Homelessness has risen to another record high, with almost 17,000 people now living in emergency accommodation, including more than 5,300 children, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing. The November data shows 16,996 people were homeless, an increase of 230 in one month and nearly 12% over the past year. Child homelessness…
The United States of America celebrates its 250th anniversary of its foundation this coming July, but I wonder how many people in Ireland – or Europe generally – will join in the celebrations? For much of its history, America was seen as a beacon of light, freedom and goodwill, as well as prosperity and opportunity.…
When Pope Leo XIV sits down with the world’s cardinals this week for a two-day extraordinary consistory, the agenda may sound technical. In reality, it touches the nerve endings of the post-Francis Church. Governance, synodality and what the pope has called “liturgical peace” are not abstract themes. They are fault lines, unresolved tensions and open…
Religious Education occupies a curious place in public life. It is endlessly debated, poorly understood and easily sidelined. Although it asks some of the biggest questions pupils will face at school, it is increasingly treated as though it matters least. That neglect is no longer abstract. It is now playing out in courts and classrooms,…
What thoughts, I wonder, are conjured up in your mind at the mention of the Enlightenment? If you are of a traditional bent you may be a bit like the 19th century French clergy who were inclined to blame everything they did not like on Voltaire and Rousseau, two characteristic adepts of the Enlightenment in…
The Catholic Church formally concluded the Jubilee Year of Hope with the closing of the Holy Doors of Rome’s four papal basilicas, culminating on January 6 with the sealing of the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica by Pope Leo XIV. After a jubilee year not seen for centuries — with one pope opening the…
With Book VI we are moving ever closer to Augustine’s conversion scene at the end of Book VIII, and we are halfway through all thirteen books of Confessions. In Book VI, Augustine considers his interactions with many significant people during his three to four years in Milan (from late 384 AD when he arrived as…
Steve Bannon was one of the key people who helped get Donald Trump elected in 2016. He is one of the inventors of the ‘Make America Great Again’ (‘MAGA’) agenda, which lasts to this day. Bannon and Trump had a falling out early on in Trump’s first turn as president. Trump is in the habit…
The extraction by the United States of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, provided an early interruption into the dreams of a calmer, predictable 2026. Maduro is widely seen as being an illegitimate president, grimly holding onto power after a fraudulent election in 2024. He is considered corrupt – the US accuses…
I once lived in community for several years with an Oblate brother who was wonderfully generous and pious to a fault. But he struggled to pick up symbol and metaphor. He took things literally. For him, what the words said is what they meant! This caused him considerable confusion and consternation when each day praying…
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser