Jenna Marie Cooper Q: Praying for the dead: where can this be found in the Bible? I don’t want any reference to the Catechism, thanks. A: As you allude to in your question, many of the details regarding the Church’s teaching on Purgatory (and the utility and appropriateness of praying for the dead) is part…
Wars, especially in the 21st Century, are fought on multiple levels. Beyond what happens on the battlefield, there’s also the ‘soft power’ contest to claim the high moral ground, and in that sense, one of the emerging fronts in the bloody conflict in Gaza now pits Israel against the Christian leadership of the Holy Land.…
How to be good. What Socrates can teach us about the art of living well, by Massimo Pigliucci (Basic Books, £10.99 /€12.99) The Power of Ideas. Words of Faith and Wisdom, by Jonathan Sacks (Hodder and Stoughton, £20.00 /€20.00) Frank Litton Both these books inform our moral compass, helping to sharpen its direction and deepen…
Pope Francis issued another public appeal for peace in the Holy Land and throughout the world on Sunday, and made a phone call to United States President Joe Biden to discuss options for ensuring access to humanitarian aid and the release of hostages. Patriarchs and Church leaders in the Holy Land also issued a statement…
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty praised the parish of Graiguecullen-Killeshin, Co. Carlow, for promoting a “preferential option for youth ministry” at the parish’s youth Mass. “The parish of Graiguecullen-Killeshin does youth ministry well,” Bishop Nulty said in his homily in St Clare’s Church, Graiguecullen. “I realise this is very much stating the obvious!…
Someone once quipped that we spend the first half of our lives struggling with the sixth commandment – Thou shalt not commit adultery – and the second half of our lives struggling with the fifth commandment – Thou shalt not kill! There’s a truth here worth examining. In the Catholicism I was raised there was…
The Vatican has confirmed that it has been asked and has agreed to receive 12 priests who had been detained in Nicaragua. “The Holy See has agreed; they will be received by an official of the Secretariat of State in the afternoon (Oct. 19) and housed in facilities of the Diocese of Rome,” Matteo Bruni,…
Lydia: A Story, by Paula Gooder (Hodder and Stoughton, £9.99 /€11.99) Lydia is a person who appears briefly in the account of St Paul’s second missionary journey. She was a seller of purple cloth – in the 1st Century a luxury item – an apparently insignificant person in life. But in a longer perspective she…
Deacon Greg Kandra Ex 22:20-26 Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51 1 Thes 1:5c-10 Mt 22:34-40 Anyone who has spent time watching reruns of Law and Order knows the first rule of being a good witness in a courtroom: Never answer a question that you haven’t been asked. Stay on point. Don’t elaborate. Keep it…
Recently we had a gathering of the priests of our diocese. On the final morning, we had a presentation, given by Prof. John Feehan, who may well have retired from UCD more than ten years ago but certainly is living life in its fullest understanding to this day. It was a wonderful and powerful presentation…
John L. Allen Jr.
Ruadhán Jones
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Peter Costello