Inés San Martín For a man who said that his pontificate would be a short one, Pope Francis is showing no signs of slowing down at the beginning of his seventh year as the successor of Peter. In many ways, 2018 was a roller coaster for the Argentine Pontiff who turned 82 on December…
State Papers: Secrets of the powers that be The war in Europe came to an end on May 7, 1945, but Europe remained (and perhaps remains) haunted by the consequences. In the current harvest of files a couple relate to aspects, not so much of the immediate aftermath, but of later years. Two episode…
State Papers: Echoes of the past from the archives To lose one of Ireland’s leaders, albeit, in symbolic form is an odd thing to do. But Dáil Éireann managed it. On June 22, 1987 Tom Ryan RHA, then the distinguished president of that academy, rang the Taoiseach’s department in Mr Hughes’s second term as…
A Pakistani court sentenced Christian brothers Qaisar and Amoon Ayub to death for blasphemy after they were convicted of insulting the Islamic prophet Mohammed in articles and portraits posted on their website. Qaisar (44) and Amoon (38) have been held in Jhelum District Jail, Punjab province, 200km north of Lahore, since they were arrested in…
State Papers: Echoes of the past from the archives The value of these annual releases is not always to understand the immediate past, as so many journalists seem to think, but to cast light on obscure matters over the last two centuries. People abroad often write directly to the government seeking information, often about…
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review into the plight of persecuted Christians around the world and how much help they get from the United Kingdom. The review, to be led by the Anglican Bishop of Truro Philip Mounstephen, will look at government efforts to help some of the 215 million Christians who…
Bright Wings, Dappled Things: Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ with photographs of Fr Francis Browne SJ, commentary by Jo O’Donovan RSM (Messenger Publications, €17.95) Desmond Egan This brightly produced book is aimed not at specialists but at ‘beginning readers’ and within such a modest aim, it is excellent. It offers a fine selection of Hopkins’s…
Pro-life activist Michael O’Dowd is to run for election to the European Parliament. The Renua Ireland member has announced that he plans to run in the North-West Midlands constituency vowing that the theme of his campaign will be ‘Family, Community & Country’. Mr O’Dowd said that “today, if you have a traditional view, you are…
State Papers: Secrets of the powers that be These days the poet Patrick Kavanagh is seen by some as something close to a saint, certainly a man of sensitive expression and deep spirituality. But this was not the opinion in 1938 of Dublin booksellers or the gardaí in College Green barracks, as a police…
Defending and protecting human life means rejecting abortion, caring for the sick, offering a decent welcome to immigrants, valuing the contributions of the elderly, encouraging families to have children and caring for the environment, the bishops of Italy have said. “We are called to welcome life before and after its birth, in every condition and…