In the way to lead scores of teenagers in an end-of-term retreat last week, my fellow faith leader and I stopped for a break. On mission in Co. Antrim – a long way from Antioch – the words of Venerable Fulton Sheen were ringing in our ears: “There’s God – and coffee!” As we turned…
The Bishop of Down and Connor took time to visit international staff at a Belfast hospital, after the homes and businesses of immigrants were viciously targeted last week in his diocese. “You are not alone,” the Bishop told nurses and other staff after a wave of orchestrated violence in which families were forced from their…
Christians in Belfast took to the hills last week – after violence and hatred erupted in our city once again. Frankly, I was ready for the hills myself at the thought of returning to the bad old days when Belfast made headlines for all the wrong reasons. But then, on the Feast of the Sacred…
On a press trip to Disneyland some years ago, I met a man who took his children to Mass every Sunday even though he had no faith. Why go? I asked. “Because it is good for my children,” he said. He liked Catholic values. This man came to mind as I listened to Maedbh King…
What do you do when a convent dies? It is a question for our times, sadly, with the death of vocations and, frankly, a lack of appreciation for religious sisters, past and present. I was intrigued when Co. Down businessman Ciaran Fitzpatrick contacted me about the old Mercy Convent in Downpatrick, which had been officially…
The title of the upcoming Catholic retreat in Co. Antrim made me smile. ‘The Music of Leonard Cohen: A Window to the Divine’. When I was a teenager in Toronto, my pals did not share my love of Leonard Cohen’s work. They called it: ‘‘Let’s all jump out the window music’”. But even then, I…
It was 1949 when Michael McErlain first set out for Knock. In those days, the journey from Belfast could take up to eleven hours involving a train to Dublin, a transfer at Claremorris, followed by a bone-shaker bus to the pilgrimage site. “I don’t remember much about it,” said Michael, “Other than the train –…
For years I would meet all kinds of people in ‘The Green Room’ just outside the television studios. It was where BBC guests, were supposed to relax before going on air. I wondered why they called it that because it wasn’t actually green. It turns out this was an old theatre tradition, where walls were…
Catholics in rural areas can expect an increase in Eucharistic services led by lay people in the years ahead, the Bishop of Derry has said. “There would certainly have to be,” Bishop Donal McKeown told The Irish Catholic, when asked whether there would be more Eucharistic services, in future, where priests are not available to celebrate…
Bishop Donal McKeown, who is set to retire, has always made a point of walking the streets of Derry to meet the people. It is a town he has come to love. “There is an energy about Derry,” said the Bishop, “and it is a blessing to be part of that. He was appointed Bishop…