Prayer helps to recognise the richness of religious life despite modern vices, Chai Brady hears Despite a growing secularist culture in Ireland, religious orders are dedicated to finding and cultivating the vocation of those who feel they are called to a life serving the Church’s mission. The attraction of sex, drugs, and alcohol can be…
The Pope’s safeguarding commission, preparing to move into a fresco-ceilinged palace in Rome’s historic centre, must not be merely engaged in “PR”, but become a refuge for those abused by clergy and silenced by the Church, said leading safeguarding expert Jesuit Fr Hans Zollner. Speaking to journalists April 17 about his decision to leave the…
Whodunits in Dubliners: What Joyce Says, And How He Means, by Peter van de Kamp (Cambridge Scholars, €92.99/£81.99; ISBN: 9781527581487.) For a generation Dr van de Kamp has led the annual Dubliners seminar at the James Joyce International Summer School in University College Dublin, a gathering that is a major event in the Joycean…
Deacon Greg Kandra April 30, 2023, Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6 1 Pt 2:20b-25 Jn 10:1-10 Most of us would probably admit: we don’t know a lot of shepherds. (Where I live, in Queens, New York, they are pretty scarce.) But I met one a few…
Last Saturday Irish National Opera began a nationwide tour of Massenet’s Werther. Opening in An Grianán in Letterkenny, it proceeded to Navan’s Solstice Arts Centre and then Galway’s Town Hall Theatre, where it is tonight, Thursday April 27. Werther’s next port of call is Limerick’s Lime Tree Theatre on Saturday 29, followed by Dundalk’s An…
If there are two sides in a controversy I prefer to hear a discussion between two representatives. When it’s just one at a time being interviewed the presenter may not be informed or willing enough to ask the hard questions of both sides. On The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, Wednesday) Michael Fitzmaurice TD, Independent, and…
A former drug addict-turned-counsellor, who shared his experiences with Pope Francis, has warned that any discussion about liberalising drug laws must also focus on the “cocaine-fuelled violence” which is gripping parishes across Ireland. Working out of Cuan Mhuire’s addiction centre in Athy, Co. Kildare, Damian Richardson – who spoke of his experiences of addiction before…
The rector of Knock Shrine has said they were “very happy” to welcome US President Joe Biden as a pilgrim for private prayer, despite his political policy on abortion. President Biden believes abortion is a ‘right’ and has continuously promised to introduce ‘abortion protections’ into US law following the overturning of Roe vs Wade which…
The Church’s “wobbling” over the question of ordaining women to the diaconate is a scandal, a leading theologian told a symposium at Trinity College Dublin. There “is not now and never has been any doctrinal finding that women cannot be ordained to the diaconate”, said Dr Phyllis Zagano, an expert on women in the diaconate.…
The precarious state of South Africa’s electricity grid, which sees regular “planned and controlled” shutdowns of parts of the grid so as to avoid a national blackout, has led to a “depressed” people an Irish archbishop living there has claimed. Speaking to The Irish Catholic about the controversial “load shedding” practice, Archbishop Liam Slattery OFM…
Chai Brady
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Ruadhán Jones