It can be quite disheartening to watch the news these days. Our world is full of hatred, bigotry, racism, and over-stimulated greed and ego. The gap between the rich and poor is widening and random, senseless violence is an everyday occurrence. One lives with hope, but without much optimism. Among all of this, perhaps the…
Dear Editor, it was good to see that the former Abbot of Glenstal Abbey Fr Mark Patrick Hederman OSB giving the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) a bit of a reality check at their recent meeting (IC 16/11/17). I was surprised, however, that the leadership of the ACP appeared to flatly reject Fr Hederman’s criticism…
Editor’s Comment So, Irish parishioners will not have to face the upheaval of yet another new translation of the Mass – at least for now. Reflecting the pragmatism that is the defining characteristic of the modern Irish Church, the cost and huge effort that has gone in to the last revision of the Mass…
Notebook Fr Bernard Healy At the start of November this year, various Facebook friends began posting images and messages stating that with Hallowe’en behind us, now was the time for Christmas songs and decorations. Christmas seems to start earlier each year, but the current fad seems to be for the Christmas Season to encompass…
It is said, amongst teachers, that by teaching, you learn. Similarly, by writing for readers, a journalist learns much from those readers. And over the past week, I received a reader’s letter which gave me much pause for thought. It was from “Anne” in the “West of Ireland”. “I am writing to you re the…
The View Martin Mansergh November is the month of remembrance, with All Saints’ Day on the 1st, followed by All Souls’ Day on the 2nd, in the Christian calendar. It is also the month when on 11 November 1918 an Armistice was called which brought the main fighting in the First World War to…
Living well is a lifelong process, but we have to know what we are aiming at, writes David Quinn In an excellent address to a conference on priestly formation in Maynooth at the weekend, Archbishop Eamon Martin made a passing reference to the volumes of work that have been written in the years after…
Dear Editor, It was lovely to see at the weekend Pope Francis hosting a lunch for some of Rome’s vulnerable and needy people. It’s a beautiful witness to the Gospel imperative to reach out to those who society forgets. While the critics of the Church will often point to what they perceive to be the…
There’s a growing body of literature today that chronicles the experience of persons who were clinically dead for a period of time (minutes or hours) and were medically resuscitated and brought back to life. Many of us, for example, are familiar with Dr Eben Alexander’s book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.…
Notebook July 2009 saw the commissioning of HMS Daring, a Type 45 destroyer and the most technologically advanced ship the Royal Navy had ever deployed. Capable of travelling nearly twice as far and almost half as efficient again as the ship it was replacing, it had stealth technology and a huge radar which could…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Michael Kelly
Mary Kenny
David Quinn
Greg Daly