Activities Wise and Otherwise: The Career of Sir Henry Augustus Robinson 1898-1922 by Brendan O’Donoghue (Irish Academic Press, €29.99)
Courtney McGrail
Relax – there’s no need to fear ‘synod conspiracies’
“Conspiracy theories offer easy answers by casting the world as simpler and more predictable than it is,” according to Sander van der Linden’s 2013 scientificamerican.com article ‘What a Hoax: Why people believe in conspiracy theories’, which argues that conspiracy theories’ popularity can pose a threat to societal well-being. It was somewhat reassuring, then, to learn…
Afflict the comfortable, comfort the afflicted
Sally McEllistrim We could come back to our ‘comfortable’ lives. That was the overriding thought in my mind as we stood in the baking heat in Manila and watched children naked and crawling with lice and sores run about the cemetery where they live. Yes, the cemetery where they live. Takes a while to sink…
WMI’s ‘Charlie Bird reports on the missions’ brings mission to life
World Missions Ireland (WMI) has taken a fresh and novel approach this year to engage Irish people about mission. Journalist Charlie Bird accompanied WMI staff members on a mission trip to South Korea and the Philippines and a DVD, filmed by the well-known broadcaster is due to be shown in Churches across Ireland on Mission…
Giving value to the people of ‘no value’
Sally McEllistrim visits a missionary sister working with a disadvantaged tribe in the Philippines
World News in Brief
US cardinal warns against ‘older brother syndrome’ Those who live the faith assiduously must resist temptations to feel neglected or upset by the Synod of Bishops’ emphasis on those who struggle more, according to Washington, DC’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl. Recalling the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, the cardinal said, “Yes, there could be…
Synod likely to reject communion for divorced and remarried
If the Synod of Bishops were to vote on whether divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed return to Communion, they would probably reject the proposal by almost two to one, according to an Australian archbishop. Brisbane’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge has said in an interview that he suspects the vote would be roughly 65% against…
There’s method in the synod’s madness
Bishops need to show the Pope they are up to the challenge of leadership, writes Cathal Barry
Rejection from Communion can lead to rejection of Church – German bishop
The Church’s refusal to allow the divorced and remarried receive the Eucharist can cause people to turn from the Church and God himself, Berlin’s Archbishop Heiner Koch has told the Synod of Bishops. In his three-minute address to the gathered bishops, Dr Koch said the Church’s theological arguments “do not silence the questions in the…
Ghanaian archbishop calls for patience
Attitudes to gay people in Africa are unlikely to change overnight, even though bishops have publicly defended the inherent dignity of people with homosexual tendencies, Accra’s Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle has said. Claiming that negative attitudes against homosexuals have existed for “millennia” in Africa, the Ghanaian archbishop said “it would be a bit deceptive to think”…