New Year sees many of us resolve to tackle our destructive habits. Kwon Byung-hee [Augustine] recalls Columban missionary Fr Paul White who established a recovery programme for gambling addicts and helped thousands of Koreans turn their lives around. Fr Paul White...
Fr Shay Cullen asks why is there a growing level of violence, physical and sexual, against women and children among males? Most people turn away from bad news especially during the coronavirus pandemic but it is causing greater levels of sexual abuse and violence...
The eco system of the mighty Mekong River is on the verge of irreversible collapse warns Columban missionary Fr Alo Connaughton. The Mekong River, Mae Nam (mother water) Kong, as the Thais call it, starts from the melting snow of Tibet and flows for 2,800 miles...
Beginning the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve, a gentle word from Fr Paul encouraged the people to be grateful for the opportunity to gather to celebrate the Nativity at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Xiantao, about 100 km west of Wuhan. From where I was sitting in...
Fr Bobby Gilmore recalls an unexpected arrival on Christmas day and challenges us to ask who is being excluded this Christmas? Just as we are never sure that we love God unless we love our fellow men and women, so too are we never sure that we have love at all...
Columban missionary Fr Alo Connaughton speaks to Fr Miguel Garaibazal, a colleague at Saengtham College in Bangkok, about his role with a team that visits nine prisons in Thailand. Prison visitation is one of your own many pastoral roles. Could you summarise what...
Ever since the story of Adam and Eve, likely written by a man, some men have tended to blame women for male misfortunes, weaknesses and their tendency to violent behaviour, writes Fr Shay Cullen. Overwhelming research has shown that most violent acts - physical,...
As we prepare for Christmas, Columban missionary Fr Jim Mulroney reminds us to heed Pope Francis’s words: purchasing is always a moral act and not simply an economic transaction. “Ask about the labour, not the label,” Australian troubadour, Dermot Dorgan, says in...
Ellen Teague, along with other Columban representatives, travelled to Glasgow to participate in events focused on COP26. In this blog, she asks where the movement goes from here. Have you ever experienced fried Macaroni Cheese or had two weeks of conversations...
While suffering with Covid-19, people around Columban lay missionary, Mereani Nailevu, helped him move from fear to seeing the culture of care surrounding him. “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help...