A thousand kilometres from the town of Dundalk lies the final resting place of a remarkable young Irish priest who gave his life in the service of others during the Second World War. Buried in the churchyard of the Église Saint-Martin in the village of Ussy, Normandy, his grave is marked by a simple headstone:…
The new text is not ideologically motivated, but rather reflects natural developments in modern English usage, Chai Brady hears A new edition of the lectionary — the book from which Scripture is read at Mass — is close to the final draft for the Church in Ireland, marking the most significant liturgical Scripture revision in…
Popes Francis and Leo have come from a similar missionary and pastoral experience, so to overlook the influence the Latin American Church had on them would be a mistake as both were formed through the active participation of its peoples. Their experiences of Church recognise the mission of all the baptised, ‘Pobal De’ (People of…
Each summer, newspapers like to suggest books people can read during your holiday time, so I am going to come up with a suggestion that you might think is daunting at first, and that is to pick up and read something by Leo Tolstoy, rated by many as possibly the greatest writer of all time.…
As we are all now in the implementation phase of the Synodal Pathway gathering as the People of God is going to become more important. This is why in the implementation phase there is a definite focus and call for dioceses to have assemblies. The word assembly in itself is something we are not that…
When the atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki, it also destroyed the spiritual heart of Japanese Catholics: Urakami, the centre of faith of the once persecuted Christians, was wiped out in seconds. On 9 August 1945, the second American atomic bomb, codenamed “Fat Man”, exploded over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Around 75,000 people died immediately…
Women often sought entry to the Regina Coeli hostel because of domestic violence, homelessness or drug addiction, Chai Brady writes Despite advice from taxpayer-funded investigations, the Government has continued to call for more than €26m from the Legion of Mary to pay into the Mother and Baby Homes redress scheme. When the final report of the…
The recent rise in abortion figures has been sadly predictable but still shocking. In 1998, Prof. Patricia Casey and I organised a conference called ‘5,000 Too Many’. It brought together pro-choice and pro-life people to address the grave situation of 5,000 women having abortions in Britain, and to reduce those numbers by working together. In…
For forty-five years, the Treaty County wandered a barren wasteland of broken dreams, locked out of hurling’s promised land. Nearly half a century of near misses and heartbreak left many on Shannonside with only memories and misery—a proud tradition cast into the wilderness. But on August 18, 2018, all of that was washed away. As…
With a kind of modest defiance, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, raised, in his right hand, the wood of blackened oak, a cross that was no doubt hidden, many times, under a sleeve or below a floorboard. The penal cross was 300 years old, and, though light as a feather, carried the…
Chai Brady
David Quinn
Breda O'Brien
Martina Purdy