Entertainment isn’t always life-giving. Recently, after a funeral, I spoke with a man, he was probably in his late 30s or early 40s. He was Irish and had been raised a Catholic. His story is all too common among our fellow Irish Catholics. He had received all the sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.…

Justin robinson OSB   An Armenian flag fluttered atop a pile of rubble in the cool evening, a welcome respite from the khamsin storm which had oppressed Jerusalem with days of hot dusty clouds coming from the deserts of Arabia. Hundreds of people shared a delicious buffet meal in the shadow of the flag and…

Ecclesiastical structures are only useful if they allow our parishes to be vibrant places where people encounter God, writes Michael Kelly While all eyes were on the cabinet reshuffle of Taoiseach Simon Harris, officials in Rome were preparing to announce details of the Pope’s reshuffle of sorts of the Irish ecclesiastical landscape. While Ireland has…

It won’t be surprise to learn that Ireland is growing richer, and there are, in the words of a leading accountant, “an awful lot of people making money” in Ireland today. The number of ‘super-rich’ individuals – those with over €20 million in their possession – has increased by 200 over the past two years,…

Let’s value the gift the Lord has given to women religious as Brides of Christ, writes Martina Purdy An Anglican minister met me recently, a lovely woman who was very frank about a complaint made to her by an Anglican nun. This sister was frustrated at the lack of vocations to her convent in England. …

The Church must speak up for rights society is happy to ignore, writes David Quinn The late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who was the archbishop of Chicago, used to advocate an approach to Catholic social justice teaching that become known as ‘the seamless garment’. The idea behind it was that all social justice teachings belonged together…