The Irish now favour a “more liberal, less dogmatic” Church, according to a new poll carried out by the pollsters Ipsos/MRBI. This turns out to mean, first of all, that many people favour an ending to celibacy in the priesthood and are for the ordination of women. I wasn’t aware that these practices were ‘dogmas’.…
The Pope in Ireland Festival of Families In an array of artistic displays, musical numbers, and family testimonies, a cross-generational audience of over 80,000 pilgrims shared and rejoiced in their Faith in the presence of Pope Francis at Croke Park. Celebrating the Festival of Families in the stadium on a brisk Saturday night, the…
In the face of long walks and inclement weather, more than one million people tuned into Irish television at some point during the Papal Mass, figures have revealed. RTÉ One’s programme coverage reached an audience of 1.1 million viewers who tuned in at some point during the broadcast while RTÉ also shared the Phoenix Park…
Why we Need Religion by Stephen T. Asma (Oxford University Press, £20.00) Christopher Moriarty The dramatic increase in secularism and fall in numbers of professed adherents to religion has been a feature of the past few generations in the western world. Its roots lie in the application of the scientific method which began to explode in…
Everyone who came away from an encounter with the Pope was uplifted, writes David Quinn My first reaction to the address by Leo Varadkar to Pope Francis in Dublin Castle was positive but since then it has become a lot less so. Indeed, I think the address, and the reaction of the Government to…
The Pope in Ireland Visiting the Marian Shrine Praying for the victims of abuse in Ireland, Pope Francis begged the Lord for forgiveness and for the intercession of Our Lady to heal survivors. During his visit to the Marian Shrine in Knock the Pope described the clerical abuse scandals in Ireland as an “open…
Rich in Faith, Beauty and History: St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, Dublin by Patrick Claffey (From the Parish Office, €5.00) Felix M. Larkin One of the ways we find God – or, more accurately perhaps, how He finds us – is through the art and architecture of places like St Mary’s, in Haddington Road, a lovely church whose art is…
The blue car used by Pope Francis during his WMOF trip to Ireland is to be donated to help the homeless. On Monday, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin announced that the car would be donated to Crosscare, the social care agency of the Archdiocese of Dublin. It will be used by Crosscare staff based in the agency’s…
The Pope in Ireland Even wind and rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of up to 300,000 pilgrims who made their way to Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Sunday where a carnival atmosphere surrounded the closing Mass of the ninth World Meeting of Families. A host of performers ranging from Audrey Assad and Eimear Quinn to…
The Shoemaker & His Daughter by Conor O’Clery (Doubleday 2018) Conor O’Clery was the Irish Times correspondent in Russia for many years. He married Zhanna Suvorov in Moscow in 1989. His new book reads describes “one ordinary family’s remarkable journey from Stalin’s Soviet Union to Putin’s Russia”. It records the travails of Zhanna’s extended family through the Russian…
Mary Kenny
Colm Fitzpatrick
David Quinn
Chai Brady
Greg Daly