Dear Editor, Eucharist is a liturgy whereby we renew the Covenant that Jesus made between all members of the human race and our Heavenly Father, making us God’s adopted children. Like any covenant that is ‘cut’ between two parties e.g. marriage, there are the terms, and a communal celebration whereby both groups celebrate the new…
Courtney McGrail
World News in Brief
Anger greets release of Christian-killers in Turkey Christians in Turkey have been left outraged after five men convicted of the torture and murder of three Christians walked free from court. After a legal battle of nine years, it appeared that justice had been served for Ugur Yuksel and Necati Aydin, Muslim converts to Christianity, and German national Tilmann Geske, when a…
What difference inside or outside the womb?
Dear Editor, In his book, The Origins of the Final Solution, Christopher Browning comments at pages 184 to 186 on eugenics which was advocated in Scandinavia, the US and of course Nazi Germany. Under the general heading of ‘Killing the handicapped’, he notes that the practice in Germany was relatively straightforward. But in Germany, the…
Mexican Church criticises ‘smear campaign’ against murdered priests
The Catholic Church in Mexico has reacted angrily to what it is calling a smear campaign against three priests recently kidnapped and murdered in the country. Last week, The Irish Catholic reported on the violent deaths of Frs Alejo Nabor Jimenez Juarez and Jose Alfredo Juarez de la Cruz in Veracruz, and that of Fr…
Inappropriate Government dictatorship regards religion
Dear Editor, Why this terrible change in attitude of both Government and leading national media regarding the Catholic Church? Once sympathetic and harmonious, they are now aggressively hostile, not missing the slightest opportunity to make the ‘swipe’. I resent Children’s Minister Kathleen Zappone dictating we go ‘fast track’ in transferring our schools away from religious…
Unique All Hallows
On May 27, 2014, when All Hallows College in Drumcondra, Dublin announced plans to wind down its operations, there was a huge public and media reaction to the news. The college received volumes of phone calls, emails, letters, many in disbelief that such a stalwart institution of North Dublin was finally succumbing to financial and…
Fr Jacques Hamel to be fast-tracked to sainthood
Fr Jacques Hamel, the elderly French priest murdered in his church in July by Islamic fundamentalists, is to be fast-tracked to sainthood, it has been confirmed. Last weekend, as the church of Saint-Etienne-du- Rouvray was reopened during a Mass to purify the site of the murder of the 85-year-old cleric, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen…
Recent books in brief
A Chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation: Aspects of Priesthood and Baptism edited by Joseph Briody (Smenos Publications, €25.00 plus p+p) This is the eighth publication in the Fota Liturgy Series, the outcome of the regular Fota Conferences, which have drawn select liturgists from all over Europe. The editor is both a priest…
A lady with a head for heights… and business
The Story of Ireland’s Only Steeplejill by Angela Collins O’Mahony (Mercier Press, €19.99)
Religious educators gather for Veritas Conference
The annual Veritas conference for religious educators took place in St Patrick’s College Maynooth on October 1. Gathering educators and other stakeholders in religious teaching from across Ireland, the conference offered talks, exhibitors and workshops for attendees, all under the theme ‘Connect, Communicate, Celebrate’. According to Pamela Mcloughlin of Veritas, as in previous years, the…