Questions of Faith Recent polls in the US have indicated that belief in Jesus’s presence in the Eucharist is at a historic low. A famous 2019 survey found that 69% of all self-identified Catholics said they believed the bread and wine used at Mass are not Christ, but rather “symbols of the body and blood…
We are writing the history of women out by ignoring convent buildings, Dr Gillian O’Brien tells Ruadhán Jones Last week, the front page of The Irish Catholic blazoned a tragic tale of decline in the number of women religious in Ireland. We had the figures, but while that story was going to print, another real-life…
The Canadian government has introduced legislation to delay by one year plans to include mental illness among the list of conditions eligible for the country’s assisted suicide program. The assisted suicide law – called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) – excludes Canadians from eligibility whose only medical condition is mental illness. In 2021 lawmakers excluded…
There was a full house in Trinity College Dublin for a talk on the life of St Titus Brandsma, who was killed by the Nazis for speaking out against anti-Jewish laws. Dr Fernando Millán Romeral O.Carm., former prior general of St Brandsma’s Carmelite congregation, explored the saint’s battle for truth and freedom in his February…
The biblical story of Saul is one of the great tragedies in all of literature. Saul’s story makes Hamlet look like a Disney character. Hamlet, at least, had good reasons for the bitterness that beset him. Saul, given what he started with, should have fared better, much better. His story begins with the announcement that,…
Nine Lives: The Reflections of a Deliberate Diplomat by Donal Denham (The Liffey Press, €19.95/£17.95) It is rare if not unknown for a former Irish ambassador to publish a book about his life and times. Conor Cruise O’Brien gave us To Katanga and Back, but he had retired at Counsellor level and concentrated on his term…
Dancing with Loneliness by José María R. Olaizola SJ Messenger Publication, (€12.95/£11.95) The author of this book is a Spanish Jesuit, who is presently head of institutional communications for the Society of Jesus in Spain (which means in effect, when you think about it, the whole Spanish speaking world, which I realised during the translation…
Notebook Recently I turned on the TV and I happened upon a conversation between two children on a popular soap opera. I was intrigued and disturbed by the tone of the conversation but not fully understanding the context I had to do a little research. It seems that the girl’s pet chinchilla (which I have…
‘Pope’s ministry is for life’, says Pope Francis Pope Francis addressed once again the question of whether he will resign the papacy in two conversations with Jesuit priests in Africa this month. “I believe that the pope’s ministry is ad vitam. I see no reason why it should not be so,” the Pope said February…
Sisters of St Clare to leave Kenmare The Sisters of St Clare order are to leave Kenmare, Co. Kerry, after more than 160 years due to declining numbers. In a letter read out to parishioners on Sunday, February 12, the sisters said they “regrettably” couldn’t maintain a presence in the town. “As a congregation, we…
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello