It was projected that shocks were afoot before Northern Ireland went to the polls last Thursday. Former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s hastily announced British General Election allotted just over a month for incumbents and political hopefuls to begin the all too familiar trek around their constituencies and commence disturbing unsuspecting homeowners. Some were quietly…
I don’t run into shepherds very often, but a few years ago, I ran into a shepherd (via Google) by the name of Kim Goodling. She and her husband live in Vermont and run a large farm with a lot of livestock, including a flock of sheep. On her blog, Kim Goodling wrote about what…
The Knights of Columbus announced last week it will cover mosaics by the accused abuser Fr Marko Rupnik in Washington, DC, and Connecticut, a dramatic move that represents the strongest public stand yet by a major Catholic organisation regarding the former Jesuit’s embattled art. The 2.1-million-member lay Catholic fraternal order said July 11 it would…
Some years back, a couple of enterprising figures on the Roman scene, devoted Catholics with backgrounds in business, had the bright idea of trying to help the Vatican build a genuine professional development system for its workforce of roughly 5,000, divided between the Roman Curia and the Vatican City State. Fuelling the effort was the…
It was one of those shocking moments when you’ll always remember where you were when it happened. I heard the first trickle of the news of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in the car on the way back from a concert last Saturday night. Then it was straight on to Sky News and CNN…
I spent the past two weeks on holiday in Assisi, home of saints Francis and Clare and now of Blessed Carlo Acutis – a young Italian boy who died aged 15 from leukaemia and who will become the first millennial saint probably during the Jubilee year of 2025. So, who is Carlo Acutis and why…
Emerging from the Mess, by Brendan McManus SJ and Jim Deeds (Messenger Publications, €12.95 / £11.95) The cover of this third book in the series begun with Finding God in the Mess and continued with Deeper into the Mess, brought to mind (for me at least) the words of St John Henry Neman’s poem (only later a hymn), written while…
The issue of Catholic politicians and the Eucharist is once again in the headlines this week, after Fine Gael TD Colm Burke expressed surprise that he was refused Holy Communion by a priest at a recent funeral Mass in Co. Cork. According to reports, the priest went further and told Mr Burke that he was,…
Even though the Bible was written ages ago, its pages always have meanings and messages for us today. Our challenge is to find connections between the text of yesterday and the ‘today’ of our lives. There are five parts to lectio divina – holy reading – which is an ancient way of praying with Scripture.…
I must have skipped the chapter in my ‘how to parent’ instruction manual where it talked about weddings. Not my wedding, of course, but all the weddings of my kids, the friends of my kids and the kids of my friends. For me, the year 2024 is turning into a banner year for nuptials, including…
Brandon Scott
John L. Allen Jr.
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello