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…
Ireland gave a warm welcome to China’s second-in-command this week, Premier Li-Qiang, in what was the first visit of a high-ranking Chinese official since Mr Li’s predecessor, Li-Keqiang’s 2015 visit. It isn’t a stretch to say that on this occasion, the red-carpet was rolled out ahead of Mr Li’s visit, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying…
Dear Editor, Esther Ranzen has been pressing for the UK to embrace so-called ‘assisted dying’. The former BBC journalist might wish to consider neonatal medicine advances and English abortion practice. Consider two unborn children at just under 24 weeks into pregnancy. One is for ‘resuscitation’ in a London hospital but ‘termination’ awaits the other. Remember,…
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…
Lots of people feel down in January. ‘Blue Monday’, or the third Monday in January, is often called the most depressing day of the year. However, Blue Monday was an invention of someone called Cliff Arnall, who created it as a publicity stunt for a travel agency. In the way of the internet, which manages…
Whatever its critics may say, the Church in Ireland has embraced Pope Francis’ call to reach to the peripheries and Ireland is better for it. For instance, the Church is a constant voice for migrants and the homeless, with Archbishop Dermot Farrell recently offering a stirring defence of the right of asylum seekers and refugees…
The true story of Tuam children’s home may never be known, writes David Quinn Soon enough, the Tuam children’s home will be back in the news again. Exhumation of the bodies buried there will begin and a committee to advise on the process will convene very shortly. It is now 10 years since news of…
Mary Kenny
Breda O'Brien
Ruadhán Jones
David Quinn