We live in a world where, as Karl Rahner says, our lives are always an unfinished symphony. In this life there is no final fulfilment. Mostly we are unconscious of that, and also unaware that this creates a certain gap inside us that makes us grasp greedily at life. But certain things can help bring…
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Matt 19:30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. Matt 20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard.…
How did I end up in Canada for my sabbatical? The answer is simple: I went to Mass in Victoria when I was on holidays there, and it was the best parish Mass I had seen in 42 years. What made the Mass so good? For one thing, the church was full for the Mass,…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when Andrew Scott is on the screen you’re not looking at anyone else. He has the presence of a Brando, a De Niro, an Al Pacino. And in Pressure (12A), he has their signature tune of being a simmering volcano to boot. I’m using a meteorological metaphor to…
In last week’s edition I had a special article about the media and the 9/11 attacks. Films are still being made about the tragedy. Colm Flynn’s excellent new programme Hope after 9/11 – Stories of Faith and Courage (EWTN, Saturday), explored the role played by religious faith, mainly through inspiring personal stories. The story of…
Ireland’s First Sanitorium: The St. Ann’s Hill Hydro, County Cork, 1843-1953, by Sinéad McSweeney and Ronan Foley (Four Courts Press / Maynooth Studies in Local History, €12.95/11.95) Cork’s famous “Hydro” was one of the most ambitious and successful health spas of its era in Europe. When its doors closed in 1953 it had been…
Parnell’s Other Island: Charles Stewart Parnell’s life and times in late Victorian Britain, by Alan F. Parkinson (Eastwood Books, €25.00 / £21.50) The title of this book echoes that of George Bernard Shaw’s 1904 play John Bull’s Other Island, but with the conceit inverted. Whereas Shaw was referring to Ireland, Parnell’s other island was…
Changing to Be Faithful: Living Tradition in a Synodal Church, by Eamonn Conway, foreword by Cardinal Mario Grech (Messenger Publications, €14.95 / £12.95) This is a book written to enlighten the ordinary reader in the whole Synodal process and what it means for the Church, now and into the near future. In reading…
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday renewed his appeal for an end to the war in Ukraine, decrying recent Russian attacks that have killed noncombatants and damaged civilian infrastructure. “With a sorrowful heart,” the pontiff said Sunday, “I have followed the news of the latest violent attacks that have recently struck several cities and civilian infrastructures…
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) have won the local elections in Saxony-Anhalt while the local church has consistently warned against the burgeoning far-right party. Although the party fell short of an outright majority in the eastern state of Germany, with nearly 44% of the vote, the victory has sent shockwaves throughout Europe and is widely…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Aubrey Malone
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello