Bishop Kevin Doran asks people to consider coming to Budapest to celebrate Christ’s living presence On January 31, 2016 Pope Francis spoke by telecast from Rome to the huge crowd gathered for the Statio Orbis Mass at San Pedro Calungsod, overlooking the sea in Cebu, Philippines. He told us that the next International Eucharistic…
Letter from the Vatican Pope Francis, known in his native Argentina for never leaving home, collected more frequent-flyer miles in 2019 than in any of the previous six years of his pontificate, travelling to Panama, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Romania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Thailand and Japan. Though each trip…
Ignorance of religion in political and media circles in Ireland could lead to “apathy and violence”, according to a Trinity College Dublin (TCD) professor who is holding a conference on the dangers of religious illiteracy. Dr Fáinche Ryan, Director of the Loyola Institute, told The Irish Catholic: “Today we have a problem in which people think…
Christianity shouldn’t be afraid to talk about science, theologian Alister McGrath tells Colm Fitzpatrick The story goes that when the French physicist Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace presented Napoleon with his definitive work on the properties of our solar system, he was asked about the absence of God in his model. Laplace replied: “I had…
An English cardinal has condemned “all expressions of hatred” after anti-Semitic graffiti was daubed across shops, cafes and a synagogue in London. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster denounced the December 29 attacks, which coincided with the Jewish religious festival of Hanukkah. “The recent anti-Semitic graffiti in north London brings shame to us all,” said the…
Burned: The inside story of the ‘cash for ash’ scandal and Northern Ireland’s secretive new elite by Sam McBride (Merrion Press, €19.95) The scandal of Northern Ireland’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is one of bureaucratic failure, sloppy political oversight, and culpable procrastination, all leading to a colossal waste of public money. This book will…
If anyone has read a tabloid, they’ve probably seen the ‘they’re just like us’ section featuring favourite celebrities doing normal things like taking their kids to the park or walking around in jeans and a t-shirt with a Starbucks in hand. One might think, for example, of the humanising photos of Kate Middleton, Duchess of…
Has Science Killed God? Faraday Papers on Science and Religion edited by Denis Alexander (SPCK, £19.99) Christopher Moriarty This is a truly amazing book. Written by a team of eminent scientists, who are also believers in the reality of the spiritual, it provides a great deal of comfort to people of faith who…
The late broadcaster Marian Finucane has been described as a woman of great empathy imbibed with a sense of fairness. Mrs Finucane died suddenly at her home in Co. Kildare, and was laid to rest following requiem Mass on Tuesday. Msgr Ciaran O’Carroll told mourners that Mrs Finucane was “such an icon of Irish broadcasting…
Students For Life Ireland has hit out at the Health Minister, Simon Harris, over what it labelled his “obsession” with the abortion issue. Speaking in response the Health Minister’s recent remarks on exclusion zones, a spokesperson for the group said that “any time the Health Minister gets into political difficulty, whenever there is talk of…
Chai Brady