When the US bishops elected a centre-right prelate and protégé of an influential conservative Italian cardinal as their president last November, it was framed in much reporting and commentary as a protest vote against Pope Francis. ‘Bishops elect anti-Francis archbishop as president,’ was how the National Catholic Reporter headlined an editorial blasting the choice of Archbishop Timothy…
“We only live, only suspire, consumed by either fire or fire.” T.S. Eliot wrote those words and, with them, suggests that our choice in this life is not between calm and storm, but between two kinds of storms. He is right, of course, but sometimes it is good to vary the metaphor: We live in…
Gan Focal/Frugal Speech poems by Gabriel Fitzmaurice, illustrated with paintings by Brenda Fitzmaurice (Arlen House, €15.00/£13.50) Gabriel Fitzmaurice published his first book of poetry back in 1981, and he then combined his own writing with translations of other poets from the Irish. Eventually he was challenged to write himself in Irish. He published a bilingual collection…
RTÉ sure knows how to make excellent one-off documentaries – last week we had a good one! In the Name of the Son (RTÉ One, Thursday) was the aptly-named story of Mags Riordan from Dingle. She had suffered the loss of three of her children – a baby that didn’t survive an accident that saw…
When they addressed the continental phase of the synod process in Prague last month, Julieann Moran and Fr Éamonn Fitzgibbon spoke of the “joy expressed by so many who took part in the synodal process, and their hope that it will continue and become embedded in Church structures, is real”. No one can doubt the…
Notebook I learned a new word this week and it is ‘presentism’. Basically presentism is the use of present-day standards to impose judgements upon historical figures and practices in the sometimes-misguided belief that the standards of our contemporary world are morally superior. I realised that this new word names and describes a trend which I…
Hand in hand with the preservation of the ancient ‘rainforest’ woods and the creation of new stretches of proper woodslands (not the poisonous pine forest that pass for forestry in Ireland – goes the promotions of schemes for the reintroduction of Ireland’s ‘lost beasts’. But the manner in which eagles and others are poisoned by…
Recently reminiscing on my time on the council of the now defunct Music Association of Ireland, I recalled qualms being raised about engaging cellists for the association’s members’ meetings and country tours. A cry would go up “cellists don’t draw”. However, two recent events at the National Concert Hall proved otherwise. A solo recital by…
School communities across the country have given their backing to Catholic education, as a highly-publicised pilot scheme on converting Catholic schools to secular ones is finding little push for change following “rigorous” consultation. Even Taoseach Leo Varadkar has indicated no desire for change in his own constituency. After dozens of Catholic schools and hundreds of…
Ireland’s political leaders must “urgently act” on a new report on climate change which highlights numerous options to reduce harmful emissions in order to help the poorest, Church-charity Trócaire has said. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a major report on Monday which brings the latest evidence on solutions to climate change…
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Michael Kelly
Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady