Christians are enjoined to love one another, and to love their enemy as well. But that doesn’t mean that everyone has to like everyone else. It’s a simple fact that not everyone can like everyone else. The accord that is struck between two people can depend on that intangible element known as ‘personal chemistry’. As…
The Church in Ireland has given great welcome to refugees, the Ukrainian apostolic visitor to Ireland tells Ruadhán Jones Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, recently appointed by Pope Francis as apostolic visitor to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community in Ireland, has visited the country twice. The first time was in the 1990s – the second time was…
Some years ago, veteran Italian journalist Massimo Franco wrote a book about US/Vatican relations called Imperi Paralleli (“Parallel Empires”), arguing that the intersection between Washington and Rome has driven a great deal of history over the last two centuries. At the moment these parallel empires are intersecting again, each gripped by a maddeningly complicated legal drama. Trial…
Sri Lanka’s top Catholic prelate has urged the country’s political leaders to make good on their promise to resign this week, and he’s voiced hope that a new government will be able to bring the South Asian nation out of its current woes. Speaking to Crux about the unrest that led Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and…
We have many photographs of Thérèse of Lisieux. Her sister Celine loved using a camera and took many photos of Thérèse, but there’s an interesting thing to note in those photos. The British Carmelite Ruth Burrows once did a study of those photos and commented that in all of them, Therese is always somehow alone,…
Thirty years ago, I was invited along with a colleague to lead a parish mission in Newfoundland on the east coast of Canada. It was an interesting and memorable experience. Newfoundland has very close connections with Ireland and indeed most of the population spoke with distinct Irish accents. Many of the family names were ones…
I suspect that many women have divided feelings on the subject of ‘drag queens’ – chaps who dress up in women’s clothes, with an over-exaggerated presentation of female hair, make-up and gestures. Some find it amusing; others feel that it takes a mocking view of femininity – rather as black people have objected to whites…
Wherever the synodal process goes, it cannot break with core Church teachings, writes David Quinn When I attended one of the synodal meetings in my parish in Dublin a number of months ago that discussed the issues facing the Church in the archdiocese, some of my initial concerns about where the whole process might go…
To no one’s real surprise, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received Communion during a papal Mass yesterday marking the traditional feast of Sts Peter and Paul. Pelosi, her husband Paul, and other family members happened to be in Rome on vacation and decided to attend the Mass. The act of receiving Communion, first…
Church representatives from French-speaking Africa have urged closer regional cooperation in Catholic peacebuilding to offset mounting economic and security challenges across the continent. “The Church frequently speaks out against government corruption and failure to settle conflicts – but it’s simply ignored,” explained Stephen Hilbert, adviser for Africa and global development for the US bishops’ conference.…
Mary Kenny
Ruadhán Jones
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
David Quinn