hope so’. In the past days, it has come to light that this contained a number of egregious falsehoods and calumnious misrepresentations. I hasten to add that the editors had no way

Rosaries and marathons are a perfect combination – at least, I hope so

March 15, 2019

Several years ago – back when I was, if not precisely in my prime, at least substantially less old, fat, and mentally ill than my current shambolic state – I had the idea of running a marathon. In December. Along Liverpool’s windswept Docks. While praying the rosary non-stop, all the way round. If that sounds

When ‘no change’ changed everything

July 19, 2018

For the philosopher Ralph McInerny, 1968 was “The Year the Church Fell Apart”. For Peter Steinfels, it saw the beginning of “the Vietnam War of the Catholic Church”. These apocalyptic descriptions – there are many more – refer to a single event: Pope Paul’s release on July 25, 1968, 50 years ago this week, of

How Humanae Vitae changed the Church

July 19, 2018

After Paul VI released Humanae Vitae 50 years ago, Catholics split into warring tribes

Spare a thought for seafarers this Sunday

July 06, 2018

This disproportionately Catholic community can go months without any access to the sacraments

A new finding: one in five UK Catholics was born elsewhere

May 10, 2018

Official data also show which immigrant groups are most likely to attend Sunday Mass

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McCarrick Report: Outstanding questions

November 13, 2020

Stephen Bullivant pokes around the edges of what the McCarrick Report mostly … doesn’t. I ended each of my previous two pieces (here and here) with a not-so-subtle trailer to where, in this final instalment, I always expected I’d end up. The Report provides a wealth of detail on the deliberations that led to each

Cold Reading

November 11, 2020

‘For everything there is a time…’, and if the afternoon of Tuesday, November 10th was the turn of ‘warm takes’ on the McCarrick Report, today we turn to the cold, hard ones. As I noted shortly after it dropped, much of the real story in the McCarrick Report will likely emerge from the footnotes. This

Warm Takes on the McCarrick Report

November 10, 2020

The indictment and “trial” of Theodore Edgar “Uncle Ted” McCarrick was in large measure the arraignment of the system in which he thrived for so long. At least it should have been. The postmortem on his ecclesiastical career is – or ought to be – a vivisection of the careers of many others. Hence it is no surprise