The Israeli-Palestinian conflict grew from two national movements – Jewish Zionism and Palestinian Arab nationalism – seeking security and self-determination in the same land. Antisemitism and the Holocaust are essential to understanding Jewish support for a state of their own; Palestinian displacement, statelessness and military occupation are equally important to understanding Palestinian attitudes. Both histories…
For much of Ireland’s history, faith and culture were deeply intertwined. Church buildings stood at the centre of communities, Catholic schools shaped generations, and participation in religious life was often seen as a normal part of Irish identity. Today, however, Ireland finds itself in a very different place. Church attendance has declined, religious practice can…
Pope Leo XIV sat in the Stade de France just outside Paris last Friday night watching the wonderful spectacle of the Saints of France, surrounded by 80,000 young people. The spectacle presented the great figures of the Church in France down through the centuries, the most dramatic moment being the entrance of Joan of Arc…
The General Secretariat of the Synod has published the Final Report of Study Group 6 on The revision in a synodal missionary perspective of the documents touching on the relationship between bishops, consecrated life, and ecclesial associations, together with the second part – concerning ad limina Visits – of the Final Report of Study Group…
I recently read Douglas Murray’s The Madness of Crowds. This pointed me to Charles McKay’s 1841 book of the same headline, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Somehow, this led me to Enthusiasm, first published in 1950, by Ronald A. Knox. Three different centuries. Similar issues. We encounter them today. Both Knox and McKay,…
There is something very strange about standing beside the bones of someone who died 800 years ago. And yet, as I stood beside the remains of St Francis of Assisi earlier this year, I found myself speaking to him as though he were alive. Perhaps that was because, for me, this was never simply a…
Dublin footballers have dominated the Irish sporting psyche for the better part of the past two decades, cementing their place as arguably the greatest team in GAA history. Their unprecedented six All-Ireland titles in a row remains a feat yet to be matched in the hurling world. It can be easy to forget just how…
I was very impressed by the editorial ‘The future of the Irish Church’ (IC, September 10). The editor has raised some very important and challenging questions which merit further discussion. The three solutions to the present priest shortage are well analysed. Importing priests from other countries robs their native lands of their ministry and is…
Blessed Fulton J. Sheen is truly “blessed” or “fortunate” because of his communion with Jesus Christ during his life, said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle in his homily during Archbishop Sheen’s beatification Mass September 24 in St Louis. “To choose yourself and to go wherever you want to go is not mission, and it is not…
Pope blasts assisted suicide as ‘false compassion’ at French shrine known for miraculous cures. Pope Leo XIV on Sunday blasted the legalisation of medically assisted death as immoral “false compassion,” as he doubled down on Catholic teaching about life during a visit Sunday to Lourdes, the French Catholic shrine associated with miraculous cures of the…