Personal Profile For many religious communities, the coronavirus pandemic has been a time to discover the importance of an online presence. It’s something that the Oblates of Mary Immaculate have been wrestling with for some time, and has come into sharper focus during the crisis. Rebecca Roughneen, digital communications specialist for the Oblates in Inchicore,…
Supporters of Catholic education should not be passive in the face of threats to an authentic, faithful and confident religious ethos in Irish schooling writes Dr Tom Finegan The term ‘religion’ is mentioned only once in the 139 page Programme for Government (PfG) adopted by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. On the…
As I suspected, returning to Mass after three and a half months was an emotional experience. I went down to the cathedral here in Letterkenny, the 8am Mass, mask on, hands sanitised, social distancing in effect. So it wasn’t like any Mass I’ve ever been involved with before but it was good to be there.…
As China appears to be considering relaxing its strict population control measures, American women’s rights activist Reggie Littlejohn has criticised the country for hypocrisy in encouraging Chinese families to have more children while forbidding Uyghur Muslims to do the same. She also voiced doubt that China will completely do away with birth restrictions, insisting that…
Without a Dog’s Chance: The Nationalists of Northern Ireland and the Irish Boundary Commission 1920–1922 by James A. Cousins (Irish Academic Press 2020) In July 1925, nearly a full century ago, the Irish Boundary Commission sat for the last time, bringing to an end a sorry business that began badly and ended in confusion. It may…
As Congo celebrated 60 years of independence from Belgium, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa said the “great dreams” of the people had been shuttered by successive regimes. “We have known successive autocratic regimes that have come to power like the colonialist without any concern for the will of the people, and this continues today: by…
At the start of August, I will not be working from home anymore and I will be back working in the office. I’m nervous about how I and the family will readjust to another change in routine. At the beginning of lockdown, it seemed daunting, but now many of us have gotten used to our…
Imagine this. You are the dutiful daughter or son and your mother is widowed and living in an assisted living facility. You happen to be living close by while your sister is living across the country, thousands of miles away. So the weight falls on you to be the one to help take care of…
Archives reveal Schonstatt movement founder accused of abuse Documents uncovered from the recently opened archives of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII revealed allegations of sexual abuse and abuse of power against the founder of the Schonstatt movement, Fr Joseph Kentenich. Reports of the apostolic visitation made in the early 1950s written by Dutch Jesuit Father Sebastiaan…
Dublin Diocese has announced that priests are taking a 25% pay cut on already low salaries and that it is looking for one third of its 82 lay staff to take redundancies. Among those asked to consider redundancy are parish pastoral workers (see Page 4). The bishops’ conference in Maynooth is also cutting back on…
Bairbre Cahill
Wendy Grace
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly