A Catholic grammar school has reached new heights after all of its A-Level students attained A*-C grades in three or more subjects. Last week, Ballymena’s St Louis Grammar learned that their 162 Upper Sixth pupils achieved the spectacular results, marking another significant year for the top school in the North. The top two achievers were…
Knock Novena The ‘post-modern’ or ‘post-religion’ era doesn’t exist, Chai Brady hears Modern youth movements and shrines are becoming increasingly important in the ‘new evangelisation’ of the Western world as parish churches attract fewer and fewer people, according to a high-ranking Vatican prelate on a visit to Ireland. Archbishop Salvatore ‘Rino’ Fisichella, President of…
Vegan and vegetarian diets are not necessarily the healthiest, writes Madison Duddy The Economist dubbed 2019 ‘The Year of the Vegan’. With a continued increase in veganism, they might not be far off with their prediction. Over the past few years, more people have decided to adopt vegan and vegetarian diets for health and…
Sri Lanka’s top Catholic has called for an independent inquiry into a series of bombings that shook the country on Easter Sunday, saying investigations conducted until now have been swayed by political interests. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said that for Sri Lankans, a parliamentary probe into the attacks “is biased because it…
Curing Mad Truths: Medieval Wisdom for the modern age by Remi Brague (University of Notre Dame Press, $29.00 / £35.50) Frank Litton Critical thinking is important, we all agree. Of course, the appetite for it is never going to be strong. Most of us want instruction in what the fashionable are thinking. We are as…
The Archbishop of Melbourne has said he is prepared to defy a proposed new law that would force priests in the Australian state of Victoria to violate the seal of Confession. The proposed legislation would include priests in mandatory reporting laws in cases of child sexual abuse, without any priest-penitent exceptions. “Personally, I’ll keep the…
The Mexican bishops’ conference has expressed concerns over a Supreme Court decision that upheld a health norm allowing access to abortion in public clinics if a woman has been the victim of sexual violence. “We say clearly: Respect for the right to life cannot be infringed upon by the circumstances in which a human being…
Knock Novena Over 100,000 people flocked to Knock Shrine for their nine-day annual Novena, and with this year marking the 140th anniversary of the Apparition, some people voiced concerns about the loneliness prevalent in the lives of young people. Beginning on August 14, featuring a seminar given by former Taoiseach John Bruton, it ends…
Imagine this: a man, entirely careless of all moral and spiritual affairs, lives his life in utter selfishness, pleasure his only pursuit. He lives the high life, never prays, never goes to church, has numerous sexual affairs, and has no concern for anyone but himself. After a long life of this, he’s diagnosed with a…
Ahead of the annual national grandparents’ pilgrimage to Knock Shrine in Co. Mayo, the search is on for the country’s oldest Catholic grandparents. The Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) has issued an invitation for the oldest grandparents and longest married couple to attend the 17th annual pilgrimage which is due to he held at the national…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Chai Brady
Fr Ronald Rolheiser