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Articles

Right to Life?

According to Ecclesiastes [3:1-8] there is a season for all things; including a time to be born and a time to die. The Catechism teaches us that God created man to participate in His own blessed life. This ‘life’ is a gift to be proclaimed; a fundamental component of the natural law. For those visiting Belgium in the past months, the political vista is somewhat different. Played out in the public media is a dispute which one would not have thought possible: a catholic healthc

Being Before Acting?

Few will have failed to notice the demise of our senior seminaries. All Hallows (Ireland) and Ushaw (England) are only recently casualties. Commonly such closures are attributed to a shortage of vocations to the priesthood; such that the operation of these institutions is no longer considered viable in financial terms. Over the past months, the last remaining seminary in Ireland (Maynooth) has been bedeviled by a number of difficulties. Assertions of imposed confidentiality a

Suffering Servants?

During a recent visit to nearby Diocese I had the pleasure of meeting three young priests. I accept that in our present times, the term ‘young’ has both a subjective and relative quality. As is common in such encounters, the three men shared their experiences of priestly life. One – a member of a religious order- spoke with humour and affection of his own formation experience and the realities and demands of community life. The elder of the three spoke with a sense of humour