The role of the faithful in maintaining the balance For Christians, the challenge is to be careful of patterns of thought or habits of communication that too readily divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’, writes Fr Chris Hayden We live in a time of name-calling, pigeon-holing, and labelling. Perhaps, given our flawed human…
The sacred power of the religious habit In a world where everyone’s obsessed with being unique, the habit makes the most countercultural statement of all, ‘My truest self (Identity) is found only in Christ,’ writes Bro. Oman Ashraf OSA The religious habit is like a flame in the fog of modern life, where so…
T.P. O’Mahony The Councils of the Church: A Short History, by Norman P. Tanner SJ (Herder & Herder, £14.99 / €20.00) The debate within the Catholic Church about conciliarism has waxed and waned since the 15th to the 19th centuries. The central question – where does ultimate authority in the Church reside, with…
J. Anthony Gaughan Beidh Tú Alright: An Irish Language Journey, by Joe McHugh (Red Stripe Press / Orpen Press, €19.99 / £17.99) This book is an illuminating and eventful account of a Donegal man’s journey through often conflicting aspects of Irish life, culture and language. Everyone , but especially those who are doubtful on the…
If a person swears to God when he or she does not believe the Oath is devalued, for how can someone swear to God if they do not believe that God exists? Writes Barry Ward. Senator Barry Ward Article 34.6.1° Bunreacht na hÉireann sets out the Oath that every judge, appointed under the Constitution, must…
David O’Hare “According to the World Bank, climate change could push as many as 130 million people into extreme poverty by the year 2030, wiping out many of the development gains lower-income countries have made,” said Caoimhe de Barra, Trócaire’s CEO. Ms De Barra says the effects of climate change are having a particularly negative…
Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire, Barry Ward, recently made headlines by introducing a bill to remove references to ‘God’ from the Judicial Oath of Office. In an editorial for The Irish Catholic, Senator Ward defended his bill, stating, “My attempt to amend this Oath is not one to secularise Ireland but to establish the…
Does loneliness affect your parish? A strange thing happened to me last month: three of the people I used to visit on my First Friday calls all went to the same nursing home, within a few weeks. That meant that my call list in one of my church areas was instantly reduced to zero. The…
A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar’s Mandalay-Sagaing region March 28, causing widespread destruction and a rising death toll. As of March 29, at least 1,000 people had died in Myanmar, with hundreds more missing. The death toll may surpass 10,000 according to US Geological Survey’s estimates. In neighbouring Thailand, Bangkok city authorities said so far six…
A recent analysis of U.S. survey data found that children bring ‘high levels of happiness’ to activities like mealtimes, socialising, and traveling. Ken Burchfiel of the Institute for Family Studies analysed American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data, showing that everyday activities are more enjoyable when children are present. He noted that a 2013 Time article…