Introducing the people in the Irish Synodal Pathway Working Groups and their roles and backgrounds. The Synodal Pathway refused to release this information for unknown reasons so we compiled it in the interest of a transparent Church culture which clearly has some way to go before it is realised. BELONGING Bishop Paul Dempsey Auxiliary Bishop…
The process for the Modification of Parishes, when the need arises, is set out below. It is guided by the Instructions of the Dicastery for the Clergy. The process takes place within the context of the partnership of parishes established by Archbishop Farrell (December 2022) across the Archdiocese through the Building Hope pastoral renewal initiative.…
What does it mean to safeguard our humanity? That question is at the heart of Pope Leo XIV’s much anticipated first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, released May 25. The following are some key things to know about this weighty papal letter. Latin for “Magnificent Humanity,”…
We live in troubled times, and in a time where everyone has a political opinion, sometimes strongly expressed. Sometimes a strong opinion is fitting. But do politics have to be everywhere? Getting a takeaway coffee at a small local café, I noticed they’d put up a new poster with the words “Free Palestine”. The poster…
It is possible that your image of the Dublin Central constituency still goes back to the days of socialist TD, Tony Gregory, who used his political leverage with Charlie Haughey to extract public monies for a very working-class part of the city when money in general was scarce and unemployment was high. Back in those…
At Pentecost, Archbishop Dermot Farrell published a striking Pastoral Letter to all the people and priests of the Archdiocese of Dublin: ‘Come, Holy Spirit, Fill Our Hearts with the Fire of Your Love’. Archbishop Farrell asks that, like Mary and the Apostles “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1), we allow ourselves to be encouraged…
The title of the upcoming Catholic retreat in Co. Antrim made me smile. ‘The Music of Leonard Cohen: A Window to the Divine’. When I was a teenager in Toronto, my pals did not share my love of Leonard Cohen’s work. They called it: ‘‘Let’s all jump out the window music’”. But even then, I…
One of the dangers – and privileges – of writing a column is that, over time, it reveals rather more about your identity than you intended. Anyone who has endured my words over the past few months will know that I am a mother, a musician, a Catholic educator and somebody who probably romanticises the…
The role of the President of Ireland is supposed to be gloriously vague. Catherine Connolly should cut ribbons, plant trees and release bland statements that offend nobody. The whole point of the office is that it hovers serenely above the daily madness of Irish political life like a constitutional swan. Which is precisely why it…
“We are an Easter people.” So began a remarkable day of reflection at St John of God Sisters’ Retreat Centre in Ballyvaloo, Co. Wexford recently. The theme was both simple and challenging: ‘Celebrating the Radical Easter Message of Liberation for Women’. The facilitator was Gráinne Doherty, from Donegal, a woman who brings rare gifts of…
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Martina Purdy