Top academic urges that Pope be faced with ‘nuanced’ reality As speculation grows that the Pope may visit a former Magdalen laundry during his visit next month, a leading historian of the period has warned that Francis should hear the complex reality of the homes rather than a caricature of the institutions. Government sources…
50 Years of Humanae Vitae It’s easy to forget, but ‘pastoral’ hasn’t always been a simple synonym for soothing, caring, or gentle. At heart, after all, it means the way a herdsman or shepherd behaves, and in the Bible that’s not always something sweet and mild. When David offers to fight Goliath, for instance,…
50 Years of Humanae Vitae Sr Helena Burns tells Greg Daly about how St John Paul II opened up Humanae Vitae for the world A celibate nun might seem an unlikely champion of Humanae Vitae and the ‘Theology of the Body’ taught by St John Paul II, but Sr Helena Burns is someone who believes…
A prominent left-wing TD was left red-faced after questions on Government expenditure and staff deployment around August’s papal trip showed the Department of the Taoiseach is not being unduly stretched by plans for Pope Francis’s visit. In a series of written questions, Solidarity Dublin West TD Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach how many staff in…
Criticism of Cardinal Kevin Farrell is misplaced, writes Greg Daly “Priests do not have experience to prepare people for marriage, says Vatican Cardinal,” read a headline in the Irish Times early last week. Summing up and quoting some key points in an interview with Cardinal Kevin Farrell in the Irish bishops’ Intercom magazine, the…
It’s unlikely that there’s a more conspicuous or remarkable example of Catholic art in the modern world than Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, described by Pope Benedict in 2010 as standing “as a visible sign of the invisible God, to whose glory these spires rise like arrows pointing towards absolute light and to…
New orders offer way to fill ‘sisters gap’ The disappearance of religious women from Ireland’s religious landscape has been colossal, a Cork priest has said, explaining a decision to invite a new community into his parish. Canon Michael Fitzgerald invited a group of sisters from the Spanish-based Servants of the Home of the Mother…
Buildings where Pope Francis lived when studying English in Ireland are being cleared of tenants while the Jesuits consider the possible sale of the site, The Irish Catholic understands. Worldpriest, the Le Chéile Schools Trust and the Irish Homeopathic Institute are just some of the groups who have had to vacate the complex at Milltown…
Is a Vatican commission set to oblige Pope Francis to restore the female diaconate, asks Greg Daly It seemed somehow appropriate that hardly had Minister Josepha Madigan sought to frame her impromptu leading of an ad hoc Communion service as a story about women being denied a role in the Church’s ministry that the…
Josepha Madigan urged to listen to ‘distressed’ parishioners Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has accused Minister Josepha Madigan of having exploited a mix-up at a parish to advocate that the Church should change core teachings. The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, who led Fine Gael’s campaign to repeal the constitutional protections for unborn children, has…