Fr John Harris OP The old Irish saying warns us that “you’ll never miss your mother ‘til she’s buried beneath the grave”. During Lent the Church drops the Gloria from the Mass but it returns with great gusto at Easter. Last month I wrote about the ‘Silence of God’ and how this can be a…
Former Taoiseach John Bruton’s funeral saw a fitting send-off for a man well-known as an able and honest politician, “a man of integrity and truth,” as current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said. However, those in attendance had their attention drawn by chief celebrant and homilist Fr Bruce Bradley, SJ, to an aspect of Mr Bruton’s character…
Justin Robinson Under my window in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, the men of the neighbourhood are gathering outside the cafés to sip their morning coffee, smoke too many cigarettes, scan the newspapers and talk about what’s going on. There’s much to discuss lately, but not a great deal to be done. Their shops are closed…
Deacon Greg Kandra Gn 9:8-15 Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 1 Pt 3:18-22 Mk 1:12-15 Was that it? This weekend, the first Sunday of Lent, we hear Mark’s account of Jesus going into the desert before he begins his earthly ministry. But Mark doesn’t tell us very much. He mentions Satan and angels, temptations and wild…
Pope Francis canonised Argentina’s first female saint, María Antonia of St Joseph — known affectionately in the Pope’s home country as ‘Mama Antula’ — in a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday. Argentina’s President Javier Milei sat in the front row to the Pope’s right during the canonisation on February 11 and embraced the…
Dear Editor, Mary Kenny in her article on St Brigid’s many adaptations by various elements in society refers to St Joan of Arc, who has suffered the same treatment [The Irish Catholic – February 1, 2024]. The great Pucelle of France has been adapted by some unlikely groups from war mongers to radical feminists. Joan…
This American author ought to be on the Faithful’s radar, writes Russell Shaw Flannery O’Connor was not an evangelist. She was an artist, one of the most gifted American fiction writers of the 20th Century. But a profoundly Catholic theological vision informs her art, giving her stories resonance and depth that sound deep – and…
Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age by Joseph Minich, foreword by Carl R. Trueman (Lexham Press, €25/ $29 / £21) How did we, in the West, move from a world in which belief in God was the default position to one in which it is an option among others? Charles Taylor’s The…
Walking through the park on a brisk winter morning, I glance at the car park near the playground and notice a colourful van. I see big letters on its side panel: “Worry First”. Wait a minute. I look again. Actually, it says “Worry Free,” the slogan of a utility company’s appliance service. I chuckle. I’ve…
Q. In watching The Chosen, I noted a couple of demoniac episodes were included, as are in fact depicted in Scripture. No CGI effects were done to show the demons either going in or coming out of the victims, making the healed person seem to simply be someone with personality disorders. What does the Church…