Anne Alcock Anne Alcock shares how she faced the challenge of a breast cancer diagnosis My bra is getting to me. I am wriggling with discomfort. Finding that loosening the band, or adjusting the cup, isn’t changing things. There is a sharp jab on my right side, going on for some days now like a…
Eco Eye Jonny Hanson In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis paints a compelling picture of the people of God together rediscovering their mandate to care for God’s world. But how are we to put this noble calling into practice? Here are three suggestions at three different levels: the individual; the parish; and the diocese or denomination.…
Sean Finlay Sean Finlay recounts a once in a lifetime trip to experience Zambian culture The Zambian Immersion Project at St Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise, offers 16 students a coveted once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Zambian culture first-hand through deeply enriching work in schools, orphanages and health clinics over an unforgettable two weeks. Our…
John Wyse Jackson Molly Keane: A Life by Sally Phipps (Virago, £20) The writer Molly Keane was born in 1904 in Co. Kildare, a daughter of Moira O’Neill, the poet of the Glens of Antrim. She grew up in a horsey, Protestant family near Ferns, Co. Wexford, in an 18th-Century house that was burned in…
Fr Vincent Sherlock Two days before the celebration of Confirmation in our parish we gathered for a short practice. I looked at the group of 38 boys and girls preparing for Confirmation (as an aside, the 38, typical, I would say, of many parishes like my own, represent the total number of pupils in senior…
There is a great need for “prayer and penance” to plead for the end of the many wars spreading all over the world and the many “absurd conflicts” that “disfigure the face of humanity”, Pope Francis has said. Referring to the canonisation of Ss Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto in Fatima, he said that the…
Ambar Calvo, a 20-year-old student of architecture at the University of Panama, was the winner of the competition among 103 entries for the next World Youth Day logo, to be held in Panama from January 22-27, 2019. Msgr José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, Archbishop of Panama, said the design managed to capture the message the country…
Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti has urged the international community to focus on alleviating the drought in Somalia, as six million people experience severe food shortages and contend with the al-Shabab extremist group. Bishop Bertin expressed fear that the country may slip into a famine if action was delayed. “The Somali government, international community and…
Church leaders in Indonesia have criticised the government for using the country’s drugs problem as an excuse for rejecting the UN recommendation to abolish the death penalty. The recommendation, put forward at the 27th session of the UN Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, which reviewed Indonesia’s human rights situation, was rejected by Law and Human…
Dear Editor, Fr Eugene Duffy and the staff of Mary Immaculate College are to be congratulated on organising a seminar entitled ‘Reimagining Sacramental Preparation’. Up to the present, our evangelising was based on a very simple strategy. The parents had the Faith and practiced it as a family and as part of the parish community.…