I’m not a fan of reality TV shows, though a few years ago I saw some that had depth – where thoughtful adults went to a monastery, convent or retreat house for some time out or spiritual advancement. The latest manifestation of the sub-genre, Bad Habits, Holy Orders on Channel 5 (UK), started last…
Luther and the Tudors have been perennial subjects for the screen, writes Aubrey Malone The first film made about The Reformation was a 1928 silent one called Luther, directed by Hans Kyser. It was a short account of Martin Luther’s life with an American voiceover. Four years later Charles Laughton won an Oscar for…
Prayers are becoming words without meaning Dear Editor, It is always sad, and even a bit disturbing when, as a couple stand before the altar, there is no obvious passion in that moment when the vows of marriage are pronounced. In a similar way, I am constantly disappointed at the way the Our Father is…
Breathe (12A) The ‘jolly hockeysticks’ depiction of England that we’ve seen in films like Notting Hill gets a retro airing in this grace-under-pressure tale of a man afflicted with polio. He was the longest living ‘responaut’, i.e. a person depending on a machine to breathe. The main problem with the film from an ethical point of…
Fr Conor McDonough ‘Post tenebras lux’ (‘Light after the darkness’), the motto of Calvin’s Geneva, is proposed by some as a summary of the Reformation. After the darkness of the Middle Ages, the previously hidden light of the Word of God is unleashed by Luther and his followers who come armed with vernacular Bibles,…
In this week’s issue of The Irish Catholic, Sacred Heart Missionary Fr Vincent Screene explains why returning to Venezuela is so important to him
The Irish Church has done little to counter the dramatic negative effects of secularism on younger Catholics’ understanding of their faith, Baroness Nuala O’Loan has said. She warned that people who have been preparing children for First Holy Communion and Confirmation “have been aware for quite a while that the wider cultural shift away from…
Pope Francis has convened a special synod meeting of bishops for 2019 that will address issues facing the Church in what’s known as the Pan-Amazon region of South America. The meeting will look at Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Surinam. Francis announced the move at the weekend and said the…
The repeated failure to publish annual clerical changes is having the effect of hiding how the Archdiocese of Dublin is struggling with serious manpower shortages, clergy have said. 2017 will be the second successive year when diocesan changes have not been made public, concealing the extent to which sick and retiring clergy are not being…
A parliamentary committee to consider Ireland’s constitutional protections for unborn children appears to be a pro-abortion “propaganda exercise”, two committee members who are considering stepping down have said. Highlighting how among the ‘expert witnesses’ addressing the committee was the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, which has been fundraising in the US to overturn Ireland’s…
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone
Chai Brady
Michael Kelly
Greg Daly