Effie Caldarola As a small child, I was a bit of a religious nerd. I’m not sure why, but I was the oldest child, the only daughter, and our little Catholic mission parish in farm country was central to our lives. From a young age, faith intrigued me. Case in point: I remember taking…
Many loud voices calling for married priests do not promote priesthood at home, Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik tells Chai Brady In Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2023 he compared a vocation to a “divine seed that springs up in the soil of our existence, opens our hearts to…
Organisers of Pope Francis’s ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality have announced that ten different working groups hadvebeen formed in the Roman Curia to address specific topics that came out of last year’s session. These topics, they said, are restricted to issues mentioned inside of the synod hall and include hot-button questions such as…
I recently finished reading John Mark Comer’s new book Practicing the Way – Be with Jesus; Become like him; Do as he did. By way of a recommendation, I offer a series of sound bytes from the book which I hope will give you a nice taste of both the language and substance of…
This I suspect is the sort of book that many families have been looking for, a compact, highly readable and adroitly written narrative of the Irish aboard. Author Bunbury makes vivid use of all the human parts of a 2,000-year-old history that academic historians resolutely leave out in favour of a more austere impersonal narrative.…
The devil – and angel – is in the detail. Great movies come from moments. Mother’s Instinct (15A) is threaded together like a labyrinthine tapestry of ominous vignettes where every slight movement or gesture becomes charged with an opaque threat. It’s a horror film that plays out like a symphony. Stanley Kubrick would have…
Those gathered February 11 in St Saviour’s at the heart of Dublin city centre were treated to a masterclass in auditory and visual beauty, as artist William Nathans’ painting celebrating 800 years since the Dominican Order’s arrival in Ireland was unveiled to the heavenly sound of the Te Deum. The painting, commissioned by the Irish…
Dear Editor, When I first read the proposed amendments to our Constitution, I was enraged as I remembered by own lovely mother and the wonderful women who have gone before us. To try and remove the word ‘mother’ completely and the word ‘women’ in this instance, is an insult to us all. The male of…
It is customary around this time of year for us to go all Celtic, with a focus on all things Irish, or even Oirish! I wouldn’t accuse the new series Ag Triall ar an Tobar (TG4, Thursday) of that latter charge. I felt it was an enjoyable exploration of Irish holy wells with the…
Every March since 1991 has been designated Irish-American Heritage Month in the United States. President Biden has continued the practice again this year, and a proclamation to this effect was signed by him on February 29th. America has not always been so sympathetic towards Irish immigrants and their descendants, as this book illustrates. Written…
Chai Brady
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan