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RUSSELL BRAND: Was baptised in the Thames recently. Sceptical observers smiled with disbelief at his conversion. There was an easy suggestion that this conversion might be very convenient. I kept thinking…

BY CHRISTOPHER WHITE, Vatican Correspondent, Rome — May 21, 2024 Pope Francis expressed firm opposition to the idea of ordaining Catholic women as deacons in a new U.S. television interview,…

Notices: Next week’s postings will be a few days late in arriving. Three pieces of Wood You Believe wood-art are for sale on e-Bay with proceeds going to Mary’s Meals….

Western People 14.5.2024 Why would anyone want to be a politician in Ireland? The late John Kelly, a Dublin TD and UCD academic, once justified his own obsession with politics…

Pentecost “Yes, but how account for their gift of Tongues? And how explain – oh how explain! –   the sudden reversal in the Galileans –  from feckless to fearless?..” – from Conclave: Inside the…

Towards October 2024 – Summary of Contributions from Dioceses and Groups of the Catholic Church in Ireland In response to the invitation from the Secretariat of the Synod in Rome…

Claire Giangravé – Religion News Service May 15, 2024 VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Nearly a year after the  Vatican blocked an Italian theologian’s candidacy  to become the dean of an…

Letter from Pope Francis to Parish Priests:   ‘Without priests, we will never be able to learn how to walk together and to set out on the path of synodality,…

Tue 14th May – Mary’s Meals Three of the Gospels have the account of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes where Jesus takes something small that is offered and…

Western People 7th May 2024 Recently, the once-well-known BBC literary pundit, Joan Bakewell, was asked: ‘How old is old?’ Now in her 90s, she dismissed the question as ‘old hat’….

We often use the phrase about a football crowd ‘raising the roof’ with noise at a match. It is an expression of excitement and enthusiasm that all can share. But apart…

By Christopher White Rome — May 8, 2024 Catholicism must rid itself of the “heresy of triumphalism” if it is to become more synodal and better able to evangelize in…

If the earliest Christians were given new life by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and a vision of a new creation in a violent world now passing away, why should…

Western People, 30.4.2024 When I was 13 or so and a boarder in St Muredach’s College I was given the honour of serving Mass every morning for the then bishop…

Newman Association, Monday 15 April, 2024 Mayfield Salisbury Church, Edinburgh The Bible:  A Mosaic Introduction In art, a mosaic is a surface which has been decorated, beautifully decorated, with coloured,…

Note: The seminar on Healing the Family Tree scheduled for Friday May 17th in Lady’s Island is fully booked. Another is planned for Saturday June 15th and is filling fast….

A note from our website maintenance team: We are performing scheduled maintenance on our servers on Monday 6th May 2024. Most of the work can be done without any interference…

FIRST COMMUNION Here, I have it here! First Communion photo.Jenny looking out from ‘neath a veil:open-eyed… trusting… distrusting… unaware of what was out there, what lay ahead… in the world…

Two crucial post-Resurrection stories of Jesus are centred on the sharing of a meal, supper after the journey to Emmaus and breakfast by the lake of Tiberias . The offering…

The Leaving of Leo: Leo Varadkar was on The Late Late Show last evening. I never watch the Show but tuned in to see and hear, what Leo had to…