Recently I received a letter from a woman whose life, in effect, had imploded. Within the course of a few months, her husband divorced her, she lost her job, was forced to move from the house she had lived in for many years, was locked down in her new place by Covid restrictions, and was…
Notebook I had the privilege some years ago of participating in an academic conference in Athens, the city where so many elements of Western civilisation flourished for the first time: democracy, the writing of history, philosophy, and, perhaps most thrillingly, theatre. In Athens, religious festivals were marked by great dramatic competitions, in which tragedies composed…
In the times we are living through, it’s hard to know how to practice Lenten abstinence, since most of us have already forsworn the daily pleasures or self-indulgences which were once the subjects of Lenten penitence. Weight Scolded about the perils of increasing our weight, we’re diligently fasting two, three or four days a week.…
The View It was reported last week that the HSE is to begin vaccinations in religious orders’ congregated settings. The pandemic has taken a terrible toll on nursing homes in general, as pointed out by The Irish Catholic since very early in the first lockdown. However, news about religious orders’ nursing homes and other settings…
Dublin’s new shepherd must continue to acknowledge the negative side of the Church’s recent legacy, while reminding us of the great good the Church has done and still does, writes David Quinn Ireland is one of the most anti-Catholic countries in the Western world. The often authoritarian behaviour of the Church in the past, in…
Many are struggling to process their grief without the rituals of death, writes Ruadhán Jones The funeral is a ubiquitous ritual in Irish society, envisioned in popular culture as a social gathering and a celebration of the deceased’s life. But under the conditions of a pandemic, we have come to recognise its primary importance as…
Letter from Rome In what’s being hailed as a demonstration that Pope Francis is in earnest about empowering women within ecclesiastical structures, last Friday, for the first time ever, the pontiff named a woman as the Promoter of Justice for the Appeals Court of the Vatican City State. In effect, the Promoter of Justice functions…
Once again praying from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square, despite rain and the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis on Sunday ticked off many of his core social concerns: Peace, life, migration, and the fight against modern-day slavery, all in a matter of minutes. Peace and democracy for Myanmar Francis said he…
A colleague once challenged Pierre Teilhard de Chardin with this question. You believe that good will ultimately triumph over evil; well, what if we blow up the world with an atomic bomb, what happens to goodness then? Teilhard answered this way. If we blow up the world with an atomic bomb, that would be a…
Notebook Now there is a question. If Lent is about self-sacrifice, deprivation and slowing things down, then we have had the longest 40 days ever, in the wilderness that is called Covid. So much of what we enjoy, take for granted and rely on for normality in life has been taken away and personal sacrifice…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Ruadhán Jones
John L. Allen Jr.