In response to Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Dilexit Nos, three priests have welcomed the Pope’s re-exploration of the devotion and its “radical” message, with members of the Pioneer Association, an organisation that specifically devotes itself to the message of Sacred Heart, hailing its ability to help people overcome addiction and foster…
Fr Marcelo Pérez, a priest of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the Mexican state of Chiapas, died on October 20, killed by two men who shot him after he had celebrated Mass. His diocese now remembers him as a “tireless apostle of peace”. According to information provided by the diocese through a statement…
We are all aware of the great importance of ancient Irish manuscripts to our knowledge of the past and the history of the peoples that have lived in Ireland. But the prominence of the Book of Kells has distorted this tradition. The Book of Kells is a liturgical set of the gospels, but the text is unimportant compared with…
Eoin McCormack in a conversation with Theological expert to the Synod Fr Eamonn Conway As the second and final session of the Synod came to close on Sunday with a Mass presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica, he reflected in his homily on what he described as “the urgency of evangelisation…[We need]…
The Church comes in for a roasting in Small Things Like These (12A), a film based on Clare Keegan’s novel of the same name dedicated to the “56,000” girls sent to Magdalene laundries for “penance and rehabilitation.” Trailing clouds of glory from his Oscar turn in Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy gives a sensitive performance as taciturn…
Irish bishops have underlined the necessity for a new “Church culture” that needs “a conversion that is personal, spiritual and pastoral”, following the conclusion of the second major ‘Synod on Synodality’ in Rome. The month-long session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality ended on October 26 and involved 368 delegates…
In a reply this week to a letter writer in The Irish Times, Alan Hynes, who is Chief Executive of the Catholic Education Partnership says the writer “presents an understanding of faith all too often found among people of no religion: that the main appeal of faith is comfort or soothing, particularly in the face…
A History of Irish Magic, by Sally North and James North (Holythorn Press, limited hardbound edition € 60.00; paperback edition, €30.) When the remains of the poet W. B. Yeats were brought back to Ireland in September 1948, they were interred as he had intended in Drumcliffe Churchyard in Sligo, according to the ritual…
Representatives of countries and institutions from all around the world are gathered in Colombia for the United Nations Biodiversity Summit, COP16 from October 21 to November 1. One of these organisations is the Columban Missionaries. Talking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Sean McDonagh, Columban priest and ecologist, said “The COP for biodiversity only takes place…
Q: When I was evangelical, we said a ‘saved’ person went immediately to Heaven at death. In a recent homily our priest said most Christians, including himself, will likely go to purgatory at death. How can Jesus’ shed blood pay for a person’s sins, but they not go to Heaven at death? A: Your…
Brandon Scott
Peter Costello
Aubrey Malone
Chai Brady
Renata Steffens