Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Penguin Ireland, €16) Peter Hegarty In a congenial, fascinating book neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blackmore explores the wondrous malleability of the human brain. The brain is continually changing and adapting. If I took up juggling, the part of my brain that co-ordinates the movement of my…
On the feast day of St Macartan a special liturgy was celebrated in Clogher parish and the petitions placed by thousands of families in various parishes over recent months were entrusted to the five religious orders in the diocese. The focus was on families and the forthcoming World Meeting of Families (WMOF) to be held…
Brenda Drumm World Meeting of Families 2018 The Amoris: Let’s Talk Family! Let’s Be Family programme is well underway now in parishes. The six different parish conversations are designed to invite people to reflect on The Joy of Love, the document Pope Francis prepared after a worldwide consultation and the two synods on the…
The Society of St Vincent de Paul has announced it will not be taking a stance in the upcoming referendum on abortion, and will not be issuing any advice to its members on what choice to make on polling day. Contacted by The Irish Catholic this week the Church-founded organisation said in a statement that…
Grieving people gathered at a hockey arena in Canada for an interfaith service to mourn 15 people who died after the bus carrying the town’s junior hockey team collided with a truck. “I don’t want to be here, but it’s good that we are,” said the Rev. Sean Brandow, the Humboldt Broncos team chaplain and…
When an apparently innocuous teaching document comes out of Rome – and a Pope calling us to holiness fits that description better than most – it’s always important on the Vatican beat to ask: why this, and why now? When you apply the context lens, two recent events help answer that question. One was yesterday: Amoris…
Belief in God today is often seen as a naiveté. For many, believing in God is like believing in Santa and the Easter Bunny – nice, something for the kids, a warm nostalgia or a bitter memory but not something that’s real, that stands up to hard scrutiny and indeed stands up to the dark…
The new apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis Gaudete et Exsultate (rejoice and be glad) was published this week. Here we offer bitesize extracts from the 22,000-word document CHAPTER ONE : THE CALL TO HOLINESS THE SAINTS WHO ENCOURAGE AND ACCOMPANY US The saints now in God’s presence preserve their bonds of love and communion…
Personal Profile Faith can help fight addiction, writes Colm Fitzpatrick Alcohol continues to remain an important part of our Irish society, whether it be advertised on television, used during celebrations, or simply drank to relax, but many people are also prone to over-consumption. In the hope of combating alcohol addiction, Matt Boylan, the National…
An Irish Presentation Sister is the subject of a documentary – Sister India – produced by Irish film-maker, Myles O’Reilly. Sr Loreto, born Peg Houlihan near Carrick-on-Suir in Co. Tipperary in 1927, has spent 70 years teaching in India where she recently celebrated her 91st birthday. The film is currently being screened at a number…
Chai Brady
Austen Ivereigh
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Colm Fitzpatrick