There are more distractions than ever before and so we must develop our concentration if we’re to thrive, writes Jason Osborne We live in a world awash with distraction. Living in mega-cities (by historical standards) as we do, we’re surrounded by more stimulus every day than your average person was exposed to in a year. A…
Churches must find practical solutions to the energy crisis, says Fr Peter O’Reilly, who questioned the ethics of heating large, inefficient churches,. Churches can keep their energy costs down and tackle fossil fuel use by using parish halls or centres instead of churches “created for numbers that no longer exist and impossible to heat”, the…
One of the church’s leading experts on safeguarding and clerical sexual abuse has said the exclusion of women from seminary formation needs to change. Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner spoke to more than 200 people at a ‘Stolen Lives’ webinar organised by the Root and Branch lay reform movement in Britain in conjunction with Survivor Voices…
by Eduardo Campos Lima Letter from Brazil After the fiercest presidential campaign in Brazil’s history, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva managed to beat his rival Jair Bolsonaro on October 30 with a narrow margin of only two million votes. As soon as the South American country’s electoral authority proclaimed Lula’s victory, several world…
An official portrait of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner and former SDLP leader John Hume was unveiled in Westminster on Monday. Commissioned by the Speaker’s advisory committee on works of art, the portrait was painted by Co. Down-based artist Colin Davidson. It was based on drawings he’d done during sittings with Mr Hume in…
Medical Matters Ear, nose and throat complaints can be a source of much discomfort and are frequent, accounting for a significant proportion of GP visits. One of the most common symptoms is a sore throat that in the majority of cases is caused by viral infections and doesn’t generally require treatment with antibiotics. Gargling with…
Bishop Barron outraged by cemetery desecration Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester expressed outrage November 2 over the desecration of several graves and the columbarium at the diocese’s Calvary Cemetery in Rochester “with hateful and obscene graffiti” on Halloween night. He assured his prayers for families “of those whose final resting places were so dishonoured”. The…
by Zelda Caldwell Before a gathering of religious leaders in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, a Catholic bishop from Nigeria gave an account of how his country had become a “cauldron of violence” at the hands of Islamist extremists. Addressing the G20 Religion Forum in Bali on November 3 in advance of the…
Pope Francis promised reporters traveling with him to the Gulf nation of Bahrain that his November 3-6 visit would be an “interesting trip.” Thanking the more than 65 reporters, photographers and television-camera operators on the plane with him from Rome, the Pope added that he hoped the trip would include “good news”. However, he said, the…
Personal Profile When Eric Cooney was young, he had a sense of a vocation to the priesthood. However, he recognised that celibacy would have proved difficult for him and put it aside. But when the possibility of becoming a permanent deacon arose, he took the chance and says he feels blessed in his ministry. He…
Ruadhán Jones
Dr Kevin McCarroll