What is the heart of education? One photograph, over the past week, said it all for me. It was the picture of more than 50 parents camping out for up to two days to get their daughters into the Presentation Secondary School in Tralee, Co. Kerry. The all-girls’ school is clearly such a beacon…

  The View John Waters   When I was a child, in the manner of children everywhere, I would express my identity as: John Waters, Main Street, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, Europe, The World, The Milky Way, The Universe. Now, all the time, the pressure is on me to live in a smaller and smaller…

To mark Christian Unity Week, Dean Robert MacCarthy offers a remedy to current woes   This is winter time for the Church and unlike the climate it is not soon going to be succeeded by spring and summer. The evidence of sexual abuses in America and Europe has triggered a worldwide decline in the Roman…

  Are reforms at Maynooth for the better or a return to the sort of rigid seminary life of yesteryear, asks David Quinn   Last week, this newspaper reported changes that are being undertaken at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in the wake of the Apostolic Visitation conducted on behalf of the Pope by Cardinal-designate Timothy…

In her novel, Final Payments, Mary Gordon articulates an equation that has long influenced Christian spirituality, both for good and for bad. Her heroine, Isabel, is a young woman within whom a strong Catholic background, an overly-strict father, and a natural depth of soul conspire together to leave her overly-reticent and overly-reflective, looking at life…

With the box-office success of the movie The Iron Lady — Meryl Streep’s portrait of Margaret Thatcher — the career of the former British prime minister is being re-assessed on all sides. Maggie Thatcher always elicited strong emotions: people loved her or hated her. She is often heralded as the leader who revived capitalism, rescuing…

Republican candidate Rick Santorum’s Catholicism is making him ‘fair game’ for biased detractors, writes David Quinn   Rick Santorum is the American politician who rose to prominence last week because he did well in the first stage of the race to become the Republican party’s presidential candidate in November’s presidential election. Santorum is a Catholic…

  Denis Buckley describes some of the work of Humanitarian Volunteers in Kenya   Have you ever considered volunteering for a short period in Africa? The support of volunteers from Ireland has now become crucial to the survival of many small projects. The collapse of the Celtic Tiger and the global credit crunch has had…

  This year will present a number of issues of concern, write David Quinn   The year ahead looks set to be an extremely important one. Quite apart from the economy, several issues of great importance to Catholics and Christians more generally will be decided as well. For example, by the end of 2012 it…

Since time is always at a premium, I try to be selective in what I read. As well, I like to keep my diet wide, reading novels, books on spirituality, theological treatises, biographies and essays on psychological and anthropological issues. How do I select a book? I read reviews, get tips from colleagues, receive books…