Staff Reporter The Irish Times newspaper has reportedly refused to publish letters from campaigners highlighting abuse in non-Catholic institutions in Ireland, it has been claimed. While the newspaper published a short note on the death of Derek Linster – a former resident of the Protestant-run Bethany Home – it did not mention that he had…
Questions of Faith The Catholic Church teaches that moral values are objective – that is to say, certain actions are always good or always bad, regardless of the circumstances or what anybody thinks about them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states this quite explicitly in CCC 1756: “There are acts which, in and of…
The Church is at the forefront of efforts to serve a struggling people in one of the world’s newest countries, writes James Bradshaw It was recently announced that Pope Francis will be visiting South Sudan in early February as part of an ‘ecumenical pilgrimage of peace’. When he arrives in South Sudan in the company…
Christmas is the time to renew our commitment to fighting the “culture of indifference” that Pope Francis speaks of, President Michael D. Higgins has said in his Christmas message for 2022. The president used his yearly message to highlight the “culture of indifference” that Pope Francis notes in his encyclical Laudato Si’, that relates to…
Many sad things happened in 2022 and there are many glum predictions for 2023, but there’s always something to be grateful for. And the re-opening of Dublin’s Leopardstown Races on St Stephen’s Day – first time since 2019 – cheered me up. Ecumenical agent I’m a great supporter of the horse as ecumenical agent: throughout…
Swiss theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, once wrote: “After a mother has smiled for a long time at her child, the child will begin to smile back; she has awakened love in its heart, and in awakening love in its heart, she awakes recognition as well…In the same way, God explains himself before us as…
In one of his last official acts as Taoiseach, TD Micheál Martin officially opened a refurbished centre of Catholic education in Cork. The Edmund Rice Centre, Mardyke House, was blessed by Bishop of Cork and Ross Fintan Gavin, and reopened before Christmas following extensive refurbishment undertaken by the Christian Brothers. In a wide-ranging address, the…
Internet star Fr Mike Schmitz and Scripture scholar Jeff Cavins are looking to bring the facts of the Faith to a new audience in the new year, writes Jason Osborne By any measure, Ascension’s The Bible in a Year podcast, hosted by Fr Mike Schmitz and featuring Jeff Cavins has been a runaway success. At…
The Sunday Gospel The liturgical celebration of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, has been ascribed to several different dates down through the ages. The liturgical reform which prepared the way for the Second Vatican Council prompted the restoration of the feast to January 1, the completion of the Octave of Christmas, the eighth day,…
On Monday, January 2, the Church celebrates the joint feast day of Sts Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen. Both men were 4th Century bishops in the Christian East, Basil in Caesarea and Gregory in Constantinople. The men were close friends and on their feast day, the Office of Readings offers us a beautiful…
Mary Kenny
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Ruadhán Jones