Everyday Philosophy Popular aphorisms, proverbs and phrases sometimes pithily summarise good ideas. And sometimes, well, they don’t. The enemy of my enemy is my friend You might figure that ‘strong opposition to the government and general programme of Josef Stalin’, might seem to be a pretty good indicator of virtue and wisdom. Not, however, if…
Operation Smile was founded by husband and wife, Bill and Kathy Magee, in 1982, and has increased the number of smiles to be found in the world steadily since then, writes Jason Osborne Following a trip to the Philippines to provide surgery for children born with a cleft lip, a distinct need was seen and…
The Poor Clares of Arundel, Sussex have hit No.1 in the official UK classical album charts following the release of their debut album. The album, Light for the World, was released last week on Decca Records and stormed up the iTunes and Amazon UK albums charts, peaking at #1 and #2 respectively earlier this week.…
After almost a year of civil unrest, interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Chileans overwhelmingly approved a bid to scrap the constitution written under the mandate of General Augusto Pinochet, a dictator who ruled the country until 1990. The Chilean conference of Catholic bishops called the referendum, where almost 80% of those who cast a vote…
Catholic bishops in Congo are calling for a special international criminal court to try people suspected of mass killings and human rights abuses in the African country, where thousands of women and girls have been raped by armed men. The bishops made the call in a statement released October 19 after their plenary meeting in the capital,…
I had checked the readings for the Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time and it was the psalm which caught my attention. It was beautiful and I decided it would be a good basis for writing. Then today, as I sat down to write, I realised that we won’t have those readings because it is…
Pope names new archbishop of Lyon after resignation of Cardinal Barbarin Pope Francis has named Bishop Olivier de Germay of Ajaccio, Corsica, to be the new archbishop of Lyon, France, succeeding a cardinal whose conviction on charges of failing to report clerical sex abuse was overturned. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin’s conviction was overturned in January, but…
What’s right and what’s wrong? We fight a lot over moral issues, often with a self-assured righteousness. And mostly we fall into that same self-righteousness whenever we argue about sin. What constitutes a sin and what makes for a serious sin? Different Christian denominations and different schools of thought within them lean on various kinds…
Sir Cliff Richard said his faith sustained him after being “in a pit” of despair following a claim in 2014 of historical sexual assault. Sir Cliff appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and opened up on the devastation caused by the incident, recalling how he was left crumpled and sobbing on the kitchen floor. “I…
Dear Editor, I was dismayed to read that NPHET’s reason for their recommendation that public worship should not continue [during level 3 restrictions], accepted by our government, was to decrease contacts in areas that, as a society, are relatively speaking in the context of a pandemic, less important. As a Catholic, I most strongly disagree…
Ben Conroy
Ruadhán Jones
Bairbre Cahill
Fr Ronald Rolheiser