Thomas McCarthy Few poets have written with the intensity and seriousness of Aidan Mathews; and fewer still have sustained that intensity over a career of five collections, six books of prose and six plays. This heroic, wide ranging and always engaged achievement belies the poet’s character which has seemed at all times evasive, ironic…
Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is set to finally be completed by 2026, a whole 144 years since work on the monumental basilica started. Designed by celebrated Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, who is buried in the church’s crypt, the world-renowned piece of architecture is famously unfinished. According to La Sagrada Familia Foundation, the organisation tasked with the…
Hosffman Ospino A while ago, writing about St Joseph, I was intent on lifting up his human experience while calling out quick attempts to idealise this important person in Jesus’s life. Joseph was a husband, a father, an immigrant, a worker, a neighbour, a friend, a companion. In response, I received a note from…
Late last Friday March 22 evening, the Vatican announced that after holding an all-day working session with members of the German bishops, the latter have assured their national reform process will be in keeping with Canon Law and will not move forward without the Holy See’s approval. In a statement published at 8pm local time,…
French President Emmanuel Macron announced last week that the French Parliament in May would examine a proposal to legalise ‘aid-in-dying’ throughout the country. Macron in an interview with the Catholic newspaper La Croix described the measure as “a law of fraternity” that “reconciles the autonomy of the individual and the solidarity of the nation”. The law “opens…
Q: If, indeed, abortion is the Church’s preeminent issue, then why don’t we hear a pro-life petition as part of the Prayer of the Faithful at every Mass? A: Many parishes do include a pro-life intention as part of the Prayer of the Faithful at Mass every week. However, it is true that including a…
In the week leading up to St Patrick’s Day two men died. One you have heard a lot about, the other you probably heard nothing about. Neither man knew each other but both had something of a link with our parish in Rathdowney and more importantly both men had been inspired by the legacy of…
Sr Anne Marie Walsh It is hard to fathom that today’s world does not want God. It mirrors the fundamental struggle of our individual souls, the battle between being self-centred and being centred in God and his presence in our lives and the life of the world. Scott Barry Hoffman reported in the Scientific American…
Over the past number of years the National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have focussed their Holy Week concert on religious themes. This event normally takes place on Good Friday afternoon not, in my view, the ideal time as it clashes with the sacred liturgy in many churches and there are those who would like to…
The Church is better at saying sorry for instances of abuse, a study from Queens University Belfast has found. The QUB report on Church documents from March 2020 to February 2023 concludes that apologies offered during this time “do not offer excuses or create scapegoats”. “They are usually very detailed, with acceptance of full culpability…
Brandon Scott
Ruadhán Jones