Pakistani legislators have moved to curb lynchings and mob violence against minority communities via a bill amending a number of criminal laws. Under the reforms passed by the National Assembly, sectarian violence and forced conversions are outlawed while the deliberate use of words to hurt religious feelings, already an offence punishable by a year in…
Pope writes preface to abuse survivor’s story Pope Francis has written the preface to a new book penned by a victim of clerical sexual abuse. The book, I Forgive you, Father, was written by Daniel Pittet, a devout Catholic who met Pope Francis in 2015, and so moved him with his childhood story that the…
Inés San Martín On February 11, Pope Francis sent an envoy to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina, not to rule on the credibility of the alleged Marian apparitions taking place at the site since 1981, but to assist with pastoral issues. Speaking to Crux, a source close to the matter said that Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Prague, Poland,…
“No-one wants them.” Across the plethora of reporting of the plight of Myanmar’s tortured Rohingya community, no single phrase summed up the plight of a people so precisely as that employed by Pope Francis on February 8. During his weekly General Audience, the Pontiff chose to make the despised Muslim minority community the subject of…
Sr Colette Kane OP I am a religious sister living and working in An Tairseach, the Dominican Farm and Ecology Centre in Wicklow town. The spirituality of this community and place is given expression and witnessed to through the lens of creation theology, where planet earth is understood as the primary revelation of the Divine.…
Nicole O’Leary Nicole O’Leary describes how students in Portlaoise benefit from the John Paul II Awards As part of being a CEIST school, 5th and 6th year students from Scoil Chríost Rí, Portlaoise, participate in the John Paul II awards annually. Girls in our school from all walks of faith come together to rejoice and…
Gregory O’Connor Rebellion and Revolution in Dublin: Voices from a Suburb, Rathfarnham, 1913-23 (South Dublin County Council, €15; available also from any South Dublin Library, or online from www.southdublinlibraries.ie/bookstore) This book consists of 13 essays by different authors on various aspects of the momentous events which occurred in the 10 years between the founding of…
The World of Books The old adage tells us we are what we eat. Whatever about that, it is certainly true that, intellectually at least, we are what we read. This being the case, I was not unnaturally curious about how books might have shaped the mind and imagination of the new president of the…
Bríd O’Meara Bríd O’Meara from Aware talks about how to build emotional resilience Resilience is a key factor in life, and something which we can all work to develop and enhance, according to Bríd O’Meara, Director of Services with Aware. “Resilience can be considered an ongoing process in life, rather than something you have or…
Tom and Madeline McCully Tom and Madeline McCully describe their marriage encounter weekend We’ve been married for 46 years, and 39 years ago our lives were transformed when we made a Marriage Encounter Weekend. We were seven years married and like many a happily married couple found ourselves in a bit of a rut. While…