Rachel Kelly, Author at Catholic Herald

Rachel Kelly

January 09, 2020

It’s a new year, and we are told by the media that it is time for a New You. Someone who is better, wiser and – most insistently – thinner. Publishers traditionally pump out January diet books urging self-restraint after the season of mince pies and merrymaking. But this time I am not mournfully spearing

If it’s good enough for Francis …

September 14, 2017

Like many Catholics who have had therapy, I was riveted to learn that Pope Francis had sought the help of a psychoanalyst for six months when he was 42. He made the disclosure in a book based on 12 in-depth interviews with the sociologist Dominique Wolton, just published in France. “For six months, I went

Catholic grandparents come of age

July 27, 2017

This September, more than 12,000 grandmothers and grandfathers are expected to gather in the tiny village of Knock in County Mayo. They will be there thanks to the efforts of Catherine Wiley, the founder of the Catholic Grandparents Association. Wiley is an unlikely granny. In person, she is so stylish, youthful and energetic that at

‘There’s a culture of fear in England today’

June 22, 2017

When I spoke to Jean Vanier recently, I felt blessed. By chance, I was due to interview Vanier, whom many consider a living saint for his work with those with learning disabilities at the L’Arche community he founded in northern France, on the day after one of Britain’s worst tragedies. Hours before our chat, an

Why grieving is good for you

June 08, 2017

When Prince Harry recently spoke about his own mental health in the wake of his mother’s death, I wondered if the therapist and writer Julia Samuel had been a major influence on him, and therefore the nation. She was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, and in 2013 she was asked to be

‘We can heal these wounds’

March 30, 2017

It’s rather intimidating to interview someone who is a master of the art himself, and who has just published a brilliant new biography of the theological firebrand Martin Luther. Yet when I meet the journalist, broadcaster and writer Peter Stanford for a cup of coffee to discuss his Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident, my impression is

‘I’m not just a glam woman in showbiz’

March 09, 2017

At the end of Patti Boulaye’s autobiography, at the bottom of page 352, the sharp-sighted will spot some mysterious initials. After the final sentence – “For you, who have just read my story, I pray that all your prayers will be answered” – you will find the initials TTGOG. “They stand for ‘Thank The Glory

Eating your way to happiness

February 09, 2017

Carmine Pariante may be the most important scientist you’ve never heard of. He is a professor of biological psychiatry at King’s College, London, as well as being warm, charming, Catholic by upbringing and an Italian originally from Naples. For the past decade, his research has been at the cutting edge of the science of happiness.

Into battle on the home front

November 17, 2016

You can take the soldier out of the Army, but you can’t take the Army out of a former serviceman… Meeting Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling, and a former lieutenant colonel who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, is quite the military operation. As I follow his PA through the labyrinthine passages leading to

‘We’ve got a hugely long way to go’

June 02, 2016

It doesn’t surprise me to learn that Baroness Hollins was head girl of her Yorkshire Catholic girls’ school. She has gone on to be head girl in numerous fields – a professor of psychiatry at St George’s, University of London, a president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a president of the British Medical Association,

Helping Domenica to shine

February 18, 2016

When Rosa Monckton gave birth to her daughter Domenica, one of the first to pay a call was the late Princess of Wales. Given the two had long been friends, the visit was unexceptional. But what did surprise Monckton was the princess’s announcement that she would like to be Domenica’s godmother. “It was very much

Rosa Monckton: ‘I’m determined to be a voice for the disabled’

February 18, 2016

Rosa Monckton, whose daughter has Down’s syndrome, has launched a charity to help those with mental disabilities into work

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