Notebook “Why did you become a priest?” Brendan lives not too far from Washington DC and is the middle of three children. I baptised him a short few years ago and each week with his parents and sisters, he joins the parish of Kilmovee for Sunday Mass via webcam. This led him, on one occasion…
I’m not sure I could give a coherent description of the protocols of association football, were I quizzed on the subject: the ‘off-side’ rule has been explained to me many times, but I still don’t quite grasp it. It was lovely to see the euphoric delight expressed by the Italian fans in celebration” And yet,…
The View The late Fr Denis Faul acknowledged that the one luxury he permitted himself was a television subscription that permitted him to access French and German channels. As a country, we can afford even less today to rely exclusively on the Anglo-sphere for our information. Happily, it was possible to order from a French…
Fundamental reform of the Irish economy can benefit everyone the Catholic agency insists, writes Michael Kelly The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has proposed a package of reforms beginning with the forthcoming budget that the agency believes would lay the foundation for a future without poverty in Ireland. Entitled ‘Foundations for an Equal Ireland’ the…
It is doubtful whether a party with the word Christian in the title would even see the light of day in Ireland, writes David Quinn The new leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany is a man named Armin Laschet. He will be unfamiliar to the vast majority of Irish people, but he…
Letter from Rome Carol Zimmermann It turns out there really is no place like home for a prized piece of movie memorabilia that came to The Catholic University of America’s drama department about 50 years ago. Missing for decades, the university’s long-rumoured possession of the blue gingham dress worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in…
Jodi Martin Accompaniment is the key to addressing modern catechetical challenges, a method that’s at the centre of a new entity being created under the direction of Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Catechism. A proposal to create an Institute for the Catechism was…
Several weeks ago after giving a lecture at a religious conference, the first question from the audience was this one: How can you continue to stay in a Church that played such a pivotal part in setting up and maintaining residential schools for the indigenous people of Canada? How can you stay in a Church…
Notebook When I was a student at the Irish College in Rome back in the 1980s one of the features of our lives was the interaction we had with Irish couples who came out to Rome to be married. Sometimes there were four or five couples each week. Many of them travelled to Rome on…
Dr Gavin Ashenden, honorary chaplain to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II from 2008 to 2017, was received into the Catholic Church in December 2019. He recently gave a talk to ‘The Keys’ (the Catholic Writers’ Guild of England and Wales) about his journey. At the Church of England synod of 2008, liberals ‘squeezed out conservatives’ from…
Mary Kenny
Michael Kelly
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser