The Pope’s new ambassador in Dublin has presented his credentials to President Michael D. Higgins. Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, the new Apostolic Nuncio, presented the documents appointing him to the role at a ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin on Thursday. The prelate was accompanied to and from Áras an Uachtaráin by an Escort of Honour…
Judith Sudilovsky Faith leaders and activists for coexistence from across Israel gathered in prayer in front of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem May 10, in a week that once again saw yet another increase in violence between Israel and the Palestinians. The prayer march came after the May 2 death in prison…
Frank Litton War By Other Means: The Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionised Resistance, by Daniel Akst (Brooklyn / London: Melville House, $28.99 / £22.94 / €28.00) Paul Ricoeur, the French philosopher, observed that the state can be – has been – a source of great evil. Writing in the aftermath of…
After hundreds of public prayers for peace in Ukraine and 443 days after Russia launched an all-out war on the Eastern European country, Pope Francis welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Vatican. The topics of the conversation May 13 included “the humanitarian and political situation in Ukraine caused by the ongoing war”, the Vatican…
Jem Sullivan The Sunday Gospel May 21, 2023 The Ascension of the Lord Acts: 1:1-11 Ps 47:2-3,6-7, 8-9 Eph 1:17-23 Mt 28:16-20 The making of promises is part of special celebrations that mark the days and weeks of spring and the Easter season. As we celebrate graduations, ordinations, weddings, baptisms, and first Communions, we hear…
Dear Editor, Perhaps those who engaged in the synod process who had little interest in missionary work should read stories such as the one on your front page [The Irish Catholic – May 4, 2023]. There were lovely images of African women celebrating the Irish sisters who travelled to Cameroon and set up schools, both…
Bikers hold annual memorial service The Annual Bikers Memorial Mass was celebrated in a packed Sacred Heart Church, Clones, Co. Monaghan, on May 5. Fr Stephen Joyce, Scotstown, celebrated Mass in the church with six motorbikes at the foot of the altar. He was joined by Fr Tony Conlon and Fr Jim Moore, while Church…
An investigation by the Spanish newspaper El Pais has revealed that the Spanish Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas Moreno, who died in 2009, sexually abused as many as 85 boys and adolescents in the 1970s and 1980s and recorded the incidents in a secret diary as “blunders”, and that the Jesuits covered it up. A nephew…
Well-known American actor Chris Pratt has said the example of Christ’s suffering has helped him deal with criticism about his Christian faith. At a screening for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Mr Pratt said that criticism of Christian beliefs is “nothing knew”. “That’s the way it is, nothing new, 2,000 years ago they hated…
Pope Francis carries with him a particular fondness for a Marian devotion that he had encountered in Bavaria, writes Fr Hedwig Lewis SJ ‘Mary Untier of Knots, pray for us’ would be a strange-sounding invocation in the Litany to Our Lady to which we are so accustomed. In fact, devotion to the Blessed Virgin under this…