The Mexican bishops’ conference criticised US President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border and issued a strong defence of migrants, saying the Catholic Church could not stand by “in the face of suffering by our brother migrants as they seek better conditions”. The letter, addressed to people in Mexico,…
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Penguin Ireland, €16) Peter Hegarty In a congenial, fascinating book neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blackmore explores the wondrous malleability of the human brain. The brain is continually changing and adapting. If I took up juggling, the part of my brain that co-ordinates the movement of my…
Brenda Drumm World Meeting of Families 2018 The Amoris: Let’s Talk Family! Let’s Be Family programme is well underway now in parishes. The six different parish conversations are designed to invite people to reflect on The Joy of Love, the document Pope Francis prepared after a worldwide consultation and the two synods on the…
The Society of St Vincent de Paul has announced it will not be taking a stance in the upcoming referendum on abortion, and will not be issuing any advice to its members on what choice to make on polling day. Contacted by The Irish Catholic this week the Church-founded organisation said in a statement that…
Grieving people gathered at a hockey arena in Canada for an interfaith service to mourn 15 people who died after the bus carrying the town’s junior hockey team collided with a truck. “I don’t want to be here, but it’s good that we are,” said the Rev. Sean Brandow, the Humboldt Broncos team chaplain and…
The new apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis Gaudete et Exsultate (rejoice and be glad) was published this week. Here we offer bitesize extracts from the 22,000-word document CHAPTER ONE : THE CALL TO HOLINESS THE SAINTS WHO ENCOURAGE AND ACCOMPANY US The saints now in God’s presence preserve their bonds of love and communion…
An Irish Presentation Sister is the subject of a documentary – Sister India – produced by Irish film-maker, Myles O’Reilly. Sr Loreto, born Peg Houlihan near Carrick-on-Suir in Co. Tipperary in 1927, has spent 70 years teaching in India where she recently celebrated her 91st birthday. The film is currently being screened at a number…
After months of investigation, Vatican police have arrested a former staff member at the Vatican nunciature in Washington on charges related to the possession and distribution of images of child abuse. The Vatican said that Msgr Carlo Alberto Capella was taken into custody by the Vatican gendarmes at the request of Vatican City State’s promoter…
Forest fun for the whole family Whether your passionate about birds, squirrels and all things nature, or just want to find out a little more about wildlife, then attending the family fun box building event in Cushendun with Biodiversity Office Rachel Bain, and Glens Red Squirrel Group will the perfect opportunity for you! Taking place…
Churchill & Ireland by Paul Bew (Oxford: Oxford University Press) £9.99pb Ian d’Alton One of the problems that an historian faces is the asymmetric. In the case of Britain and Ireland, that is particularly acute. The Irish see Britain through the telescope the right way round. It looms large in our consciousness. Most Britons, though, look…