Fr Ronan Drury – who was buried on Monday – shaped several generations of students for the priesthood. He lived at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth for more than a third of that institution’s history. As Professor of Homiletics – the art of preaching – he helped aspirants the length and breadth of Ireland prepare for…
Category: Opinion
Rediscovering prayer through meditation and stillness
Anthony de Mello is known as a pioneer in his style of prayer teaching, writes Chai Brady Harvesting Hope with Anthony De Mello by John Callanan SJ is available from Columba Press. Contact 016874096 or visit http://www.columba.ie/
Single or married – it’s on the record
If I were interviewing a candidate for private secretary, I would certainly ask her – or him – whether they were married, and if they had a family. It is a perfectly sensible question, and – in the public realm – it is a matter for the record. All census forms, and all books of…
Pope Francis’s velvet revolution and what priests can do about it
Battering the beleaguered bishops is neither going to spur them into effective action nor is it going to hasten reconciliation, writes Dom Mark Patrick Hederman In 2008 I was elected Abbot of Glenstal Abbey. This vote could not be ratified in Rome, however, unless I, who had been a brother monk for almost 50…
Imposing views on unborn lives
The View Marian Finucane interviewed Katie Ascough on her Saturday radio programme last weekend. The discussion focused on Ascough’s recent impeachment as president of the UCD Students’ Union. The central issue in that impeachment was the fact that Ascough withdrew from circulation a booklet for first year students. She did so having been advised by…
Fairness and impartiality were killed at birth
If the political will existed, there could have been a reasonable discussion about the Eighth Amendment, writes Cora Sherlock It didn’t have to be like this. But, unfortunately, the Oireachtas committee on abortion decided otherwise from the get-go. As each week passes, this becomes clearer as one abortion advocate after another presents to the…
A threat to our decency
Spirituality Jesus tells us that in the end we will be judged on how we dealt with the poor in our lives, but there are already dangers now, in this life, in not reaching out to the poor Here’s how Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, teases out that danger: “I’ve come to believe that the…
Phoenix Park venue will be a sign of renewed confidence
Editor’s Comment News that the final Mass during the Pope’s expected visit next year will almost certainly be held in Dublin’s Phoenix Park is a welcome sign that Church leaders are thinking big. There has been precious little to be joyful about in the Church in Ireland in recent decades, and many people acutely…
Synod of Bishops never more timely
Dear Editor, Your lead story ‘Boost as research reveals Irish are “astonishingly religious”’ (IC 9/11/2017) was a real shot in the arm, especially given the constant moaning and gloating we hear about our Church being in decline. Sure, the picture’s not great – in many ways the European Social Survey figures seem to tell us…
A Reflection for the month of November
Notebook Martin Delaney Some years ago while living in the Washington DC area I had an opportunity to visit the Vietnam Memorial Wall. The monument is a long black granite wall with thousands of names of those who lost their lives in the war. As I walked slowly through the memorial site a number…

Michael Kelly
Chai Brady
Mary Kenny

Maria Steen

Fr Ronald Rolheiser


