Pope Benedict ‘very unwell’ since trip to Germany Pope emeritus Benedict XVI is sick with a bacterial infection and “very frail”, according to a German newspaper report. Citing Benedict biographer Peter Seewald, German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) reported on Monday (August 3) that the 93-year-old Pope emeritus is suffering from facial erysipelas, a bacterial…
I had just turned 18 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. I was on retreat for Holy Week at the time and therefore was forbidden to listen to the radio so as not to break the pattern of the retreat. I had the profound sense that something momentous was happening and figured that…
Summer outings (No.3 in a six-part series) Clonmacnoise is one of the most remarkable places in Ireland. However, back in the late 1940s, the Emergency had left it even more isolated, a place which in the right light could seem unchanged since Early Christian times in Ireland. One of the pioneers of exploring Ireland’s inland…
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. Today’s Gospel about the Apostles’ boat on a stormy sea (Matt 14:22-33) is timely. The logo chosen by Pope Benedict XVI for the Year of Faith in 2013 pictured a boat tossed high on waves. We all recognise that this is a difficult time for the Church.…
Kicking off in Kildare with FootGolf For those who like to try new things and enjoy football and golf, how about a family day out to Celbridge Manor Hotel with a day of a mix of the two? For one day only the Kildare hotel will facilitate a family friendly activity: FootGolf! Tee (or kick)…
It’s a pure fluke that the programmes under review this week all begin with the letter M! I’ve been catching up on the TV drama series Mrs America (BBC Two) which came to an end last Thursday. It was an absorbing dramatisation of the culture war between radical feminists and activist conservatives over the Equal…
Had all gone according to plan, I should be in Salzburg – Mozart’s birthplace – this evening (August 6) at Richard Strauss’ opera Elektra. But, as ‘man proposes and God disposes’, I abandoned my travels. Anyway, the Festival, celebrating its centenary this year, cancelled its original programme, proposing something less adventurous instead. With a ‘select…
Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh has hailed John Hume as a “paragon of peace” for his key role in bringing an end to the conflict in the North. Mr Hume, 83, died early this morning (Monday), his family said in a statement. As a young man Mr Hume trained for the priesthood in Maynooth, before…
Michael Kelly
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan