Nicaragua’s missionaries will stay despite martyrdom risk – Irish Jesuit
The brutal persecution of the Church in Nicaragua will not stop missionaries striving to minister to the Faithful even if civil war and martyrdom are on the cards, an Irish Jesuit has insisted. Fr Kevin O’Higgins SJ, who spent decades in Latin America under a military dictatorship, said missionaries accept an “element of risk” in… […]
Diarmuid Martin warns synod could end in ‘frustrated expectations’
The retired Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has warned that synodal consultations could lead to “frustrated expectations” when people realise that the process will not lead to a radical change in Church teaching on hot-button issues such as the ordination of women. He also said that he believes that Pope St John Paul II was… […]
High hopes Irish martyrs will receive WYD boost in South Korea
News that the next World Youth Day will take place in Seoul, South Korea, has raised hopes that the event might boost the profile of Irish missionaries martyred by communist forces during the Korean war. Six Irish Columban fathers and two missionaries of Irish descent died as “witnesses of modern and contemporary faith” during the… […]
Look to the faith of your ancestors to re-build Irish Church, cardinal urges
A leading Irish-American cardinal has urged Catholics in Ireland to look to the strength of their ancestors in difficult times for the Faith, to renew and rebuild the Church here amidst current challenges. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, was speaking after celebrating Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh to mark the 150th… […]
Cardinal Burke critiques Pope’s synodal focus
In the foreword to a new booklet by a conservative group criticising Pope Francis’s looming Synod of Bishops on Synodality, American Cardinal Raymond Burke has slammed the process surrounding the synod, calling it deeply harmful and potentially schismatic. Cardinal Burke, a hero to the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church, has been a frequent Francis… […]
Brave toilers in the mission fields of Africa
Fragments of Truth: Pallottines in Kenya & Tanzania, with the Rwanda Dossier, volumes I & II, by Donal F. McCarthy SCA (Pallottines Ireland, Dundrum, Dublin; the copies are on a print on demand system and priced accordingly) The Pallottines are a religious congregation who are more formally known as the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Societas […]
In pursuit of land reform and Home Rule
Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics: Judging Dillon and Parnell, by Paul Bew (Oxford University Press, £25.00/ €29.50) The great Irish constitutional nationalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, with its twin aims of land reform and Home Rule, has been largely disregarded and uncelebrated in the Ireland that emerged from the 1916 […]
Prayer’s validity and priestly mistakes
Q: We’ve been wondering about the wording in the prayer used for those who attend Sunday Mass virtually. The phrases: “Come AT LEAST spiritually into my heart” and “I love You AS IF You were already there” don’t reflect good theology. Don’t we believe that the Bible and our faith assure us of God’s constant… […]
If synod really wants to listen, try the topic of blasphemy laws
In just a little over a month, the curtain will rise on a keenly anticipated Synod of Bishops on Synodality in Rome. Though notoriously difficult to define, ‘synodality’ generally refers to the idea of the whole Church journeying together, with members listening to one another in establishing priorities and policies. To date, much of the… […]
Catholic belief can tame your ugliest instincts
David Mills An internationally best-selling novelist who might have won the Nobel Prize in literature, a patriotic Pole, a devout Catholic, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was also an ardent anti-semite. And she is a model for us – not despite her bigotry but because of it. “Our feeling toward the Jews has not changed,” she wrote in… […]