Notebook Today I completed my 13th Facebook Mass (11 Sundays, Holy Thursday and St Patrick’s Day). As has often been said, it’s a whole new world, and it’s not all bad either. Online Masses show how amazingly adaptable we Catholics can be. Facebook supplies an amazing array of statistics. For each Mass celebrated live…
Dear Editor, What a blessing we have at a time with churches closed to have Mass celebrated daily on the web cam in many churches throughout the country and on RTÉ Now. We owe a debt of gratitude to all involved in this ministry. I write this email on Wednesday, May 6, following this morning’s…
Time and again we see from the pages of the Bible that a time of crisis is also a time of opportunity. Whether in the story of the Israelites or in the New Testament, God sets before his people a choice when it comes to every crisis: to adapt and grow, or to perish. Human…
Surrogacy is a complicated issue – the demand for surrogacy services certainly indicates that while there have been so many well-financed pressures to get rid of babies, there is also a strong global demand to acquire babies. Surrogacy is big business. A recent drama on BBC TV, The Nest, broadcast in April, portrayed a wealthy…
The View Memories of people and travel, repeat performances and modern systems of communication with family, friends and colleagues all help to maintain sanity. While the airwaves are dominated by just one subject, we all need occupations that can absorb our attention and lift our mind onto other things. The museum of the Vienna…
Why did the bishops go even further than the Government required by telling priests aged over 70 to strictly cocoon, asks David Quinn A delegation from the bishops’ conference held an online meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week to discuss a return to public Masses. A statement was released by the bishops afterwards. It…
Discernment isn’t an easy thing. Take this dilemma: when we find ourselves in a situation that’s causing us deep interior anguish do we walk away, assuming that the presence of such pain is an indication that this isn’t the right place for us, that something’s terminally wrong here? Or, like Jesus, do we accept to…
Notebook Last week I had a very sad phone call from a colleague of mine in another part of the country. He has been a very dedicated priest for almost 50 years. For the last eight weeks he has been cocooning in his home unable to celebrate any kind of public Mass or have…
“I thought my first cappuccino after 54 days was amazing, but being at Mass after 10 weeks was even better,” a Roman friend said this week. Churches in the eternal city were re-opened for public Masses this week after a long Lent. “It finally felt like Easter,” my friend wrote. Italy has been devastated by coronavirus.…
I’m fascinated by the cycle of history and the way in which things discarded as outdated often come back into fashion again. The classic example is the tram: declared redundant in 1949, the city tram has returned as a wonderfully efficient and environmentally-friendly form of public transport. And now the wretched coronavirus is producing a…
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Fr Ronald Rolheiser