That much-admired broadcaster, Olivia O’Leary, has been telling us how she will celebrate the faith side of Christmas: not attending a ‘Roman Catholic Church’, because she gave all that up two years ago, but at St Patrick’s Anglican Cathedral in Dublin, where the carols are wonderful, and the lessons uplifting, and she can feel her…
Paul Dunphy describes the effects of life-changing gifts to the developing world Since Oxfam launched the Unwrapped range of Christmas gifts, Irish people have truly embraced the spirit of Christmas and given more than 125,000 life-changing gifts to people in need. These gifts have helped improve the lives of more than 500,000 people in…
I have to confess to being a bit of a fan of Woody Allen. I know a lot of his views would be completely contrary to mine, or the Church’s for that matter. But he is (or can be) an inventive and funny film-maker and his movies often touch on matters of ultimate meaning. Also,…
This week the National Archives made available to the general public the new releases of confidential State records and files from 1981 and earlier. In a preview of the documents, The Irish Catholic gleaned from the thousands of files some items of special interest to our readers. The following pages carry some of what…
Churches unite to defend faith schools Michael Kelly The main Christian churches are united in their determination to resist any moves by the Government that would dilute the ethos of faith-based schools. The Irish Catholic has learned that Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist leaders are standing firm with Catholic leaders in their resolve to…
The unseemly and seemly unstoppable rush to zeroism At the weekend I spoke in Rimini at a gathering of nearly 6,000 students from Catholic universities all over Italy. Aged between late-teens and (a few) mid-twenties, they were members of the Catholic movement Comunione e Liberazione, which was founded in 1954, following an intuition by Fr…
Marie Keenan’s new book on abuse raises some challenging questions, writes Phil Garland ”One bad event is followed by another”: this comment is on the opening page of the introduction of this extremely detailed and scholarly work by Dr Marie Keenan on clerical child sexual abuse. There are many State reports, books and media coverage…
Sr Deirdre Mullan reflects on her experience of humanity when visiting a maximum security prison I first met Tim, in a high-security US prison in 1999. He was 29 years old and was one of 2.3 million men and women housed in prisons throughout the United States – the highest rate of incarceration in…
Parents must stand up for religious education, writes Rik Van Nieuwenhove The proposals of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism, set up by the Minister for Education, if implemented, will have a devastating effect on the Catholic identity of primary schools throughout Ireland. An advisory group, headed by Professor Coolahan, is preparing a report for…
Changes in family life A new study of Irish family life has disclosed how family patterns have changed over the years, with more couples co-habiting, more children born out of wedlock, and almost one child in five growing up with a single parent. We should never have too rigid an attitude to family structure in…