When you’re talking about the Catholic Church, you need to be awfully careful about using the word “unprecedented” to describe any new development. This is an institution with more than 2,000 years of history, which has seen just about every vicissitude imaginable, and its opposite, over that span. As the late Cardinal Francis George of…

Ngala Killian Chimtom   A leading bishop in the Republic of the Congo has warned that an exponential rise in Christian Pentecostalism in the country is posing a stiff challenge to the Catholic Church, drawing people away amid what he described as “guerilla warfare” in the spiritual realm. “They disrupt the faith of Catholics by…

I heard someone at a wedding Mass introduce the Scripture passage to be read as: “A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Theologians” – I smiled!  In fairness, the reading was perfectly delivered, and the message was a solid and apt addition to the celebration. I wondered afterwards what might St Paul…

Ryan Tubridy is a polished broadcaster, and I wish him success with his new London-based job with Virgin Media, where he will present a morning radio show from 10am until lunchtime, starting in January. After leaving RTÉ, he has embraced his new role with the right attitude: pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start…

Attending Mass in an Italian church shows how European Christianity has collapsed, writes Dualta Roughneen I have a travelled a lot over the last 20 years. My work has taken me to many different and varied countries, for weeks, months and years at a time. The work travel has allowed me to add holidays on…

A Finnish case shows the dangers hate speech laws pose for Irish Christians, Ruadhán Jones hears As Ireland considers introducing controversial hate speech laws, a Finnish case against a prominent Christian politician shows the “chilling effect” these laws could have here. While former MP Päivi Räsänen was cleared on November 14 by the Helsinki Court…

Most countries deem such restrictions to be disproportionate and not to hold rights in balance, writes David Quinn There is every chance you didn’t notice it because it was barely reported, but last week the Dáil voted by an overwhelming majority of 117 to 10 in favour of the so-called ‘Safe Access Zones’ Bill that…

Chris Altieri   There was a curious news item carried by Vatican News recently, one which, among other things, reminds us that the Catholic Church has both real enemies and a long memory. It may also, however, serve to illustrate that often enough, the Church’s worst enemy is within – and the enemy isn’t who…