Dear Editor, In the upcoming referendums we are being asked to delete reference to the ‘home’ and to hand over to the courts a hot potato, that of redefining the ‘family’; as they interpret the phrase “other durable relationships”. The human rights implications of cutting our understanding of family adrift from being founded upon marriage…
Lent is a graced time for spiritual transfiguration. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, “the Transfiguration ‘is the sacrament of the second regeneration’: our own Resurrection”. The Gospel account of the Lord’s transfiguration invites reflection on this momentous event in Jesus’ earthly life and our participation in this event. When Jesus tells his disciples…
Jonathan Luxmoore Priests and lay Catholics from Belarus said they still hope their Church’s situation will improve, despite the continued arrests of clergy and new religious restrictions that are imminent. “Priests are being targeted on various pretexts, and many Catholics feel pressured and harassed,” explained Fr Dzmitry Prystupa, from Baranavichy in Belarus’ southern Diocese of…
Sunday Gospel Jem Sullivan Most of us struggle to keep up with new year resolutions if we make them. I’ve fallen behind on my spiritual resolutions already! Thanks be to God that the Lenten season approaches. For in the coming weeks, the Church invites us to return to the Lord with our whole heart, mind…
Lorraine Mulholland We know about saints’ lives through monks called hagiographers. Scholars say that you must bear in mind before you read the stories below, that hagiographers wrote about a saint’s way of life, rather than history as we know it today. One of St Brigid’s seven hagiographers, for example, was St Cogitosus, who wrote…
Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to the small Catholic community in Turkey after gunmen attacked a church during Sunday morning Mass January 28, leaving at least one worshipper dead. The shooting occurred just before noon at the Santa Maria church in the Sariyer district of Istanbul, and was reportedly carried out by two masked…
Focus Ireland have warned that despite the number of people in homelessness dropping in December, there was a 14% increase in homelessness over the last year. Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said: “The fall in homelessness in December is very welcome and we hope this trend continues. However, it would be remiss of us not…
Religiously unaffiliated people, often referred to as “nones,” now make up the largest religious category in the US, according to a new report by the Pew Research Centre. Pew’s new report, released January 24, shows that nones now account for 28% of the total US population, outstripping the next largest group, Catholics, who make up 20%.…
There are good reasons behind why Lent begins as it does, writes D.D. Emmons Among the beautiful, meaningful and solemn ceremonies of the Catholic Church is the gathering of the Faithful on Ash Wednesday. This special day begins our Lenten journey. It is the start of 40 days of prayer, penance and almsgiving as we…
Consecrated Life Supplement Fr Bryan Shortall OFM. Cap. Consecrated life is the free and generous choice a woman or a man makes to follow God in the religious life, living with others in community and living the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The man who feels he might have a call to live his…