Darren Butler, National Coordinator of the Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative (IBDI), has spoken of a renewed interest in taking the pledge to abstain from alcohol and drugs at Sacrament of Confirmation ceremonies. The work of the IBDI is to mobilise parish communities to work in partnership with other service providers as a pastoral response to…
Pope Francis opened up about tensions between himself and the private secretary of his predecessor Benedict XVI, German Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who he said made things “difficult” for him. Speaking to Spanish Journalist Javier Martinez-Brocal with ABC Español, Francis addressed comparisons between himself and Benedict, saying such comparisons are normal, and that even Benedict was…
The big summer exhibition at the Ulster Museum in Belfast this year will be the exhibition of two important Caravaggio’s together for the first time in centuries. One is from the National Gallery in London, The Supper at Emmaus (1601); the other is lent by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, the now…
The virtue of justice is fundamental for peaceful coexistence, writes Pope Francis Here we are at the second of the cardinal virtues: today we will talk about justice. It is the quintessential social virtue. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it as “the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will…
In a new document published Monday, the Vatican presented a “seamless garment” approach to human dignity, uniting Pope Francis’s progressive social agenda with the traditional moral and ethical concerns of his predecessors. Closely associated with the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, the “seamless garment” approach to life issues in the Church consists of a…
Jaymie Stuart Wolfe “We are an Easter people and ‘alleluia’ is our song.” We love to quote St Augustine when we talk about what the church of Jesus Christ is. And honestly, there may be no better description. But I think a lot of us, somewhere along the line, have lost hope that…
With Dante you do not just enter a poet’s world, but a poet’s cosmos. Hell is defined by theologians as a place or state of punishment. Dante, Doré, and others present visions of the place, but the state of hell may be something very different to what they have so generously imagined. Flann O’Brien more…
In a poem Serenade, Brazilian poet Adelia Prado speaks of a painful ache we feel inside us as we forever wait for something or someone to come and make us whole. What are we waiting for? Love? A soulmate? God? No matter, the frustration eventually pushes us towards a choice, go crazy or turn…
The Vatican on Monday reaffirmed its opposition to sex changes, gender theory and surrogate parenthood, as well as abortion and euthanasia, four months after supporting blessings for same-sex couples. The Vatican’s doctrinal office (DDF) released the ‘Dignitas infinita’ (Infinite dignity) declaration following fierce conservative pushback, especially in Africa, against its document on LGBT issues. There is no…
Michael Sanfey In a lecture delivered last month at the European University Institute in Florence, European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel referenced the importance of ‘creative destruction’, a concept associated with the Austrian political economist Joseph Schumpeter. It means that in a well-functioning system, productivity is boosted by the exit of inefficient…
Peter Costello
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Brandon Scott