With the new series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here hitting TV screens Sunday last, most viewers expected to see spiders, snakes and cockroaches, but not someone praying the Rosary. This week, Anne Hegerty [pictured], who shot to fame as a Chaser in the ITV game show The Chase, was seen praying the…
The Philippines’ bishops’ conference has announced it will dedicate 2019 as the ‘Year of the Youth’. The year-long celebration which will start on the first Sunday of Advent on December 2, will carry the theme ‘Filipino Youth in Mission: Beloved, Gifted, Empowered’. Its observance, which the bishops described as part of the “nine-year journey for New…
Lonely Mystic: A new portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen by Michael Ford (Paulist Press, $16.95 / £12.99) Anthony Redmond What is the reason for the enduring appeal of Henri Nouwen? This Dutch Catholic priest and celebrated spiritual writer died in 1996 at the age of 64. His appeal, for me, is his vulnerability, openness, sensitivity and…
The kids had ‘World War I day’ in school last week, to mark the centenary of the armistice of 1918. The teachers arrived in Edwardian costume, and the kids were dressed in old-fashioned clothes, or dressed as nurses or soldiers. Most of the boys came dressed as soldiers and, inevitably, some shooting games ensued. The…
A sense of history is needed to talk sensibly about God, a leading ecumenist tells Martin O’Brien Dr Johnston McMaster, ecumenist intellectual, teacher and advocate of “public theology”, author and Methodist minister, one-time youngest soccer player in the Irish League at 15, chooses his words carefully but there’s no mistaking his disappointment at where…
Labour leader Brendan Howlin has vowed to keep up pressure on the Government to grant asylum to persecuted Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi and her family. Mrs Bibi is being held at a secret location in Pakistan after she was freed from prison when her conviction for blasphemy was overturned and she was spared the death…
The World of Books by the books editor During the Presidential election a native minority found themselves the focus of unwelcome attention. I was surprised at quite how confused many people, city dwellers for the most part, were about the social group now usually called ‘Travellers’. I find this a difficult word. The corollary…
Youth Space Challenging discussions can enrich our Faith, writes Rachel Sherlock Doom and gloom is the typical tone when it comes to talking about young people in the Catholic Church. From parish pulpits to Vatican synods, there are endless calls to reach out to a demographic that seems more and more to be moving…
Green Fingers The amount of time you spend in the garden in November is usually governed by the weather on the day, not the amount of jobs to be done. When a task becomes a chore, it is no longer enjoyable. Leave it and come back to it again when you can take it…
Relics of St Brigid to be venerated at ‘Red Wednesday’ Aid to the Church in need invites parishioners to set aside Wednesday, November 28 to light up churches and wear something red to remember Christian martyrs and those who have died for their faith. On that day, St Malachy’s Church, Armagh will be lit up red and people are asked to wear something red…
Martin O'Brien
Peter Costello
Paul Gargan