St Chinian University Comes of Age, by Paddy Masterson (Pegasus Press/Elliot Mackenzie Publishers, £10.99) Patrick Masterson served as president of University College Dublin from 1986 to 1993 and was president of the European University Institute in Florence from 1994 to 2002. His novels are the fruit of his first-hand and practical experience of how insignificant, first-world…
Mission Sunday Misean Cara’s CEO tells Ruadhán Jones about the unique role missionaries play in the developing world In Ireland, people outside the Church sometimes think that it’s a spent force. However, you don’t have to look too far to see this isn’t the case. The model of service and charity offered by the Irish…
The View In recent times, three friends have all told me about people they know who have not been back to Mass in church. They continue to watch online. My friends were both surprised and worried because the people they mentioned were regular Massgoers before the pandemic. Nor had any of the people health concerns…
The spokeswoman for France’s bishops’ conference clarified last Wednesday that the country’s Catholic leaders do not intend to contravene the Church’s teaching on the sacrosanct nature of the confessional seal. The clarification comes after Bishop Moulins-Beaufort, the bishops’ conference president, was invited to a meeting with France’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin to discuss the possibility of…
In My Mind’s Eye: Walking Among Ghosts by Brigid Kavanagh; stories and poems compiled and edited by Sean and Declan Kavanagh (€12.00) available online at www.buythebook.ie, or by contacting pettitmaggie955@gmail.com Sean Ryan This 300-plus-page book is an anthology of, and a tribute to, the writing of 95-year-old Brigid Kavanagh, who puts to good use her keen observations of…
The threat posed by radical Islam is often brushed away, writes David Quinn Conservative politician, David Amess, who was stabbed to death last week in what appears to have been a terrorist attack, was one of the most prominent Catholic MPs in the House of Commons where he served for 38 years. He died aged…
Mission Sunday Fr Hugh MacMahon SSC has travelled the world for his missionary work, including assignments in China and Korea. However, it was a location here in Ireland that inspired his recent book, Voices from the Desert. During a visit to the Skellig Islands, he pondered why individuals would choose such an isolated and difficult…
Nearly 20% fewer candidates for the Catholic priesthood have enrolled in Poland’s seminaries this year, when compared to 2020. Fr Piotr Kot, chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Major Seminaries, revealed that 356 seminarians began their studies in 2021. Last year, he said, there were 441 candidates, meaning that “the number is lower by approximately…
Anne Yeats: The Everyday Fantastic National Gallery of Ireland; Exhibition runs until 9 October 2022, Room 11 Admission free (book a free general admission ticket in advance) Anne Yeats was the niece of Jack Butler Yeats, and those who have seen the tremendous show of his painting in the NGI should be sure not to miss…
Let the preacher say, you have permission to be sad! In a book, When the Bartender Dims the Lights, Ron Evans writes: “There’s a line I came upon in the musings of a preacher: On a Sunday morning many of the people sitting before you are the walking wounded, and you need to give them…
Ruadhán Jones
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser