No room at the inn
Then
plenty of straw. And contented stock.
A woman in blue a man leaning on a staff,
well-lit, neat and tidy
with a baby wrapped in white.
Star-lit
Familiar.
Now
Scattered rocks, twisted iron
A man in a sweatshirt and
A woman in a shawl watch over an infant
Wrapped in a keffiyeh amid dust of plaster
And hanging drapes, the aftermath of attack
This troubled, turbulent year.
If fidelity oaths seem like something out of the Crusades, contemporary Catholics might be surprised to hear that the Vatican is still requiring some theologians and pastors to sign them….
The Irish Times reports: The death has taken place of Msgr Tom Stack, former parish priest at Milltown in Dublin, regular contributor to The Irish Times and frequent guest on radio…
The concluding dossier, which also contains the final considerations and the Bishops’ concluding note, was delivered to the General Secretariat of the Synod. As of today, the final document of…
Root and Branch are organising a Synod in Bristol (5-12 September 2021) where Mary McAleese, Ally Kateusz, James Carroll, Ursula King, Helena Kennedy, and James Alison are some of the…
It seems that all Masses with congregations will be cancelled in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Archbishop Neary of Tuam has issued the following directive; “all Masses with congregations in parishes in the Archdiocese of Tuam should be cancelled.”
UPDATE – Irish Bishops
“In the current emergency situation, all are dispensed from the obligation to physically attend Sunday Mass.”
“Every Catholic is entitled to a dignified Christian burial. Attendance at Funeral services and Masses should be limited to close relatives and must not exceed 100 attendees within the church building.
Similarly, Church weddings and baptisms may be celebrated on condition that the attendance in church does not exceed 100 people.”
Diarmuid Martin Archbishop of Dublin, spoke recently at Saint Michael’s Church of Ireland, Limerick, on the ‘The Church of the Future’. His words have been widely reported and are on the Dublin Diocese’s website.
“My hope is that the future of the Church in Ireland will be one where we truly learn from the arrogance of our past and find anew a fragility which will allow the mercy and the compassion of Jesus to give us a change of heart and allow others through a very different Church to encounter something of that compassion and faith for their lives.”
