James Garavan We often hear priests speak about how the Church ought to accommodate the ever-diminishing young Catholic population. Today I sat down with two young Catholics, Conor and Isabelle to discuss life as a young Catholic and how they think, as a young person, Irish parishes and schools are failing to support the youth.…
A Short History of Notre Dame by Ken Follett (Pan Books, £12.99 / €14.99) On April 15, 2019 a fire in the roof space of Notre Dame de Paris appalled those who admire Paris and love the Cathedral. That great medieval edifice, begun in the 12th century, is a dominant symbol of the history and culture…
Teresa Pitt Green Most Catholics experience the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy in relation to headlines, as stories from around the globe or from the local parish where a trusted priest has been removed. Yet the pain of abuse within the church bleeds somewhere else, in someone else’s wounds, which are the only place…
Spike Island: The Rebels, Residents and Crafty Criminals of Ireland’s Historic Island by John Crotty (Merrion Press, €18.00 / £14.99) Thomas McCarthy On a bright summer’s morning there is nothing quite as magical as the watery approach to Spike Island from its old naval supply-base of Cobh. John Crotty, Waterford-man, has been the latest keeper of…
Letter from Jerusalem Justin Robinson OSB Easter is a time of hope, something which has occupied me a lot lately as the season comes to a close and my three-year sojourn in a war-torn Holy Land comes to an end. We hope for things all the time. I have a long-standing hope that Middlesbrough FC…
Not long after I quit the BBC for the convent, a few of my former colleagues came around for tea and biscuits. So for a bit of craic, I wheeled the convent tea trolley into the parlour and did my best Mrs Doyle accent: “You will, you will, you will!” We all enjoyed the joke!…
In Tramore, Co. Waterford a new initiative has emerged blending elements of faith and sport in a program called the ‘Surfing Retreat’. Run by Fr Taddeo Hammerle, Youth Chaplain at Holy Family Mission in Glencomeragh, Co. Tipperary, and Mr Billy Butler, owner of Freedom Surf School, this mission aims to provide secondary school students with…
Memory Near and Far by Éamon Flanagan CM (Published by the author at St Peter’s, Phibsborough, €6.00 plus postage; available directly nationwide from Veritas, and also through the Knock Shrine Bookshop.) It is appropriate that the impressive city church of St Peter’s in Phibsborough should be in the charge of The Congregation of the Mission,…
Amid what threatened to become a serious church/state situation in Africa’s largest Catholic country, a cardinal threatened with prosecution for sedition in the Democratic Republic of Congo met May 16 with the country’s president and afterward attributed the tensions to “misunderstandings”. “There has been more misunderstanding than a real problem,” said Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of…
Michael R. Heinlein What does it mean to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist? How are our lives to be changed from such an encounter? In fact, the fruits of the Eucharist are many. They bring about a unity in diversity, wherein each member of the body – responding to grace – can live unique…
Peter Costello
Martina Purdy
Renata Milán Morales