Nettuno is an Italian coastal town about seventy kilometres south of Rome. I often travel there by train on my days off to walk the beach and pray. Nettuno is famous for a huge Military Cemetery where thousands of soldiers are buried who were killed during the Second World War in January 1944 when Allied…
It was a warm June Wednesday in Barcelona. Fresh off a few days in Rome, my friend and I had set out for the day, wandering the streets aimlessly and taking in the new foreign city. As we were strolling, we came across a large group of clergy in their vestments. Instinctively, I thought they…
Jeffrey Donaldson can expect a tough time in prison for his crimes – paedophiles and rapists are lowest in the penitentiary caste system. But there’s one English priest who is willing to reach out to him, to offer redemption and healing. However, the Rev. Jonathan Aitken is no ordinary Anglican pastor. He’s been an MP,…
Fifty-six years ago my father died, late on a December night. As clearly as I remember his death, I remember the bitter cold. Within a day the temperature dipped to minus forty degrees Fahrenheit. I was still young; too young (I thought, at the time) to lose a father. Later, I’d realise I was wrong.…
Bishop Ray Browne of Kerry has announced clergy appointments for the diocese to take effect from July 15. The diocesan changes are as follows: Fr Padraig Walsh, Our Lady and St Brendan’s, Tralee, to be PP Castleisland. Fr Teddy Linehan (Hospital Chaplain) to be PP Our Lady and St Brendan’s, Tralee. Fr Kieran O’Brien Adm.…
Mass Readings: Zechariah 9:9-10 Romans 8:9, 11-13 Matthew 11:25-30 Anyone who has ever worked for some time in the countryside knows the quiet strength of a donkey. It will never win a race. It does not impress anyone by its appearance. Yet it patiently carries burdens day after day without demanding attention. It is…
Q: I have a question about the last judgement. When Jesus comes again to judge us all, how public will this be? As in, will everyone know each other’s sins when this happens? A: There is a lot that we simply don’t – and indeed, can’t – know about what our first-hand experience of…
Because J.R.R. Tolkien was a serious Catholic, one might assume religion would be obvious in his literary masterpiece. Yet there is no religion in The Lord of the Rings in the usual sense. There is magic and even glimpses of the demonic, but the world Tolkien creates is wholly contained within itself: large, old, mythological,…
Bishop of Achonry and Elphin Kevin Doran welcomed the news that RTÉ One will broadcast a feature documentary Heart of a Servant – Father Flanagan story on July 6, citing the documentary as an “excellent production focusing on a very important personality in our recent faith history.” Born in Bishop Doran’s own diocese, Boys Town…
The President of Dublin City University, Prof. Daire Keogh, was invested as a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great, an award bestowed by Pope Leo XIV, during the Annual Mass of the Association of Papal Orders in Ireland at Newman University Church, Dublin. Archbishop Dermot Farrell conferred the papal honour in the…
Mary Kenny
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Renata Steffens
Fr Dominik Domagala