Solène Tadié (CNA) The doors of the newly restored Notre-Dame of Paris Cathedral were officially reopened to the public during a ceremony last Saturday evening just over five years after a blaze ravaged the iconic structure’s roof, frame, and spire. Authorities mobilised a massive security force of some 6,000 police and gendarmes for the event,…
Fr Joshua J. Whitfield Zep 3:14-18a Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6 Phil 4:4-7 Lk 3:10-18 The point is summed up in what Josef Pieper wrote once, that “we are not the forgers of our own felicity.” Of course, he wasn’t at all the only one to say something like this, such has always been true.…
As a member of a religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, I chose to make four religious vows: poverty, chastity, obedience, and perseverance. I did this freely, with no other compulsion than a strong inner sense that this was being asked of me. That freedom to make vows with no outside pressures, is…
KNA “Pilgrimage is now absolutely safe and also important for society,” the head of Catholics in the Holy Land said recently on a trip to Germany. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, is counting on a rapid normalisation of pilgrimage tourism following the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. He hopes that the relative…
“After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man and asked him, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.’ Then he asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked?’” (Gn 3:8-11) In…
Fr Adrian Crowley St Josephine Bakhita was born in 1869, in Sudan. Her village was surrounded by palms, banana trees, fields, shrubs. Her tribe lived peacefully, working the fields. Her father was an important man in the village. As a child she was full of life and joyful, loved her brothers and helped her…
As I was saying at the end of last week’s article, the turnout in the General Election was disappointing – 59.7%? Do we value our democracy enough? On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) we heard from Art O’Leary, CEO of the Electoral Commission, pointing that one of the problems outlined was inaccuracy in the…
I am grateful to Finghin Collins for keeping me up to date about the next Dublin International Piano Competition taking place from May 9 to 16 2025. The Irish preliminary rounds are scheduled for Friday December 20 at the RIAM’s Whyte Recital Hall beginning at 09.15am and concluding at approximately 5.30pm with the results expected around 6pm. Twelve competitors – Adam…
Dear Editor, As I sit here tonight my wife is in the next room being treated by the palliative care team. She was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour and her life expectancy was estimated to be 3 or 4 months. I struggled for a few weeks trying to help her as she needed to…
Walter Sánchez Silva (CNA) The Nicaraguan dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his “co-president” and wife, Rosario Murillo, this week kidnapped and expelled from the country Fr Floriano Ceferino Vargas, a priest of the Diocese of Bluefields. Medardo Mairena, a former peasant leader now in exile, stated on X that “Fr Floriano Ceferino Vargas, parish priest of the…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Brendan O’Regan