Fr Patrick Briscoe OP In August 2022, when Transformers star Shia LaBeouf revealed during a conversation with Bishop Robert Barron that he had experienced a conversion and begun to attend Mass, I wrote that LaBeouf seemed to me to have undergone a genuine change of heart. He spoke regretfully of the pain and harm he…
Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese has announced the completion of the script for a new movie, A Life of Jesus. Mr Scorsese co-wrote the screenplay with critic and filmmaker Kent Jones, based on Shusaku Endo’s book of the same name, and plans to to shoot it later this year. The American director said he envisions…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: I always thought the end of the Christmas season came with Epiphany and the arrival of the Magi. A priest recently said the season doesn’t end until a week later with the Baptism of the Lord. What has the Baptism of the adult Jesus got to do with Bethlehem? If…
The German Child Protection Association has criticised Pope Francis for his comments on the beating of children. “There is no justification for beating children, not even a papal one,” said Daniel Grein, Federal Director of the Child Protection Association, in Berlin. “Anyone who physically abuses a child is doing the wrong thing. This also includes…
Liz Harris Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. But how has the war affected the religious life of Muslims and Christians in the area? Water shortages and wudu Gaza is running dry. Water shortages have been rife in the strip for decades, but since the war began after the Hamas attack on 7…
Luca Attanasio While in Europe and other areas of the world there has been a mixed reaction to the publication of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s statement ‘Fiducia Supplicans’, with German bishops in clear majority in favour or French who speak of blessings as a ‘way to get closer to God’, the…
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa has been released from prison and sent into exile along with 18 imprisoned churchmen as the Nicaraguan government expelled its most prominent critic, whose presence behind bars bore witness to the Sandinista regime’s descent into totalitarianism, along with its unrelenting persecution of the Catholic Church. Vatican News confirmed on January 14 at…
Bro. Luke McNamara OSB On the eve of the Epiphany in brilliant sunshine that seemed to promise better days are coming, a large group of volunteers, in a quarter of an acre plot in a field just South East of the Front Gate, planted 2,500 native Irish trees. The density of planting follows the Akire…
Penelope Middelboe I fear for Pope Francis’s health. I wrote him a personal letter posted on 7 December, but it hasn’t left the UK yet according to the tracking number. I fear for his health because the last time I wrote personally to a pope was in May 1963 when I was six years old.…
Ireland gave a warm welcome to China’s second-in-command this week, Premier Li-Qiang, in what was the first visit of a high-ranking Chinese official since Mr Li’s predecessor, Li-Keqiang’s 2015 visit. It isn’t a stretch to say that on this occasion, the red-carpet was rolled out ahead of Mr Li’s visit, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying…