The Catholic Church will have a busy year, full of celebrations with the Jubilee of Hope mobilising Catholics worldwide. However, that is not the only important event the Church will be seeing in 2025. The Laudato Si’ encyclical and the Laudato Si’ Movement celebrate ten years in 2025. The Irish Catholic talked to Bishop of…
During the last years of his life, Thomas Merton lived in a hermitage outside a monastery, hoping to find more solitude in his life. But solitude is an illusive thing and he found it was forever escaping him. Then one morning he sensed that for a moment he had found it. However, what he experienced…
Bishop of Killaloe Fintan Monahan took part in the annual fundraising run in Limerick over the weekend. Runners from around the country joined in the 10k run/walk fundraising for the Milford Care Centre on February 16. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Bishop Monahan said “the annual 10k is an important fundraiser for Milford Hospice which…
The Church dedicates the month of February to the Holy Family, an inspiring model of love. This time offers an opportunity for reflection on what love truly means. With St Valentine’s Day accompanied by chocolates, flowers, and idealistic films, it is easy to overlook the deeper meaning of love. But we are left with an…
Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History , by Louise Ryan, Gráinne McPolin and Neha Doshi (Four Courts Press, €17.95pb) Anthony Gaughan In the second half of the twentieth century, thousands of Irish girls migrated to the UK to train as nurses. They were subsequently employed in hospitals throughout England, Scotland and Wales. …
How important is art in films? Are we living in a world where money rules OK and everything else gets squashed into the background? One of the first films I saw when I came to Dublin was Vittorio De Sica’s earthy Bicycle Thieves, a ‘cinema verité’ story of a man and his son living on…
It took them long enough! Finally, the Iona Institute, whose CEO is David Quinn, a columnist with The Irish Catholic, has had their ban on X (formerly Twitter for those of you as social media disinclined as I am) lifted. Crazily, the ban on advertising on Twitter was imposed in 2019, so the charity (yes, it is a Charity) has been a victim…
A retired priest of the Raphoe Diocese died aged 87 on February 15 and left many mourning throughout the diocese. Dean Austin Laverty PE, retired parish priest of Ardara dedicated over 60 years of work across a variety of roles in the diocese. The Parish of Iniskeel said in a statement that “even in his…
Every so often in world politics, someone comes along who is a game changer and it is very exciting to be alive to witness it – particularly when that someone (within the space of a week) manages to quote St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas and Pope St John Paul II. I write of course about…
Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, by Diarmaid MacCulloch (Allen Lane, £41.96 / €42.99 ) Robert Marshall Diarmaid MacCulloch is emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. He has written extensively on the history of the Church and its Reformations. Lower than the Angels, running to…
Renata Steffens
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Renata Milán Morales
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Maria Steen