We are growing ever more distrustful of words. Everywhere we hear people say: “That’s just talk! That’s nothing but empty words!” Empty words are all around us. Our world is full of lies, of false promises, of glittering advertising that doesn’t deliver, of words never backed up by anything. We trust less and less in…
Notebook Fr Bernard Healy If I were to say Carnevale to you, you might think of the masked celebrations of Venice or the samba-dancing of Rio de Janeiro. However, there was once a time when Rome was also famous for its Carnevale, the festival bidding a farewell to meat before the Lenten fast. Rome’s…
And so it emerges, as I had suspected, that there is no substantial anti-immigrant vote in Ireland. Yes, there is some concern about proportions and numbers in some parts of the country, but there is evidently no traction for an anti-immigrant party – as exists in France, Germany and to some degree in Italy and…
The View It really is a case of being careful what you wish for. When I wrote before the election that it was time to move away from the politics of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, I had no idea that the country would instead vote for Tweedledodge. In fairness, neither did Sinn Fein, which could have…
The concerns of Catholics were invisible in the election because Catholics made themselves invisible, writes David Quinn In the run up to the general election, there were a handful of statements from bishops such as Eamon Martin, Kevin Doran and Alan McGuckian but for the most part the Church kept as low a profile as…
In government, Sinn Féin will disappoint and entrench the growing divide between many of our people and the political class, writes John McGuirk In a country unused to earthquakes, even the mildest tremor in the ground might feel like the end of the world. When Mount Vesuvius erupted and swept through the Roman town of…
The fact that five million children under the age of five will die this year due to extreme poverty is something that should motivate the world to act, according to Pope Francis. Speaking at a summit in Rome with some of the world’s most powerful financial officials, the Holy Father also alluded to the situation…
Perry West A prison ministry in South Carolina offering catechetical formation and sacrament preparation has helped change the lives of five inmates brought into the Church in the winter. The inmates at Perry Correctional Institution had been attending RCIA in the prison since July 2019. Three of the men were baptised at a December…
Thirty years ago, John Jungblut wrote a short pamphlet entitled, On Hallowing Our Diminishments. It’s a treatise suggesting ways we might frame the humiliations and diminishments that beset us through circumstance, age and accidents so that, despite the humiliation they bring, we can place them under a certain canopy so as to take away their…
Notebook I’m sure there are other similar parishes around the country, but in my pastoral experience I have never experienced any community like the people of Ballycallan. After my appointment as curate in 1992, I visited the church for the first time and I was shocked and depressed. I had just returned from studying in…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn