Dr Lazarus Gidolf An 11-year-old boy comes home crying from school. His older sister asks what happened. “Teacher called me names!” he replies. “What did he call you?” she asks angrily. “He called me ‘deacon’ and the whole class bullied me afterwards… I am not going back… they are all calling me ‘deacon’…” Anger moved…
Joe Carroll When World War II broke out in September 1939, it left many hundreds, possibly more than a thousand Irish men and women living in France with a dilemma; whether to seek refuge in neutral Éire or hold on to see what would happen. For those who were still there following the fall of…
Christopher Altieri Of all the areas that constitute proper objects of the Church’s magisterium – her official teaching office – Catholic social teaching is the one that has, without doubt, received the greatest attention and development over the past century and a half. Why is it, then, that so few Catholics seem to have heard…
Winnie Woodburn, 84, during last Sunday’s annual Croagh Patrick pilgrimage. Photo: CNS
Staff Reporter Taoiseach Leo Vardakar is right that Ireland’s homelessness crisis will not be solved in the Government’s lifetime, and the Government is to blame, a leading campaigner has said. Mr Varadkar’s comments on TV3’s Tonight with Vincent Brown revealed a profound ignorance of the nature of the crisis, Fr Peter McVerry told The Irish…
Belfast republicans argue for pro-life stance A talk entitled ‘Cherish All Children Equally’ taking place in Belfast will put to the audience that there is an onus on Republicans to take a pro-life stance. Prominent republicans, Dr Anne McCloskey and Monica Digney will argue the Proclamation’s commitment to “cherish all the children of the nation…
Complaints made against pro-life billboards have been rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the billboards were found to be accurate. Pro-life campaigners, Both Lives Matter (BLM), displayed two billboards claiming that ‘100,000 people are alive today because of our laws on abortion’ in Northern Ireland. There were 14 complaints made about the claim,…
An American writer-artist duo are seeking to raise $7,500 (€6,350) to complete production of a comic book about Skellig Michael. The Last Monks of Skellig Michael by Philip Kosloski and Michael Lavoy, with help from veteran comic artist Jim Fern, tells the story of an adventurous boy who leaves a monastic school on the mainland…
Grandparents are responsible for passing on faith values that will enable children to cope with sources that are “hostile to faith and spiritual values”. Archbishop Michael Neary spoke at a special mass organised by the Grandparents Association last week on the feast day of Sts Joachim and Anne in Tuam, Galway. “We have a responsibility…
Clergy at Portlaoise parish were “amazed” as over €16,000 was raised for Trócaire’s emergency East Africa appeal – five times more than they would receive in a normal week. The parish usually get €3,000 each week from their offertory collection, but this was far surpassed by the collection held late last month. Msgr John Byrne…