“He started to draw himself as a ‘saint’. He was seeing himself in a different world,” hears Renata Milán Morales. A short documentary was premiered at the end of this year, In God’s Hands. Originally from Roscommon, Niall Sheerin, director of the film explains to The Irish Catholic the meaning of it. In God’s Hands…
Category: Feature
A married priest’s view on current debates
In a time when questions surrounding faith, tradition, and ecclesial renewal – a time when debates around women ordination and married priests – echo across the Catholic world, few journeys capture these themes as powerfully as the story of Fr Joshua J. Whitfield, author of The Crisis of Bad Preaching: Redeeming the Heart and Way…
‘When I woke from a coma the first thing I did was pray’
According to Beaumont Hospital, Ireland has one of the highest rates of donations in the world: 20.3 donors pmp (per million population). The Irish Catholic invites you to learn the story of a Cavan man who had both of his lungs and one kidney transplanted. David Crosby is the oldest of five children. When he…
Gaza at Christmas: where there is love, there is hope
In the midst of war, the Holy Land’s Christians are struggling to remain united, writes Michael Kelly It was not in splendour and worldly power that God came to Earth, but in the humility of a defenceless baby born in the manger of Bethlehem. No wonder the strong and the powerful are so perplexed by…
Portlaoise, a parish alive!
Ann Marie Foley Portlaoise is growing as a commuter town and in diversity, and the parish is something of a ‘United Nations’ of priests and religious from Brazil, China, Romania, Indonesia and India serving with PP Msgr John Byrne, PPVG and a local Deacon Eugene Keyes. “When I came here (in 2000) I was one…
Cloistered Christmas: celebrating like a nun
When a woman decides to become a nun, they leave behind old traditions and practices and open themselves for a new life with their religious order, which becomes their new family. That include Christmas traditions. As every family has their own Christmas customs, with the nuns that is not different. The Irish Catholic talked to…
Christmas Eve and the year of hope
It was Christmas Eve, 1977, and my brothers and I had finally stopped waking up my parents, in the wee small hours, as we crept a little too noisily along the hall to see if Santa had arrived. My mother, one eye open and one eye closed, would meet us on the stairs, around one…
Suffering, literature and the meaning of Advent
On the day Josephine Brady was diagnosed with cancer, the world seemed to shake. For this librarian and lover of literature, the initial shock was overwhelming. Yet, during the uncertainty, she found herself reaching for books. Not just any books, but ones that might help her understand the reality of her situation. The result of…
Living faith traditions as a family
Christmas is a time for traditions. Some families like to gather at the grandparents every year for a big dinner with the whole extended family, while others will watch together the same movie every year. Some families will pray together a certain number of evenings before Christmas, and others will help in charity events every…
The true meaning of Christmas
Generosity is part of our national identity, hears Renata Milán Morales For 100 years, the Christmas Day dinner has been a sign of hope and generosity for those in need in Dublin. Since its establishment in 1924, this event has grown into a tradition, offering not just meals but also companionship and a sense of…
Renata Milán Morales

Renata Steffens
Michael Kelly

Martina Purdy

