Month: February 2016

Sisters deny lodging planning objection

The Mercy Sisters have rejected suggestions that they sought to block the provision of modular homes for homeless people. In The Irish Times in a February 15 article headed ‘Nuns lodge objection to modular housing’ it was reported that the Mercy Sisters were among those who had “lodged objections to the planned provision of 135…

Vocations event a huge success

A ‘come & see’ event to promote vocations to the priesthood in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore “exceeded all expectations”, according to a priest-organiser of the initiative. President of St Patrick’s College in Thurles, Fr Tom Fogarty, said the 19 men that attended the event were “fantastic”. “Their enthusiasm and interest was very obvious…

Speed-dating inspired nuns to open vocations café

The phenomenon of speed-dating was the inspiration behind a new initiative aimed at attracting young women to consider a vocation to religious life. A pop up café, which is being backed by eight religious congregations in conjunction with Vocations Ireland, will open its doors next week to women aged between 20 and 35. ‘The Sisters’…

Radio Maria Ireland technician John Fitzgerald explains the controls of the new Catholic radio station to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who blessed the new station at its launch. Radio Maria Ireland, which is the country’s only Catholic radio station, is an internet and digital audio broadcasting (DAB) station. Photo: John McElroy

Prioritise right to life, voters urged

Voters have been urged to prioritise the right to life of unborn children as they go the polls to elect a new Government next week. Bishop Kevin Doran told The Irish Catholic that the right to life was “the fundamental human right” and insisted the extent to which it is protected “is a measure of…

Responding to the migrant crisis

The long term integration challenge for a new Government is to build on goodwill, writes Eugene Quinn Ireland has long cherished itself as the ‘land of the thousand welcomes’. Yet the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers, refugees and forced migrant tests that principle in practice. In 2015 more than 3,000 people sought asylum in…

A fairer society

Fr Seán Healy General Election 2016 comes at a critical moment for Ireland. Decisions made in the next Dáil will have major impacts on Irish people and shape the future for a considerable time to come. Whether or not the decisions of the next Government produce a just and sustainable future depends on those elected…

Challenge politicians to care for the environment

Fr Donal Dorr Pope Francis, in his encyclical letter on the environment, Laudato Si’, makes a passionate appeal to us to protect the fragile Earth and the poorest of people. He warns us that our call to be protectors of God’s creation “is not an optional or a secondary aspect of Christian faith”. He says…

T.S. Eliot: The years of growth

Young Eliot: From St Louis to The Waste Land by Robert Crawford (Jonathan Cape, €31.50 hb) John Wyse Jackson The two most important early works of modernist literature were published in the same year, 1922: Ulysses, by James Joyce, and The Waste Land, by T S Eliot. Both writers are still widely read and studied, and…