Biodiversity is a buzz word in Ireland today. In response, to the dramatic decline in the population of many species and the accompanying climate change, the spring general meeting of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference put forward the goal to provide 30% of parish grounds by 2030 over to biodiversity. Glenstal Abbey School, Co. Limerick,…
Irish charity Goal reached 14.6 million people with programmes in emergency response, health, nutrition and food security, livelihoods, and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) across the agency’s 14 countries of operation in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Ukraine, according to their impact figures for 2022. The aid agency reached 3.6 million people in…
The liturgies of Holy Week invite us to engage with the words, actions and experiences that constituted Jesus’s way to the Father writes Fr Tony Nye SJ We are people of the Way, an ancient term for the first Christians which is found in the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus showed us that way throughout…
A charity that combats sexual exploitation has praised the conviction of a man in Kerry who assaulted two Brazilian women involved in prostitution. Following the sentencing of a man for two sexual assaults in Tralee and Killarney, Policy and Communications Officer Danielle McLaughlin of Ruhama described the conviction as “important”. Ms McLaughlin said it provided…
Pope Francis has updated the procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or the cover up of abuse, specifying that the leaders of Vatican-recognised international Catholic lay associations and movements have the same responsibilities over their members that a bishop has over the priests of his diocese. The updated version of Vos Estis Lux Mundi…
The profound call of Vatican II not only still rings true, but is even more needed today says Archbishop Dermot Farrell The human path that we walk with its difficulties is the way to God. Our pilgrimage through time is God’s way of shaping us from within and without, by the events of history —…
An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A personal journey into the magic of rewilding, by Eoghan Daltun (Hachette Books, €19.99/£16.99) Christopher Moriarty ainforest is a word all too familiar to conservationists. The context is usually the forlorn one of the replacement of tropical rainforest by intensive cattle grazing for the ultimate production of beefburgers. With this background, the…
Deacon Frank Browne Easter is almost in view, and it is the time of year that parishes are beginning to prepare our young people for the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. I believe it is an opportunity for all of us who minister within our parish communities, to reflect upon how we can make…
Two new alternatives to burial and cremation fail to comply with the Catholic Church’s teaching on respect for the bodies of the dead, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine said. In a March 23 statement, the committee said it had evaluated human composting and alkaline hydrolysis, and concluded that both “fail to…
Saint of the week The life of this great servant of God appeared to be merely the unfolding and an ever-stronger exemplification of the virtues which he received in holy baptism. Born in 1390 of wealthy and devout parents at Valladolid in Spain, he lost his father at an early age; but he himself became…