Month: July 2023

Ireland must use ‘moral authority’ to speak up for persecuted Christians

Ireland must use its “moral authority” to speak up for persecuted Christians, politicians have said, urging the Tánaiste to raise the issue at September’s UN Assembly. Ireland must lend its voice to calls to end Christian persecution, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan told The Irish Catholic. His comments come after representatives of…

Click here to subscribe

Sex and money…the two big temptations

Sex and money: two of the major temptations that lure men and women into a fall. Perhaps previous generations might have said – two of the weapons used by the devil to entrap humans into the error of their ways. Interestingly, the phrase ‘struggling with his demons’ is still very much in use. On both…

Click here to subscribe

US bishops: abuse allegations down but challenges remain to protect vulnerable

Abuse allegations against Catholic clergy and religious in the US declined last year, but challenges remain regarding protecting vulnerable adults and ensuring online safety, according to the US conference of Catholic bishops (USCCB). On July 14, the USCCB’s Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection released the ‘2022 Annual Report – Findings and Recommendations on the…

Click here to subscribe

The angelic doctor Aquinas at 700

Maria Wiering “He was the world’s flower and glory, and has rendered superfluous the writings of doctors (of theology) who shall come after him.” St Albert the Great is said to have exclaimed these words upon the news of the death of St Thomas Aquinas, his former student, in 1274 at age 48. July 18 marked the…

Click here to subscribe

19 religious orders to attend World Youth Day

Representatives of 19 religious orders from across Ireland will be attending World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon from August 2-6, according to the Association of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI). They will be part of the approximately 1,400 pilgrims who have signed up so far. For the first time AMRI will lead a group…

Click here to subscribe

How an artist responds to senseless violence

The Pianist, about a Polish Jew’s experience of WWII, was a bit of a passion project for its Polish-Jewish director, Roman Polanski. Since coming out in 2002, it has been hailed as a classic. It stars Adrien Brody as pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman, a real-life Holocaust survivor who wrote a memoir also called The…

Click here to subscribe