Who is Richard Lawrence? Now, that’s a question that I hadn’t imagined ever needing to ask myself! In August, I travelled to the United States on what turned out to be a holiday. For 25 years, I have had the great joy of going there every summer to spend a few weeks in a parish…
The renowned American author Henry James gave advice to anyone seeking to write a novel or a play. There are three rules, he said: “Dramatise, dramatise, dramatise!” That is, make everything in fiction more extreme than in real life. Make the baddies badder and the goodies more heroic. Exaggerate every aspect of story and action.…
There are beautiful stained-glass windows behind the altar in our Church of All Saints in Ballymena, Co. Antrim. At the centre, way high up, is a very realistic depiction of the crucified Christ – a strong and vital young man hanging helpless on the cross, but looking out with such compassion. It is very compelling.…
At the weekend the Pope surprised a gathering of journalists in the Vatican by making an appeal to them for help, “not for money” he assured them, but to fight against disinformation and the denial of facts and reality. This appeal for help came as a prominent Cardinal in America heavily criticised the proposed Synod…
The portrayal of priests and nuns in ‘The Woman in the Wall’ is unfair and unjust, writes David Quinn There was a time when Catholic priests and nuns were depicted as kindly, charitable figures. Think of Bing Crosby as Fr Charles ‘Chuck’ O’Malley in Going My Way, or the Fr Brown mysteries by GK Chesterton which…
In just a little over a month, the curtain will rise on a keenly anticipated Synod of Bishops on Synodality in Rome. Though notoriously difficult to define, ‘synodality’ generally refers to the idea of the whole Church journeying together, with members listening to one another in establishing priorities and policies. To date, much of the…
In the foreword to a new booklet by a conservative group criticising Pope Francis’s looming Synod of Bishops on Synodality, American Cardinal Raymond Burke has slammed the process surrounding the synod, calling it deeply harmful and potentially schismatic. Cardinal Burke, a hero to the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church, has been a frequent Francis…
The theme of this year’s ‘Season of Creation’ is ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow’ – inspired by the words of the prophet Amos: “Let justice flow like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (5:24). What struck me from this image of flowing water is not only how water symbolises justice and peace but how…
Every August, when the Rose of Tralee festival comes around, there’s a breakout of demands calling for it to be brought to an end – on grounds that it’s outdated, sexist, judgmental of women and all the rest. I may even have voiced such an opinion myself back in the dim dark past. But in…
As you read this, a courageous bishop is sitting in solitary confinement in a Nicaraguan prison – Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa. We are so flooded with bad news that it can sometimes be hard to care about a country thousands of miles away. The Irish Catholic has played a valuable role in helping us…
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
David Quinn
John L. Allen Jr.
Breda O'Brien