Letter from Australia: The Battler of Ballarat George Weigel hails the ministry of Cardinal George Pell In the Baltimore of the 1960s, my canny pastor devised a neat scheme for getting ‘Father Visitor’ (as the confessional doors read) to fill in during the summer for his vacationing curates: bring over newly-ordained Australians from their…
Is Scotland unwilling to face its sectarianism, asks Paul Keenan Next week, the Scottish parliament will vote on the proposed offensive behaviour at football and threatening communications (Scotland) bill, following a month-long debate on the best legislative response to the issue of sectarianism in the country. Backed by the majority Scottish National Party, which…
Is it wise to genetically tamper with the crops we grow, asks Prof. William Reville It is quite likely that Roundup is the herbicide that is best known to readers of this column. Roundup is widely used worldwide in agriculture and gardening to control weeds. But weeds are far from helpless in the face…
Problematic missal changes hinder future The new translation of the Missal is symptomatic of a wider shift away from collegiality in the Church, writes Fr John Mannion What we have been given in the new translation of the Roman Missal is an awkward, Latinised English in the name of ‘renewal’. This is very…
Cliona Byrne continues her recipe for a ginger bread house Last week, we looked at how to make the ginger bread house pieces. This week, it is time to look at how to construct and decorate this little biscuit home. Constructing the ginger bread house can be a little bit tricky, so the…
Sending letters of love from Zambia Wexford’s Fr Fritz O’Kelly tells of life on the African Missions in a collection of letters now published in book form Dear friends, A word of encouragement from Helmut Kathower prompts me to attempt to write a newsletter to my friends this Christmas. He was a young German…
Christmas books for all tastes As always at this time of year we publish a selection of books suitable for all ages at Christmas Compiled by the Books’ Editor Keeping Christmas Well By Artemsia D’Ecca (Phaeton Publishing, €29.00 / £25.00) This is an amusing and seasonal book from a newish Irish publishing house…
Is St Nicholas buried in Ireland, asks Tom Prenderville St Nicholas of Myra was the Bishop of Lycia in modern day Turkey. Renowned for his extraordinary generosity, in his lifetime he was venerated as a living saint. However, during the Saracen (Muslim) revolt which began in 1087, Eastern Christendom came under increasing attack.…
Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s speech against the Vatican set the scene for low media standards, writes Fr Andrew McMahon It was ironic to hear Taoiseach Enda Kenny lament, a couple of weeks ago, ”a grievous loss of standards” at RTÉ, given that the backdrop for his comments was a controversy around alleged child abuse by Catholic…