As a teenager in Leeds, Michelle Moran was waiting for some friends when a Christian street preacher approached her with a question: “Do you ever think of Spiritual things?” The youth – who would grow up to become a globe-trotting Catholic evangelist – quickly backed away. She did not understand the question. Although raised a…
It is now 17 months since our new pope was chosen. As we know, he picked the name ‘Leo’ to indicate he intended to continue the work of Pope Leo XIII, the 19th-century pontiff most famous for issuing the encyclical Rerum Novarum (‘Of New Things’), which was the Church’s response to the new age of…
The recent visit of Pope Leo to Paris, Lourdes and Metz with its images of jubilant, predominantly youthful throngs, cheering and singing, brought back memories of similar scenes from the Ireland of September, 1979 when Pope St John Paul II took Ireland by storm. Today, memories of that visit have a dark lining. It is…
It’s as well I had put down my razor when I switched on Morning Ireland last Friday week for the 7am news headlines. Listening to their opening description of Pope Leo’s visit to France starting that day, I might have cut myself. “The Catholic hierarchy in France is hoping that the visit trip (sic) will…
What is happening at Drumcree and on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown at the moment could lead to cause enormous and incalculable damage to an already struggling Northern Ireland. As the two sides proclaim that the other side is not going to win, the possibility of trouble, of the outbreak of violence which we all…
The development of the Catholic bishops’ ‘Living Love’ resource for primary and secondary schools has something important to teach us about what meaningful consultation looks like. ‘Living Love’ was developed by the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference to support the delivery of the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum. A ‘final draft’…
In recent years there has been enormous sympathy in Ireland for the Palestinians in Gaza and many Catholic commentators in Ireland and abroad have adopted an anti-Israel position that can lead to anti-Judaism and antisemitism. Their rhetoric often vilifies Israel’s actions while minimising or ignoring the existential threats the country has faced since its founding,…
When Pope Leo XIV arrived in the City of Lights, in the country once known as the “eldest daughter of the Church,” he was not met by screaming hordes exclaiming with fury, “Écrasez I’infâme!”—often translated as “crush the loathsome thing.” Indeed, this phrase was directed mostly at the Roman Catholic Church by the Jesuit-educated firebrand…
I was one of several survivors recently invited to attend and offer a reflection at ‘A Moment of Solidarity with Victims and Survivors of Abuse’ in Co. Kildare. The event was organised by Towards Peace, which provides free spiritual direction and accompaniment to people who have experienced physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual abuse within a…
Looking back over the past three weeks of Oireachtas hearings on the three-day wait, one thing stands out above everything else for me. It isn’t the political manoeuvring, the carefully managed hearings or even some of the extraordinary exchanges at the Health Committee. It is the women. Over recent months, I have gotten to know women…
Martina Purdy
David Quinn
Senator Ronan Mullen
Nuala O’Loan
Eilis Mulroy