Letter from Rome The Gospel of Matthew never details how many Magi came from “the East,” but it makes it clear they travelled to pay homage to “the newborn king of the Jews” and “offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh”. Beyond their great monetary value, scholars say, the gifts had deep symbolic significance:…
With months to go still until his March 5-8 trip to Iraq, Pope Francis began shaping his message, urging a network of Catholic charities to help Christians who have fled the region to return home if they want to do so. In a video message sent to a Vatican-organised summit focused on the ongoing humanitarian…
Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. That’s a pious axiom that doesn’t always hold up. Sometimes the bad time comes and we don’t learn anything. Hopefully this present bad time, Covid-19, will teach us something and make us stronger. My hope is that Covid-19 will teach us something that previous generations didn’t need to…
Dear Editor, It was sad to hear of the closing of Clonard Monastery Confraternity for Men who are now losing ‘their sense of identity and belonging’ as Catholics. Will this leave the Catholic Church with no outreach to men at all? Men in our congregations have become almost an endangered species and as for young…
Normally at this time of year our parishes and churches would be abuzz with preparations for carol services. Christmas has the ability to turn the heart of even the most devoted cynic. Who can fail to be moved by the sight of wide-eyed children dressed as Mary and Joseph carrying a doll to a makeshift…
Notebook Dear Santa, You were mentioned in the Dáil recently and I heard the Irish Ambassador to Finland say she had spoken to you and that you reassured her that you will be travelling this year. Good news, for sure. You are, as you told her, an “essential worker”. Locally I have heard children speak…
The American international magazine Time has designated 2020 as the worst year ever. This, arguably, emblemises the mentality of ‘presentism’ – that is, the notion that what we are experiencing right now is the worst (or the best) ever, without allowing for the perspective of history. There have been many worse years: we could start…
The View For the last 14 years, I have raised our children at home and educated them. It is wonderful, fulfilling, and often exhausting. I have a loving, supportive husband who – since the children were very small – has taken them almost every Saturday to allow me some time off and headspace. I like…
We should dream certainly but we should also be realistic, writes David Quinn Let Us Dream is the latest book by Pope Francis. More accurately, it is a distillation of conversations the Pontiff had with Catholic journalist and writer Austen Ivereigh, who will be familiar to many readers of this paper. Pope’s reflections Let Us…
We should urge both health authorities and pharmaceutical companies to make available vaccines in no way tainted by abortion and tissue collection, writes Dr Helen Watt Covid-19 vaccines have been hailed as the cavalry appearing on the skyline to save us all from a pandemic that, in combination with alarmed responses, has devastated countries around the…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
Maria Steen
David Quinn