Relentless Ministry For many priests, some of the most draining moments of their ministry are encounters with Catholics who approach faith and parish as a resource to be used, Fr Chris Hayden writes. The concept of ‘relentless ministry’ is not without limitations. It’s an entirely valid notion, of course, and if I were to suggest…
The anniversary of the two most recent referendums came and went last weekend. Do you remember them? I’m not sure you’re meant to. One was about inserting the concept of ‘durable relationships’ into the Constitution alongside marriage. The other was an attempt to remove from the Constitution the requirement that the State should seek to…
Letters Dear Editor, The snakes are back! Poor St Patrick, even after driving out the snakes of pre-Christian paganism, here, they reappear, in the form of our annual An Post, contribution for the feast or rather now, the festival of St Patrick’s Day, as they call it. They are multicoloured and long. What is…
At the end of last year, I wrote a piece here on the Mass, entitled, provocatively, ‘How NOT to say Mass’. I invited readers to respond. It turned out that many of you had your own ideas on what priests should not do. It makes sense that readers would have comments to make. You are…
By Fr. Shay Cullen While many good and dedicated bishops and priests in the Philippines and elsewhere are examining their conscience about their responsibility to bring pedophile clergymen to justice, many more are not. In the past, Pope Francis — who remains hospitalized — has strongly spoken out on the urgent need to cleanse…
Five words, delivered during a homily on Ash Wednesday, have never entirely left me: “You all have to change,” the priest declared rather prophetically on March 6, 2019. He did not know that four women in our Falls Road congregation had been told the previous night that their vocation as Sisters of Adoration was over.…
An enormous event took place in London last month that was fronted by the Canadian psychologist and academic, Dr Jordan Peterson, who has made a huge name for himself since he first emerged on to the world stage in 2016 for criticising a pro-trans ideology law in his home country. The three-day event, held under…
Fr Joe Mullen I once heard an amusing description of the three stages of priestly ministry. Seemingly it begins at ordination with a big head, continues in middle years with a big belly and concludes when the Lord calls one home with a big funeral! As so often with the dig of gentle humour,…
The All Ireland Rosary Rally kicked off in Knock last weekend with over 200 in attendance for the launch. Despite grey skies and the biting cold, those in attendance were enthusiastic – not least the children who gathered for the children’s rosary at the end of the afternoon. The Rally, organised by Fr Marius O’Reilly,…
One of the points that Volodymyr Zelensky made in the now infamous Oval Office confrontation with Donald Trump and JD Vance, was that 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia. No further discussion ensued about this terrible statistic, which is confirmed by other sources. Indeed, Radio Free Europe claims the number of Ukrainian children…
David Quinn
Martina Purdy
Maria Steen
Mary Kenny