Catholics who are deciding to leave the Church are doing so at an increasingly young age, a new study has revealed. While it’s clear that there has been a sharp decline in those practicing the Faith in Western countries, new research has shown that people stop identifying as Catholics at a median age of 13,…
Forget Clark Kent, journalist Paul Clark is the real superhero of Christmas, writes Colm Fitzpatrick There’s a pervasive feeling in today’s society that the enchantment of Christmas disappears as we get older, but for television presenter and journalist Paul Clark, the magic of this festive season is still alive and well. The UTV reporter,…
The death penalty is a rejection of the Gospel and human dignity, Pope Francis has said, and must be rejected by all countries. Meeting with delegates from the International Commission against the Death Penalty, the Pope said capital punishment persists as a lingering value of times when “the instruments available to us for the protection…
The Gospel stories about the birth of Jesus are not a simple retelling of the events that took place then, at the stable in Bethlehem. In his commentaries on the birth of Jesus, the renowned scripture scholar Raymond Brown highlights that these narratives were written long after Jesus had already been crucified and had risen…
100 years on… Ireland played a role in the US failure to ratify the Versailles Treaty, writes Gabriel Doherty The exigencies of producing a weekly newspaper three days after Christmas, when combined with an uncongenial election schedule, meant that The Irish Catholic of Saturday December 28, 1918 lacked a vital ingredient: analysis of the…
A feature of the temperance movement from the beginning was inclusiveness, writes Finola Kennedy “Padre, is that you?…Is there a God?” Reassurance from the chaplain to the dying young officer prompted the reply, “You must be right, but it’s hard isn’t it, to understand?” It must have been hard too for the 32 Irish…
Over 40 students rallied together in a school to fight off hunger to raise awareness and funds for the homeless crisis in Ireland. Transition Year students in Ennis’ Rice College took part in a school sleep in and a 24-hour fast earlier this month to collect money for the Mid-West Simon Community. The students wrote…
In the media in 2018 there were real life dramas and fictional ones, programmes going off and new ones arriving. There were some outstanding shows and some disasters, and a lot of the same old same old. The first half of the year was dominated by the referendum designed to repeal the Eighth Amendment, and…
In the popular story of the Nativity the Three Kings, along with the angels, the shepherds, and the manger, have long played an important role. They are an essential part of school Nativity playlets, often with surprising results. At Christmas time 1961 the English cartoonist Osbert Lancaster published one of his classic pocket cartoons, which…
The Notebook Fr Conor McDonough “What?! You shouldn’t have!” “Mum, look what Santa brought!” Christmas is a time of surprises, usually pleasant, and that’s very fitting, because it’s a feast that commemorates the greatest surprise in history, although we often forget the great surprise amid all the little ones… How often have you…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Greg Daly
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Brendan O’Regan
Peter Costello