Staff reporter Renowned Catholic thinker Jean Vanier will be the theme of an event in Dublin next week to mark the ‘Year of Mercy’. Mr Vanier is renowned for his founding of the L’Arche movement and his work with people living with developmental disabilities. US-based Prof. Michael W. Higgins, an expert on Vanier’s spirituality and author…
Margaret Cartwright There are ambitious plans to put the promotion of vocations centre-stage in 2016, writes Margaret Cartwright Vocations Ireland is excited about receiving a recent grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. This will give us the opportunity to plan and develop new programmes towards helping the development of a growth in the understanding…
Prof. William Reville The average British life expectancy at birth in 1900 was 50 years, today it is 81 years. Much of this improvement can be attributed to modern scientific medicine and in particular to the introduction of antibiotics. Many bacterial infections such as septicemia and puerperal fever that killed so many people historically can…
Transition Year students from Tuam describe a project to create a green space for their school We chose ‘The Power of Women’ as our theme for Transition Year 2015/2016. This theme was reflected in all our projects and assignments. In the ‘Build a Bank Challenge’ we introduced students to an influential woman every week. We selected these…
Joe Carroll Power Play. The Rise of Modern Sinn Féin by Deaglán De Bréadún (Merrion Press, €17.99) This valuable book is all, or nearly all, you need to know about Sinn Féin under Gerry Adams, as the party gears itself to enter the corridors of power after this year’s general election. The author, an experienced political…
Church leaders have denounced a double-headed suicide attack on Christian-owned restaurants in Qamishli, Syria, that left 20 people dead and more than 40 injured. “It was a sinister message the terrorists wanted to send to the Christians of this city, sowing death and tears,” Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan said, describing the massacre,…
The state of Utah can end its contract with Planned Parenthood, which is paid for with federal funds, a judge has ruled. US District Judge Clark Waddoups, who previously blocked an effort by Utah governor Gary Herbert to defund the Utah affiliate of Planned Parenthood, has ruled that “these are the types of decisions that…
The leading US Democratic candidate has said she believes ISIS’ campaign against Christians constitutes genocide. Hillary Clinton was asked at a New Hampshire meeting whether she would join faith and secular leaders from across the political divide “in calling what is happening by its proper name, genocide”. She replied that she would do so “because…
South Africa’s Catholic justice and peace commission has called for a halt to nuclear procurement plans and a referendum on the issue, claiming that the risks of adding nuclear energy to the financially beleaguered country’s power grid outweigh its economic benefits. According to a statement from the commission’s chairman, Kimberley’s Bishop Abel Gabuza, the country…
‘An ocean of mercy transcends human misery’ – Pope God’s mercy transcends the misery that so often marks human experience, Pope Francis has said. “A torrent of misery, swollen by sin, seems to contradict the fullness of time brought by Christ”, he said in a homily at St Peter’s Basilica on January 1, asking, “how can the fullness of time have come when…