St Paul’s ‘conversion’

From the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI General Audience at the Paul VI Audience Hall on September 3, 2008.   Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today’s Catechesis is dedicated to the experience that Paul had on his way to Damascus, and therefore on what is commonly known as his conversion. It was precisely on the road…

Mixed messages from Pope as Trump begins presidency

Pope Francis sent a message to Donald Trump on the occasion of his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, offering prayers for “wisdom, strength, and protection” in the exercise of his duties and invoking blessings upon the “beloved American people”. In the message, released by the Holy See Press Office…

Great expectations and endless demands

Fr Aquinas Duffy   “I suspect that if there is no real radical change in the immediate future, then the priests left will find themselves on a quicker path to the eternal world”   We have just begun a new Jubilee Year. We are reminded that we are called to be “Pilgrims of Hope”. I…

A commentary by Jon Rosebank Practised with humility,” write the bishops in their final document from the 2024 Assembly (47), “the synodal style enables the Church to be a prophetic voice in today’s world.” We live, they write, “in an age marked by ever-increasing inequalities” and by “disenchantment with the functioning of democracy.” Students of…

Look to Our Lady

The season of Advent has been a time of preparation for the great Feast of Christmas. The feeling of anticipation built as we got ever closer, week by week. The candles on the Advent wreath got lit, one by one. Their glow became ever brighter. What was it that we anticipated? The celebration of the…

Ann Marie Foley Portlaoise is growing as a commuter town and in diversity, and the parish is something of a ‘United Nations’ of priests and religious from Brazil, China, Romania, Indonesia and India serving with PP Msgr John Byrne, PPVG and a local Deacon Eugene Keyes. “When I came here (in 2000) I was one…