Category: Feature

‘I carry Ireland in my heart’

On the eve of his departure Archbishop Charles Brown sat down with Mags Gargan to reflect on his time as Papal Nuncio of Ireland Since arriving in Ireland in January 2012 as Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown has become a very familiar face to Irish Catholics. He has travelled the length and breadth of this…

In the eye of the hurricane

Greg Daly meets a Tearfund ‘early responder’ on the frontline of crises in the Philippines Originally from Manila, 37-year-old Dandin Espina had always thought he’d be a minister in his Church, the Pentecostal Church of God, but God, he says, had other plans. “I was in seminary,” he says. “I had thought I’d be a pastor, but…

Towards Peace reconnects survivors to their faith

Sr Marianne O’Connor Sr Marianne O’Connor describes a spiritual support service for survivors of abuse “I feel relaxed, and comfortable with the process…why? –my answer is this because the guilt, blame, confusion, was wearing me down, so with support and guidance, I want to let go, and thus try to move on with my life,…

Arguing for a reasonable faith

Faith and reason go hand in hand, a leading apologist tells Greg Daly Fresh from a public debate at Trinity College Dublin, where 600 students overflowed from the college’s largest lecture theatre and filled three overflow rooms while a further 1,100 people watched online, philosopher and theologian William Lane Craig is adamant that Christian faith…

The girl on the box

The girl from the 2004 Trócaire box tells Mags Gargan how the charity changed her life Josiane Umumarashavu saw the sea for the first time last week on Dollymount Strand in Dublin’s Clontarf. It was a week of firsts for the 26-year-old: the first time on a plane, the first time outside of her native…

Letting the laity lead

With declining numbers of priests, lay people are stepping up to lead worship, writes Greg Daly Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, so on Tuesday, April 25, while the clergy of the Diocese of Limerick are gathering with Bishop Brendan Leahy, every parish in the diocese is to have a lay-led liturgy…

Preaching from the choir

Greg Daly learns about a new project for music and liturgy in Dublin’s city centre “I don’t think the archbishop asked us here to maintain the status quo,” says Steven Warner, associate director of the Notre Dame Newman Centre, based since last autumn at the University Church on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green. “I can’t speak…