Derry: Winners of the John Paul II award students from St Patrick’s College had a busy week preparing their St Vincent de Paul hampers to be distributed this Christmas.
Out & About
Month: December 2017
Homeless housed this Christmas
The national housing and homeless charity, Peter McVerry Trust, has announced that it will deliver emergency accommodation for 100 single people as well as 24 families in Dublin before Christmas. Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, said the charity was doing everything it could to provide high quality emergency shelter to those in need. “Our…
The weary world rejoices: nativity scenes bring joy to hardened hearts
The nativity scene in St Peter’s Square is not getting rave reviews: the backdrop does not look like a stable and the characters in need – hungry, naked, dead, imprisoned – don’t exactly evoke a silent night when all was cozy, calm and bright. Franciscan Fr John Puodziunas said he didn’t like it at first.…
Out of our comfort zone, welcoming light bearers
The Notebook One of the things I would love to be able to experience is to stand in the inner chamber at Newgrange on the morning of December 21, the Winter solstice. Imagine standing in absolute darkness and then be astonished as the sunlight finds its way through the channel above the entrance into…
2017 on the Big Screen
Aubrey Malone
The year had hardly begun when Martin Scorsese blitzed us with Silence, his epic tale of a pair of Jesuits enduring horrendous suffering in 17th-Century Japan. It got a critical mauling for its longueurs but if you stayed with it, as is the case with most Scorsese films, it was well worth it. Most of…
Christmas in the Cloister
Susan Gately
Christmas in the Redemptoristine monastery in Dublin is a thing of joy. “It’s a huge event in the community,” Sr Lucy, Superior at the monastery tells me and I can feel the sheer happiness oozing from her. “We are like an extended family, though only God could have put us together. It is a beautiful…
Time to ask what God expects of us
Nuala O’Loan
Last week the Irish Catholic reported on the challenge by the former Abbot of Glenstal, Dom Mark Patrick Hedermann, to the negativity of the ACP. It also said that the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, was reported in the New York Times to have said that, “I could spend all my time being concerned…
Plea for parishioners to look out for elderly neighbours as cold weather bites
Greg Daly
Parishes have been urged to look out for the elderly and vulnerable during the cold spell, and use Church structures to boost rural solidarity. Raphoe’s Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ called on people coming to Christmas services to think of their neighbours and perhaps offer them a lift to Mass during poor weather, telling The Irish Catholic:…
A week in Kenya challenges Western view of the Church
John L. Allen Jr.
As a broad generalisation, it’s probably accurate to say that on-the-ground experience of the developing world often issues a fairly stiff challenge to the way Americans think about things, including the Catholic Church. Think Catholicism is in decline? Visit much of Africa and parts of Asia, where the biggest headache is keeping pace with breakaway…
Sleeping out under the stars for the needy
Fr Michael Kelleher CSsr with a volunteer during a 24-hour SleepOut in Limerick to raise awareness of food poverty in the city and to raise funds for the Redemptorist Christmas Hamper Appeal, which last year saw over 7,000 hampers distributed to needy individuals and families by the Redemptorists in partnership with the Society of St…