Editor’s Comment The pre-Enlightenment era is often viewed as a time of rigid conformism and a lack of liberty compared to our own day. People point to the traditional formula error non habet ius (error has no rights) and shake their head confidently assuring themselves that we live in a better time when people are…
Editor’s Comment Advent is so often a missed season. In the rush to Christmas, we can forget the centrality of anticipation as well as patient and attentive waiting. In the marketplace, Christmas lights are erected from early November and there is talk of Christmas everywhere. It means that Advent gets lost, but it is an…
Editor’s Comment Sr Josephine Enenmo OLA is a missionary sister from Nigeria now living in Dublin. She has shared fascinating reflections on her experiences of the Church in Ireland and the profound feeling of parishioners still remaining strangers to one another, rather than as part of the same community journeying together. “Coming from Nigeria –…
Editor’s Comment Writing to early Christians in Asia Minor nearly 2,000 years ago St Peter urged believers to: “always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have” (I Peter 3:15). The Christians were a minority at the time often facing persecution, and St Peter referred…
Editor’s Comment Church history is always one of ups and downs, peaks and troughs. The last 2,000 years have been witness to some of the greatest people in human history doing great things in the name of Christianity. The same period has also witnessed immense human wickedness from people who profess to be followers of…
Editor’s Comment We’re not even in Advent yet, and already it is Christmas time in the marketplace. But, what exactly does Christmas mean to us? Or, what does it mean to our political leaders. That is not a question as simple as it might appear at first glance. Every year we are treated to stunning…
Editor’s Comment One of the great sadnesses shared with me when I speak at parish missions and novenas around the country is the absence of young families. Often a grandfather and grandmother will be there with cheerful grandchildren, and at the cup of tea afterwards will share their dismay that their grown-up children – the…
Editor’s Comment In England and Wales, churches and other places of worship have been included in taxpayer-funded programmes aimed at easing the rising cost of fuel. Most places of worship are large and, particularly in the case of churches, were built at a time when insulation and energy efficiency were not priorities. In short, they…
Editor’s Comment A few years ago ‘clustering’ was a word largely unknown by Catholics across Ireland. Today, parish clustering is the order of the day as it has been embraced by people within the Church as a response to the declining number of priests. I’ve often thought that clustering – joining a group of parishes…
In just seven years, the Church in Ireland will mark the bicentenary of Catholic emancipation. Catholic relief in 1829 aimed to ease the restrictions on Catholics that had come about since the time of the English Reformation when King Henry VIII rejected the authority of the Pope and the widespread persecution of Catholics began. While…
Michael Kelly