In rediscovering what it means to be Italian, will the faith that has defined the country for centuries be reconsidered asks John L. Allen Fifty years from now, Italians now alive probably will still smile whenever someone mentions the summer of 2021, what’s now being described as the greatest summer in the history of Italian…
The board of directors of the Cuban Conference of Men and Women Religious reported last Tuesday that following the July 11 protests of the island’s communist government “there are still detainees awaiting trial, under investigation and others punished with very severe penalties.” The conference has been offering legal advice to detainees and spiritual and psychological…
This week marks the centenary of the murder of a priest who stood up for his flock in the US deep south, writes Chai Brady One hundred years ago, a series of events led to the remarkable incident of a priest from Co. Roscommon being shot dead by a hardline Protestant minister who was also…
Personal profile Sr Máire Bríd of the Drumcondra Redemptoristines has followed God’s call to the very margins of human experience: enclosed, monastic life. It wasn’t a step she took lightly. Asked whether it took courage at the time, she responds, “It certainly did”. “It certainly did [require courage] because it was going against the grain.…
Reading the Letters of Dorothy Day recently, I ran into this line, “doubtless we need a Savonarola as well as a St Francis”. She was speaking about what spirituality needs in order to be healthy and balanced. That triggered something inside me, something I have never been able to sort out. I have always been…
With ongoing construction guided by the vision of ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudí, Barcelona’s La Sagrada Família is already one of God’s finest houses. The project was designed in 1882 by another man, Francisco de Paula del Villar, and his plan was more in-keeping with the prevailing architecture of the time. Neo-Gothic dreams saw ogival windows,…
Vatican: ‘Killer robots’ pose threat to innocent civilians The use of “killer robots” and other lethal autonomous weapons systems violate international treaties because innocent civilians could be erroneously targeted, the Vatican said during a UN meeting in Geneva. The potential of having “swarms of ‘kamikaze’ mini drones” and other advanced weaponry using artificial intelligence raises…
A parent’s perspective How many of us have made the mistake of comparing our family and children with some other family down the road or someone else’s children? My own late mother did it, I’ve done it and I’d say most parents have engaged in comparisons at some stage or another. When I was young,…
Donegal ram sells for record €44,000 A farmer from Co Donegal has sold a ram for €44,000, which is the highest amount ever paid for a male sheep at a sale in Ireland, RTÉ reports. The record-breaking, seven-month-old Suffolk ram attracted notice when it went on sale in Wicklow. It was sold by Ballybofey, Co.…
The summer holidays have again crept up on us. We go through our workaday, busy lives with a vague notion of respite at some distant time, until suddenly you realise that the long-promised date with idleness is next Friday. Then, panic ensues. Getting ready for holidays means work: there’s grass to be cut, bills to…
John L. Allen Jr.
Chai Brady
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Maria Byrne
Rory Fitzgerald