In their document ‘Experience and Dreams as Religious Women in the Catholic Church in Ireland’ which was included in the submission of the Church in Ireland to the Synod in Rome, Irish women religious come across as passionate, hurt, angry at their marginalisation, but hopeful that some good will come of the Synodal Process. It…

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…

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…

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…

The inauguration of Donald Trump for a second time as US president takes place on Monday. Polling shows that a big majority of Irish people are opposed to him, which is probably a product of a number of factors, one being that, for historical reasons, we lean heavily towards the Democratic party, and the second…

Tigray, is in the northernmost region of the vast African country, Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea. On November 2, 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, a fratricidal war broke out. When the Tplf (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) organised and held an electoral round in the region without Addis Ababa’s permission and took possession of regular…

A consistory, originating from the Latin word consistorium meaning ‘assembly place,’ is a formal meeting in the Catholic Church led by the Pope and attended by the College of Cardinals. These gatherings serve two key purposes: to provide consultation on important matters and to carry out symbolic ceremonies. Over centuries, the consistory has become a…