Month: October 2016

A Chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation: Aspects of Priesthood and Baptism edited by Joseph Briody (Smenos Publications, €25.00 plus p+p) This is the eighth publication in the Fota Liturgy Series, the outcome of the regular Fota Conferences, which have drawn select liturgists from all over Europe. The editor is both a priest…

“This place diminishes us all,” wrote Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson of Twitter just over a week back. Announcing after a row with a colleague and following yet another interminable barrage of abuse from people who had found his politics insufficiently ‘pure’ for their purposes that he would be quitting the social media platform, he said:…

Pope Francis has brought messages of peace and mutual respect to the nations of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Visiting the countries over October 1 and 2 under the theme of ‘Pax Vobiscum’ (Peace to You), the Pope emphasised “peaceful coexistence among all peoples”. Addressing Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili, the Pontiff noted that “the Catholic Church, which…

Dear Editor, Why this terrible change in attitude of both Government and leading national media regarding the Catholic Church? Once sympathetic and harmonious, they are now aggressively hostile, not missing the slightest opportunity to make the ‘swipe’. I resent Children’s Minister Kathleen Zappone dictating we go ‘fast track’ in transferring our schools away from religious…

Dear Editor, In his book, The Origins of the Final Solution, Christopher Browning comments at pages 184 to 186 on eugenics which was advocated in Scandinavia, the US and of course Nazi Germany. Under the general heading of ‘Killing the handicapped’, he notes that the practice in Germany was relatively straightforward. But in Germany, the…