The story of the Legion’s extraordinary, though short-lived, success in China The story of the Legion of Mary in China is markedly different from any other of the 170 countries in which it has started in these past 100 years. It is different because of how the authorities in China reacted to its presence; it…
My first experience with the Legion was going door-to-door as a missionary, writes Bishop Fintan Monahan I often think of the comment of a religious sister who taught us at school, who claimed that the reason we were created is that God likes stories. The stories told at the Pearly Gates must indeed be interesting…
Staff reporter A senator has criticised the Chinese government’s regulations on religion which he says are leading to “churches being raided and closed”. Speaking in the Seanad, Independent Senator Victor Boyhan called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to publicly express concern regarding the “mistreatment” of Christians. His comments came after a motion…
As selected by some of our regular critics Thomas J. Morrisey In a secularised western world we are told that the existence of God has been disproved by science, religious faith is futile superstition, truth is relative, morality is the result of evolution, and there is no absolute right or wrong, that Jesus Christ did…
The wisdom of Frank Duff Can We Be saints? “In the heart of every right-thinking Catholic, God has implanted the desire to become a Saint. Yet few make a serious attempt to realise the ambition. The cause for this is to a large extent discouragement, due to the misunderstanding of what a Saint really is.…
Albert Reynolds: Risk Taker for Peace by Conor Lenihan (Merrion Press, €22.95/£19.99) Dr. Ciaran Casey With the deadline for my own book on the horizon, I was determined not to commit to any more work. But a request to review Conor Lenihan’s latest book was impossible to resist. His first biography, Haughey: Prince of Power was released…
Ruadhán Jones and Chai Brady Irish missionaries ministering with some of the world’s most vulnerable people in Africa have called on Ireland to give vaccine booster doses to developing nations “as a matter of justice”. The missionaries warn of a “greater disaster” with just 6% of adults in Africa fully vaccinated as new strains of…
Staff reporter New research reveals that more than one-in-ten Catholics who regularly attended Mass before the pandemic say they will not return when all restrictions are lifted. Carried out by Amárach Research in the Republic in mid-November, the survey found that a slim majority (53%) of pre-coronavirus Mass-goers have not returned, with 47% saying they…
Staff reporter Dom Richard Purcell has resigned as abbot of the largest Cistercian monastery in the country. Dom Richard, who made history in 2009 by becoming the country’s youngest abbot at just 33, has led Mount Melleray since moving from Roscrea in 2017. However, he tendered his resignation last week. Order of Cistercians A statement…
A report issued last week declared the treatment of Christian minority women and girls in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia a “human rights catastrophe”. The study, “Hear Her Cries”, published by the charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) last week, said that “at its most extreme”, forced conversions could amount…
