So-called Islamist groups commit atrocities with a false allegiance to Islam, writes Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri Last week the world has seen the cities of Brussels, Baghdad and Lahore rocked by a series of suicide bomb attacks that targeted the Belgian airport and metro station, an Iraqi football stadium and a Pakistani family park. These attacks…

The Easter season has a lot to offer the Church in Ireland today I rarely experience the kind of exhaustion that I experienced on Easter Sunday evening and on Easter Monday. Holy Week – particularly the days of the Triduum from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday – is a time of unparalleled intensity in the…

We must remember, “our bodies, yours and mine, at the final judgement, will be raised from the dead and reunited with our souls”, writes Andrew O’Connell The Paschal Triduum, culminating in the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil, is a beautiful and profound spiritual experience. At its heart is the stunning reality of the Resurrection of…

The stone which rolled away from the tomb of Jesus continues to roll away from every sort of grave. Goodness cannot be held, captured or put to death. It evades its pursuers, escapes capture, slips away, hides out, even leaves the churches sometimes, but forever rises, again and again, all over the world. Such is…

“At times of immense darkness and pain, the mission of people of faith is to keep the rumour of God alive”, writes Editor Michael Kelly Late on Sunday evening – Palm Sunday – news of the almost unspeakable tragedy that occurred in Buncrana, Co. Donegal began to emerge. What started out as a Sunday outing…

“Most of the men and women of 1916 would not, I think, disapprove of the separation of Church and State”, writes Mary Kenny How would the leaders of 1916 see Ireland today? I believe they would see much of which they would approve. They would, surely, be thankful to see that poverty has so very…

“There are warning signs of the emergence of a growing secular zeal in this country”, writes Martin Mansergh The phrase in the Easter 1916 Proclamation least quoted in this centenary is the guarantee by the Republic of religious and civil liberty to all its citizens. While at one level sincerely intended as a reassurance to…

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” I love that old Negro spiritual and I’m reminded of it every year during Holy Week. This year as I sing it I will be thinking of the beleaguered Christian communities in the Holy Land. The verses in the hymn ask: Were you there when they crucified…

Modern oral histories can shed light on the Gospel narratives, writes Greg Daly Looking back on the Easter Rising 33 years later when interviewed by the Bureau of Military History, Bobby Holland, an apprentice butcher and a member of the Volunteers during the rebellion, seemed slightly indignant. “I was brought down to kill another beast…

We can expect a positive and hopeful tone from Pope Francis, writes Sebastian Gomes Sebastian Gomes We’re still awaiting the definitive conclusion to the synods on family life in the form of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation. Since the 1960s, an apostolic exhortation has been the traditional form of teaching that concludes a Synod of Bishops;…