Catholics and more generally Christians in the Holy Land have long since begun to raise the tone of condemnation of Israel’s brutal methods against the unarmed civilian population. Very harsh, in this vein, is the position of the Holy Land Justice and Peace Commission: “As Catholics of the Holy Land who share Pope Francis’ vision…

Misean Cara is an Irish faith-based membership organisation, celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, having been founded in 2004.  Misean Cara supports the international development work of Irish missionaries working overseas, and is made up of 77 missionary and lay organisations working in more than 50 countries to empower those left furthest behind. Witnessing the…

The Legion of Mary, a worldwide Catholic lay organisation, operates with firm devotion under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Central to their mission is the distribution of the Miraculous Medal, a small yet powerful sacramental with a history dating back to 1830. For legionaries like Fabiola Amorim, the mission is not just about…

Renata Steffens and Renata Milán Morales St. Patrick’s Purgatory, also known as ‘Station Island’ or ‘Lough Derg’, is a pilgrimage site located in Co. Donegal, Ireland. Known for its rich tradition of penitence and prayer, it offers pilgrims a unique opportunity to step away from the chaos of daily life and immerse themselves in a…

Knock Shrine is one of those places where you do not need to be very religious to feel that there is a holy presence around. As the story goes, in the late 1870s the figures of Our Lady, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist were seen standing out from the church gable. “They stood…

Hungary’s current Ambassador to the Holy See is a descendant of the Catholic European Royal House the Habsburgs. Eduard Karl Joseph Michael Marcus Koloman Volkhold Maria Habsburg-Lothringen or Eduard Habsburg for short recently released a new book entitled The Habsburg Way in which he provides seven principles, or what he calls rules for turbulent times,…

The Pope issued a letter in eight languages saying that reading novels and poems is valuable and should be encouraged in the training of priests, and he reveals his own love of tragic stories I had originally chosen to give this Letter a title referring to priestly formation. On further reflection, however, this subject also…

When he was in Kenya recently, the Tánaiste Micheál Martin stepped into a Nairobi hotel lift and instantly recognised the man who happened to step into the lift at the same time.  Fr Sean Barry, an outstanding hurler from Cork and member of the 1966 All Ireland winning team. Mr Martin also met with another…

Matt Letourneau “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart,” the first line of St Benedict’s Rule commands. Listening can be virtuous, but how can you hear God’s soft melody over modern life’s constant clamour? For Cistercian monks, the answer is straightforward: build a colossal…

Emmanuel House of Providence, located in Clonfert, Co. Galway, is expecting a large crowd of pilgrims when it hosts a day of Prayer centered around the veneration of a first-class relic of St Philomena on August 7. This event, which last year drew over 1,500 faithful to Clonfert, is expected to be a day of…