Personal Profile God is present in the cries and injustices of the world, Colm Fitzpatrick learns Words usually don’t do justice to depict real, lived experiences and this sentiment couldn’t be truer when describing the harrowing conditions in Kenya’s Mukuru slums. With rising poverty and violence across the region, it can be difficult to muster…
Month: October 2019
What they Gospels say: the bigger bicture
Glimpses of the Gospels: Theological, Spiritual & Practical reflections by Jack Mahoney SJ (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £11.95) Every week – for a few, every day – Catholics hear a gospel reading at Mass. As these readings are arranged over the year along with extracts from the Old Testament and the Epistles, present a schema…
New purpose-built seminary on the cards for Maynooth
Shake-up may see students leave historic home EXCLUSIVE Radical plans that would see Maynooth seminary leaving the college’s neogothic buildings in favour of a new purpose-built home on the same campus are being considered by the hierarchy, Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin has told The Irish Catholic. The proposal is part of a radical shake-up…
Newman scholars challenge Taoiseach’s conscience claim
Scholars of St John Henry Newman have criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for misunderstanding the new saint’s teaching on conscience. Speaking in the Dáil last week, Mr Varadkar rejected Archbishop Eamon Martin’s recent comments that Catholic politicians are obliged to support laws that uphold the dignity of every person from conception to death. The Taoiseach said…
Loneliness is a fact of life for many of us after 50
A third of Irish adults over the age of 50 report feeling lonely some of the time, according to a study carried out by Trinity College Dublin. Among those over 75, loneliness is even more prevalent. Unsurprisingly, loneliness is often accompanied by depression. A certain degree of loneliness is, I think, inevitable in the older years.…
A gifted saint with a pastor’s heart
The View All saints are extraordinary, in the sense that they manage to turn their lives and wills over to God and through his grace achieve heroic virtue. John Henry Newman is perhaps more extraordinary than most because of the extent of his natural gifts. James Joyce wrote to his long-suffering English patron, Harriet Weaver,…
Human rights are a Christian creation – leading historian
Modern liberalism and secularism depend on Christianity to make sense, a leading historian has said. Although modern Ireland may believe itself to have become a profoundly secular society it remains as shaped by the legacy of Christianity as when it was a very religious society, Tom Holland said, describing Christianity as “a huge depth charge…
Addressing life’s anxieties through Christianity, not yoga
Truly Catholic schools have the resources to help students tackle worries, writes David Quinn The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Phonsie Cullinan, has issued a letter to primary schools in his diocese cautioning them against using yoga and ‘mindfulness’, especially during religion class. He warns “yoga is not of Christian origin”, and that mindfulness…
Govt accused of discriminating against foreign missionaries
Many priests and religious applying to come to Ireland to minister or study are being left with a bitter taste rather than the much-vaunted ‘céad míle fáilte’, an investigation by The Irish Catholic has revealed. The Department of Justice has been accused of tightening up rules on missionaries in a way that is discriminatory and…
Mexican bishops urge drug cartel to ‘repent and convert’
The Mexican bishops’ conference has called for calm and reflection after well-armed members of a drug cartel descended on the city of Culiacan and forced Mexican security forces to release the son of convicted cartel kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as ‘El Chapo’. In a statement, a day after the violence in Culiacan, capital of…

Colm Fitzpatrick
Peter Costello
Greg Daly

Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien

David Quinn
Chai Brady
