Our modern world depends on plastic to sustain its present lifestyle. But that lifestyle, built on the plastic revolution, has a dangerous dark side warns Fr Shay Cullen. Plastic was and is a magical invention. It is a material based on oil and has thousands of...
When I got home in 1994, World Cup fever was in the air, recalls Fr Bernard Steed. Jack and his men were heading for the US boosted by a great wave of enthusiasm and hopes of glory from the entire population. It was then that a young relation, having a summer job...
A selection of photos taken by Columban missionary Fr Alvaro Martinez of Hong Kong, where he works for the Society's General Council. Hong Kong has a unique place in the history of Columban Missionaries. In 1920, Fr John Blowick, the Society’s first Superior...
It was a massive international solidarity march in 1999 along the streets of Geneva, recalls Columban Fr Shay Cullen. Thousands of children and supporters from all over Europe and Asia were there to encourage and support the approval and signing by the world’s...
Immigrants are the energy band in today’s world. They energise economies at home by their remittances and away by their energy and ingenuity, writes Fr Bobby Gilmore. “A Christian world and a world yet to be evangelised. That situation no longer exists. The people...
Fr Bobby Gilmore recalls a visit to see his parents in the 1980s when he met a neighbour and the conversation forced him to think about the conundrum of where is home? You know… There is an instant when one is about to leave home in which an image of where one is...
A phone call this morning from Han Weiwei led to further discussions about our planned meeting later in the week at his side of Wuhan. One year ago, his daily phone calls became a familiar part of the 11 weeks of lockdown. The return to normal life in the city has...
I had just arrived in the Philippines shortly after ordination. It was 1973 and something unprecedented was happening back home in Ireland. Limerick had made it to the All-Ireland hurling final! Desperate to find out news of how the match went I got my shortwave...
This time last year, Columban missionary Fr Pat Colgan wrote an article entitled, 'How to be People of the Eucharist, when there is no Eucharist?' It was during Fiji’s first lockdown when Mass was not celebrated with a public congregation for three months and a...
Columban Fr John Boles reflects on the travels of a missionary in times of Covid. Overseas missionary work brings many surprises, but a 12-day obligatory quarantine period in a secure facility near London Airport was a ‘first’ for me. Travelling back to Britain...