Education is increasingly viewed only in terms of career outcomes, which undervalues the humanities according to Dr Fáinche Ryan, President of the European Society of Catholic Theology, and based in Trinity College Dublin. “Education has become very orientated towards jobs. So, in that we lose our vision of what education might be – and of…
Fr Ted writer and pro-women campaigner Graham Linehan was arrested on Monday by fiver armed police officers as he stepped of a plane at Heathrow for sending three tweets. “In a country where paedophiles escape sentencing, where knife crime is out of control, where women are assaulted and harassed every time they gather to speak,…
The days of comfortable Catholicism are past, The days of socially acceptable Christianity are over. The days of comfortable Catholicism are past. It is no longer easy to be a faithful Christian, a good Catholic, an authentic witness to the truths of the Gospel. A price is demanded. There are costs of discipleship – heavy…
Mass had just started when the children were murdered. It is not a sentence one should ever have to read or write. But even where songs have been sung, and the word of God recited in a psalm, bullets can fly from the darkness of those who seek to destroy. And so, evil disrupted worship…
What exactly is this ‘woke’ business?” asked an old friend, puzzled by the word’s ubiquitous use and the lack of exact definition. So, I thought I’d compile a simplified guide to an idea and a movement which wields power and influence in directing our values today. ‘Woke’ means replacing words like ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ with…
The bishops have just released a pastoral letter urging people, especially those who stopped going during the Covid pandemic, to start coming to Mass again. Introducing the pastoral on Sunday, Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare & Leighlin diocese, said: “Today’s Pastoral was born out of the experience of the Covid Pandemic” during which “Sunday worship…
This week, as we mark the anniversary of the death of St Mother Teresa of Calcutta, our hearts turn toward a woman who dared to take the Gospel at its word and live it in the streets and gutters of our world. She challenges us to see beyond comfort and convenience. She reminds us that…
It’s easy to forget how many men soldiered in the emerald green of Limerick before the county’s recent glory years. In a team now studded with generational stars, many can stake a claim to being among the greatest ever. One of them is Nickie Quaid. For fifteen years the Effin man has been Limerick’s undisputed…
Should I offer the sacraments to a parishioner with a limited lifespan? A man who lives in one of my parishes was given six months to live last February. He is an ordinary simple man, who likes nothing more than farming his land. In fact, the thought of dying would not be as hard for…
An HBO series on Marcial Maciel this month has once again placed the spotlight on the founder of the Legionaries of Christ and the complaints of sexual abuse against him. The congregation in Rome confirmed to ACI Prensa that it had known about the production for years and agreed to be interviewed to address their…
Martina Purdy
Mary Kenny
David Quinn