Society needs to plan for the reality of longer life expectancies and an active older population, writes Catherine McCann We age from the day we are born. Yet when the word ‘ageing’ is used, people assume it refers to the older years. What in fact are the older years? Those who are considered old…
The Kilderry Files a novel by Maurice Manning (Currach Press, €14.99) This novel is set in the pre-and post-Vatican II period. An elderly Irish bishop dies and his successor discovers in his papers US stocks and shares worth millions of dollars. Wishing to dispose of these without questions being asked as to their source,…
Even as their numbers continue to decline in most jurisdictions, nuns, as in cloistered contemplatives, and religious sisters in the active congregations, continue to attract, bemuse, fascinate, confound and even repel observers from both within and outside the Catholic orbit. Various documentaries on the ‘religious’ calling of women by the BBC and other networks, the…
Vatican Roundup Pastors who preach one thing and do another are wounded and harm the Church, Pope Francis said. Like the scribes and Pharisees of old, pastors end up leading a double life when they detach themselves from God and his people, the Pope said during morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “Jesus…
Kilkenny church is a major attraction Would-be historians in the family aren’t the only ones likely to be thrilled by a visit to the former St Mary’s Church in Kilkenny. Now the ultra-modern Medieval Mile Museum, the 13th-Century former church is Kilkenney’s newest visitor attraction, packed with medieval artefacts and treasures, and the starting point…
In Short Five college students from the Diocese of Meath have commended a leadership summit in Chicago saying it was “a really positive experience” after joining over 8,000 people at the event. The Student Leadership Summit was organised by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). FOCUS is an outreach that helps college and…
In Short An Australian native pronounced his first solemn vows as a Benedictine monk in Meath, and was reminded during the homily why he left his native home to become a monk. Dom Mark Kirby OSM, Conventual Prior, asked Bro. Cassian Maria Aylward: “Why did you leave your father and your mother, and your…
El Salvador: Deportees get off a bus at an immigration facility in San Salvador after a flight arrived with immigrants who had been in the US without documents (Photo: CNS).
Ken Gibson tells Colm Fitzpatrick about the myths surrounding leprosy An Irish-born charity is working globally to try and make one of the world’s oldest diseases a thing of the past. Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, often evokes imagery of contamination and bodily disfigurement but the reality of the ailment is very different…
As I predicted in this newspaper some time ago, Fine Gael is increasingly trying to frame the debate around legalising abortion in all circumstances up to 12-weeks as a moderate position. The reality, of course, is that there is nothing moderate about the state-sanctioned killing of children – whatever the Taoiseach’s spin doctors try to…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Michael Kelly