Staff and customers expressed sadness and loss on the last day Veritas bookshop on Abbey St opened last week, after almost 100 years in operation in Dublin City centre. Evelyn Gaynor, former head of retail in Veritas Ireland, told The Irish Catholic on the shop’s last day on January 10 that it’s “an end of…
In tribute to John Wijngaards. who died last week, we republish this piece, still timely, written by him in January, 2023. Rest in Peace. As an 87 year-old Catholic priest and theologian I have worked for the Church for most of my life. Experience has taught me that old Mother Church needs to adopt…
The Vatican has seen a growth in the number of women in high roles in the Vatican since Pope Francis started his pontificate in 2013. However, some people believe there is still a degree of misogyny in the Church, resulting from recent comments the Pontiff made regarding nuns. On January 4, 2025, Pope Francis addressed…
Last week, Pope Francis appointed an Italian nun as the first woman to head a major Vatican office. Sr Simona Brambilla is the first female prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders. Sr Brambilla is now responsible…
Fr Aquinas Duffy “I suspect that if there is no real radical change in the immediate future, then the priests left will find themselves on a quicker path to the eternal world” We have just begun a new Jubilee Year. We are reminded that we are called to be “Pilgrims of Hope”. I…
Marcus Harmes and Meredith Harmes Nuns are a staple of pop culture. Think of The Sound of Music (1965), Sister Act (1992), The Nun’s Story (1959), The Bells of St Mary’s (1945), Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957) and Black Narcissus (1947). Last year brought us The Nun II (following 2018’s The Nun), The New Boy, Deliver…
The inauguration of Donald Trump for a second time as US president takes place on Monday. Polling shows that a big majority of Irish people are opposed to him, which is probably a product of a number of factors, one being that, for historical reasons, we lean heavily towards the Democratic party, and the second…
Tigray, is in the northernmost region of the vast African country, Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea. On November 2, 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, a fratricidal war broke out. When the Tplf (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) organised and held an electoral round in the region without Addis Ababa’s permission and took possession of regular…
A consistory, originating from the Latin word consistorium meaning ‘assembly place,’ is a formal meeting in the Catholic Church led by the Pope and attended by the College of Cardinals. These gatherings serve two key purposes: to provide consultation on important matters and to carry out symbolic ceremonies. Over centuries, the consistory has become a…
Tigray, in the north of Ethiopia, is going through a recovery time from a war that lasted two years, from 2020 to 2022. The ‘Tigray War’ has resulted in one million deaths and several food shortages. Last November, six Irish bishops accompanied representatives for Trócaire in a one-week visit to the country. This was…
Chai Brady
Renata Steffens
David Quinn