Missionary support to developing communities is very important, Sr Josephine McCarthy tells Ruadhán Jones Whether it be in health, education or sustainable farming, the support offered by missionaries is fundamentally important to developing communities, says Sr Josephine McCarthy PBVM “Missionaries are extremely well placed to know what’s needed on the ground because they’re there among…
Category: Feature
Defending and preserving Irish hearts for decades
Protecting children’s hearts from junk food marketing is essential, Chai Brady hears Irish people are now living longer than ever before due to advances in medical science and technology as well as better health education, but this does not come without its challenges. Over the decades more health problems will arise and need to be…
Leaving a sporting legacy to Special Olympics Ireland
Legacies help to provide sports, health, wellbeing and community for people with intellectual disabilities, writes Jason Osborne You may remember the joyous scenes that graced our screens at the beginning of the summer, as Irish athletes took part in and returned home from the Special Olympics World Summer games 2023, which took place in Berlin.…
Our schools must be a light to young people
In times of deep crisis in Church and State in the past, God raised up heroic visionaries, writes Msgr Dan O’Connor St Benedict, Patron of Europe, and his twin sister Scholastica lived at a time of civil unrest and upheaval in the Church. They became lights of hope for Christ’s people, through their monastic foundations…
The conversations that bring us to the heart of God
A new book aims to show us that questions rather than commandments bring us closer to God and one another, writes Jason Osborne The Dominican Order has long been associated with the disciplined pursuit of truth, and the only tool we have for questing after truth is the question. With that in mind, it’s shameful…
A battle of ideas: Free speech and the culture wars
Narrow secular definitions of diversity railroad debates about immigration, liberalism and more, Chai Brady hears A rapid societal shift in Ireland has led to what is often called the ‘culture wars’, a phenomenon occurring in many democratic societies which at best has led to healthy debate and discussion, at worst, distress and rage. Prof. Bryan…
Pope in plea for youth to change the world
Pope Francis told 1.5 million weary-eyed and sleep-deprived young people in Lisbon not to let their “great dreams” of changing the world be “stopped by fear”. In his homily for the closing Mass of World Youth Day on Sunday the Pope asked for “a bit of silence” from the pilgrims who, after staying overnight in…
Pope calls for new Marian devotion: ‘Our Lady in a Hurry’
Before 200,000 pilgrims at Fátima, many of them with tears in their eyes, Pope Francis called for a new Marian devotional title – ‘Our Lady in a Hurry’ – to describe how Mary hastens to care for all her children. “There are many Marian invocations,” he told the crowd at the Shrine of Our Lady…
Pursue joy, even when you’re tired – Pope
After many of the 1.5 million young people gathered in Lisbon’s Tejo Park waited for hours in near 40-degree weather to participate in the World Youth Day vigil with Pope Francis on Saturday, the Pope asked them, “Have you ever been tired?” Even when tempted to “throw in the towel” or stop along the journey…
‘Do you cry?’ Pope asks 800,000 young people at WYD
When feelings of suffering, anxiety and loneliness bring young people to tears, Jesus cries with them and walks alongside them on the way of the cross, Pope Francis has said. After hundreds of thousands of young people spent hours singing, dancing and chanting under the sun waiting for the Pope to arrive in Lisbon’s Eduardo…

Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady





Michael Kelly


