Letter from Rome Covering the Catholic Church is a tough gig for reporters, not least because we’re often forced to be killjoys. We’re forever put in the position of raining on a media parade, and such was the case again Friday with the sensational “resignation” of Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich. In reality, that was…
A Minecraft user has taken the time to construct a Corpus Christi procession in the much-loved videogame. The procession was replete with a monstrance and the Eucharist being borne by a priest beneath a processional canopy, and was accompanied by a large crowd. Minecraft has found much favour among gaming-Catholics over the years as they’ve…
Ignatian Spirituality and Interreligious Dialogue: Reading Love’s Mystery by Michael Barnes SJ (Messenger Publications, €24.95/£22.95) In medieval times there was a curious contrast between pilgrims to Jerusalem – whose minds were fixed on the Christian experience – and travellers such as Marco Polo, who went beyond Jerusalem and encountered on their explorations a great range of…
In our present age of chaos, Sohrab Ahmari argues that tradition is man’s only hope for a fulfilling life, writes Jason Osborne Sohrab Ahmari’s new book, The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos, opens with two epigraphs which, as might be expected of an epigraph, perfectly set the tone…
The chairman of the US bishops’ pro-life committee Archbishop Joseph Naumann called on Congress May 28 to preserve the Hyde Amendment in any federal budget proposal and “to work toward a budget that truly builds up the common good of all”. The head of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, Mercy Sister Mary…
Everyday Philosophy Is there something immature about deferring to authority on moral questions? If your reason for doing something is that “person x said it was good” or “x group says it is morally mandatory” is that ever legitimate? Immanuel Kant is often thought of as arguing something like this. Kant thought that the only…
When I first met my wife she didn’t smoke though she once did. Recently she has taken up smoking again without telling me about it, I just started noticing the smell, and it’s really upsetting me, it has a huge impact on me and our family and I am so worried about her health, but…
Personal Profile There was such a degree of happenstance in Jesuit Fr Ashley Evans’ call to Cambodia that it could only have come from God. Having initially been denied his wish to serve as a worker-priest in Birmingham, Fr Evans volunteered for the newly formed Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) and was sent to Thailand. There…
Bioethicists criticised June 3 the relaxation of a 14-day limit on human embryo experimentation. In a statement, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, England, lamented the decision by the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) to lift the limit on lab-grown embryo experimentation. “Once the 14-day rule falls away, the only real limit, it…
Ballymacandy. The Story of an Ambush by Owen O’Shea (Merrion Press €14.95) Joe Carroll The first day of this month was the centenary of the IRA ambush at Ballymacandy of 12 RIC/Black and Tan policemen. It was a one-sided fight with 59 listed IRA men against the cycling policemen who were coming back from Tralee to…
John L. Allen Jr.
Peter Costello
Ben Conroy
Wendy Grace
Ruadhán Jones