I heard this story from a renowned theologian who prefers I don’t use his name in sharing this, though the story speaks well of his theology. He was giving a lecture and at one point stated that God didn’t want Jesus to suffer like he did. A woman in the audience immediately raised her voice:…
This story is found only in the Fourth Gospel. The first four chapters of this Gospel address the different “constituencies” of the Gospel’s readers: followers of the Baptist (1:19-51), the Jews (2:1-12), the Pharisees (3:1-21), the Samaritans (our Gospel today) and the Gentiles (4:46-54). The story is symbolic of the journey of faith, using marriage…
The Cistercian Community of Our Lady of Silence has announced it will establish its long-term home at Mellifont Abbey, Co. Louth, following what it described as a “prayerful process of discernment”. The community, formed from the former abbeys of Mount Melleray, Mount St Joseph and Mellifont, gathered at Mount St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea in…
When God gives us sanctifying grace in baptism, what he gives us is a share in his own divine life. The spirit of God is poured into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5). The Spirit, in turn, forms our hearts into a likeness of the eternal Son (cf. 2 Cor 3:18). Yet, all of this takes…
Today’s persecution of Christians is one of the most prevalent crises in the world today, a Vatican official has told the United Nations. “This unfortunate situation has deteriorated further in 2025 due to the exacerbating factors of conflict and extremism,” Msgr Daniel Pacho told the UN Human Rights Council on February 25. The priest is…
People in Ireland and across the world have watched with horror as Ayatollah Khameinei’s regime has terrorised Iran’s people for over four decades, torturing, executing and disappearing people. There has been ongoing resistance by the people. Iran executed over 1,000 people last year, and some 52 already this year – men, women, and children, anyone…
A pro-abortion professor at the University of Notre Dame is turning down a leadership appointment there after weeks of backlash that included more than a dozen US bishops criticising the school for its decision. Mary Gallagher, the dean of the university’s Keough School of Global Affairs, wrote in an email on February 26 that Prof.…
United States Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch, in an exclusive sit-down interview with Crux Now, said he sees the potential for a “Catholic moment” in the US given the high-profile Catholics in the current administration, with history’s first US-born pope. According to Ambassador Brian Burch, there is a new kind of conservativism in…
The new chairman of the Bishops’ Conference, Heiner Wilmer, does not want Germany to go it alone on Catholic Church reforms. Good coordination with the church leadership in Rome and with the World Synod is important to him, said the Bishop of Hildesheim on Thursday in Würzburg. He will travel to Rome soon so that…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Nuala O’Loan