With Joe Biden now elected as the nation’s 46th president, it is “time for our leaders to come together in a spirit of national unity,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They also must “commit themselves to dialogue and compromise for the common good,” he…
The Covid-19 lockdown has brought about many changes in our lives – we have long lamented the closure of churches for Mass – and even if a vaccine becomes available, it will probably be some time before these changes are reversed. One shift I welcome is the trend towards smaller weddings. Hotels and wedding planners…
While the cry from across the Atlantic has been for every vote in the US election to be counted, there is another poll that is captivating residents of one Co. Wexford town just as much. Just three weeks ago – to the great relief of many in the town and surrounding area – the Department…
Superstition to many, but the Church recognises our connection with the dead, writes Ruadhán Jones At the beginning of November, the liturgical calendar turns our minds heavenward with the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. As many of our pagan ancestors did, we take the time to commemorate, pray for and commune with the…
Bishop Kevin Doran has criticised the “narrow circumscription” of priests’ public ministry under the current travel regulations. The regulations mean that pizza deliverers and bicycle engineers have more freedom to work than priests, the bishop of Elphin said. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Bishop Doran said that there’s an assumption that all priests do is…
After the Vatican Secretariat of State missed a November 1 deadline to hand over the management and monitoring of its own assets to two separate Vatican bodies, Pope Francis set up a commission to make the transfer and external oversight happen. The Pope established the commission, whose mandate went into effect “immediately,” during a November…
The View In his 1973 essay ‘The Faith: The Nation, Prime Principles of Survival’, Frank Duff – the founder of the Legion of Mary, whose anniversary was on Saturday – observed that the faith of the nation was in a crisis. He likened the Ireland of the 1950s to pre-revolutionary France. Both appeared on the…
We can already see that the new US administration will not be a friend of religious freedom, writes David Quinn The incoming US president calls to mind one of those Irish politicians who have ‘evolved’ on abortion. Once they were pro-life, but now they are firmly pro-choice, even some remain ‘personally opposed’. Back in the…
Saving the State: Fine Gael from Collins to Varadkar by Stephen Collins and Ciara Meehan (Gill Books, €24.99/£22.50) Representatives of CumannnanGaedheal, the National Guard and the National Centre Party established Fine Gael on September 2, 1933. Eoin O’Duffy, leader of the National Guard – also known as the Blueshirts because of the apparel of its members –…
The redevelopment of the first convent founded by Presentation Sisters’ founder Nano Nagle has won the Urban Design award in a prestigious national competition. The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland gave the award, describing the South Presentation convent in Cork City as “an exemplary urban renewal project”. The project, completed in 2017, Nano…
Mary Kenny
Ruadhán Jones
Maria Steen
David Quinn