RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy announced on Friday on his morning radio programme that he didn’t know any couples who attend Mass. Apart from the obvious question as to how Mr Tubridy would know whether or not his friends go to Mass unless he has asked them all, at face value it’s an astonishingly revealing claim.…
The issue of religious freedom will continue to be a major feature in public debate in the year ahead. Central to the discussion is the extent to which people ought to be free when there are what appear to be conflicting and competing rights. For example, where there is a legal right for a same-sex…
The New York Times had a long article earlier this month on what it described in the headline as “the demise of the Church” in Ireland. Much has been made of the effects of abuse scandals and a tidal wave of secularism on the Faith. But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of demise are greatly…
The Italian Catholic activist Chiara Lubich reflected some years ago on the fact that our contemporary culture appears to have abandoned Christ, but certainly not Christmas. Even people who have long since moved away from the practise of their faith are still captivated by Christmas – at least on the face of it, the celebration…
Editor’s Comment So, Irish parishioners will not have to face the upheaval of yet another new translation of the Mass – at least for now. Reflecting the pragmatism that is the defining characteristic of the modern Irish Church, the cost and huge effort that has gone in to the last revision of the Mass…
Fr Ronan Drury – who was buried on Monday – shaped several generations of students for the priesthood. He lived at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth for more than a third of that institution’s history. As Professor of Homiletics – the art of preaching – he helped aspirants the length and breadth of Ireland prepare for…
Editor’s Comment News that the final Mass during the Pope’s expected visit next year will almost certainly be held in Dublin’s Phoenix Park is a welcome sign that Church leaders are thinking big. There has been precious little to be joyful about in the Church in Ireland in recent decades, and many people acutely…
Editor’s Comment When bad things happen to good people – what philosophers and theologians call the problem of evil – is one of the most troubling and persistent questions facing religious believers. How does one reconcile belief in the existence of a God who is all-loving and all-powerful with the reality of evil in…
November is the month during which Christians traditionally pray for and remember in a special way our loved ones who have died. The reality about the human condition is that we will all die some day – Benjamin Franklin captured it well when he said: “in this world nothing can be said to be certain,…
Editor’s Comment BBC One aired the first instalment of Gunpowder at the weekend, a three-part retelling of the 1605 Catholic plot to blow up the House of Lords. It made for tough – if gripping – viewing. The scenes of the executions of Catholics amidst a blaze of anti-Catholic hysteria were brutal and it seemed…
Michael Kelly