Dear Daddy and Mammy, Denis and Sadie to everyone else, but always Daddy and Mammy to me. As I write, I am days away from the fortieth anniversary of my ordination. On July 5, 1986, I stood before the Church and answered a call that had been forming in me for years. The older I…
As we mark the national semiquincentennial on July 4, we might well reflect on Benjamin Franklin’s answer to Elizabeth Willing Powel, when the elderly sage left the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the Philadelphia matron demanded, “Well, Dr Franklin, what have we got, a republic, or a monarchy?” To which Franklin famously responded, “A republic,…
Do you remember the glorious summer of 1976 when we could hardly believe our luck as the sun shone in the sky for day after day? This was back when few of us went abroad on holidays and sunny weather was something that happened in Spain, not here. Well, for that summer, we enjoyed a…
Pope Leo’s style differs from that of his predecessor, Pope Francis, although they are concerned about many of the same issues. Pope Leo has called two extraordinary consistories in his short pontificate. It is well-known that Pope Francis preferred to rely on his kitchen cabinet of nine cardinals, dubbed the C9. Pope Leo has employed…
Whatever about Palestine being free from the river to the sea, the all-Christian town of Taybeh on the Palestinian West Bank is not even free from one end of the town to the other. At one end, Israeli volunteers shield Bedouin tribes from the worst excesses of the settlers, who are annexing the town’s olive…
Jeffrey Donaldson can expect a tough time in prison for his crimes – paedophiles and rapists are lowest in the penitentiary caste system. But there’s one English priest who is willing to reach out to him, to offer redemption and healing. However, the Rev. Jonathan Aitken is no ordinary Anglican pastor. He’s been an MP,…
We cannot forget the ecumenical dimension of our synodal dialogue, says Cardinal Mario Grech For almost five years we have reflected on and worked on synodality. Much has been accomplished, and much has matured in the heart of the Church. Indeed, never before has a synodal process generated such momentum, such gravitas. One need only…
Recently, the people of Cork celebrated the centenary of their annual Eucharistic Procession. The Cork Eucharistic Procession began in 1926, only a few years after the end of the Irish Civil War, and the social and political context of the time is essential to understanding its significance. After the struggle for independence and the bitterness…
In one sense, parishes in every country on earth are much the same; they consist mainly of ordinary Catholics, whose joys and sorrows are similar no matter how different their circumstances. These Catholics want to attend Mass, have their children baptised, arrange Catholic marriages and funerals and depend on the support of a praying community…
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is often lauded as the world’s most successful ever military alliance, and I for one am not about to ‘diss’ the role it played in providing protection for Western Europe against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Supposedly, NATO is not just a military alliance, it is also…
George Weigel
David Quinn
Breda O'Brien
Mary Kenny