Brian Devlin’s experience of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s abuse of power is prompting his calls for reform and renewal in the Church, writes Jason Osborne Faithful Catholics today are weary and browbeaten following the revelations in recent years of the deep rot of abuse that took place at the heart of parishes and dioceses around the…
There is room to improve when it comes to pregnancy reactions in Ireland, writes Jason Osborne Crisis pregnancy organisation Gianna Care is looking to raise awareness about positive pregnancy reactions with a new campaign, after Director Carolyn O’Meara noticed an overwhelming tendency towards negativity in today’s Ireland. “This is something that’s actually come to my…
We failed to nourish Catholics with ongoing adult catechesis at the parish level and we’re paying the price today, writes Fr Seán Smith All this public attention the sacraments are getting was rolling about in my head, for a different reason, as I prepared my homily for the liturgy on the Sunday of the Year.…
The Sunday Gospel Jesus was deeply disturbed by the travesty of a religion enmeshed in legalism. “You put aside the commandments of God to cling to human traditions.” Rules about ritual purification had sucked the beauty out of true worship. Pope Francis wrote that certain customs not directly related to the heart of the Gospel…
Christian apologist Simon Edwards brings all his legal training to bear in defending the rationality of Christianity when it’s put on trial, writes Jason Osborne Former lawyer and now writer and speaker at The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA), Simon Edwards is taking aim at the myth that Christianity somehow runs against reason or…
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. This is the fifth and final Sunday when the Gospel reading is taken from John Chapter Six. It began with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed the hunger of the physical body. This was a sign to move on to the second bread: Jesus…
The Church leaves the question of whether Our Lady actually died open, writes Daniel Holmes In recent days a Catholic journalist whom I greatly respect, in referring to Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven, used the phrase “After her death”. For the first time, that phrase urged me to become more conscious of what the Church…
This week marks the centenary of the murder of a priest who stood up for his flock in the US deep south, writes Chai Brady One hundred years ago, a series of events led to the remarkable incident of a priest from Co. Roscommon being shot dead by a hardline Protestant minister who was also…
With ongoing construction guided by the vision of ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudí, Barcelona’s La Sagrada Família is already one of God’s finest houses. The project was designed in 1882 by another man, Francisco de Paula del Villar, and his plan was more in-keeping with the prevailing architecture of the time. Neo-Gothic dreams saw ogival windows,…
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. While the Assumption of Mary has been celebrated for over a thousand years, the doctrine of her assumption was officially defined as late as 1950. To mark the occasion, the famous novelist, Graham Greene, who had been received into the Catholic Church shortly before that, was asked…
Chai Brady