A few years ago I was invited by Fr Seán Deegan, a Kiltegan priest, to conduct workshops in the Diocese of Juina in the Mato Grosso, Brazil.  This Amazonian diocese has 140,000 Catholics scattered over a region one and a half times the size of Ireland. It has 19 priests, some of whom are on loan.…

Catholics may feel a sense of déjà vu upon reading Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’ 16,000-word apostolic exhortation concluding the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. The topic has been the object of speculation and fevered expectations ever since the gathering of prelates that occasioned it concluded last October in Rome. During the summit, debate over the viri…

Matt Sedensky Seminarians walk along a hallway lined with photos of priests in classes who came before them. Some are pious alumni, who have become their teachers and mentors; others climbed the Catholic hierarchy to be become bishops and cardinals. But there are others: Raymond Leneweaver, Class of 1962, subject of at least 14 victims’…

Jay Niles “Jesus, I trust in you. I could score a touchdown or break a leg and never play again. So whatever is supposed to happen on this play, just let it happen.” These are the words of Hale Hentges, a tight end for American football side Washington Redskins, who goes into every NFL game…

Notebook Fr Bernard Healy   If I were to say Carnevale to you, you might think of the masked celebrations of Venice or the samba-dancing of Rio de Janeiro. However, there was once a time when Rome was also famous for its Carnevale, the festival bidding a farewell to meat before the Lenten fast. Rome’s…

And so it emerges, as I had suspected, that there is no substantial anti-immigrant vote in Ireland. Yes, there is some concern about proportions and numbers in some parts of the country, but there is evidently no traction for an anti-immigrant party – as exists in France, Germany and to some degree in Italy and…

The View It really is a case of being careful what you wish for. When I wrote before the election that it was time to move away from the politics of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, I had no idea that the country would instead vote for Tweedledodge. In fairness, neither did Sinn Fein, which could have…

The concerns of Catholics were invisible in the election because Catholics 
made themselves 
invisible, writes 
David Quinn In the run up to the general election, there were a handful of statements from bishops such as Eamon Martin, Kevin Doran and Alan McGuckian but for the most part the Church kept as low a profile as…

In government, Sinn Féin will disappoint and entrench the growing divide between many of our people and the political class, writes John McGuirk In a country unused to earthquakes, even the mildest tremor in the ground might feel like the end of the world. When Mount Vesuvius erupted and swept through the Roman town of…