Words of Welcome…in various languages

Western People 12.3.2024 As the RTÉ cameras scanned the crowd at the State funeral of the former Taoiseach, John Bruton, it lingered on faces of the great and the good…

In the light of recent reports of gruesome homicides Pádraig McCarthy comments on the lack of respect for human life in our society.

The address of Vincent Long Van Nguyen, Bishop of Parramatta, to the Concerned Catholics of Canberra and Goulburn Forum on the topic of “The Role of the Faithful in a post-Royal Commission Church in Australia” has relevance not just to the church in Australia but to the universal church.
“If the priesthood has a better future, it has to be humanized; it has to find expression in better mutual support, collaboration and partnership. It has to free itself from the variant strains of clericalism such as sexism, paternalism, narcissism and superiority complex.”
“So long as we continue to make women invisible and inferior in the Church’s language, liturgy, theology and law, we impoverish ourselves as if we heard with only one ear, we saw with only one eye and we thought with only one half of the brain…”

Jack Madigan writes: Retired Canadian Bishop Remi De Roo died Feb 2 in Victoria BC (Canada’s west coast) at the age of 97. He was one of the great bishops…

A Timely Epiphanic Proposal, 2026 Dear Archbishops and Bishops of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, The recent Vatican assertion “women are not fully in the likeness of Jesus” is mistaken, offensive, and…

Western People 16.1.2024 There’s a story told (and it’s true) about a visit the late Cardinal Conway paid to Enniscrone golf club many years ago. An avid golfer, Conway was…