A panel has said a public inquiry should be held into institutions for unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland. Appointed in late March 2021, the Truth Recovery Panel was scheduled to deliver its findings in six months following close collaboration with victims-survivors of Northern Ireland’s mother and baby homes, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses. The three experts,…
I think it’s a lovely idea to introduce a new public holiday in Ireland – to especially thank and commemorate all those health workers who gave of their best in the Covid-19 pandemic. But just copying the American ‘Thanksgiving Day’ (on Monday November 29) is pathetic. It has no relevance to the context of Irish life.…
Further attacks on northern Nigeria’s Christian population continue to traumatise the region’s Christians, many of whom are becoming resigned to the fact that their safety is no longer guaranteed. The latest onslaught was compared to a ‘massacre’ against native people by a local Catholic priest, many of which are Christian. An estimated 49 people, including…
An independent commission set up to measure the extent of abuse committed by Church members has estimated that over 3,000 paedophiles, out of a total of 115,000 priests, were actively engaged in ministry with the Church between 1950 to the present day. The 2,500-page report, which was commissioned by the French Catholic Church in 2018,…
The Irish Capuchin community celebrated Bro. Antony Kurian OFM Cap making his perpetual vows October 4. It was the first solemn profession for the Capuchins in Ireland since 2014, taking place on the feast of their founder St Francis of Assisi. Bro. Kurian’s commitment was described as a statement “that there is another way to…
The View A friend, who has long been involved with the ecumenical outreach of Clonard Monastery in Belfast, wrote to me recently about the concerns that many of his Indian friends had about the direction of their country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his attempts to establish for it a dominant Hindu ethos and…
Ireland’s wake culture is necessary for establishing a healthy relationship with death, hears Jason Osborne The pandemic brought the Catholic tradition of memento mori (‘Remember your death’) back to the forefront of the public’s mind, a virus which proved deadly for many intruding upon the removed safety of our daily lives. Key to combatting the…
Crimson and Gold: Life as a Limerick by Mark Patrick Hederman (Columba Books, €19.99hb/£17.99hb) John F. Deane Dear reader: I presume you are an Irish Catholic; I am an Irish Catholic; I am reviewing a book on Irish Catholicism by an Irish Catholic for The Irish Catholic. And are we not all anxious, in the present,…
If a woman plays the next Bond, Daniel Craig should be the next Miss Marple, writes David Quinn The latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die is out at last, after a long delay thanks to the pandemic. It was due to be launched just as Covid-19 sent us all into lockdown last spring,…
Cardinal Alexandre José Maria dos Santos, the first cardinal born in Mozambique, has died at the age of 97. The Catholic leader is remembered for advocating peace amid Mozambique’s bloody civil war which raged between 1977 to 1992, during which he aided refugees and victims of violence as the founding president of Caritas Mozambique. Pope…
Chai Brady
Mary Kenny
Ruadhán Jones
David Quinn