Sometimes you can see a whole lot of things just by looking. That’s one of Yogi Berra’s infamous aphorisms. It’s a clever expression of course, but, sadly, perhaps mostly, the opposite is truer. Mostly we do a whole lot of looking without really seeing much. Seeing implies more than having good eyesight. Our eyes can…

''You are the most Catholic country in the world!” Msgr Giovanni Battista Montini (later Blessed Pope Paul VI) told Ireland’s Ambassador to the Vatican, Joseph Walshe, in 1946. Just two years later, the first act of the newly-formed interparty Government in 1948 was to send a message to Pope Pius XII in which Taoiseach John…

We hardly need reminding that in Italy, “la Mamma”, is a powerful figure, both in reality, and in symbol, image and metaphor. If you really want to upset an Italian, you insult his mother. The wildest Sicilian bandit has always retained the uttermost respect for “la Mamma”. There is even a civilised Italian tradition that…

At no point did the IRA ever claim solace from any version of Catholicism.

A pleasant young man was handing out leaflets last Sunday, outside St Teresa’s Church in Clarendon Street, Dublin, calling on people to ‘Stand Against Media Bias’ at a protest outside Dáil Éireann this week. The slogan is “33 to 1” – because, in the space of a recent fortnight, 33 articles appeared in the national…

Pope Francis wants us to return to the very roots of our Faith, writes Breda O’Brien

The spontaneous trust in the process of electing Pope Francis was moving, writes Michael Kelly

Pope Francis challenges each one of us to cast away our fear, writes Nuala O’Loan

It’s clear Pope Francis wants the teachings of the Church applied with mercy, writes David Quinn

Although he doesn’t mean to, it’s the Pope’s willingness to offend that makes him so authentic, writes Cathal Barry