Pope Leo XIV has encouraged Christian Churches across Europe to continue walking together in faith and friendship, as they respond to a changing cultural landscape and the ongoing challenges of war, migration, and secularisation. The Pope was speaking in the Consistory Hall on November 6, where he met members of the Joint Committee of the…
For the hurling people of Wexford, one day shines brighter than any other. Nearly thirty years have passed, yet the memories of that afternoon remain vivid, a golden chapter in the county’s history, still told and retold wherever the purple and gold colours are cherished. In all of the GAA’s history, Wexford have lifted the…
As we celebrated the 400th anniversary of the birth of St Oliver Plunkett (1625–1681), we also remember another great figure of ecclesial renewal: Ladislas Örsy SJ, who died earlier this year on April 3, at the age of 103. A Hungarian-American theologian and canon lawyer (1921–2025), Örsy was one of the most insightful interpreters of…
Simon Harris statement on the Asylum process is a significant U-turn from Fine Gael. It’s an admission that Government has gotten it wrong. Indeed, Fine Gael had held the Ministry for Justice in the last Government and during that time the asylum process was allowed to proceed in chaos. It is the actions of Helen…
It’s easy to forget just how long Limerick wandered through the barren hurling wilderness before the emergence of the modern-day team that has not only conquered the county’s demons but rewritten nearly every record in the book. For forty-five long years, Shannonside endured a famine. Entire lifetimes passed without a Limerick man climbing the steps…
There are souls who walk among us whose light quietly illuminates the world, leaving footprints long after they are gone. Sr Stan Kennedy, who just recently went home to God at the age of 86, was one such soul. She was fearless, tireless, compassionate and unwavering in her love for the poor, the marginalised, the…
For some Catholics, Mary as the mother of Jesus herself has an almost divine significance. The Vatican’s religious authority has now emphatically pointed out the limits of this veneration. The Vatican is warning Catholics and theologians to overstep the boundaries of the Christian faith when it comes to the veneration of Mary. A ‘Doctrinal Note’…
It seemed as though Pope Francis’s invitation to Todos! Todos! Todos! had been answered – and they were all in Rome. The crowds filling St Peter’s Square and spilling down Via della Conciliazione on Sunday were more suggestive of the election of a new Pope than Pope Leo’s weekly Angelus and blessing. In such crowds,…
Last week a judge in Belfast found Soldier F not guilty of the murder of William McKinney or Jim Wray or of five attempted murders on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972. Some readers will remember Bloody Sunday, 53 years ago, when 13 unarmed Catholic civilians on a civil rights march were killed by soldiers from…
“Horror movies can actually help us have the sometimes awkward conversations, but in a safe way,” says Fr Ryan Duns SJ. “That’s my pitch whenever parents get nervous and say, ‘You’re teaching a course on horror at a Catholic school?’ “I tell them, honestly, they’re watching these films anyway. So why not baptise the genre?…
Fr Barry White
Nuala O’Loan