We are currently within the octave of Prayer for the Unity of Christians, and seldom in recent history has the spirit of Christian unity appeared more needed. Yet as I sat listening to a gentle homily about how Jesus Christ means peace – peace in our hearts, peace with our neighbours, and in the world…
Many people will have seen the recent TV programme about the Post Office scandal involving the wrongful prosecution of and conviction of sub-postmasters and the wrongful demands by the Post Office for tens of thousands of pounds allegedly missing from post office accounts, all the result of a faulty computer programme, Horizon, and, seemingly, the…
It’s right to expose historic instances of abuse, but we can’t obsess about it at the expense of vulnerable children in need today writes Michael Kelly It hasn’t been a great week for Minister Roderick O’Gorman’s Department for Integration. Although, in fairness, one could probably write that any given week over his turbulent tenure…
RTÉ documentary fails to ask the big questions about the priesthood, writes David Quinn You could tell Ardal O’Hanlon was pulling his punches in his documentary about the huge decline in vocations that was aired by RTÉ on Monday night, but you could also tell he won’t regret it when there are very few clergy…
Learning for lasting peace is a pipe-dream for many who don’t get to school, writes Dualta Roughneen The sixth International Day of Education will be celebrated on January 24, under the theme “learning for lasting peace”, with the assumption that education contributes to more peaceful societies. The idea is that the more educated a society…
In a new interview, Pope Francis said he is in good health and denied any plans to resign, saying he has several foreign trips planned for this year, including a summer stop in Polynesia and a potential return trip to Argentina. Speaking of his health, Francis in the interview jested that “I’m still alive” despite…
Polarisation in Poland has reached new heights as it enters the new year, following the election of a left-leaning government more in line with those “European values” we frequently hear about from the continent’s top bureaucrats than the nation’s previous right-wing PiS (Law and Justice) administration. At the top of the new government’s agenda, headed…
Liz Harris Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. But how has the war affected the religious life of Muslims and Christians in the area? Water shortages and wudu Gaza is running dry. Water shortages have been rife in the strip for decades, but since the war began after the Hamas attack on 7…
I always find these first weeks of January a somewhat reflective time. A new year has begun, and I find myself reevaluating where I’m at as a person and as a priest and what might I try to do differently in the coming months. I have also spent a few days on retreat with my…
It’s been pleasing to see a revival in the old Irish tradition of celebrating January 6 as ‘Nollaig na mBan’, the ‘women’s Christmas’. Although it had been a country tradition, I don’t think it was very widely observed in Dublin, where January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany was known, traditionally, as ‘Little Christmas’. The…
Mary Kenny
Nuala O’Loan
Michael Kelly
David Quinn