The Notebook Fr Vincent Sherlock   The Lent has passed and hopefully it treated you well. Looking back we might well identify moments of great grace and moments of failure but, combined, they are the story of Lent and the pathway to where we now gather. Easter Sunday can be unfairly seen as the poor…

I opened my mouth to speak, last weekend, and what emerged sounded like the strangled bleatings of an afflicted ewe. By Monday I was entirely speechless, my voice chords silenced by a nasty attack of laryngitis.  Whispering and written messages were the only replacements. People were understanding when I signalled “I’ve lost my voice” –…

The View   The role of the loyal critic is a vital one in the Church. Many times in its history, the Church has lost its way and been recalled to it through the action of the Holy Spirit working through women and men. President emeritus Mary McAleese clearly sees herself as part of that…

Our Lord’s maleness was not an accident, writes David Quinn   The debate over whether or not women in the Catholic Church can be priests is one for Catholics, first and foremost. That ought to go without saying. Many of those chipping in on the issue over the last couple of weeks don’t believe in…

Unless you somehow have a foot outside of your culture, the culture will swallow you whole. Daniel Berrigan wrote that and it’s true too in this sense: unless you can drink in strength from a source outside yourself, your natural proclivities for paranoia, bitterness and hatred will invariably swallow you whole. The disciples in Luke’s…

The Notebook   Fr Silvester O’Flynn   Blessed Paul VI called Padre Pio a living crucifix in the 20th-Century. Perhaps God saw that something more vivid than a crucifix of wood, stone or metal was needed to engage the people of our time. And so, a young Capuchin priest in Italy was chosen by God…

Letter from Rome   One of Catholicism’s most beguiling features is its endless capacity for complexity, and that certainly extends to its understanding of suffering. On the one hand, few institutions on earth invest more in the effort to alleviate suffering. Yet Christianity also was born in a monumental act of suffering, meaning Christ on…

It seems to me regrettable that the general discussions around the points that Mary McAleese makes in her critique of the Catholic church often seem so insular. Seldom are there any references to other faith traditions – on the question of ordaining women – be it Judaism and Islam, Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Anglicanism and…

Martin Mansergh The View   Following the recent acute and unseasonal cold spell, a photograph appeared on the front of the Tipperary Star showing a winter scene of the centre of Thurles, taken from the bridge over the River Suir, with the caption (anonymous): “A snowflake is one of God’s most fragile creations, but look…