We are social beings and interacting with others is crucial to our functioning and mental health. The loss of active family connections and any sense of community, inevitably lead to depression so the question is how do we bring socialisng back into these people's lives and can a sense of community actually be established?
I, for one, am quite excited about the new Pope. It is easy to raise questions about his age - he is only 10 years younger than Ratzinger - but there are signs that there is something to like for everyone. For one, he marks the end of a long period of European dominance: it is sometimes hard to remember that half of the early Popes were from the Middle East and Africa.
Call it first day nerves, but the Pope stumbled into his new roll in near dramatic fashion. As he got off his elaborate seat after the beginning of...
It's a relief to be able to call him Joseph. And it will be a relief once he's treated just like any other Joseph. It's been said before and it will be said again: there's a Ratzinger-sized space in Rome's nearest prison cell just waiting to be filled. The former Bishop of Rome should soon become the Inmate of Rome.
The university's feminist society labelled the decision "hugely discriminatory, deeply offensive and sexist to women"; no argument from me there, but just apply this quote to religion in general, whose history is mired in inescapably revolting attitudes towards women, and you need not change the phraseology.
Exploring the question of religion's role in contemporary conflicts is not an end in itself. Rather it leads on to the question of how the different faiths can disagree constructively, and how interfaith dialogue can refine understanding of our disagreements - as well as building on our human commonalities for the Common Good. Answering that question would deserve a Nobel Prize.