Fully alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, by Elizabeth Oldfield (London: Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99 / €26.99) Elizabeth Oldfield directed the London based ‘think-tank’, Theos from 2011 to 2022. Established in 2006 with the support of Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, the then Archbishop of Westminster and the then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Theos researches issues…
Our President, Michael D. Higgins, let himself and the rest of us badly down with his recent comments about protests at public libraries. Sensible people are concerned about the highly inappropriate and sexualised, not to say obscene, material being pushed at children in the 12-17 year old children’s sections these days. Not the President, though. He referred…
Ava Westendorf On June 14, The Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin, was the home of an event created to celebrate the publication of the new book Theology and the University (Routledge, 2024). This book, edited by Fáinche Ryan, Josef Quitter and Dirk Ansorge, examines how “intellectual virtues are cultivated, which enable students to live well”. This…
The Catholic Church in Ireland has introduced a new safeguarding policy ‘A Safe and Welcoming Church, Safeguarding Children Policy and Standards for the Catholic Church in Ireland, 2024’. The policy was released on June 11, 2024 Mr Aidan Gordon, who took over as CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church…
The Catholic Education Partnership, a group advocating for Catholic education at primary, post-primary, third level and adult levels in Ireland, published a report taken from its consultations with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). Chief amongst the list of recommendations was the affirmation that the values of Catholic school’s curriculum be linked to…
The British General Election will take place on July 4. Labour is expected not only to win but may achieve the biggest majority ever seen in the House of Commons. The Conservatives, in power without interruption since 2011, are in for an almighty hammering. Since the last General Election in 2019, when the Tories won…
There is a saying, dubiously attributed to St Francis de Sales but it sounds more like Venerable Fulton Sheen to me: “Every one of us needs half an hour of prayer every day, except when we are busy – then we need an hour.” It’s a clever phrase – and true, too. When parenthood and…
Ava Westendorf The Irish Bishops have asked for people to send their prayers for those affected by the Israel/Hamas war, for hostages to be released, for humanitarian workers and for first responders. The bishops restated Pope Francis’s words by saying that this war is a “catastrophe for humanity” then followed with their own reiterated words,…
The Irish bishops have issued a letter stating their opposition to legislation resulting in the introduction of assisted suicide or euthanasia. In a pastoral letter, the Bishops’ Conference said that such a move would see the State contribute to “undermining the confidence” of people who are terminally ill, who want to be cared for and…
The first report of the Synod on Synodality was published last month and makes for very interesting reading. It was the first of two sessions. Of the 364 voting delegates who attended, 50 were women and they, with the lay men and others who attended, were able to vote on this report and on the…
Senator Ronan Mullen
Brandon Scott
David Quinn
Nuala O’Loan