Senator Sharon Keogan has announced that the Government has given a summer deadline to enact a law which would ensure the right of unmarried fathers to be named on their children’s birth certificates. Senator Keogan said that after more than a decade of delays and repeated inquiries last week the Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, …
Last week saw the beginning of Lent, and the onset of the season usually sparks some interesting religious content in the media. On Songs of Praise (BBC One, Sunday) for the first Sunday in Lent Sean Fletcher presented a special edition on the Lord’s Prayer, from an Anglican theological college – Ripon College, Cuddesdon. This…
Irish National Opera (INO) returns to An Bord Gais Energy Theatre for four performances of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman on March 23, 25, 27 and 29. As it has been a while since any of the composer’s operas have been seen here these performances by INO are welcome. The Flying Dutchman is the earliest of…
The Bishop of Clonfet Michael Duignan has made clerical changes to the Diocese. The new appointments are: Rev. Gregory Shinvo, CC (Diocese of Jalingo, Nigeria) to replace Rev. Charles Nyameh, CC (Diocese of Jalingo, Nigeria) as curate St Michael’s and priest available to the Ballinasloe Faith Community Area along with providing sacramental services to Emmanuel…
Killarney Parish in the Kerry Diocese celebrated 215 Confirmations of boys and girls from five primary schools on March 7 in St Mary’s Cathedral. The Confirmations occurred in two separate ceremonies led by Bishop Ray Browne, one in the morning when 120 children were Confirmed and one in the afternoon for the remaining 95. Fr…
For some years now, it has been fashionable for Catholics to declare that we’re not giving up anything for Lent but instead are doing something positive. This false dichotomy makes sense within the modern, post-Christian worldview, which sometimes seems to view self-denial as the only modern equivalent to sin; but the words of Christ himself…
A Holy Mess: Making the Most of Our Misfortunes, by Donagh O’Shea (Dominican Publications, €14.99 / £12.50) I was only a few pages into this excellent book when I came upon a passage discussing the 1951 catechism, so well known to an older generation. From time to time efforts are made by well meaning but…
At the end of last year, I wrote a piece here on the Mass, entitled, provocatively, ‘How NOT to say Mass’. I invited readers to respond. It turned out that many of you had your own ideas on what priests should not do. It makes sense that readers would have comments to make. You are…
Letter from America On the last Sunday in February, I attended Mass at the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia. I was visiting that city to attend the 2025 national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies. The cathedral is sumptuously decorated, and inevitably that distracted me from my prayers. Among…
By Fr. Shay Cullen While many good and dedicated bishops and priests in the Philippines and elsewhere are examining their conscience about their responsibility to bring pedophile clergymen to justice, many more are not. In the past, Pope Francis — who remains hospitalized — has strongly spoken out on the urgent need to cleanse…
Brendan O’Regan
Renata Steffens
Peter Costello