The monks of La Trappe Abbey have announced they are considering leaving their historic monastery by 2028, citing a shortage of vocations and the difficulties of maintain the site. In a statement released earlier this month, the community said the possibility of departure would mark “a page of history that is about to be turned,”…
By Richard Maher and Mario Luis López Durán At 5 o’clock in the evening on March 19, 1739, one of the great bells of Palma de Mallorca’s La Seu Cathedral, known as N’Antònia, knelled the toll of Extreme Unction. Don Patricio Laules, or Sir Patrick Lawless as he was known by his Irish contemporaries, was…
Last week we learnt of a male crèche worker accused of cruelty against children and assault. It follows several recently reported cases in the UK of men who have physically or sexually abused very young children, including babies, in childcare settings. In one Australian case last year it was reported that 1,200 children had to be tested for sexually transmitted infections.…
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine completely changed people’s lives into a constant horror that has already been going on for a fifth year. Four years of fear for one’s own life and the lives of loved ones. Ireland became a second home for tens of thousands of Ukrainians—refugees from the war. A country they came…
Over the last decade, calls to legalise and expand abortion in Ireland have repeatedly emphasised ‘choice’, with little recognition that this is a choice resulting in significant risks for pregnant women and the almost certain death of an unborn human being. However, recent court cases in which pregnant women lost their babies – not by…
Study Groups on relevant questions from the Synthesis’ Report of the First Session of the XVI General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops were set up and Study Group No. 5 looked at women in ministries. Here is an extract. Fundamental Issues (III): Ministries Turning to the concrete forms of women’s participation in…
The splendid Maggio Musicale building in Florence was the venue for the third annual European festival of journalism and media freedom. As the programme explained, the festival is a “three-day event where citizens can come together to explore crucial themes shaping our relationship with information.” The chief organiser is the Centre for Media Pluralism and…
The institutions that were a very common feature of Irish life for such a long time, and in which many abuses took place, are indelibly associated in the public mind with the Catholic Church. This is understandable to a certain degree because they ran so many of them, chiefly the industrial schools, the mother and…
Recently, I spoke at a conference focused on the Irish Gender Recognition Act in Dublin. Much of what I said will seem familiar to people who follow my work, but I think I managed to express why gender self-ID is harmful to women rather than men better than I have before. I laid out what…
In five breathless minutes on the hallowed turf of Croke Park in 1994, Limerick’s world collapsed. They had waited 21 years. Since 1973, the Liam McCarthy Cup had eluded them, slipping through fingers and fading into memory. Now, leading Offaly 2-13 to 1-11 as the clock edged toward injury time, the famine appeared finally over.…
Eilis Mulroy
David Quinn