Dear Editor, the recent Ukrainian ‘Operation Spider web’, which targeted airbases and military hardware across Russia in a simultaneous drone attack over several time zones deep behind enemy lines without loss of life, was a sharp contrast with how the rest of the war was being waged in the trench warfare in eastern Ukraine aka…
Almost 55 years ago, Bro. Kevin Crowley, the Capuchin Friar who founded the Capuchin Day Centre, felt an obligation to take action on witnessing a homeless man rummaging through a bin for food. Bro. Kevin was a friar who acted more from the heart and the gut than from the head and his initial response…
The Anchorage Bernard O’Donoghue Faber and Faber, £12.99 / €16.99 One of the few photographs of Bernard O’Donoghue before he left Cork for England, in an era when only returned Yanks had cameras, was taken in 1960 at the ordination of Daniel O’ Leary, my first cousin (later to become a celebrated author and theologian). …
Q: I used to bring Holy Communion to the sick and wondered: why can’t we bring the Precious Blood to those who are dying and can’t consume solid food? A: The short answer is that, with a few caveats, the Church does in fact allow Holy Communion under the form of wine to be taken…
It has become an annual event, a sad milestone, a predictable outcome. Yes, it’s the release of abortion figures, and the tragic total for 2024 was 10,852. You’d expect such a death toll to cause shock and outrage, but media coverage was minimal. Even as we agonise over the Tuam babies, we can manage to…
Conversations in the Spirit: A Guide to the Synodal Method Juan A. Guerrero Alaves SJ & Oscar Martin López SJ, with a prologue by Pope Francis, translated by Austen Ivereigh Messenger Publications, €14.95 / The cover image of this book in a certain way sums up the idea behind the book as a whole. Through…
I recently wrote about the film industry’s problems with the Catholic Church in the early years of the last century. Falling audiences were an associated problem. The Depression almost killed off the industry. After it ended, a bacchanalian atmosphere reigned, leading to material unsuitable for family audiences appearing in a profusion of the works being…
The Doré Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy Search Press, £19.00 / €20.50 Gustave Doré (1832-1883), a cradle Catholic born in the conflicted city of Strasbourg, was an artist whose anxious imagination was suffused with an engagement with the supernatural on many levels. Some years ago, I think in 2006, my wife and I on a visit…
Trócaire partner Caritas Jerusalem’s medical point in Deir al-Balah, Gaza completed evacuation on Tuesday morning, July 22. The medical facility and the medicine supply warehouse are located in the Al-Bourka area of Deir al-Balah. The evacuation process started on Sunday, July 21 as a precautionary measure taken following an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) evacuation order for…
Genesis 18:20-32. Colossians 2:12-14. Luke 11:1-13 The first reading (Genesis 18:20-32) from today’s liturgy offers a very intriguing example of Abraham’s prayer for the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. By examining his attitude, we can already grasp what a genuine prayer should look like. Sometimes, people think that prayer is merely a set of devotional…
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Fr Dominik Domagala