The recent statement from the Association of Catholic Priests on how dedicated nuns are portrayed, often negatively, in the media gave me cause to reflect on the topic, and it’s a bit of a patchwork. The most obvious example is the demonisation of nuns because of their role in the Magdalen Laundries and similar institutions.…
When David Lodge died at the beginning of this month, he was hailed, in the obituaries, as the leading English Catholic novelist since Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. Mr Lodge, who was 89, had indeed written a famously hilarious novel about a young Catholic married couple, in 1965, struggling with the “Safe Period” of fertility…
There is nothing as psychologically and morally dangerous as lying, as denying the truth. Jesus warns us that we can commit a sin that is unforgivable which (in his words) is a blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. What is this sin? Why is it unforgivable? And how is it linked to not telling the truth?…
President Michael D. Higgins in his speech at the BT Young Scientist &Technology Exhibition promoted the thinking of Jesuit scientist and theologian/mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as an example of the potential interplay of science and ethics. “Science offers great possibilities that have a pivotal role to play and, at its best, in responding to…
Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the very foundations of human and Christian life: for it makes explicit the response of the Christian faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked themselves. Human intelligence can find a response to the question of origins which can be known with…
In tribute to John Wijngaards. who died last week, we republish this piece, still timely, written by him in January, 2023. Rest in Peace. As an 87 year-old Catholic priest and theologian I have worked for the Church for most of my life. Experience has taught me that old Mother Church needs to adopt…
The Vatican has seen a growth in the number of women in high roles in the Vatican since Pope Francis started his pontificate in 2013. However, some people believe there is still a degree of misogyny in the Church, resulting from recent comments the Pontiff made regarding nuns. On January 4, 2025, Pope Francis addressed…
Every now and then someone gets peeved at something that happens in church and resorts to the nearest secular confessional. They often tell what they perceive as the sins of others! On Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) someone complained that eulogies weren’t allowed in the Diocese of Meath, and that the rules required that any…
Last week, Pope Francis appointed an Italian nun as the first woman to head a major Vatican office. Sr Simona Brambilla is the first female prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders. Sr Brambilla is now responsible…
Brandon Scott and Garry O’Sullivan Report backs up ACP protest at unfair media portrayals The submission of Irish female religious to the Synod in Rome which concluded in October backs up the recent protest by the Association of Catholic Priests for an end to unfair portrayals of nuns in the Irish media. Speaking to…
Brendan O’Regan
Mary Kenny
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Renata Steffens
Brandon Scott