Today it is monkeys, not monks, that wander the cloisters of Toumliline, a former Benedictine monastery in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco. Perched on a hillside above the town of Azrou – about ninety minutes south of Fez – some twenty monks hailing from En-Calcat Abbey near Toulouse once called this place home. Arriving…
A hospital is supposed to be one of the safest places to go to amid armed conflict, like the war Israel is waging against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. However, there is strong evidence that Israeli forces are deliberately killing civilians, including women, children and journalists, in and around hospitals. On August 25, Israeli forces…
Far Right and Far Left voices clashed on Dublin’s O’Connell Street in April 2025. Shouts of “Refugees are welcome” met with “Ireland is for the Irish.” Yet Ireland’s future will not be decided by street protests or slogans. It will be shaped by something deeper: culture. Unless we take culture seriously, Ireland risks tearing its…
Our hope is that the 2026 Congress will not only support the renewal of pastoral life within the Archdiocese of Armagh, but also position us to contribute meaningfully to national and continental discussions as the Church enters the next phase of synodal implementation. Last autumn the Diocesan Pastoral Council and the Diocesan Synodal Team, along…
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich from Luxembourg sees a future for Catholicism in Europe despite profound changes. He told the weekly newspaper Die Furche that “many parishes will collapse” in the next ten years and the “system will come to an end”. However, the Church should not be fixated on the past: “We must accept that we…
Tetiana Metyk wrote letters to her husband while he went to the front Letter One My dearest, I’m writing to you in the evening once the children have fallen asleep and I finally have the chance to speak with you—even if only like this. I haven’t been able to reach you. Where you are…
The story of Crossmaglen is one that is well versed in modern Irish history. For anyone with even a passing knowledge or interest in the GAA or the Troubles that ripped through the north of Ireland, the name carries with it a heavy presence. Immediately certain images spring to mind. The crackle of Lynx British…
While the fate of the people in Ukraine and Gaza concerns many, the civil war in Sudan concerns only a few. After a trip to Egypt in which he spoke to Sudanese refugees, Archbishop Stefan Heße of Hamburg hopes to remind politicians of the conflict in Northeast Africa. According to Archbishop Heße, refugees from the…
Pope Leo XIV discussed the conflict in Gaza, including a two-state solution, with Israel President Isaac Herzog in a private audience at the Vatican on September 4. According to a Vatican statement after the meeting, the talks focused on the political and social situation in the Middle East and the need to guarantee “a future…
In the immediate post-New Testament period, after the event of Jesus Christ, the early Christian community was faced with a mammoth challenge. They needed to reimagine, even to reinvent, their understanding of God. A tall order! The traditional Jewish conception of God did not work anymore in the light of the New Testament talk of…