In 1986, Czechoslovakian novelist Ivan Klima published a series of autobiographical essays entitled, My First Loves. These essays describe some of his moral struggles as a young agnostic seeking for answers without any explicit moral framework within which to frame those struggles. He’s a young man, full of sexual passion, but hesitant to act out…
Vatican official insists religious services are ‘essential’ For believers, the ability to practice their faith and receive spiritual guidance are “the highest of essential services”, and pandemic practices over the past year have shown they are not automatically super-spreader events, the Vatican foreign minister said. Speaking February 23 during the high-level segment of the UN…
As Many as the Stars: a story of change for the children of China by Robert Glover with Theodore Brun (Hodder and Stoughton, £16.99) Author Robert Glover had had an adventurous and varied life: being a submariner when that was a dangerous vocation and then a footballer (before there was money in, one imagines). But then…
Italian landslide pushes hundreds of coffins into the sea An estimated 200 coffins tumbled from their places in northwest Italy when a landslide destabilised a 100-year-old cliffside cemetery last week. Video emerged on social media which showed emergency response workers in boats searching for the coffins in the waters of Camogli, near Genoa. Two chapels…
Catholic agencies welcome access to Ethiopia’s Tigray region Catholic relief agencies in Ethiopia welcomed a move by the government to allow more access in Tigray where a military operation displaced millions and left an unspecified number of people dead. Amid increased international calls for unrestricted access, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali announced February 24 that…
Notebook Bernard is a beautiful name (think of St Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of beekeepers and Gibraltar and all that). But I am not called after him. Bernard is also a surname in these parts, and my mother was born Maeve Bernard – hence my Christian name. My mother had a grand-uncle who was a…
Sweet Treats These biscuits are quick to make and taste so much better than the shop-bought version! Traditionally they are sandwiched with strawberry jam but you can try anything – apricot, chocolate spread, whatever you fancy. Ingredients Makes about 10 sandwich biscuits – 175g unsalted butter – 100g icing sugar – 1 medium egg yolk…
The Sunday Gospel Fr Silvester O’Flynn OFM Cap. Today we have John’s version of the cleansing of the temple, anticipating the replacement of temple worship by the worship of God through the risen Lord (John 2:13-25). Herod the Great, a man of mixed racial lineage, desiring to ingratiate himself with the Jews decided to build…
Last time round I may have implied that soprano May Devitt made her Dublin Operatic Society debut as Philine in Mignon in 1937. In fact, her first DOS appearance came on April 30, 1935 as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore. The following year she was heard as Violetta in La traviata and Marguerite in Faust…
Dear Editor, Thank you to Jason Osborne on his timely front-page article ‘Catholic parents voice anger at exclusion from school talks’ [IC 18/02/2021]. In a recent written answer to Sean Canney TD, Education Minister Norma Foley revealed that her civil servants are working with the National Parents Council Post Primary to amalgamate it with the…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello