Senior Vatican officials will hear first hand of the experiences of Irish abuse victims at a major conference in Rome next week aimed at extending better Church guidelines worldwide to ensure abuse allegations are handled properly. Marie Collins, who was abused by Dublin priest Fr Paul McGennis, was one of the first people to come…
Professor William Reville examines two truths that do not contradict The biggest rift between Christians who interpret the Bible exclusively in literal terms (creationists) and science relates to clashing explanations of the origin of the world and the origin of life. These origins are described in the Book of Genesis as acts of creation…
Family activities Anne O’Connell This year, people have been slower to begin a bird-feeding routine because of the relatively mild weather. Watching birds’ antics through the window in cold weather can be wonderfully entertaining for children. All you need is a simple feeding station. Robins and blackbirds find it difficult to hang on to…
Health Matters Dr Andrea Fitzgerald These days, almost everyone owns a mobile phone. It is increasingly common even for young children to have their own mobile phone. Ever since their advent, there have been public fears about their safety, especially in relation to cancer risk. Concerns about mobile phone health risks are particularly acute…
Dad’s Diary It was a glorious, blue-sky morning just before Christmas. The calm, half-empty train pulled out of London’s Waterloo Station. I had just finished work for the year and the cosy joys of the festive season sparkled ahead. One of the things I was especially looking forward to was taking my two-year-old boy…
The Earth is currently hurtling through space at about 67,000 miles per hour; its orbit beginning to tilt Ireland closer to the giant fireball the planet is currently spinning around. This year, Americans will choose who gets the next go at being the most powerful man in the world. This year, the Arab spring…
The silence of bystanders in the face of bullying reinforces the behaviour, writes Terri Ryan The word bully triggers images of a robust bully or bullies who use dominance on someone who has become submissive and defenceless to stand up to them. You feel sad for the victim, which quickly deepens to concern.…
Haywire (15) ‘Oh you shouldn’t think of her as being a woman. That would be a mistake.” So says double agent Ewan McGregor to Michael Fassbender about Gina Carano in this amusing spy caper that has the beautiful Carano (a mysterious government operative hired out for unauthorised assignments) gallivanting around the globe on…
In her novel, Final Payments, Mary Gordon articulates an equation that has long influenced Christian spirituality, both for good and for bad. Her heroine, Isabel, is a young woman within whom a strong Catholic background, an overly-strict father, and a natural depth of soul conspire together to leave her overly-reticent and overly-reflective, looking at life…
Fr Michael Collins Among the greatest of J.S. Bach’s choral works stands out the Christmas Oratorio, a collection of six individual cantatas. Each was composed for a particular day of the Christmas season, concluding with the Feast of the Epiphany. Bach used a libretto by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known by his nickname Picander,…
William Reville
Ben Conroy
Aubrey Malone
Fr Ronald Rolheiser