Ireland may be less Catholic, but parents still like Catholic schools, writes David Quinn

In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures of the Church, writes Cathal Barry

Most of us worry about aging, especially in how it affects our bodies. We worry about wrinkles, bags under our eyes, middle-age fat and losing hair where we want it only to find it on places where we don’t want it. So every now and then, when we look in a mirror or see a…

Celebrating World Day for Consecrated Life

We shouldn’t confuse bad experiences with evil, writes Fr Brendan Purcell

History can be shaped to reflect perspectives, writes David Quinn

The idea of making Confirmation at a later age has caused a debate, writes Cathal Barry

The Church’s mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament, writes Cathal Barry

Normally none of us like feeling sad, heavy, or depressed. Generally we prefer sunshine to darkness, light-heartedness to melancholy. That’s why, most of the time, we do everything we can to distract ourselves from melancholy, to keep heaviness and sadness at bay. We tend to run from those feelings inside us that sadden or frighten…

I had no idea that St Thérèse of Lisieux had such a massive band of devotees until the visit of her relics in 2001. A headline in this newspaper at the end of the tour’s first week reported that 100,000 people had turned out in the South East.  I was travelling a lot that summer…