Before Covid-19, about a third of Irish people reported that they attended a religious ceremony at least once a week. Some 100,000 people went to Mass every single day before the pandemic restrictions were imposed. When we entered level three, all public worship was banned – the only country in Europe to do so (Wales…
Catholic Coney Barrett sworn in as US Supreme Court justice US President Donald Trump has sworn in his latest nominee to the Supreme Court. The White House ceremony took place on Monday night after Amy Coney Barrett’s [pictured] nomination was approved by congress. She will be the 115th justice in US history and the fifth…
Notebook At the very end of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, a name appears, perhaps unfamiliar to many Catholics here in Ireland: Blessed Charles de Foucauld [pictured]. The Pope describes this desert-hermit as “the universal brother”, who had surrendered himself entirely to God in order to become “a brother to ever human being”. But…
On the occasion of his retirement in 2018 as organist of Christ Church Cathedral Waterford, Dean Maria Jansson described Eric Sweeney as “a man of deep faith for whom music is his language with God”. Eric Sweeney’s final service coincided with the ordination to the Church of Ireland priesthood of former leader of the Green…
Hardly a week goes by without some sort of a religious controversy blowing up. And the pattern is often the same – exaggerated headlines, soundbites and one-liners, with pre-reflective rushes to the ramparts. And so it was last week when Pope Francis was reported to have said, in a new documentary, that he supported civil…
Evolution at work? Babies born without wisdom teeth More people are being born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery in their arm as a result of rapid evolution, according to scientists in Australia. Dr Teghan Lucas, of Flinders University in Adelaide, has discovered that people are undergoing a micro-evolution which allows evolutionary changes to…
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. Many of us will be familiar with the opening lines of Thomas Hood’s delightful poem… “I remember, I remember the house where I was born, The little window where the sun peeped in at morn.” Less familiar and less cheerful are his lines about November… “No shade,…
The deaths of the elderly and vulnerable in the first lockdown was “hugely distressing”, said Bishop Michael Router, Chair of the Council for Healthcare of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. As such, nursing homes should be prioritised and the elderly need more support from the Government, he continued. Bishop Router also called on people to…
Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin Diocese called on the HSE to urgently provide the “quality of care” residents of a Galway nursing are entitled to, after a virus outbreak was discovered
Chai Brady, Ruadhán Jones and Jason Osborne With Britain stepping up preparation to crash out of the EU, priests who minister in border parishes have warned that the coronavirus should not distract attention from the long-term effects of a ‘no deal’ Brexit on communities. Bishop Larry Duffy of Clogher, a diocese which straddles the border, and…
Michael Kelly
Brendan O’Regan
Ruadhán Jones