Approaching her 107th birthday, Nancy Stewart insists “a lot of prayers” will get us through the pandemic. “I’ve all my beads are worn,” she laughs as she speaks to The Irish Catholic, “from praying. It keeps me happy.” Staying close to God is all we can do as the pandemic and its ensuing restrictions continue…
Month: October 2020
Archbishop pleads for help to end conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
As Armenia and Azerbaijan continued their battles and bombardments in early October, an Armenian archbishop pleaded for the intervention of the European Union to halt the conflict before it grew into a regional war. “We don’t want advice about a cease-fire, but real concrete steps so that the aggression stops definitively,” Armenian Catholic Archbishop Raphael…
Healthy eating for one to four-year olds
What you need to know about the recently launched healthy eating guidelines for toddlers, writes Ruadhán Jones At the start of October, the Government launched their first-ever healthy eating guidelines for one to four-year olds. The Health Department told us, the guidelines were “developed by nutrition experts in Ireland, the guidelines are based on Irish…
Measuring a missionary’s fruits of peace
World Mission Sunday (18th October, 2020) Together we can do more – Blessed are the peacemakers (Mt 5:9) Chai Brady speaks to Ireland’s OLA provincial about violence, feminism, tackling conflict and the rewarding life of a missionary Measuring the fruits of violence is always easier than those of peace, as often it’s the bomb that…
Diocese of Brooklyn sues New York over new Mass restrictions
The Diocese of Brooklyn filed a lawsuit in federal court on October 8 against the state of New York, charging that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new orders reducing church capacity violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion. “The executive orders this week have left us with no other option than to go…
Whoopi! Sister Act 3 ‘may happen’, says Goldberg
Singer, actress and star of Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg revealed that she is making plans to get a three-quel off the ground. Ms Goldberg announced her plans on the James Corden Show after he asked why the Sister Act 3 hasn’t happened. “Because for a long time they kept saying no one wanted to see…
Prison chaplains’ role ‘unique and invaluable’, says Fr McVerry
Fr McVerry called for the important role chaplains’ play in prisons to be recognised after the chaplain of the Dóchas women’s prison left due to a “toxic environment”. Fr McVerry wrote in a recent article that “prison chaplains are unique, in that they have no agenda other than the welfare of prisoners and prison officers…thus,…
The wrongheadedness of the Dáil on the idea of dignity
Given that the right to life follows from the dignity that we have in virtue of being human, it is inconsistent with human rights law that the life of any human being can be taken away by appeal to such dignity, writes Dr Gaven Kerr The Dying with Dignity Bill – which passed the first…
Bringing law and order to a new Ireland out of revolution and turmoil
Retreat from Revolution: the Dáil Courts 1920 to 1924 by Mary Kotsonouris (Irish Academic Press, €18.95) This book shows that Ireland did really undergo a revolution between 1919 and 1923. The old legal order was progressively undermined, delegitimised, and eventually overthrown. But it was not fully and formally replaced until the enactment of the Courts of…
Catholic priest freed two years after kidnapping
An Italian Catholic priest was freed on October 8, two years after he was kidnapped by a jihadist group. The office of the president of Mali announced the liberation of Fr Pierluigi Maccalli, a member of the Society of African Missions. He was one of four hostages released this week by fighters believed to be…



Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady





