With so much suffering, poverty and exploitation in the world, missionary work must also include reaching out to people whose hearts are closed to receiving immigrants and refugees, Pope Francis told Jesuits in a private meeting in Myanmar, according to transcripts released this week. “Unfortunately, in Europe there are countries that have chosen to close…
SHARE students Caoimhe Corkery, Laura Harrington and Elaine O’Brien pictured at the blessing of the SHARE (Students Harness Aid for the Relief of the Elderly) crib on Daunt Square in Cork. Almost 1,800 fourth and fifth-year students from 21 Cork schools will be on the city centre streets up to and including Christmas Eve to…
The View Martin Mansergh ‘Peace on earth and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled’. These lines from the first verse of the well-known carol ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ reflect the human desire for harmony and reconciliation, and for a breathing-space from life’s battles during the Christmas season and at the close of the old year. It is one of the…
Pro-life groups have as much right to be single-issue as any other group, writes David Quinn Something I have noticed down the years is a constant retort on the part of those who oppose the right to life for the unborn, namely: “Why aren’t you pro-lifers equally concerned about the rights of the born?”…
Pope Francis has written a letter to Argentine Bishops praising them for their documents which outline ways in which priests should apply the teaching of his apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. The Pope was responding to a document by the bishops entitled ‘Basic criteria for the application of chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia’ which details ways…
The Vatican has launched its new multimedia communications website, centralising all of its media operations. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke announced ahead of the beta form launch that vaticannews.va and the accompanying production centre were simply the “first visible and concrete expression” of the unified approach to communications the Pope and his cardinal advisers had requested,…
Pope Francis’ missionary approach echoes that of St Vincent de Paul, Greg Daly learns NUI Galway’s Dr Alison Forrestal hadn’t planned on writing a book to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Vincentian charism’s birth when she started work on St Vincent de Paul. She was simply, she says, “working as a scholar…
Before his big birthday concert this January, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has said he still prays, takes Communion and believes in miracles. In an interview before his star-studded gig at the National Concert Hall (NCH), Mr MacGowan said his mother was a woman of very strong Faith, and that he believes in miracles, saying: “I’ve…
Salesian Fr Thomas Uzhunnalil, who was released from 18-month’s captivity in strife-torn Yemen last September, was awarded the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice. The Harmony Foundation, a volunteer group based in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, honoured the Catholic priest under the theme “compassion without borders”. Suspected Islamic terrorists kidnapped Fr Uzhunnalil, a missionary in Yemen, last…
‘The Little Angel’ in Junior Infants, Guardian Angels’ International School, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. Photo: Anne Collins.
David Quinn
Greg Daly