American pop-artist Andy Warhol led a life beyond the bounds of Church teaching, but his art was Christ haunted, writes Ruadhán Jones How do you reconcile two seemingly incompatible parts of the same person? Andy Warhol is arguably the most famous American artist of the 1960s and 70s. He was openly gay, unashamed to be…
The chair of Ireland’s synodal steering committee has said that the synodal pathway will reach out to other denominations, but there is a “special emphasis” on Baptised Christians. Dr Nicola Brady said that for the purposes of the synodal pathway a “distinction is made between those who are Baptised Christians and those who are not”.…
The Life Institute is urging the Minister for Health to end the “dangerous” at-home abortion regime, citing concerns for the safety of women. Abortion programme Their call comes as the English government announced the end of its at-home abortion programme, following “very serious issues” raised by doctors and other commentators. Niamh Uí Bhriain of the…
Bishop Kevin Doran tells Ruadhán Jones about the lessons for Ireland from the recent symposium on the priesthood Having attended the recent three-day Vatican symposium on the theology of the priesthood, Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran believes the conference had much to offer for the Church in Ireland, at a time when vocations have plummeted.…
Recent polling hints at Catholic voters alienated from their traditional political homes, writes Ruadhán Jones With an election around the corner in the North, opinion polls are causing their usual stir, suggesting that May’s assembly election could be quite momentous. In May of this year, the North could for the first time ever vote a…
Personal Profile Fr John Harris OP was set on the path to the priesthood from the age of seven, and hasn’t looked back since. Elected last year as the provincial for the Dominicans in Ireland, he sees his task as being to encourage his brethren to preach the Gospel. “My vocation story is very boring,”…
An ambitious project by Maynooth pulls together 350 years’ worth of material on Ireland’s clergy, Ruadhán Jones learns Would you like to know about the lives of Irish priests under the penal laws? Or catch a glimpse of the new vocations headed to the Irish colleges in Lisbon, Salamanca and Paris in centuries past? Perhaps…
Bishop Donal McKeown has accused President Michael D. Higgins of stoking division over “unhelpful” comments from the president characterising Catholic schools in the North as sectarian. During an event on the role of women in peace-building, Mr Higgins described as “shameful” the fact that parental choice is central to education in the North and that…
As energy costs rise and the climate crisis “stares us in the face”, the time is right for parishes in Ireland to embrace solar energy, Trócaire have said. Jane Mellett, Laudato Si’ officer for the Irish bishops’ official overseas development agency, told The Irish Catholic that “it just seems time” to look at new energy…
The “iconic” 15-foot cross on the roof of the Church of the Ascension in Gurranabraher, Cork, has been left tilted by high winds associated with storm Franklin on Sunday. Masses were temporarily postponed and have since restarted, but parish priest Fr Tom Walsh said that, after Covid, it feels like “one disaster after another”. “It’s…