Mission Sunday Supplement We are the Irish Capuchin Franciscan Friars and mission is in our very DNA. Today we have Irish friars ministering in Zambia, South Africa, New Zealand, South Korea and California. We follow the rule and life laid down by St Francis of Assisi – to live and embody the Gospel message of…
Mission Sunday Supplement The Society of African Missions (SMA) is an international organisation with over seven hundred and sixty members, three hundred and twenty seminarians and has a presence in sixteen African countries. While the African membership of the SMA is increasing, in Europe and Ireland it is declining. Nevertheless, there are still Irish SMA…
Mission Sunday Supplement As a growing world church, we share responsibility for all those who so urgently need our help. We must not forget the needs of those whose stories do not reach our televisions or newspapers. For many people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the church is the first place they turn to…
Noelle Fitzpatrick Mission Sunday Supplement ‘You Shall Be My Witnesses’ Today, the 10th October is the feast of St Daniel Comboni, an Italian missionary and one of the first to come to Sudan. He was the only surviving child of a family of 8. He endured the judgement of many for leaving his aging parents…
Paul Francis Spencer C.P. Mission Sunday Supplement At the heart of the mission of the Passionists is the conviction that the Passion of Christ is, in the words of our founder St Paul of the Cross, “the greatest and most overwhelming work of God’s love.” Passionist Missionaries from Ireland have worked in many countries, including…
The Sunday Gospel The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) was addressed to people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else. In the traditional list of the roots of sin, known as the seven deadly sins, the first in the list is pride, and rightly so, because pride…
It’s our Christian duty to learn how to serve God and our neighbour under the shadow of worrying and distracting global events, writes Jason Osborne US President Joe Biden said last week that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest point since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, as the war in Ukraine goes…
Iran blocks conversion to Christianity with severe consequences for breaches, writes Chai Brady Iran faces some of the biggest demonstrations against the government in decades following the death of a young woman at the hands of the ‘morality police’. The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, has continued to make headlines after she…
The Sunday Gospel The message of today’s Gospel (Luke 18: 1-8) is clearly expressed in the opening line. Pray continually and never lose heart. We are prepared for this lesson by the First Reading which gives us a picture of Moses at prayer. A battle was being fought and as long as Moses kept his arms raised…
Encouraging Catholics to join the police in the North continues to be a challenge for many reasons, PSNI officers tell Chai Brady The North of Ireland has a long history of sectarianism that continues to rear its ugly head to this day. A police force that is more representative can help to tackle legacy issues, but just…
Chai Brady