A Texas judge granted Jeffrey Younger and Dr Anne Georgulas joint managing conservatorship of their son, James Younger, over whose gender identity his parents have argued in court. The decision, given by Judge Kim Cooks of a Texas Family District Court, means that both parents have equal decision-making power in their child’s medical, dental and…
A Ghanaian government official used a Catholic girls’ school celebration to emphasise the need to educate girls as well as boys. “The education of boys has always taken precedence over that of girls, and we normally use social and cultural misconceptions to discriminate against girls in terms of educational access,” Benedicta Tenni Seidu, director of…
The outcomes of the October summit could have a huge impact on indigenous communities, writes Colm Fitzptrick It’s been a synod tinged with controversy over priestly celibacy and female leadership in the Church; amidst all of this, eyes were also focused on two statues stolen from a church near the Vatican and subsequently thrown in…
Murder on the Missions. A True Story by Jean Harrington (Mercier Press, €14.99) Garrett Sheehan It was the murder of Fr Rufus Halley at Malabang in the province of Lanao del Sur on August 28, 2001 that led to this unputdownable account of the lives and work of Columban Missionaries in the Philippines during…
Fine Gael MEPs have voted against a resolution to step up search and rescue for refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. The European Parliament rejected the vote asking member states to step up efforts to save asylum seekers making the perilous crossing late last week. All of Fine Gael’s MEPs – Mairead McGuinness, Maria Walsh, Frances…
The greatest benefit of a newly-introduced qualification for teachers is an increased sense of confidence to self-identify as Catholic in the classroom and in the staffroom, according to its first graduates. It comes at a time when many Catholic teachers have been voicing concern that it is becoming difficult to express one’s faith and exercise leadership rooted…
Mary in Different Traditions: Seeing the Mother of Jesus with New Eyes by Thomas G. Casey SJ (Messenger Publications, €9.95/£8.95) This is a small book that explores some big issues. Author Casey begins by noting the shift of emphasis over the last generations in the way Catholics perceive Our Lady. Marian devotions, which it has…
It’s hard to be humble, not because we don’t have more than enough deficiencies to merit humility, but rather because there’s crafty mechanism inside of us that normally doesn’t let us go to the place of humility. Simply put, as we try to be self-effacing, humble and non-hypocritical, variably we take pride in that and…
Pope’s new book calls for spiritual rebirth The global ecological crisis is just one of the effects of a distorted and diseased view people have of the world, themselves and each other, Pope Francis has said in a new book. In fact, addressing a global crisis demands a global approach, which must start with “a…
Do you know that our brains are like Velcro for negative experiences and like Teflon for positive ones? That is what a psychologist explained to us recently at training for people working with families. The subject was ‘Supporting parents of an anxious child’ and we were being urged to understand that really, our brains are…
Colm Fitzpatrick
Peter Costello
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Bairbre Cahill