Peter Costello“Ancient Sweet Donoughmore”: Life in an Irish rural parish to 1900 by Gerard O’Rourke (Redmond Grove Publications, €35.00 including p+p)
Month: December 2016
Reasoned debate suffers amid shifting narratives
Brendan O’ReganIt’s all about The Narrative – you know, the version of a story carefully spun to suit somebody’s agenda, gleefully swallowed by the unthinking and enhanced by a trip to Outrage Factory. And so it was with the symphysiotomy controversy. For the last few years this child birth intervention was seen as ‘barbaric’, ‘torture’ and…
Fidel Castro, the communist leader who received three Popes
Courtney McGrailInés san Martín Fidel Castro, Cuba’s communist leader who died on November 25 at the age of 90, was by far the most dominant figure in Cuba’s one-party state which he ruled with an iron fist for almost five decades before handing over the powers to his brother Raúl in 2008. A hero to the left across the…
A mixed grill of pre-Christmas treats on the big screen
Aubrey MaloneHow can one explain the defeat of Hillary Clinton in the recent American election by a man with so many disgraceful characteristics as Donald Trump unless, as has been suggested, she herself was so passionately disliked by large sectors of the population? One wit suggested Donald Duck could even have beaten her. In the aftermath…
Hoping for ‘Cuba Libre’
Cuban expatriates hoping for a new chapter of freedoms in their country celebrate the death of Fidel Castro in Little Havana, a neighbourhood of Miami, November 26. Castro, who seized power in a 1959 revolution and governed Cuba until 2006, died November 25 at the age of 90. Photo: CNS
Vatican Roundup
More prelates intervene in Amoris Laetitia row The row centred on the Pope’s encyclical on the family, Amoris Laetitia, rumbles on. Following last week’s intervention by four cardinals seeking to question Pope Francis’ knowledge of Church teaching on the family, and the rebuke by the Pontiff and a subsequent invitation from Cardinal Blase Cupich of…
World Youth Day 2019
The theme for World Youth Day 2019 in Panama will be “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38), the Dicastery for Laity, the Family, and Life has announced. This means that World Youth from 2017 will have Mary as a central figure for…
Abortion rate at historic low in the United States
The abortion rate in the US is at its lowest level since before the 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision to broaden access to terminations, latest figures reveal. In its ‘surveillance report’ to the year 2013, the nation’s Centres for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that 47 states have experienced a 20% drop in terminations…
Christians tells of torture and crucifixion at hands of ISIS
More details of the horrendous suffering of Christians at the hands of so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq have been released. World Watch Monitor, which examines anti-Christian persecution worldwide, has reported on cases of torture and crucifixion carried out by members of the terror group. Among testimonies gathered is that of Karlus, a 29-year-old who…
Rwandan Church acknowledges role in 1994 genocide
The Church in Rwanda has apologised for the role some clergy played in the 1994 genocide in that country. In a statement issued by the Rwandan Conference of Catholic Bishops, read out at all parishes, the prelates stated: “We apologise for all the wrongs the Church committed. We apologise on behalf of all Christians for…