The popular live animal crib will return to Dublin’s Mansion House, the Lord Mayor of Dublin announced, after public backlash to a decision to cancel the live crib last year. Lord Mayor Daithí de Róiste acknowledged the importance of the Christmas tradition, saying on November 9 that the live crib is a “huge part of”…
An exhibition at both the RDS and the RIA Though many people may be unfamiliar with the libraries of the Royal Dublin Society or of the Royal Irish Academy, both founded in the mid-18th Century, these hallowed institutions are currently mounting in succession a small but very interesting exhibition relating to the Dublin Great Industrial…
Leaders often speak at least as loudly by what they don’t say as by what they do, and such would appear to be the case in recent days regarding Pope Francis’s approach to Israel and the broader Jewish world. A series of perceived papal slights began in late October, when a group of family members…
The Christian population of the town of Jesus’s birth, Bethlehem, is feeling depressed and despondent as they endure a collapse in their economic and security situation as a result of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. So severe is the economic situation in Bethlehem, that the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem felt compelled to single…
A Love Surpassing Knowledge: The Spirituality of Edward King, by Michael Marshall, with a foreword by Archbishop Stephen Cottrell (Gracewing, £14.99) Gracewing for over 30 years has been providing books that explore aspects of Catholicism. But now they are broad minded enough editorially to find Catholicism outside the Catholic Church. Victorian Britain was the era…
Sometimes we are the most helpful and life-giving at the very times when we are most helpless. We’ve all been there. We’re at a funeral and there’s nothing to say that will ease the heartache of someone who has lost a loved one. We feel awkward and helpless. We’d like to say or do something,…
A new ruling from the Vatican’s doctrinal office says that transsexual individuals can be baptised, and also opens a cautious door to allowing transgender and homosexual couples to serve as godparents, while indicating that the “homosexual lifestyle” remains sinful and that more suitable options ought to be considered. The decision, which came in response to…
A Chinese bishop who was appointed last April against the wishes of the Vatican has renewed his commitment to implement the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s programme of religious sinicisation in his diocese. Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Shanghai made his comments in an interview with the state news agency, China News Service. “Sinicisation is a directional issue:…
In the last few weeks, I’ve been welcoming new religious programmes on RTÉ – this week I’m lamenting the departure of one of them. Life and Soul (RTÉ One, Sunday) had a very short run but it ended well with a particularly uplifting episode. ‘Unbroken’ told the inspiring story of Tiglin. Fiachna Ó Braonáin (of…
Priests and others in ministry in different parts of Ireland have asked me how our new funeral policy is working out. This policy was introduced in Cork and Ross in 2021, as we left Covid restrictions behind, enshrining some of our Covid learnings regarding funerary practice. Some local pastoral concerns that had been crying out…
Ruadhán Jones
Peter Costello
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Brendan O’Regan