The people of Northern Ireland have been through a very difficult time. For over 50 years (indeed longer) they have hoped for a better future and their hopes have appeared to be realised from time to time over the decades. Yet time and again, they have seen the collapse of all that they have aspired…

“Bruton set to pledge end of school ‘baptism barrier’”, read the headline in one newspaper on Monday. It was typical of the headlines in a number of news outlets. Reading those headlines you could be forgiven for thinking that Education Minister, Richard Bruton, has decided to altogether abolish the right of Catholic schools to admit…

It was the stuff of high drama and historic import. As the final minutes of 2016 ticked away in an expectant Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), New Year spectacles could do little to distract the eyes of the nation from talks taking place in the capital Kinshasa, the outcome of which would dictate the chances…

It says something of the state of the nation when a quiet day of non-events gains more column inches with the international media than a 5.3 magnitude earthquake just days before. An understanding of this apparent skewing of priorities comes when El Salvador is identified as the source for both stories. On January 4, media…

Recently a man came to me, asking for help. He carried some deep wounds, not physical wounds, but emotional wounds to his soul. What surprised me initially was that, while he was deeply wounded, he had not been severely traumatised either in childhood or adulthood. He seemed to have just had to absorb the normal…

When Cardinal Raymond Burke wrote in April that Pope Francis’ post-synodal exhortation on the family did not change Church teaching, he was predictably condemned by those who had been casting aspersions on the document released just three days earlier. “This is nothing less than a betrayal from one who should have offered hope,” tweeted one…

A United Ireland is “the most practical and sensible way to resolve headaches over Brexit” writes Mary Kenny It’s being suggested in a much-discussed new book by Kevin Meagher that one of the solutions to current political problems is – a united Ireland. In A United Ireland – Why Unification is Inevitable and How it…

Times have changed since the last ad limina, writes David Quinn It is 10 years since the Irish bishops made their last ad limina visit to Rome. It will take place from January 15-25. Literally, an ad limina apostolorum means ‘to the threshold of the Apostles’. It is a pilgrimage to the tombs of Ss…

In a new interview published on January 8, Pope Francis says he came into the papacy not wanting to travel very much, but after his initial outing to the Italian island of Lampedusa in early July 2013, which is a major point of arrival for refugees trying to enter Europe, he understood he had to…

Antoni Guterres promises a revived United Nations, writes Paul Keenan How long, if at all, one wonders, do staff at the United Nations pause to wish one another “Happy New Year”? The question is posed from a knowledge that the multitudinous issues with which the international body concerns itself do not ebb and flow with…