The first Irishman to make pilgrimage to Bethlehem was St Cathal in the seventh century and, though the Church of the Nativity has not substantially changed since then, tourists and pilgrims are now rarer than white blackbirds. When I recently visited the church where Jesus was born for three days in a row, the only…
Whatever about Palestine being free from the river to the sea, the all-Christian town of Taybeh on the Palestinian West Bank is not even free from one end of the town to the other. At one end, Israeli volunteers shield Bedouin tribes from the worst excesses of the settlers, who are annexing the town’s olive…
When the late Pope John Paul ascended to the Papacy, he said that Europe must breathe through its two lungs, the tradition of the Western Roman rite and that of the Eastern Orthodox rite as well. Although I could not agree with him more, I would add the 50 million members of the Orient Orthodox…
Although the situation in Syria remains volatile, Irish Catholic readers should be in no doubt what they should do to ameliorate the plight of those Syrians, who have so far survived the carnage. Besides informing themselves of the situation so they can lobby their political and religious leaders, they can donate to Aid to the…