Month: October 2021

‘Sermons in stone’: what churches tell us about the changing faces of faith across the centuries

If these stones could speak: The history of Christianity in Britain and Ireland through twenty buildings by Peter Stanford (Hodder & Stoughton, £20.00/€24.00) I have long found the books of Peter Stanford – a former editor of the Catholic Herald – no matter what their topic (he writes mostly about religion, history and ethics) to be always entertaining…

The future of the Covid booster dose

Medical Matters This month figures show that the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland has surpassed 400,000 since the pandemic began. The death toll due to the coronovirus now stands at more than 5,000 of which about 75% occurred in those aged over 75. In fact, half of all deaths…

US Supreme Court to hear challenges to Texas heartbeat law

The US Supreme Court agreed to consider two legal challenges to Texas’ pro-life heartbeat law, just weeks before it hears oral arguments in another major abortion case. Both the Biden administration and abortion providers had opposed the Texas Heartbeat Act, a law which went into effect September 1 and which restricts most abortions after detection…

Vatican at COP26: Hearts and habits must change fast to care for creation

Even though Pope Francis will not attend the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in person, the Vatican delegation and the Catholic Church will be “everywhere” during the two-week summit – from the highest-level private negotiations to the sidelines with grassroots “social action” and community-led events, said two delegates. And most importantly, Church representatives…

Celebrating and preserving the right to speak freely

PEN International: An Illustrated History edited by Charles Toner and others (Thames & Hudson, £45.00/€54.00) PEN International celebrated its centenary in London on October 5, 2021. As part of the celebrations the President, Jennifer Clement, and others published this absorbing history of PEN and its activities over those ten decades, edited by Charles Toner. Founded in…

Vatican Roundup

Pope Francis appeals that migrants not be sent back to unsafe countries Pope Francis made an appeal for migrants on Sunday, urging the international community to stop deporting migrants to unsafe countries. Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the Pope asked the Catholic pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray in silence…

Beware of your inner circles

“No man is an island.” John Donne wrote those words four centuries ago and they are as true now as they were then, except we don’t believe them anymore. Today more and more of us are beginning to define our nuclear families and our carefully chosen circle of friends precisely as a self-sufficient island, and…

Ireland is wonderful to its missionaries

Sr Anne Cahill OLA tells Ruadhán Jones about her 50 years as a missionary Sr Anne Cahill OLA spent more than 50 years on mission to Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. In all that time, though the demographics of her order have changed, the generosity of the Irish people never has, she says. “We’ve done very…