Dialogue and respectful understanding are the prerequisites for social harmony and world peace, Hong Kong Cardinal John Tong Hon told a symposium on Christianity and China. “If we see only our own reasons and insist on our own experience as the norm, thereby denying the basis of other people’s experience, then disagreement, quarrels and even…
Dirty Glory: Go Where Your Best Prayers Take You by Pete Greig (Hodder & Stoughton, £9.99) Emily Keyes In a world that seems increasingly ambivalent to religion and God, Pete Greig’s ‘24-7 prayer revolution’ is nothing short of incredible. Started in 1999, the prayer movement began as a humble gathering of young people curious to learn…
Dear Editor, I am a young Catholic woman in her twenties, and I am writing to challenge the assumption that the Church is a misogynistic institution. The Oxford dictionary defines a misogynist as “a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women”. For some, the Church is misogynistic because it does not ordain…
Pat O’Kelly Despite visiting Leipzig last year during its annual Bach Festival, my musical encounters centred not on Johann Sebastian but on Claudio Monteverdi, as the event also celebrated the Italian master’s 450th anniversary through his proto-opera Orfeo and magnificent Vespers of the Blessed Virgin. The St Nicholas Lutheran Church provided the resplendent ecumenical…
Based on the Oberammergau script and adapted for stage performances, a huge cast of amateur actors and a talented choir from Camross and several areas of the diocese will bring to life the story of Christ in Camross Hall in Wexford. Under the stage direction of Michael Stafford and musical direction of Vicky Barron and…
The Notebook Fr Vincent Sherlock The Lent has passed and hopefully it treated you well. Looking back we might well identify moments of great grace and moments of failure but, combined, they are the story of Lent and the pathway to where we now gather. Easter Sunday can be unfairly seen as the poor…
A zoo like no other After spending time over Easter reflecting on your faith and the importance of family, you can wrap up your Easter Weekend with a visit to the Electric Zoo, which returns to the Wells House and Gardens in Gorey on Easter Monday. The Electric Zoo is full of fun, drivable electronic…
Writing in this newspaper in 2008, Fr Jim Good, who died last week, discussed his clash with the Bishop of Cork, and their eventual reconciliation in Africa I am the only person familiar with the last two years of Bishop of Cork and Ross Cornelius Lucey’s life, so I feel some record should be written…
Bishop Francis Duffy of Ardagh and Clonmacnois has defended the Eighth Amendment as a “life-affirming constitutional provision” and has argued that the issue merits discussion from the perspective of Church teaching. In the pastoral letter released on March 23, the bishop said that human life begins at conception and that nobody has the right to…
Knights of Malta suspend ‘Dictator Pope’ author The author of a highly critical book about Pope Francis, entitled The Dictator Pope, has been suspended by the Knights of Malta. In a statement the order said it disassociated itself from the book and condemned the “vile attack against the Pope”. The order said author Henry Sire has been suspended pending the results of…