The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. Many of us will be familiar with the opening lines of Thomas Hood’s delightful poem… “I remember, I remember the house where I was born, The little window where the sun peeped in at morn.” Less familiar and less cheerful are his lines about November… “No shade,…
Chai Brady, Ruadhán Jones and Jason Osborne With Britain stepping up preparation to crash out of the EU, priests who minister in border parishes have warned that the coronavirus should not distract attention from the long-term effects of a ‘no deal’ Brexit on communities. Bishop Larry Duffy of Clogher, a diocese which straddles the border, and…
The fact the Government has included visiting a grave as an essential purpose, which allows for travel outside the permitted 5km limit during the six weeks of level 5 lockdown, will be “a great solace” according to one of Ireland’s top psychiatrists. UCD lecturer Prof. Patricia Casey also told The Irish Catholic that churches being…
The number of Catholics worldwide increased by almost 16 million in a year to 1.33 billion, according to statistics highlighted by the Vatican around the 2020 World Mission Sunday. The figures, shared by the Fides News Service, showed that there were 15,716,000 more Catholics at the end of 2018 – the most recent year where numbers are…
Border communities insist that a deal between Britain and the EU is vital for the peace process, reports Chai Brady, Ruadhán Jones and Jason Osborne The coronavirus pandemic has dominated domestic and international news for most of 2020 which has led to the overshadowing of other current events but Brexit still looms large in the…
San Francisco’s archbishop plans to conduct an exorcism on October 17 at the site of a now-toppled statue of St Junipero Serra at St Rafael Mission Church in San Rafael. Just the saint’s feet are left after the statue on church property was vandalised and desecrated on October 12 by what Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone described…
Despite being told that there is no such thing as truth, students are told to accept theories that are younger than they are without question, writes Ronan Doheny While University College Dublin’s marketing campaign to attract new students uses the slogan ‘Think Bigger’, my experiences in UCD and Trinity College Dublin have found the opposite…
The Catholic Church in Switzerland has backed legislation that would penalise companies that damage the environment or abuse human rights. “This initiative focuses on human rights violations, whose primary victims are the poorest and most vulnerable,” the Church said in a joint appeal with protestant leaders. “It makes an urgent appeal, to both our government…
Parishes lament the absence of young people, but most are happy and do not want to be disturbed, writes Gerard Gallagher W hen Pope Francis published Evangelii Gaudium, Laudato Si’ and Amoris Laetitia there was an excessive amount of praise. It has been striking how much quieter the reception of Christus Vivit – his document…
The Ontological Argument, a critique from a Thomistic perspective by J. Anthony Gaughan (Kingdom Books, €15.00) Donal Murray In this book, Fr Tony Gaughan has undertaken a careful and thorough reflection on what Patrick Masterson, President Emeritus of UCD, describes in his foreword as “one of philosophy’s perennial and still fascinating preoccupations”. Generations of philosophers, theologians…