Mags GarganThe Hospitaller Order of St John of God held a concert in Dublin in memory of the four brothers and 14 co-workers who died from the Ebola virus in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The evening of music celebrated their lives given in service, compassion and hospitality. The concert was directed by Sr Marie Dunne and…
Month: December 2014
Request for information on anti-communism
Courtney McGrailDear Editor, I am an Irish Research Council-funded PhD student in NUI Galway, in my second year. My PhD topic is ‘Irish Catholic Anti-Communism in the era of John Charles McQuaid, 1940-1971’. I have already contacted the various diocesan archives and a number of archives held by Catholic Action organisations and religious orders regarding archival…
Bishops have failed to teach the Catholic Faith
Dear Editor, Archbishop Michael Neary’s sermon (IC 13/11/2014) that we are seeing the death rattle of the Church in Ireland is incorrect. The Church is the Body of Christ and so will never die. His sermon is one of despair, and despair comes from Satan. Our bishops as successors of the apostles are our teachers…
Limit priestless Communion services, bishops are urged
Cathal BarryWeekday Communion services in the absence of Mass should be discouraged
Ireland is no longer a Catholic country
Dear Editor, Archbishop Michael Neary has been the subject of some unwarranted criticism regarding his homily to the Association of Papal Orders in Ireland (IC 13/11/2014). He spoke not of the death rattle of Catholicism or of Christianity in Ireland, but the death rattle of Christendom in Ireland. The end of that “shared set of…
Religious education in schools worked
Dear Editor, Politicians that suggest schools are not appropriate places for teaching religious education are not worthy of their positions. To maintain more time be spent on science, maths and languages, just to respond to economic demand, at the expense of their spiritual needs, is a very naïve mode of thought. Between the age of…
An unholy, cynical state of affairs in Sri Lanka
Paul KeenanThe forthcoming papal visit might be hijacked for political ends, writes Paul Keenan
Women in the firing line
John L. Allen Jr.A long-awaited Vatican report on women’s religious life in the United States is set for release on December 16 by the Vatican, writes John Allen
Dublin choir to perform Christmas Oratorio
For the past few weeks, the choir room at the Church of Pope St Pius X has been reverberating with some 60 voices, with rehearsals in full swing for the upcoming performance of the entire Christmas Oratorio by Bach on Sunday, December 21. The Jubilate Choir was founded in 2010 and its inaugural performance was Bach’s…
Veritas donates nativity set to special school
Veritas, the religious bookshop and publisher of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, has donated a large nativity set to St Raphael’s Special School in Celbridge, Co. Kildare. Since 1963, the school has catered for pupils aged 5 to 18 years with moderate, severe and profound intellectual disability, and for pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Kathy Waldron,…