Freedom, in many of its manifestations, is under threat around the world, whether it be freedom of speech, freedom of assembly or freedom of thought and conscience. We know only too well of the many instances in 2023 where governments shut down journalists and media and in some cases actually targeted journalists and campaigning citizens…
In just five years, we will mark the bicentenary of Catholic emancipation. Four years after that, in 2032, it will be 1,600 years since St Patrick’s mission to convert the Irish to Christianity. Catholic emancipation, of course, marked a turning point in the fortunes of Irish Catholicism after centuries of brutal persecution and repression by…
The year 2023 is not a year on which I will look back with undiluted pleasure. At this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to those who are no longer with us. At a lot of our dinner tables this year, there will be an empty chair where there was unbridled joy and laughter just a year ago.
My colleague Fr Ron Rolheiser writes in this edition about connecting the dots between the crib and the cross. We’re not used to thinking about the cross at Christmas, but in one sense, Calvary always casts a permanent shadow over Bethlehem. Even today, it sometimes surprises pilgrims in the Holy Land that Golgotha and the…
Ask practising Catholics to tell you about their Church and their faith, and on the whole, you get glowing reports. There will be complaints, and stories of inadequacies, and reservations about this or that teaching, and no one knows the faults of the Church — collectively, and in this or that place — better than…
I think if we’re honest, none of us actually like waiting for things. Think of the tedium of waiting in the doctor’s surgery, or at the dentist. Or, if like me you use public transport, waiting on buses that never seem to arrive – and yet waiting is part of life. As is hope, as…
It hasn’t been a great week for ‘Team Ireland’, as successive governments have dubbed Ireland’s overseas diplomatic and trade efforts. Last week I observed in this column that “modern Ireland, for all the opportunities and good things, is also a sad, frightened, angry and unhappy place. “Naming this truth is the first step to healing…
Have you ever had an experience of being gaslit? Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where a person (or institution) causes someone to question their sanity, memories, or perception of reality. People who experience gaslighting may feel confused, anxious, or unable to trust themselves. Over the past couple of years, I have become increasingly…
Christians in the land of Jesus are living yet another episode in the drama that is their long Good Friday. In recent decades, the Holy Land has haemorrhaged its Christian population to such an extent that people are now talking about the very real and tragic prospect of a Holy Land without a living and…
I must admit, I was a very infrequent Mass-goer (if that is the word) for a couple of years. When the Covid-19 pandemic started and Mass ‘went online’, I tried for a week or two, but I soon discovered that sitting at my kitchen table in front of a laptop ‘virtually’ attending Mass and ‘virtually’…
Michael Kelly