Manchester, Monday, 22 May 2017, 10.30 p.m.
Late evening
No words
only
tears
No laughter
only
fears
Darkness as
the music died
Late evening
No words
only
tears
No laughter
only
fears
Darkness as
the music died
RTE carried coverage by Joe Little of comments made by Gerry O Hanlon SJ by video-link from Dublin to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
UPDATED
Updated with a Link to a statement from The Truth Justice and Healing Council, the body set up by the Catholic Church in Australia to coordinate the Catholic Church’s response to the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with a commitment to justice and compassion for survivors.
And a Link to opening statement by Senior Counsel at the Royal Commission’s 50th public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
We celebrate the first Sunday of Lent. All over the world today, men and women are beginning a period of preparation for their baptism at the Easter Vigil. Like them,…
Sean McDonagh reminds us that climate change is a moral problem for all Christians. Promoting the Christian message and its implications for climate change connects in real ways with people of all ages and backgrounds.
“Deirdre Duff, a student who spoke about climate change at the end of Mass, believes that Laudato Si is an incredible document which could not only help save our planet but which could also bring young people back to the Church. ‘I’ll admit that I used to be pretty bad for going to Mass, I’d only go once or twice a month. Then I went to Mass the Sunday after ‘Laudato Si’ was released and I haven’t missed Sunday Mass since. I realised that the Church did actually had an awful lot to teach me…I realised how awful I’d been to God’s creation and to His poorest people who were suffering from my actions in other parts of the world…it just woke me up! Then I simultaneously got to know and love both God and God’s creation in a way I had never had done before.”
Angela Hanley gives an account of the 19th Annual LGBT Christmas Carol Service that was held in Dublin on Saturday 09 December 2017.
Angela tells of the genuine welcome that was extended to all by the Unitarian Church.; “this welcome is rich, all encompassing and full of the love of God.” She finishes her report by saying “others will just have to learn how to provide the same welcome in their own churches.”
Brendan Hoban reflects on the isolation of rural Irish priests and adds a historical perspective, suggesting it was ever thus (first published in the Western People on 16 April).
Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column states that history, while recognising the failures and limitations of a minority of Irish nuns, will eventually laud the extraordinary contribution nuns have made to Irish life. ‘
The self-less service given by thousands of nuns should not be air-brushed from the national memory. They deserve more than that.