Fr John Harris OP Over the summer many of us will visit Knock. Visiting Knock is unlike visiting any other Marian shrine. For example, during the apparitions of Fatima and Lourdes, nobody saw or heard anything except Bernadette at Lourdes, and the children at Fatima. Whereas the story of Knock is completely different. The…
Church attendance has dropped off since the pandemic for Generation X more sharply than for other age groups, according to a new survey. The survey of 2,000 adults conducted by the Cultural Research Centre at Arizona Christian University in the US found that the percentage of people ages 39 to 57 who attended a worship service during…
Cork guide map highlights Christian heritage A guide map offering insight into 101 archaeological sites around north and east Cork has been launched by County Mayor, Cllr Frank O’Flynn. The map promotes significant rural monuments and sights, including many from the early Christian period of Ireland. Mayor O’Flynn welcomed Cork County Council’s latest heritage publication…
Jem Sullivan August 13 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14 Rom 9:1-5 Mt 14:22-33 Utter disbelief was the sentiment deeply felt in the hearts and minds of many as the rapid spread of Covid-19 brought normal life to a shuddering halt in March 2020. We might remember…
The dangers of evil are “prowling” Ireland making it more important than ever to know good from evil, according to the Primate of All Ireland. In his homily for Mass on the summit of Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo, on Reek Sunday, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh warned that “we are surrounded by the dangers of…
Priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have called for breaking ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, following a Russian attack on Odesa that destroyed a historic cathedral while killing two and injuring at least 22, including four children (See In Brief). The Odesa diocese of the UOC condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, saying “this act…
Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ In the 1970s, as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, I came to know and appreciate the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. He was born in Moravia, like I was, and with a similar Jewish background. Through Husserl, I encountered Edith Stein (1891-1942). As his student, she wrote her thesis…
In a new attack against the Church in Nicaragua, the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has frozen the Church’s retirement fund for priests, according to lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina. The lawyer is the author of the report Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?, which catalogues the more than…
The visit of Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Spanish Msgr Jordi Bertomeu to Peru to investigate the lay organisation Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is being received with confidence by many of the group’s victims, who hope it will be finally dissolved. Some, however, say, they lost hope that the case will be resolved. Once a…
Thomas McDonald I have a hole in my head – an extra one, that is. It’s in the temporal bone, where a useful skull covers the superior semicircular canals, maintaining an even pressure around the delicate parts of the inner ear involved in hearing and balance. My skull is not up to this relatively simple…