Msgr. Jeffrey D. Burrill, the general secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops since November, has resigned from the post after the USCCB “became aware of impending media reports alleging possible improper behaviour by Msgr. Burrill”, said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, USCCB president. In a July 20 memo to bishops, Archbishop…
Letter from Rome Though it hardly made a dent in the weekend’s news cycle given Pope Francis’s bombshell crackdown on the Latin Mass, Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu announced his latest lawsuit Saturday, in this case suing an Italian newspaper called La Verità for defamation over a report regarding movements of money in Becciu’s home diocese in Sardinia.…
Fr Charlie McDonnell praised the “support and cooperation” of priests and pilgrims in making the extended Reek Pilgrimage season a success. Traditionally, the last Sunday of the month – called Reek Sunday – was dedicated to making pilgrimage up Croagh Patrick. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been going ahead this year in an…
Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai has implored Lebanon’s patron saint to help save the country from “total collapse” amid one of the worst financial crises the world has seen in decades. In a homily for the feast of St Charbel, the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholics said that he sought the intercession of the 19th-century Lebanese…
Ireland has some of the worst gambling rates, with the effects of lockdown on addiction expected to be felt for years to come, Chai Brady hears A study released this month found that Irish people are the fourth biggest gamblers in the European Union and while this may be hard to believe, for a Cuan Mhuire…
Counsels of the Holy Spirit: A Reading of Saint Ignatius’s Letters by Patrick C Goujon SJ, translated by Joseph Munitiz SJ (Messenger Publications, €14.95 / £12.95) Counsels of the Holy Spirit promises in the blurb that “the lay reader will find [it] an accessible and practical guide to the core concepts of Ignatian spirituality”. Being myself a…
Medical Matters The good weather has seen many of us take to spending a lot of time outdoors, soaking up the sun and enjoying the heat. But it’s also the season to be reminded of the need to protect ourselves from sunburn and heat stroke. This month the HSE launched its ‘Sun Smart’ campaign to…
Personal Profile Fr Henry McCann is one of the few priests who can relive his ordination in full, even though it took place 25 years ago. The parish priest and hospital chaplain recently celebrated his Silver Jubilee, and, in light of the occasion, had a look at the video footage of the ceremony that took…
Celebrating the first Church-sponsored day of grandparents, Pope Francis said Sunday that he’s fearful of a society that treats individuals as part of a nameless crowd. Grandparents who were in St Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus prayer agreed, acknowledging that they too fear being forgotten. Grandparents and the Elderly “How do we see our…
Irish people are not usually designed for the sunshine. In fact, the stereotypically Irish fair skin evolved so as to enable people to manufacture vitamin D under the murky grey skies of northern Europe. It’s therefore quite a shock to the system when Ireland, without warning, becomes a tropical paradise. We become fish out of…
John L. Allen Jr.
Ruadhán Jones
Chai Brady
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Rory Fitzgerald