Fr Bernard McDermott examines why clericalism is a problem and who is guilty of it. As the synodal journey continues, I often get ‘feedback’ on the state of the Church from lay people, including members of my own family. Their comments sometimes question the...
Bhí mé sa bhaile i mBaile Átha Cliath faoi Nollaig 2001, mé ag obair sa Bhreatain ag an am. Chonaic mé clár teilifíse faoi bhanaltraí ó Na Filipíní ag obair in in Éirinn ar RTÉ a chuaigh i bhfeidhm go mór orm. Cuireadh agallamh ar bhanaltra óg ó Mindanao – oileán i...
Captivated by an Infant’s Gaze In the old days there was a myth that new-born babies could not see for some time after birth. Now we know better: within hours of being born a tiny child is focusing its eyes above all on its mother. This helpless, vulnerable baby is...
Last Christmas Fr Frank Hoare took a break from life in the Fijian capital, Suva, to return to a rural parish where he had worked previously. But his attempt at Santa Claus did not get the reaction he expected. Maybe it was because I wasn’t wearing the required red...
Fr Sean Coyle/Seán Mac Cumhaill writes about finding his great-uncle Lawrence Dowd's grave in Flanders 84 years after he was killed in the Great War. He highlights the nightly ceremony at the Menin Gate to remember the more than 50,000 men, 5,000 of them Irish, who...
Fr Frank Hoare explains why Fiji needs interreligious dialogue and how Columban efforts are a small contribution towards working for peace in the world. On 14 May 1987, people in Fiji were shocked when the army overthrew the elected government in a coup d’etat. The...
Climate injustice impacts the innocent poor much harder than the guilty rich and the problem is social, environmental and political, writes Fr Shay Cullen. When I hike into the hills and mountains of Zambales with the Aeta indigenous farmers, their children and...
Fr Frank Hoare, a Columban missionary in Fiji, reflects on his decision to become a missionary priest when he was seventeen and has no regrets about his choice. I was standing by the bed of a Hindu ascetic dying of cancer in a monastery in North India. He shared...
I have participated in interreligious dialogue, especially Christian-Muslim relations, for many years, in Pakistan and in Australia writes Columban missionary, Fr Patrick McInerney. I have visited gurdwaras, mosques, synagogues and temples. I have attended,...
COP27 takes place in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt in November 2022. Will it confront the current global climate crisis asks Columban missionary Fr Sean McDonagh. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began its work in 1988. Its object was to provide the...