Dear Editor, The President and Taoiseach slammed the Catholic Church with their abortion legislation and they then participated in a Eucharistic celebration – the “Source and Summit of our Faith” – that demonstrated to the Church and future generations their disregard for the Magisterium. Unfortunately there has been little effective response from the hierarchy. …
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Wicklow parish celebrates marriages
On Friday, September 6 St Patrick’s & St Joseph’s parish, Wicklow & Rathnew held a celebration for 28 couples marking 25, 40, 50, 55 and 60 years of marriage. There was about 200 in attendance for the Mass which was celebrated by Fr Donal Roche Adm, and co-celebrated by Fr Pat O Rourke and…
Proving existence of God
Dear Editor, I asked a group of young people to do some research with a view to discover whether or not God really exists. They gave me the analysis of their investigations and their resultant proof of the existence of God. This world goes on a huge space journey every 365 ¼ days around the…
Parishes praying for peace
Dear Editor, The Irish Catholic (IC 05/09/2013) report titled “Irish parishes respond to Pope’s peace vigil call,” rightly drew attention to the massive peace efforts of Pope Francis and his pre-announced Saturday Rome vigil of fasting and prayer in respect of Syria. Pope Francis made an international appeal to Catholics, Christians, believers and all peace…
Don’t shoot the messenger
Dear Editor, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin recently criticised sections of the Catholic press in Ireland for a ‘growing tendency to tabloidism’. I presume his criticism is not directed at The Irish Catholic, which while supportive of the archbishop’s work on dealing with clerical sexual abuse, has also raised questions about the extent of his leadership in…
Speech on Catholic press missed opportunity
Dear Editor, I do not think that I can be alone in seeing the publicity surrounding Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s recent speech on the New Evangelisation in a New Ireland as being a missed opportunity. Whilst there is much of interest and value in the speech itself, drawing on the call of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict…
More insights into Africa’s mission era
In this book Fr Hogan, now living in Cork after a life spent on the missions in Africa, continues his interesting investigations of the social, political and religious interactions in the early years of colonial Nigeria. The Ebira of his study maynot be so familiar a name as the Ibo or Yoruba are to many…
At Home in My Body, CD1: Reconnecting
A sign of the changing times: this is a CD by a Connemara based priest, influenced perhaps by Eastern ideas, which allows listeners to become at home in themselves, and in doing so open up their spirit to wider influences. His insights are intended for both individuals and for prayer groups. There has been a long…
Seamless Robe: New and Collected Poems
The allusion in the title is, of course, to the robe of Christ, but in these poems by the parish priest of a parish near Dublin, they might also allude to the seamless nature of life and spirit. Poets he notes write from what they know, and what a parish priest has is a very…
St Gerard Majella: Rediscovering a Saint
Majella is a familiar enough personal name in Northern Ireland, as Fr McConvery reminds us, and in past decades there was a wide spread devotion to him, especially in matters that concerned what the author calls ìthe great life- giving mysteriesî of conception, labour and birth. Though St Gerard (born in 1726 and died in 1755),…