Award-winning actor Antonio Banderas (63), who has enjoyed an illustrious 41-year career, said that playing the evil King Herod in the nativity musical Journey to Bethlehem not only allowed him to explore a notoriously dark biblical figure but reminded him of the heartbeat of Christianity: love. Based on his experience with Journey to Bethlehem, the actor said he’s…
It’s easy to use the right words in development while people with disabilities remain overlooked, writes Dualta Roughneen This coming December 3 marks International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It was instituted in 1992 by the United Nations, to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of…
Despite frequent calls for a return of Christian imagery and symbolism to Irish politics, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s recent use of scriptural allusion to welcome the release of Irish-Israeli Emily Hand, 9, from Gaza has gone over poorly at home and abroad. In a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) that has been seen over 46…
Fr Patrick Briscoe OP It felt like there was a seismic shift in Church teaching concerning transgenderism in recent weeks. And that’s because so many headlines got the story wrong. The New York Times, for example, reported: “Pope Francis, who has made reaching out to LGBTQ Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has made clear…
The Archdiocese of Dublin hosted its ‘Parishes Caring For Creation’ conference over the weekend to discuss how parishes can better react to the challenges associated with climate change. Conference organisers said: “In the midst of environmental crisis, how can parish communities care more deeply for God’s creation? Join us for a day to equip yourself…
When you’re talking about the Catholic Church, you need to be awfully careful about using the word “unprecedented” to describe any new development. This is an institution with more than 2,000 years of history, which has seen just about every vicissitude imaginable, and its opposite, over that span. As the late Cardinal Francis George of…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: When I was a kid we put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and took it down a day or two after Christmas. As an adult, I put the tree up a day or two after Thanksgiving and left it up until January 2nd. Now as a Catholic, what…
No community should botch its deaths. Mircea Eliade said that. What underlies his wisdom here is the truth that what we cease to celebrate we will soon cease to cherish. With that in mind, I would like to highlight what we, both the religious and secular community, need to celebrate and cherish as we mourn…
Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ and parishioners active in ministries and apostolates from all over the Raphoe diocese gathered to discuss a vision for liturgy in the diocese on November 12. This group was drawn from choir directors, organists, cantors, musicians, singers and ministers of the Word and the Eucharist, from parishes all across Donegal. The…
Bishop Robert Barron has said that he is in “frank disagreement” with the final report of the Synod on Synodality’s claim that advances in the sciences require an evolution in the Church’s moral teaching on human sexuality. In a recently published reflection, the US bishop of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, said it is “troubling” to see how members…
Chai Brady
John L. Allen Jr.
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Ruadhán Jones