The outcomes of the October summit could have a huge impact on indigenous communities, writes Colm Fitzptrick It’s been a synod tinged with controversy over priestly celibacy and female leadership in the Church; amidst all of this, eyes were also focused on two statues stolen from a church near the Vatican and subsequently thrown in…
It’s hard to be humble, not because we don’t have more than enough deficiencies to merit humility, but rather because there’s crafty mechanism inside of us that normally doesn’t let us go to the place of humility. Simply put, as we try to be self-effacing, humble and non-hypocritical, variably we take pride in that and…
Notebook November is a reflective time as we remember our loved ones who have died. It is particularly a time of remembering those who died in war and strife. For us in Ireland, remembering our fellow countrymen who died fighting for a British army has not always been easy. In recent years we have come…
A third of Irish adults over the age of 50 report feeling lonely some of the time, according to a study carried out by Trinity College Dublin. Among those over 75, loneliness is even more prevalent. Unsurprisingly, loneliness is often accompanied by depression. A certain degree of loneliness is, I think, inevitable in the older years.…
The View All saints are extraordinary, in the sense that they manage to turn their lives and wills over to God and through his grace achieve heroic virtue. John Henry Newman is perhaps more extraordinary than most because of the extent of his natural gifts. James Joyce wrote to his long-suffering English patron, Harriet Weaver,…
Truly Catholic schools have the resources to help students tackle worries, writes David Quinn The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Phonsie Cullinan, has issued a letter to primary schools in his diocese cautioning them against using yoga and ‘mindfulness’, especially during religion class. He warns “yoga is not of Christian origin”, and that mindfulness…
State failures in diplomacy marked the canonisation debacle, writes Chai Brady Given the instrumental role St John Henry Newman played in laying the foundations of what is now the State’s largest university, the Government’s tardiness in organising a representative for his canonisation was baffling for many. It seemed obvious that the Irish Government didn’t appear…
Letter from Rome Back in the mid-1980s, rebel Brazilian Franciscan Leonardo Boff was the enfant terrible of Latin America’s liberation theology movement, and he had a couple of celebrated run-ins with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s doctrinal czar under St John Paul II and the future Pope Benedict XVI. At one point, Ratzinger jokingly said…
Some 40 bishops participating in the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon gathered on Sunday in the Catacombs of St Domitilla in Rome to renew a pact signed in 1965 by 42 prelates at the Second Vatican Council calling for a poor Church. Though both ‘Pacts of the Catacombs’ were inspired by a commitment to…
A friend of mine shares this story. She grew up with five siblings and an alcoholic father. The effect of her father’s alcoholism was devastating on her family. Here’s how she tells the story: “By the time my father died his alcoholism had destroyed our family. None of us kids could talk to each other…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
David Quinn
Chai Brady
John L. Allen Jr.