The Irish Church does not do managed decline. It never has. It lets the clock run down, keeps the show on the road for one more season, and then eventually presents the result — a parish has to be merged or a college closed, the community and or staff quietly told the numbers have run…
Shortly after the publication of Misean Cara’s 2025 Impact Report, the organisation’s CEO sat down with The Irish Catholic to discuss the previous year’s highlights and demands, the challenges caused by reductions in global aid budgets, and what the future of Misean Cara’s international development in the global South will look like. Providing context for…
The final four standing in the race for the Liam McCarthy Cup will lock horns this weekend as the championship reaches its penultimate stage. In truth, hurling desperately needs two high-quality semi-finals to inject some life into what has, for long periods, been a surprisingly underwhelming summer. For years the Munster Championship has been regarded…
As we mark the national semiquincentennial on July 4, we might well reflect on Benjamin Franklin’s answer to Elizabeth Willing Powel, when the elderly sage left the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the Philadelphia matron demanded, “Well, Dr Franklin, what have we got, a republic, or a monarchy?” To which Franklin famously responded, “A republic,…
Do you remember the glorious summer of 1976 when we could hardly believe our luck as the sun shone in the sky for day after day? This was back when few of us went abroad on holidays and sunny weather was something that happened in Spain, not here. Well, for that summer, we enjoyed a…
Pope Leo’s style differs from that of his predecessor, Pope Francis, although they are concerned about many of the same issues. Pope Leo has called two extraordinary consistories in his short pontificate. It is well-known that Pope Francis preferred to rely on his kitchen cabinet of nine cardinals, dubbed the C9. Pope Leo has employed…
During the Palm Sunday Passion this year, one seemingly incidental detail caught my attention. As Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate, Matthew inserts an unexpected interruption: “Now as he was seated in the chair of judgement, his wife sent him a message: ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man. I have been greatly troubled today…
Whatever about Palestine being free from the river to the sea, the all-Christian town of Taybeh on the Palestinian West Bank is not even free from one end of the town to the other. At one end, Israeli volunteers shield Bedouin tribes from the worst excesses of the settlers, who are annexing the town’s olive…
Jesus, ‘remember’ me when you come into your kingdom (Lk 23:42). The prayer of the Good Thief on Calvary is one of the most profound expressions of the human longing for remembrance. Facing death, he does not ask for power, privilege, or earthly consolation. He asks to be remembered. Human existence is inseparable from memory.…
“Her contribution to helping vulnerable women and families in Cork and development of services that now provide continuing support to vulnerable people will be remembered for ever,” was the foremost sentiment about Sr Colette Hickey in consideration of her recent passing at age 108, holding the title of Ireland’s oldest person for a couple of…
George Weigel
David Quinn
Breda O'Brien
Fr Barry White