The past is a different country Dear Editor, L.P. Hartley wrote “The past is another country. They do things differently there.” When we look at the past through the eyes of the present we end up taking the high moral ground from societies abandonment of unmarried pregnant women to mother and baby homes to the…
I had the wedding from hell this month — or maybe more correctly the bridal couple who seemed to have been spawned there. It is probably my fault, my misunderstanding: I thought that in giving the couple oodles of time to share their story with me, I was building rapport with them, but in fact…
By Fr Eamonn Conway Christian hope is all around us. It is most readily visible in the lives of what Pope Francis called “the saints next door”, our neighbours and friends. Among them are even those who do not overtly consider themselves religious, who respond to the circumstances of everyday life as best they…
An ‘invitation-to-parish-groupings’ approach to outreach, might distract us from the essential place of faith in outreach, writes Fr Chris Hayden A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the nature of membership of Church and parish. I made the point that the most fundamental ‘thing’ about membership is not belonging to parish groups…
By Peter Kasko I have been on the journey of discovering, or perhaps re-discovering, faith for some time now. I am a cradle Catholic: baptised as a child, receiving First Communion and Confirmation, checking all the boxes as expected. But I reached the point where I realised I didn’t actually know what faith truly…
By Marion Hausmann “Let us welcome Pope Leo XIV with trust, hope, and above all, joy,” the Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell has said, to mark the beginning of the Pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. Mass was held in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral last Sunday on the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, mirroring the…
By Marion Hausmann “The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone.” These were the words of Pope Francis in his encyclical, Laudato Si’: the very document that inspired Fr Ultan McGoohan to start the Killann Parish Green Group almost four years ago. Today, the group has…
By Luca Attanasio Sr Rose Pacatte, FSP, is a renowned expert in media literacy, film criticism, and authorship. Born in the United States, she entered the Daughters of St Paul in 1967 and has been a member of the congregation for over five decades. She holds an M.Ed. in Media Studies from the University…
The Tuam Mother and Baby Home’s reporting needs balance Dear Editor, that was a very welcome article on Tuam Mother and Baby Home (The Irish Catholic, June 19). To date there has been mostly hostile overage and certainly no balance. You mentioned Brian Nugent, who has written, among other articles, a book on the Tuam…
The Church’s sacred liturgy is the most exalted bearer of Sacred Tradition and was always understood to be beyond human tampering, writes Fr Kevin E. O’Reilly The future in effect comes to us from behind. In other words, our future is in important respects shaped by the past. The past prefigures the future and is…