For two or three days in January, a furry red muppet’s concern for the well-being of his followers became news, dominating Twitter, now “X”, and sparking discussions from National Public Radio to cable news. When the commotion died down, I was left thinking about how Ash Wednesday was very near and maybe this strange little…
Vatican seems an unlikely source for film recommendations. However, a new book wants to right that wrong by highlighting a hidden gem – a “very eclectic” list of “some important films” released by the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications in the 1990s. Released to mark the 100th anniversary of the first public exhibition of a…
Dear Editor, In the upcoming referendums we are being asked to delete reference to the ‘home’ and to hand over to the courts a hot potato, that of redefining the ‘family’; as they interpret the phrase “other durable relationships”. The human rights implications of cutting our understanding of family adrift from being founded upon marriage…
So, the referendum debates go on. The media coverage is increasing, though I’m not so sure it’s that enlightening. Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, Wednesday) gave plenty of time to it and was well balanced, though it became overly fractious. Minister Thomas Byrne struggled to define ‘durable relationships’. He said it would be…
Many of you will remember the name of Eamon Andrews. He was an Irish broadcaster who became very successful in Britain and was perhaps best known as the first presenter of This is Your Life. Eamon was also an active member of his parish community. Preparation I recently came across a response he gave to…
Lent is a graced time for spiritual transfiguration. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, “the Transfiguration ‘is the sacrament of the second regeneration’: our own Resurrection”. The Gospel account of the Lord’s transfiguration invites reflection on this momentous event in Jesus’ earthly life and our participation in this event. When Jesus tells his disciples…
One would have thought that every possible literary item from the present pope’s early years would have been brought to our notice. But this seems not to be the case, for here is a book, brought to us from those days in Argentina which will arouse great interest. How it came to be written…
What is our deepest centre? Normally we take that to mean the deepest part of our heart, the deepest part of our soul, our affective centre, our moral centre, that place inside of us which Thomas Merton called le pointe vierge. And that is a good way of imagining it. But there’s another. John of…
Q: Where exactly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church does it say we can receive Communion by intinction? Our parish has started doing this recently, and people love it! But other parishes’ priests say this is not ‘legal’ according to Church doctrine. I have looked in the catechism and cannot find exactly where it…
Bob Dylan’s career ran chronologically alongside that of another iconic singer with the same Christian name. Bob Marley is less well known to most people than Dylan but Bob Marley: One Love (12A), a biographical drama of the Jamaican singer-songwriter, may change that. The casting of Kingsley Ben-Adir in the title role received the blessing…
Ruadhán Jones
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Aubrey Malone