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…

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 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…

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…

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…

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…

Young people were going to Confession on street corners and park benches throughout Lisbon during World Youth Day, but in the 150 plywood confessionals set up in Vasco da Gama Garden three of them found themselves face to face with Pope Francis. Donning a purple stole, the Pope heard their confessions in the riverside garden,…

Before a sea of waving flags representing countries large and small from across the globe, Pope Francis told some 500,000 singing, shouting and swaying young people that God has called each person to him by name, not their social media handle. “You are not here by mistake,” he told the mass of people in Lisbon’s…

Andrew Atherstone explains how a local discipleship course became a global brand, writes Ruadhán Jones   Back in the early 1970s, when a small group of Christians began a local discipleship course in London, they couldn’t have expected this mustard seed would grow quite so substantially. But it did, becoming the Alpha course for Christian…

The Capuchin Day Centre continues to save lives, the new CEO tells Audrey Bryce “One of the primary values here is nonjudgment,” says Brian Friel, newly appointed CEO of the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin. Brian Friel entered the public recruitment campaign and says he is “very thankful” to have been named the centre’s CEO…