No one is an island; indeed, no one is ever really alone. If you are a person of faith or even just someone with a highly attuned intuitive sense, you will know that there is no such thing as a truly private act, for good or bad. Everything we do, no matter how private, affects…
Notebook There was a time when: Being a close contact was a good thing. To walk into a bank wearing a mask spelt danger! To give someone the elbow was akin to ignoring. If you sneezed, a stranger would say “God bless you”. Delta was an airline! We worried about who was in hospital and…
The French Catholic sociologist Olivier Roy has pointed that many previous concepts of ‘sin’ and ‘transgression’ have been transferred, in modern secular states, to the law, and are re-classified as ‘crimes’. A vivid example arises with the new proposed Scottish law against ‘hate crimes’, due to come into force this year. To hate someone, to…
The View The pandemic has left an already battered Church facing even more challenges, including financial woes. Great uncertainty hangs over 2022 but that is true of every year. Do we have unrealistic expectations of safety and comfort? Our ancestors had lower expectations of life because they knew disaster could strike at any moment. I…
People want and need the faith, so we should offer it to them, writes Ruadhán Jones Towards the end of last year, this paper reported on a new survey which found that 51% of 18 to 34-year-olds pray regularly, compared with 24% of over-50s. This news, we were told, is a hopeful sign and should…
The Sunday Gospel This Sunday we celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, marking the beginning of his public ministry. He has emerged from the 30 years of what we call his hidden life. Since Jesus was without sin, he did not need to submit himself to the ceremonial bathing that John the…
Hindu nationalists falsely accuse missionaries of exploiting the vulnerable to win converts, writes David Quinn Mother Teresa is one of the most loved figures of the 20th Century, and in the eyes of millions of Catholics, a saint. It’s probably for this reason that she also comes under continual attack. The most famous of the…
There is no guarantee the proposed synod will rekindle the Church’s missionary zeal, writes Kingsley Jones The Covid-19 pandemic has been a crisis for Catholics in more ways than one. Not only have we had to deal with a medical emergency, but we’ve also been ambushed by the spirit of our times. While our right…
The Dáil debate on whether to accept the Treaty opened on December 21, 1921. The Treaty had been signed early on December 6. The debate took place in the low-ceilinged two room lecture hall, on the second floor of what is now the National Concert Hall. My memory, as a UCD student who attended lectures…
Recently NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space, the biggest and most expensive telescope ever built. It will take six months for it to travel a million miles from the earth, find its permanent place in space, and then start transmitting pictures back to earth. Those pictures will be such as have never…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Ruadhán Jones
David Quinn