During a recent diocesan pilgrimage to Knock a conversation was sparked with a parent about the importance of going to Mass. We’re all familiar with the question that young people ask when we are taking them somewhere they are excited about: “Are we there yet?!” Unfortunately, when it comes to taking young people to Mass…
Liam Fitzpatrick When Fr Richard O’Riordan launched his memoir Roots in Exile, his family raced to support him. He shared that the book would launch in Athlone, and his cousins booked their tickets. Only, Fr O’Riordan didn’t mean Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland – he meant Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa. “So…they had to change their…
There are two kinds of analytic philosophers: the ones who like formal logic, and the imposters. I, alas, am one of the latter. Something about seeing arguments represented by symbols instead of words puts my brain completely on the fritz. In university I used to spend ages slaving through the formalisations of arguments in papers…
There’s a tension among Christians today between those who would extend God’s mercy everywhere, seemingly without any conditions, and those who are more reticent and discriminating in dispensing it. The tension comes out most clearly in our debates concerning who may receive the sacraments: Who should be allowed to receive the Eucharist? Who should be…
Insult and bitterness are all the rage in modern discussions about the deep topics, but as Catholics we must model a different way, writes Jason Osborne I’m not sure if it’s always been like this, but discussions today about many, many topics – be it religion, politics, or otherwise – are more often fraught, tense…
Medical Matters One of the newest viruses to hit our shores (Monkeypox) arrived to Ireland this May and to date has infected about one dozen people. First recognised in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease affected monkeys kept for research, the virus has remained endemic to Africa. In fact, the first human case…
NASA to recruit scientists for UFO hunt NASA is officially joining the hunt for UFOs. The US space agency has announced a new study that will recruit leading scientists to examine unidentified aerial phenomena – a subject that has long fascinated the public and recently gained high-level attention from Congress in the US. The project…
Liam Fitzpatrick Personal Profile 50 years ago, the world was a radically different place. U2 hadn’t been formed yet, push-button phones revolutionised communication, and Star Wars wouldn’t come out for another five years. There has been one constant, however – Fr Jerry McSweeney’s priesthood. Navigating his own relationship with God and living through a time…
Margaret Atwood once wrote that sometimes a thing needs to be said, and said, and said again, until it doesn’t need to be said anymore. That’s why I write a column annually on suicide, mostly saying the same things over and over again. The hope is that, like a note put into a bottle and…
In 2021 Pope Francis launched the Laudato Si’ Goals as an effort to encourage all sectors of Church to try to achieve ecological sustainability by 2030. It is an enormous task but one which we are invited to embrace, to help heal our relationship with our common home and with each other. We have been…
Ben Conroy
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Dr Kevin McCarroll