Inés San Martín In October, the government of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo imposed a sweeping ban on civil protest in Nicaragua, which critics saw as an effort to snuff out a spontaneous protest movement that almost brought them down earlier this year. As is almost always the case here in this…
God, it seems, favours the powerless, the unnoticed, children, babies, outsiders and refugees with no resources or place to go. That’s why Jesus was born outside the city, in a stable, unnoticed, outside all fanfare, away from all major media and away from all the persons and events that were deemed important at the time,…
I used to think we got Christmas all wrong in Ireland. Now I am beginning to think we get it very right (from the perspective of my rural parish, at least). I must be mellowing. Mind you, Christmas does seem to start earlier and earlier. A friend in the trade assures me that the reason…
As scandalous headlines go it’s hard to compete with ‘nuns spend $500,000 school donations in Casino’. While the secular media is having a field day reporting the details of the story and anti-Church commentators are dining out on the added discomfort and embarrassment to Catholics, the scandal is only compounded by the fact that the…
Dear Editor, Your front-page story on the Religious Sisters of Charity’s failure to seek canonical permission to dispose of the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (IC 6/12/2018) really showed the truth of the comments from UCD’s Prof. John McCafferty as related in the previous week’s Webwatch. Prof. McCafferty had been critical of the failure of fellow…
It’s our job to shine the light that first shone in Bethlehem, writes Ciara Ferry During the Advent and Christmas season, many people find themselves asking the question “What do I want?” Oftentimes the answer can be found in the Black Friday sales, but does not actually satisfy any longer than it takes for…
It’s now 175 years since Charles Dickens published his phenomenally successful A Christmas Carol, in 1843 – so successful that it has almost come to define modern Christmas. It has spawned endless editions and many and diverse movie versions, and its allusions have gone into the language: we all know what a ‘Scrooge’ is, and…
The eventual successor to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin faces many immediate challenges writes Michael Kelly In an era of flourishing faith, plentiful vocations and widespread esteem for the Church, being a bishop in Ireland was an attractive prospect for any ambitious cleric. It used to be said that when a priest was elevated to the…
Today’s PC versions of fairy tales may date very quickly, writes David Quinn It’s Christmas and so that means its panto season. Thousands of parents up and down the country will bring their children to a version of timeless, classical fairy tales like Snow White at the Tivoli Theatre. But wait, are they timeless…
Aid worker Kevin Byrne reflects with Kevin Jenkinson on 30-years helping the world’s poorest people Seasoned aid worker Kevin Byrne has been on the frontline of many of the world’s largest human catastrophes with Concern Worldwide – which has been fighting extreme poverty for 50 years. Known affectionately as ‘the Clareman with the Dublin…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn