Ireland’s religious orders are increasingly facing financial challenges, write Greg Daly, Chai Brady and Colm Fitzpatrick The frantic call for funds to restore Notre Dame de Paris after the disastrous fire at the start of Holy Week will have baffled many, as will have done stories some months ago about how Ireland’s Diocese of Waterford…
When people of my generation look back at the subject of sex education, I think many would conclude that it was frankly woeful. Basically, there wasn’t any ‘education’ in what was then known, euphemistically, although not untruthfully, as ‘the facts of life’. It was considered indelicate to explain too much, and much energy was expended…
Greg Daly, Chai Brady and Colm Fitzpatrick Headline figures from the Charities Regulator can be somewhat misleading, according to Fr Bill Toner, Treasurer of Ireland’s Jesuits, who explains that in the first place the Irish province’s accounts are divided between a range of trusts. “What happened with us is that the treasurer way, way…
The View Martin Mansergh The Easter period in the Christian calendar is a time of both death and resurrection. When tragedy strikes, there is a challenge, when people are faced by a great and wholly unexpected setback to try and find a transformative response. Three such events occurred around this Easter. The largest-scale events…
A Belfast-based priest remains modest about how his words pricked the conscience of politicians, writes Colm Fitzpatrick When a Belfast-based priest gave the homily at the funeral of a murdered journalist last month, it wasn’t expected that his words would have any long-term effect. The remarks would, of course, touch the hearts and minds…
Mothers and fathers are different and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, writes David Quinn This is a very strange and contradictory Government. On the one hand it is preparing a new law that will allow a couple not to record themselves on a birth certificate as the mother and father of their…
Simon Harris has halted funds needed to preserve women’s lives in order to pay for abortion, writes Niamh Uí Bhriain Last year, we were repeatedly told that Irish women would be safer in pregnancy if the Eighth Amendment was repealed. In fact, when opinion polls showed support for repeal was slipping, The Irish Times rushed…
Letter from Rome Inés San Martín A new ‘super dicastery’ on evangelisation might be one of the most significant reforms of the governing structures of the Vatican, according to a new report. Spanish journalist Dario Menor Torres, writing for the weekly Vida Nueva, reveals several elements of the new Vatican constitution that has been in development…
Elise Harris In the aftermath of the gruesome and tragic bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, much of the immediate response from the Catholic community has been raising funds to rebuild the churches and properties that were destroyed. Yet for Cardinal Malcom Ranjith of Colombo, where last Sunday’s attacks took place, his focus…
“I’m a practicing mystic!” A woman said that in one of my classes some years ago and it raised lots of eyebrows. I was teaching a class in mysticism and asked the students why the topic of mysticism interested them. Their responses varied: some were simply intrigued with the concept; others were spiritual directors who…
Mary Kenny
Colm Fitzpatrick
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser