Astronomy for amateurs

Ireland has some of the best dark sky reserves around and the longer nights beckon us out to appreciate them, writes Jason Osborne Always having had a fascination with space and all things celestial, I’ve been strangely looking forward to the encroaching darkness of autumn and winter this year, and the possibilities it presents for…

Blesseds abound in Church in Poland

Letter from Poland Sunday saw the beatification of two blesseds with very different, but equally holy, missions in the Church in Poland. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, declared the ‘Iron primate’, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski and Mother Elzbieta Róza Czacka blessed at Mass and a service September 12, at…

Gospel people at the United Nations

Personal Profile Sister Jean Quinn DW is surely doing for others as Christ did for us, her life’s work being that of uplifting people from homelessness, focusing on the spiritual as much as the material. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Sr Jean says that she comes from as deeply Catholic a background as they come:…

Female religious cause for joy across Ireland

A spate of activity on the female religious front has been warmly welcomed by sisters across Ireland, with new sister, Elizabeth, for the Knock Carmelites, a new postulant, Bindhu, for the Drumcondra Redemptoristines, and profession formation taking place with the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master in Ireland (PDDM). Speaking to The Irish Catholic newspaper,…

How to pack health into school lunches

Packing school lunches can be a struggle, but there are ways to ensure even the pickiest eaters are healthfully fed, writes Jason Osborne I must have caused some headaches at times in my house as a child, so picky were my eating habits. It only dawned on me in adulthood what a monumental task it is…

Election of atheist as Harvard chaplain president ‘complete and abject surrender’ – Bishop Barron

Bishop Robert Barron said Tuesday that the Harvard University chaplains made a “complete and abject surrender” by electing an atheist as the president of their association. “What does bother me,” Bishop Barron wrote in an August 31 op-ed for the New York Post, “is the complete and abject surrender on the part of the presumably…