Russell Shaw Levelling hierarchical distinctions in the Church without removing them entirely has emerged as a principal objective of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality. That is perhaps the chief conclusion to be drawn from the first session of the synod, which took place October 4-29 at the Vatican. The second, and presumably last, session will…
Chris Altieri There was a curious news item carried by Vatican News recently, one which, among other things, reminds us that the Catholic Church has both real enemies and a long memory. It may also, however, serve to illustrate that often enough, the Church’s worst enemy is within – and the enemy isn’t who…
A Mexico school run by the Augustinian order threw themselves into Irish food and culture, making hurleys out of bits of plastic and sampling a full Irish breakfast, all witnessed by Irish friar Fr Colm O’Mahony OSA. Fr O’Mahony was invited to the Mendel Institute in the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, to join them in…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: My parish recently returned to communion under the second species. A Eucharistic Minister holds one cup and one cloth and does one wipe after each serve. Most people are still not receiving it for fear of Covid or other illness. Why can’t the Church simply use disposable plastic cups with…
Jonathan Luxmoore The president of the Polish bishops’ conference has bitterly criticised demands for liberal change by the Church in neighbouring Germany and urged the Pope not to allow them to dominate the Rome Synod on Synodality. “Awareness of the power of truth sustains my hope for the ongoing synod – that it won’t be…
Europe has witnessed a 44% jump in anti-Christian hate crimes across more than two dozen European countries over the past year, according to a group that monitors discrimination against Christians. The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) November 16 released its annual report detailing the spike in anti-Christian incidents, which it…
A “world famous and world renowned” scholar and librarian, Donegal-born Fr Leonard Boyle OP, was recently remembered and celebrated in Rome by his Irish Dominican brothers on the centenary of his birth in 1923. Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Provincial for the Dominican Order in Ireland, Fr John Harris OP, said that “the most…
Deacon Greg Kandra Ez 43:11-12, 15-17 Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28 Mt 25:31-46 Are we here already? Suddenly, we find ourselves at the end of the liturgical year, gazing down the road toward Advent and Christmas, and facing one of the biggest feasts on the Church calendar, with one of the longest…
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, was one of several US bishops who spoke passionately in support this week of a proposal to name the 19th Century English cardinal St John Henry Newman a “doctor of the Church”. The US bishops’ Committee on Doctrine asked the country’s body of bishops November 15, during their annual fall…
Kildare and Leighlin receives lay funding boost Proceeds from the writings of a deceased Laois parish priest will go towards training lay people for ministry in counties Laois, Kildare, Offaly and Carlow. After he was presented with a cheque for €7,000 by members of the Cummins family, from Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Bishop of Kildare and…