Personal Profile Hannah Harn Fr Aidan Troy, born in Co. Wicklow, became known globally as a true symbol of courage during the Holy Cross protests in Belfast in 2001. He has been living in Paris since 2008, based at the English-speaking St Joseph’s Church. “When I finished secondary school, I decided to try my vocation…
Month: May 2019
The true diversity of real holiness in the world
Every Tribe: Stories of diverse saints serving a diverse world edited by Sharon Prentis (SPCK, £9.99) Myles na Gopaleen, in one of his contrary moods, used to wonder about whether the great Augustine was in life a black African (though he used words to that effect that cannot now be used). The saint was certainly born…
Bishop calls for aid for plight of suffering Somalis
The apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Mogadishu, Somalia, has called on the world to “pay attention to the plight of Somali people” as they face critical food shortages because of a crippling drought. Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti, who also serves Mogadishu, said Somalis living outside the country’s central and southern agricultural regions are…
Appeal made for Mozambique cyclone victims
Catholic Relief Services is appealing for additional aid after Cyclone Kenneth struck northern Mozambique late last month, the second such storm to hit the country in recent months. “Entire villages have been flattened. Roads have been washed out. And bridges have been destroyed,” Erica Dahl-Bredine, CRS’ country representative of Lesotho and Mozambique, said on April…
From football to fanning youthful flames of faith
Vocations Sunday Supplement 2019 A former soccer international is set to form Ireland’s next generation of Dominican priests, writes Greg Daly Every vocation story is special – God calls each of us as unique individuals with distinct tasks unique to us, after all – but among Ireland’s more recent vocation stories, that of Fr…
Scorsese and Springsteen speak about Faith’s inspiration
Rock star Bruce Springsteen and filmmaking behemoth Martin Scorsese have discussed the importance of the Catholic Faith in forming their art. In a wide-ranging conversation over the weekend in Los Angeles the two discussed their Catholic upbringings, with Springsteen saying “all my work was informed by my years in Catholic school”. “All that redemption, damnation,…
Vatican Roundup
Home visit isn’t on the cards for Francis, bishops reveal Pope Francis told a group of Argentine bishops on pilgrimage in Rome that although he wants to visit his homeland, current obligations impede him from fulfilling his wish, the bishops said. The Pope met with the first of two groups of bishops from Argentina’s coastal and northeastern regions on May 2 during the ad…
Pope Francis’ loud call to the world’s rising generations
Christus Vivit / Christ is Alive, Apostolic Exhortation to Young people and to the Entire people of God by Pope Francis (Veritas, €4.99 / £4.31) The text of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, written in response to the Fifteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on young people, faith, and vocational discernment,…
Who goes to Hell and who doesn’t?
Hell is never a nasty surprise waiting for a basically happy person. Nor is it necessarily a predicable ending for an unhappy, bitter person. Can a happy, warm-hearted person go to Hell? Can an unhappy, bitter person go to Heaven? That’s all contingent upon how we understand Hell and how we read the human heart.…
New pro-life campaign one year on
A poster campaign showing an unborn child at 11 weeks is intended to remind people that regardless of the law, unborn human beings are still human beings. Almost a year after the referendum that repealed Ireland’s constitutional protections for the unborn, the Iona Institute’s ‘Still One of Us’ campaign is based on a similar campaign…