The vicar general for the Diocese of Rome has banned the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass during the Easter Triduum in his implementation of Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditionis custodes. In a letter dated last month, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said that Mass could continue to be celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal at…
Letter from Rome Catholic history is a like a river fed by many currents, but one of the strongest and most perennial, undeniably and inextricably, is food. At the very heart of the sacramental system is a shared meal, and when we pray as Christ himself taught us, we ask for our daily bread. Over…
The Letters of John McGahern edited by Frank Shovlin (Faber & Faber, €29.99 / £27.92) Derek Hand John McGahern made very clear his unease with the act of letter writing, declaring to his friend the artist Paddy Swift, “I don’t like writing letters… it is so easy to be anything except honest here: surely the…
New data released by the Church in Italy highlights what has been a concerning trend among Catholic leaders in the country for decades: namely, a drop in the number of local priests and an increase in the average age of Italy’s clerics. However, this data also found that while there are less men joining the…
Medical Matters Have you had your blood pressure checked recently? Well, measurement of blood pressure, as we all know, is a fundamental part of the routine clinical examination – and for good reason. This is because high blood pressure or hypertension is for the most past a silent condition which, over time, may have far-reaching…
Catholic bishops in France announced that they have agreed to “a vast programme of renewal” of governance practices in response to a landmark report on clerical sex abuse. Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the French bishops’ conference, said that the bishops had decided to “initiate a path of recognition and reparation opening for the…
Personal Profile Fr Finbarr O’Leary, a Cork man who became a priest despite never attending secondary school, recently completed his second masters at the age of 82. His vocation took him from a rural Cork farm to Wales, South America, America and back home again. Fr Finbarr’s interest in the priesthood stems from the visit…
Midnight in London: The Anglo-Irish Treaty Crisis, 1921 by Colum Kenny (Eastwood Books, €9.99) Scholars and others continue to mull over the minutiae of the negotiations that led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in the early hours of the morning on December 6, 1921. Even now a hundred years later, there is a great deal…
Living Laudato Si’ One thing is for sure, faith communities had a massive presence at COP26 in Glasgow. People from all faiths descended in an effort to raise their voices for our common home, and for the most vulnerable people in our world. I attended many fringe events across the city which highlighted to me…
Pope Francis offers prayers for Iraqi PM after assassination attempt Pope Francis is praying for Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi after an attempted assassination attack on his home with armed drones. The Pope expressed his “prayerful closeness” in a telegram released by the Vatican on November 9 in which the attack in Baghdad was condemned…
John L. Allen Jr.
Dr Kevin McCarroll
Ruadhán Jones