The Song of Bernadette is a Hollywood classic, probably its the best effort to capture a saint’s life on film. The black and white drama from 1942 tells the story of young Bernadette Soubirous. Bernadette – now a saint – is depicted as a slow but sincere young girl, who is given the remarkable gift…
The good news about marriage is that it improves health. Mary Johnston, an Irish relationship counsellor, has endorsed studies published by the Universities of Luxembourg, and of Ottawa, which found that people between the ages of 50 and 89 had better health than singletons. Marriage can have the effect of diminishing diabetes – even a…
American actor Shia LaBeouf has appeared in a viral clip in which he speaks about how there aren’t enough joyful depictions of Christ on the cross. “You know, the story of Christ is that God became man for our betterment,” Mr LaBeouf, 36, says in the clip, continuing, “so that means he is the ultimate…
The Catholic Church in Sydney bid farewell to its former archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, in a funeral at times solemn, reverent, defiant and sorrowful, shot through with wry Australian humour, and attended by mourners from all walks of life. The cardinal remained a sign of contradiction until the very end, with protesters’ shouts of “George…
Archbishop Eamon Martin has paid tribute to Deacon Martin Barlow, who died recently aged 54. Deacon Barlow, who was one of the first married men to be ordained to the diaconate in Armagh, died just four weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. His funeral Mass was held on Monday in St John the Baptist Church,…
It’s with good reason that Pope Benedict XVI drew attention to the story of St Josephine Bakhita in his encyclical, Spe Salvi (In Hope we Were Saved), for her’s is a story of the “hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God,” as the late pope put it in that same encyclical. Born…
Our new public holiday created to commemorate Imbolc/St Brigid has come and gone. In Leo Varadkar’s announcement last January, the emphasis was already clear. “This will be the first Irish public holiday named after a woman. It marks the half-way point between the winter solstice and the equinox, the beginning of spring and the Celtic…
A Belgian television station has rediscovered a 20-minute video in which Fr Georges Lemaitre, considered the father of the Big Bang theory, explains what the origin of the universe may have been like. Fr Lemaitre was a Belgian astrophysicist known for being the first academic to propose the theory of the expansion of the universe…
“Tragically, religious freedom for many is increasingly under assault around the world,” Rep. Michael McCaul said at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, which took place in Washington, DC, last week. Faith leaders from across the world – including Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others – gathered at the summit to address the ongoing persecution…
Plans are underway to develop more permanent hubs for Ukrainian Catholics, Ruadhán Jones hears “I’ve rarely met anyone who has come over [to Ireland] saying this is where we see our life permanently,” Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski tells me. “Many are really saying, I just want to go home when I can.” It’s almost…
Ruadhán Jones
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien