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…

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,…

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…

‘Catholic’ has to mean more than a sign over the school door, writes Bairbre Cahill Timidity, a lack of clarity and confidence, fragmentation, consciousness of a damaged brand. These were just some of the challenges articulated by a group of school principals, teachers, members of Boards of Management and local clergy at a recent conference…

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…

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…

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…

Irish folktales can help make sense of complex questions, writes Prof. Salvador Ryan As we celebrate the feast of our national patron, St Patrick, at this time of year, you may hear some discussion of the need to separate the Patrick of history from the  Patrick of legend, the latter figure oftentimes being better known…

Fr John McCarthy Fr John McCarthy offers suggestions for practical things we can do this Lent In a recent Sunday Gospel Jesus tells us: “You are the light of the world.” The first reading from the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament on that Sunday also tells us of seven ways in which we can…

Westminster’s Cardinal Vincent Nichols tells Martin O’Brien about Pope Francis’ programme to reform the Church Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, is the foremost Catholic Church leader in these islands, one of the Pope’s principal advisors in the appointment of bishops and a major figure…